3 Big Ways to Digitally Market to GenZ

Generation Z, born roughly between the years 1996 – 2012, are individualistic, pragmatic, and entrepreneurial. With their vast amount of digital experience, they consume media differently than other generations.

Many generations, including GenZ, will receive some pessimism. However, I believe that GenZ will be positively constructive to our world and society.

In this article, I’m going to break down 3 effective ways to understand and market to GenZ.

1. Aesthetic Consumerism

GenZers care about their personal “aesthetics” and public personas. Exposure to social media has prompted many GenZers to create personal brands for themselves. Within these brands, contain their lifestyle interests that define their “unique” personality. These personalities are showcased via social media and are heavily influenced by the internet.

This type of GenZer is always looking for ways to enhance their public persona.

Try showcasing your product in a way that’s beneficial to someone’s personal aesthetically charged lifestyle. There are many different cultural subgroups (vaguely reminiscent of punk culture) that you could target. These subgroups include: kawaii, e-girls / e-boys, trendy entrepreneurs, and many other vaguely niche inet subcultures.

However, keep in mind that it can be psychologically unhealthy for someone to upkeep a public persona. This is becoming more evident as people are leaving social media because of its damaging mental impact. So when marketing a lifestyle-enhancing product, be sure to do it in a conscientious way.

2. Shifting Away from Traditional Social Media

If you are interested in engaging GenZ, start a Discord server. Discord is an app that was originally built for online gamers inspired by software such as Teamspeak, Slack, and Skype. Its goal is to connect people online in the form of chatrooms, voice channels, and video calling. Now, Discord is being used by tons of GenZers and that number is only growing.

Many people are moving away from social media because of its lack of genuine social interaction. After all, what we call social media is not very social, especially when confined to text as the only way to express ourselves. People express themselves through their voice and body language, so this is inherently unnatural. “Social media” is much more effective as an information-sharing network, rather then as a place to socialize and form genuine connections.

Discord is built around social interaction and provides a unique and customizable digital social environment. It can be used as a place to get feedback, provide support, and promote your product.
Even if you don’t choose to use Discord, creating a tightly knit community of people surrounding your product, will massively expand your potential customer base!

3. Driven by Fulfillment and Experiences

I’ve heard claims that GenZ prefers cool products, over cool experiences. I do not believe this statement makes sense because for GenZ, the two are the same thing. A good product is one that contributes to an experience! I’ve observed that most GenZers do not purchase a product if it doesn’t provide some kind of gratifying experience.

If you look at what people are buying today, they’re all things that provide long term experiences, rather then short term ones. Whether it’s: a fashionable outfit, a smartphone, an online subscription, or an instrument. All of these products add value to someone’s experience-driven lifestyle. Market your product in a way that exemplifies the long-term benefits of using it, because it supports GenZ’s pragmatic approach.

Conclusion

Those were my immediate thoughts when it came to effectively marketing to this new generation. Please let me know if you have any questions or thoughts by reaching out to me in the comments. All of these ideas are based on personal observations from being a member of GenZ myself.

Thanks for reading. -Crew