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Don’t Blur the Lines When Marketing to Millennials and Gen Z
Smart performance marketers are making the distinctionbetween these two generations of consumers Gen Z is standing apart from millennials more than ever.Getty Images: RGStudio When developing marketing plans, it’s all too easy to lump different generations of buyers into similar categories, hoping to hit them both effectively with broader messages. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work with millennials and Gen Z which, on the surface at least, may seem easy enough to put into the “under 41 years of age” category and hope for the best. Dig down deeper and you’ll see that there are some clear distinctions between American consumers aged 26-41 (millennials, or Gen Y) and those aged 10-25 (Gen Z). Here are five differentiation points that performance marketers should factor in when creating advertising and content for millennial and Gen Z consumers: Gen Z likes to disconnect While millennials came of age along with technology, most Gen Zers have been using it since they were infants or toddlers. “Phones have transformed from a way to communicate with friends and family from a distance into a doorway giving people and companies 24/7 access to each other—and all the information in the world—with the tap of a finger,” writes Stefan Pollack in Forbes. This might indicate a love of digital interaction on the part of younger consumers, but in reality they do enjoy talking face-to-face: “It seems that while using technology can provide an escape for millennials and older generations, the escape for digitally native Gen Zers is to disconnect and be in real life,” according to Pollack. Social media: Boredom killer or connectivity tool? According to Relative Insight, Gen Z finds value in the connectivity of social media. They use Snapchat and TikTok to keep up with what’s going on with family, friends and colleagues. They’re also using newer platforms like BeReal, which has been downloaded more than 43 million times since its launch in December 2019 and has grown its user base by 315% as of August 2022. Not to be left out of the party, TikTok recently rolled out TikTok Now, which emulates some of the core features of BeReal’s platform. Unlike Gen Z, millennials view social media as a place to scroll through their feeds to stave off boredom and kill time. They spend differently Gen Z is more apt to put a small financial windfall in the bank or purchase gifts for loved ones, Relative Insight says, and tends to place a lower value on pricy items and material possessions. Millennials think differently and are more apt to invest in a fun vacation or a designer bag. “This could imply that, because they have greater financial security in their daily lives, they think they deserve a treat,” the report points out, “or that they put less cultural emphasis on the importance of saving money, and they really are the entitled generation.” Authenticity is a must-have for Gen Z Citing recent CM Group research, Alexandra Pastore of Women’s Wear Daily writes that Gen Z buyers are practical, ambitious and focused on education. They like to buy from companies that are authentic—right down to their designs, brands, products and social impacts. “In the past, the images people saw in media were aspirational and out of reach for many of them,” Allison McDuffee writes in Adweek. “More recently, consumers have become wary of meticulously curated and perfectly polished content. Consumers are now searching for genuine, human connections and the accompanying imperfections: A selfie without makeup, a look behind the screen or a vulnerable moment with fans.” Online versus in-person Shopping habits are another major differentiating factor between these two generations. Millennials prefer to shop online while Gen Z enjoys browsing and buying in physical stores. “If you’re targeting Gen Z,” advises Jennifer Herrity of Indeed, “consider ways you can bring more people this age into your stores with social media-worthy experiences.” Keeping both the generational similarities and differentiation points in mind will only become more important for marketers as they work to reach and engage with younger consumers. As you plan your next campaign, try to avoid blurring the lines between these two distinct consumer groups.
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Are You Using Social Media to Inspire Younger Buyers?
