Starting in this industry 11 years ago (man, I feel old) I remember the target consumer focus for the most part was Generation X. The term “Millennial” wouldn’t become a part of the daily vernacular until a few years later. Now that’s all we marketers talk about. What are Millennials doing? What do they care about? How do they connect with brands? Basically, what makes them tick?
Speaking as a Millennial, I understand we are a confusing bunch. We’ve grown up in an era with a ton of changes, especially from a technology standpoint. We still remember floppy disks and The Oregon Trail. We remember creating our own mix tapes (on cassette!), or at least buying our first CD. We remember the first cell phones and how cool Zack Morris was for having one in high school. In a way, we’re becoming the old people who say “Well back in my day, there was no such thing as social media or texting. You had to call each other.”
Scary but true. Though even scarier is the generation that doesn’t know any differently. And with that, I’d like to introduce you to Generation Z – the post-Millennial generation, loosely defined as those born after 1995. While the name for this group is still up for debate, we can all agree they are a generation of digital natives who have been empowered by technology from day one.
They are also a very large group, making up 25.9% of the US population and contributing $44 billion to the American economy.¹Meaning they are the next generation that we as marketers should be targeting. Brands such as MTV have jumped on this train after seeing declining TV ratings and changing media habits. Any brand whose target audience is shifting into Generation Z, but is still using Millennial consumer insights as their target’s identity will inevitably see a decline in business.
Reason being, this next generation is very different from the Millennial consumer and we should treat them as such. To further illustrate this point, Sparks & Honey provided a great overview of some differences between the two groups.² Here are a few examples:
| GENERATION Z | MILLENNIALS |
|---|---|
| Blended (race & culture) | Multi-cultural |
| Mature | Immature |
| Future Focused | Now Focused |
| Realists | Optimists |
| Want to work for success | Want to be discovered |
What does this mean for us as marketers? Well, depending on your brand(s), it’s definitely time to start getting into the Gen Z mindset. And with that, I’ll leave you with a few ways you can start connecting:
- This group is diverse in every sense of the word (ethnicity, sexuality, fashion sense, etc.) and they should be depicted as such.
- They are very visual and don’t just text. They use videos, pictures and emojis to converse with each other. Brands need to be aware of this and communicate visually across platforms.
- Their attention spans are low, but their ability to process information quickly is high. Therefore providing them with “snack size” media, or more frequent, short bursts of communication, is best.
- They are very future-focused and have an overall entrepreneurial spirit. Marketers can tap into this by giving them social causes to rally behind and feeding them information that helps to educate them/build expertise.
- They gravitate most to live streaming media such as Twitch and Ustream as well as video conferencing. Marketers can provide opportunities for this generation to co-create content with their brands.
References:
1. Mashable, Beyond Millennials: How to Reach Generation Z
2. http://www.slideshare.net/sparksandhoney/generation-z-final-june-17
The post Post-Millennials: The Next Generation appeared first on Moosylvania.