Gen Z is changing the face of branding and communications.
How do brands successfully and authentically pivot in order to appeal to this elusive segment without alienating their core customer bases?
Overview:
They may not be who we think they are - oversimplification can lead to disastrous strategies and tactics.
Uncovering what drives their values, expectations and consumption behaviour is key to speaking their language.
It’s about understanding how and where to reach them on their terms that is critical.
Converting your communications to ‘Gen Z speak’ is not as easy as abbreviating to emojis or #lol’s. Genuine interest and immersion into generation z’s culture is imperative to understanding their buying behaviour and connecting to them. This may be the antithesis of many traditional companies' original tone of voice, causing the common conundrum of staying true to a core customer base while trying to entice this young, extremely valuable “foreign group”.
GEN Z FAST FACTS:
They’ve never known a life without the internet, an African-American US president or impending climate change.
50% identify as multi-racial, even more socially conscious with 77% willing to pay more for environmentally friendly products.
Many haven’t come into their full spending power yet, but they are still spending $143 billion today.
Source: A study by the director of market development at Afterpay
WHAT GEN Z EXPECTS FROM BRANDS
1.Digestible content
According to Jing Daily, over 80 per cent of managers are unfamiliar with how to communicate with Gen Z, and more than 90 per cent of brands lack the positioning and storytelling needed to be relevant to them in the future. These digitally inclined consumers have a short attention span, only 8 seconds, compared to the 15 seconds of their older millennial group (making digestible and dynamic video content preferable).
2. A dialogue and co-creation
Social media has normalized two-way communication for Gen Z’ers, which they now expect from brands, as “they want to be heard and influence what a brand is doing”. This relationship between customer and brand has been popularised through co-creation and personalization campaigns, championed by Nike, Gucci and Sephora, among others.
Beauty brand M.A.C, a client of KINDUSTRY, has also listened to their community and connected to Gen Z by investing in a diversity of products and serving all skin tones. Nick Gavrelis, senior VP of global product development, commented that “MAC is constantly refining and adding to its shade range as a result of conversations with our consumers and artist community. All ethnic backgrounds are blending and creating roots. It's evolution—not just of the brand, of humankind."
3. Authenticity - Gen Z sees through purpose-washing:
Social-issue-fueled campaigns or approaches may not instantly connect to a Gen Z audience. Take Pepsi’s faux-activism commercial with Kendall Jenner as a prime example (or for comedic relief during your lunch break). Jenner, rarely referred to as an ‘activist’, is seen walking away from a photo shoot to join an anti-racism protest and offering a Pepsi to the barricade of policemen as a gesture of peace. The politically charged advert was met with tremendous backlash, with one popular tweet commenting, “the Kendall Jenner Pepsi fiasco is the perfect example of what happens when there are no black people in the room when decisions are being made”.
See also the Calvin Klein ad with Bella Hadid kissing an AR influencer and the backlash from the LGBTQI community.
NEW GENERATION, NEW CHANNELS. MEETING GEN Z WHERE THEY ARE:
It’s no secret that Gen Z is using new platforms to consume content, with TikTok, Snapchat, and Clubhouse providing entertainment that mainstream platforms like Instagram and Facebook do not. Deloitte recently reported that twenty six percent of Gen Zers said playing video games is their favorite entertainment activity, compared to 14% for listening to music, 12% for browsing the internet and 11% for engaging on social media- only 10% said they would rather watch a movie or TV show at home.
TikTok
We have seen luxury brands attempt TikTok, the Gen Z dominated space and leader in short-form videos, mostly with little success with their hyper-polished short-form clips. If there’s one main reason why luxury houses haven’t connected to their customers on TikTok yet, it’s because their high-quality, commercial-like clips are works of art “surrounded by spontaneous, unedited teenage rants” explains Kloster from CR. Gucci is the exception, seeing increasing success with their customer collaboration, allowing younger consumers to lead the way with their unpolished and funny #GucciModelChallenge.
2. Gaming
Louis Vuitton, Balenciaga, Burberry and others have invested in reaching Gen Z in the lucrative gaming space, hoping to grow with Gen Z consumers and remain aspirational and top of mind when they have the spending power later on. In 2020, there were an estimated 2.7 billion gamers across the globe, and what makes them very attractive to marketers is how highly focused they are when playing (as opposed to the problem of multi-screen distractions of phones, Ipads and TVs in other digital communications). Burberry designed skins (virtual clothing) for a Chinese video game, Honor of Kings, allowing Chinese customers to explore virtual products through online games. Josie Zhang, the president of Burberry China said “we can connect with our communities in a way that really resonates with them”. Senior games analyst from Ampere Analysis noted that owning a Burberry coat or scarf in real life is a symbol of wealth or status, the same can be said for in-game.
WHERE DO WE GO NEXT? THOUGHTFUL APPROACHES TO NEW CONVERSATIONS…
Gen Z has normalised and mainstreamed talking about cultural issues including sexuality, diversity, sustainability, individualism and more on all channels - online and off.
Here are two examples of traditional brands bridging the gap between specifically targeting Gen Z while keeping in mind their core customer base:
Valentino’s first official face of the Maison was announced as Zendaya in 2020 and was met with overwhelmingly positive responses. Pierpaolo Piccioli, Valentino’s creative director, highlighted that the Emmy-winning actress, singer and activist was aligned with new aims to make the brand more in sync with the times and more inclusive while maintaining its storied codes. Their story campaign read, “an archetype reclaimed and championed by diverse voices. @Zendaya tells the story of the #ValentinoDiVas: original, unafraid, and with energy to move forward.” The artful illustration of the strong young woman, imbued Valentino’s refined heritage thoughtfully to not alienate their core loyal customers.
More recently, singer Billie Eilish posed for the front cover of British Vogue in Gucci underwear (among other brands). Often referred to as the voice of her generation, Eilish used the cover to comment on her body image views. Gucci championed her oversized looks, which were worn on red carpet events and on stage, and has also followed her in this new transformation, aligning themselves with her body positivity messaging.
KINDUSTRY’s TAKE:
Invest time in critically (re)thinking your brand’s identity and purpose upfront. A brand with a strong sense of self and authentic Purpose-driven values can stretch and meet different generations on their terms while staying true to a core set of values.
Stay in tune with and synthesize cultural forces to meet rapidly changing consumer behaviours. This is a key quality of our approach at KINDUSTRY, and brands should think of instituting something similar. There are important cultural trends and threads that run through generations that can be capitalized in an on-brand way.
Don’t make assumptions about generations. Often older brand stewards see younger generations as an aggregated group when they are in fact many important archetypes within and across younger generations. It’s about understanding what archetypes a brand will most authentically attract. Pivoting to more youthful campaigns, products, channels and experiences should be pre-validated with Gen Z representation at the brand level or more generally.
Invest time and resources in a more tailored approach to communications through targeted and relevant content. Meet each target on their terms: “where they live and how they live.”
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