Millennials and Gen Z are increasingly turning to social networks for advice.Here’s how performance marketers can leverage this trend. Performance marketers looking to capture the tech-savvy market have to consider speed, efficiency and social change.We Are/Getty Images Whether they’re following accounts that inspire them, perusing videos, researching products or connecting with their favorite brands, the younger generations of American consumers are clearly influenced by social media. More of them also want to become influencers, start their own businesses and get involved in new hobbies. Millennials and Gen Z will often go first to social media platforms like TikTok, Pinterest and Instagram to learn and get advice before making a purchase or taking on a project. With millennials standing to inherit more than $68 trillion from baby boomer and early Gen X parents by the year 2030—setting them up to potentially be the wealthiest generation in U.S. history—and Gen Z projected to hit $33 trillion in income by 2030, performance marketers should be paying attention to these trends. Here’s how performance marketers can leverage this trend in a responsible, deliberate manner. Stepping up their games Social media companies are clearly aware of these trends and are finding new ways to optimize their platforms. In February, for example, TikTok launched a new feature called Collections, which allows users to organize their favorite videos into folders (Instagram implemented a similar feature in 2019.) The Collections feature allows users to save recommendations and sort them into useful categories, making it easier for them to quickly return to ideas and recommendations. TikTok’s core offering feeds millennials’ and Gen Z’s desire for inspiration. Upon pulling up a video, users can instantly see what a restaurant looks like inside and who’s recommending it. “It allows for maximum vibe reconnaissance,” Mashable points out. “And if someone made a TikTok on it, and it came up on your FYP [For You Page], chances are it’s something you’ll actually enjoy and the information is up to date.” 4 tips for Success Performance marketers looking to capture the tech-savvy market that’s turning to social media for inspiration can’t just advertise and sell products. They also have to consider speed, efficiency and social change versus just spending time polishing up their marketing messages. And knowing that Gen Z are all under 25 years old—and as young as 10—positively influencing behaviors is also important. Here are four tips for success: Step up the pace. Your Gen Z customers are used to a fast pace, so get onboard with it. They also have shorter attention spans and tend to be highly influenced by what they see and interact with on social media. Know your platforms. According to a recent YPulse, Ad/Marketing Effectiveness report, TikTok (27%) is the top place Gen Z is seeing ads that influence them to make a purchase. That’s followed by YouTube (17%) and Instagram (13%). Millennials, on the other hand, respond best to Facebook (16%), YouTube (15%), Instagram (14%) and TikTok (9%) ads. Support social change. Gen Z and millennials both care about making a difference and leaving a smaller footprint on Mother Earth. They’re also involved with social causes and tend to look favorably upon organizations that put an effort into environmental, social and governance (ESG) causes. Be authentic. Younger consumers can see right through the glitz, glamour and overpolished marketing messages. And when they’re getting their information from friends, connections and influencers, it’s not hard to figure out which brands do and don’t deserve their hard-earned dollars.
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Want to Attract Younger Consumers? Just Be Yourself
To most effectively tap into Gen Z and millennials,personalized and transparent communication is key lemono/iStock The consumer is more and more aware every day of marketing “hype” and language that is not authentic to the brand or corporate mission. Gen Z and millennials are acutely aware of this and will expect nothing less and can see through it all. This differs from their predecessors on many fronts. They’re digital natives who think greener, expect more from the companies that they buy from and love authenticity. Currently aged 10-25 (for Gen Z) and 26-41 (for millennials), these consumers have a lot of buying power—and are accumulating even more—and a habit of aligning their purchase decisions with their own personal values. However, Gen Z and millennials are more aware of cost of living and finances and so they research and put a lot of thought into purchasing decisions to make sure it not only fits their personal needs, but also fulfills social and societal needs. Gen Zers, in particular, are very intentional about those decisions; they think before they buy. “Gen Z has let us know—loud and clear—that they are passionate about making a change and fighting for the values they believe in,” BigCommerce pointed out. This opens the doors of opportunity for performance marketers to share the mission and values of their brands. “Or take it a step further and partner with a charity or cause your brand is passionate about,” the publication added. For example, it says one direct-to-consumer shoe manufacturer teamed up with the Breast Cancer Research Foundation to gift a pair of pink shoes to those impacted by the illness illustrates the company’s understanding of what younger consumers want from the brands they buy from. More personalized ads, please We all know personalization and micro targeting has become more and more prevalent, but it is a “must have” instead of a “nice to have” at this point for marketers. “While 57% of millennials and 43% of baby boomers said they liked personalized ads, a whopping 81% of those in Generation Z said the same,” in a study conducted by Unsupervised. Gen Z is a huge user of social media, and that the medium as a whole has evolved quite a bit over the last few years. Snapchat, TikTok and Instagram are the main platforms where Gen Z spends its time, and TikTok ads are a good starting point for performance marketers looking to leverage this trend. In fact, all four social media platforms are good vehicles for reaching consumers of all ages. Personalized ads are a great opportunity for companies that want to reach and