Over the holidays, with a household of Gen Zers elevating the decibel level with their youthful energy... I asked them to tell me about what they like and dislike about being a consumer and how brands market to them.
These young adults now make their own doctor's appointments, navigate insurance, sign up for utilities, and pay rent.
Gen Z is currently between the ages of 12-27. They make up 20% of the U.S. population and 30% of the world population.
We expect them to conform to our adult world, but the reality is, as businesses, we need to adapt to their preferences.
Here are 10 insights from real-life 18-22 year olds.
❌ Distrust sponsored ads
On Instagram and TikTok, "If it says sponsored, I automatically lose respect for that company. They're trying too hard."
✅ Need to be educated first
"If they're talking about 0% APR financing, 30 months, I don't know what it is, so I'm not paying attention."
✅ Trust friends and influencers more than companies
"The most effective marketing is when it's coming from someone I trust. If someone I follow offers quality tutorials on YouTube or other channels and uses a product, it's probably a good product."
✅ Prefer informal (influencer) marketing efforts
They pay attention to unbiased product reviews or unboxing videos by trusted creators rather than direct advertisements. "An ad directly on TikTok or Instagram usually is not great."
❌ Largely ignore email marketing (and emails in general)
"The only time I've ever looked at promotional emails I've been sent, and been interested in buying something was for concert tickets."
❌ Annoyed by persistent texts
"When they constantly bombard me with texts, that makes me way less want to buy the product, because they're annoying me."
❌ Frustrated by non-optimized websites
Dear dentists and doctors... "If you want me to fill out a form, I want to be able to do it on my phone and not have to go to my laptop."
✅ Appreciate a detailed website with FAQ
They don't want to call to get the details they need. "I was trying to decide on a gym membership. One gym's website was too bare-bones, and the other had the information I needed and a good FAQ page."
❌ Skeptical about corporate activism
They can spot companies that aren't authentic. Those that are profit-driven rather than values-driven. "A lot of times when companies say they support pride events, they probably don't even really care about it."
❌ Thoughts on cancel culture
"Cancel culture doesn't really work because it's usually the mainstream media being like, yeah, this person's not cool. You can only be canceled by your own fan base."
How about you? What first-hand experience marketing or working with our new adults have you experienced?
*Sources and further reading:
My children and their friends
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