engage with younger consumers and when done effectively, accurately link relevant social content to brands with the same values and end up with a completed sale. Speaking with images instead of words The emoji has taken on a whole new level of communication and there are even varying levels of enthusiasm within the emoji universe. If you didn’t know that the thumbs-up emoji was meant to denote passive aggressiveness, or that some people like to speak mostly in emojis on social media or when texting, then it’s time to listen a little harder to what younger consumers want, respond to and engage with. But don’t worry because you’ll be in good company; entire industry sectors are also trying to figure out what they need to do to get the attention and wallet share of more Gen Z customers. The wine industry is a good example. According to the Wine Market Council, just 14% of Americans aged 21 to 30 drink wine on a weekly basis, and 11% drink it occasionally. Compare this to individuals who are aged 30 to 39, 20% of whom are weekly wine drinkers. Much like performance marketers are digging down deeper to determine how to attract and retain more Gen Z and millennials customers, this entire sector is doing the same. “The wine industry still has work to do in order to attract younger generations in an increasingly competitive beverage alcohol landscape,” SevenFiftyDaily reported. “This will involve not only revisiting the lessons of the past, but [also] employing new tactics for each new generation as it reaches legal consumption age.” The bottom line is that creativity and effectively communicating to reach your target audience is not a new concept but the importance of keeping up with how Gen Z and millennials want to be communicated with is key for marketers and a successful and long-term brand relationship.
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Despite the Bear Market, Younger Generations Should Embrace ‘Buy and Hold’ Strategies Crypto, Neobanks, NFTs
The economy is looking even more dire, and there are lessonsperformance marketers can take away Mesut Ugurlu/Getty Images Most financial planners would steer their client away from get-rich-quick investment approaches and instead advocate for “buy and hold” strategies. In most cases, the latter involves finding reliable workhorses of the stock market and then hanging onto them for years or even decades. Generations Y and Z have a different idea about how they want to build their assets. From cryptocurrency and bitcoin to NFTs and other digital assets, younger investors are forgoing blue chip stocks that their parents and grandparents used and taking bolder, riskier moves with their money. Some of the shifts can be traced to the rise of “neobanks,” or those fin-tech firms offering up apps, software and other technologies that help streamline mobile and online banking. According to Forbes Advisor, neobanks—which specialize in checking and savings accounts—tend to be nimbler and more “transparent than their megabank counterparts, even though many of them partner with such institutions to insure their financial products.” “The advancement of digital banking and the rise of neobanks is creating a new paradigm of how younger millennials and Gen Z want to interact with their finances and investments,” Nasdaq has pointed out, adding that the adoption rates for neobanking are high in the U.S.—a trend that’s supported the expansion of cryptocurrencies, digital assets, digital wallets and digital real estate. “With digital-only finances and tools, the realm of possibilities for investing extends beyond the physical,” Nasdaq also stated. It went on to say that mainstream consumer brands are also shifting brand equity into the digital world; Walmart is launching cryptocurrency and NFTs and Nike is creating shoe NFTs for the metaverse. “Other brands have rushed to claim space in the metaverse, even while the future of the metaverse remains unclear.” They’re already digital-savvy Credit the digital-savvy Gen Z and the younger end of the millennial generations with driving higher interest in electronic-based investment options. Already used to communicating on social, learning remotely and basing important decisions on virtual peer reviews, these consumers gravitate toward options that older generations didn’t have when they were in their 20s and 30s. Take NFTs, for example. Used to indicate ownership or usage right of a unique asset—typically art, music or a video game item—”these tokens are built and managed on a blockchain, the same digital ledger technology system utilized by bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies,” as explained by The Motley Fool. Younger investors have taken to NFTs like a moth to a flame, so to speak. According to YPulse, 13% of people aged 13 to 39 have purchased NFTs and 28% have bought cryptocurrencies, the latter of which further proves the Gen Z and millennial thirst for alternate, digital investment options. This research “found that between crypto, NFTs and digital land, more young people have made digital asset investments than have invested in stocks.” “We also found that overall, young people don’t believe that they can build wealth the same way that previous generations did,” YPulse added, “making new avenues to making money more attractive to them.” Time to sharpen your pencils Right now, performance marketers should be watching the trends, sharpening their pencils and coming up with new ways to attract, serve and retain these digital-centric generations of consumers. Accepting cryptocurrencies as a payment option is one method to lean into this trend. There’s a massive digital opportunity for fin tech, banks, financial companies and other brands that can meet consumers where they are right now. It also opens up the opportunity for even more brands or influencers to be able to play in this space and leverage their hip and cool business approaches. From exclusive branding opportunities to VIP offerings to specialized experiences, younger generations of consumers want it all. And while the boundaries may be down for marketers right now, the environment is evolving quickly, and companies are catching on. Keeping up and staying out in front of the digital metaverse requires effort, energy and resources, but the payoff can be significant for marketers that jump into the emerging space now.
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Harnessing Gen Z’s Summer Travel Wanderlust
It’s all about marketers inspiring choices, spontaneity and loyalty rewards as the summer approaches Chadchai Ra-ngubpai/ Getty Images With travel restrictions waning and the summer season beckoning, millennials and Gen Z travelers are thinking beyond the “staycation” ideals and are laying out plans to see various cities, states and even countries in the coming months. As they break out of their shells and begin exploring their options, these consumers are taking a different approach than they did two years ago. A recent Forbes article highlighted the notion that “travelers want to spend big and go far” in 2022, and 78% of those asked said travel was one of the top activities they missed the most. Travel in 2022 will be significantly higher than in past years: 62% of survey respondents wanted to take two to four trips this year. The piece also emphasized millennials as driving major travel trends, like bucket-list trips to exotic locations such as the Galapagos Islands and Antarctica. Dream destinations are ultimately most desired by millennials and Gen Zers, and two-thirds of those surveyed preferred a once-in-a-lifetime vacation over purchasing a new car. Gen Z is ready to spend more on travelAvail’s State of Travel in 2022 survey suggests Gen Zers, rather than millennials, are leading the charge in the return to travel—and furthermore, that 72% of Gen Z respondents plan to invest the same or more in travel this year than pre-pandemic. An equal percentage of Gen Zers say they’re already planning or may splurge on a big trip this year, versus 68% of millennials, 60% of Gen Xers and 51% of baby boomers. To harness this huge group’s serious case of wanderlust, marketers will have to think differently than they did a few years ago. With the oldest member of Gen Z now being 24 years old, they’re collectively new in the travel category, and 80% say they have “some responsibility” in the trip-planning process—a share that will grow as Gen Z continues to gain spending power. Until then, marketers can attract these young travelers with better deals and last-minute opportunities that feed their spontaneous natures and buy-now/pay-later types of deals that spread any travel-related financial responsibility over time. Harnessing the opportunityThe question is, how can performance marketers effectively reach these travelers where they are and at the time when they are ready to click “buy now” for that flight, hotel, rental or car-sharing service? The key is meeting the consumer on their media of choice, and the younger consumer goes beyond large or well-known travel or home-share sites, reacting more spontaneously based on word-of-mouth recommendations from family, friends, influencers or the best deal that shows up online. So, there is a big opportunity not only for established travel companies, but also for emerging platforms as well. Social media is a channel that will create interest and excitement for travel, as well as the opportunity to extend marketing offers and deals for younger travelers like Gen Z and Gen Y. A primary resource for Gen Z travelers, TikTok, serves as a hub for finding personal recommendations and things to do in whatever town they’re visiting. Comments like, “Oh, I’ve been there. It’s amazing,” can influence others to give it a try. (Negative comments on any platform have the exact opposite effect and should be monitored closely and addressed immediately.) Gen Z doesn’t mind booking last-minute trips and activities, which gives marketers the opportunity to push specials and deals when filling up available space. Throw in a free dinner for two at a local restaurant, or a stocked coffee bar on the kitchen counter, and your offer will probably be snatched up quickly by a young traveler that wants to experience the world on a budget. Meeting them where they areWith Avail reporting that younger generations emerged as the most eager to travel more often than pre-pandemic, it’s time to come up with new and engaging ways to attract these eager consumers. Be sure to target the ads with deals and discounts on a routine basis and right before the trip and use geotargeting to help travelers book any last-minute, spontaneous activities once they’re on site. Know your audience, come up with your best deal and tip them over the edge.
