How to Market to Generation Z Marketing Plan

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Gen Z's and Marketing

The upcoming Gen Z generation (born mid-1990s to 2007) consists mainly of youths who have grown up with the Internet, with cell phones, computers, and are technologically sophisticated, savvy, and dependent. They have come to age alongside the rise of smart phones. They possess financial concerns as a result of student loan doubt and a souring economy (the tech bubble of the late 90s, early 2000s and the recession of 2008 due to the home mortgage meltdown), 9/11, and the War on Terror. They are also part of the PC culture that has inundated colleges. They are diverse and many of them still live at home with their parents, participating in what has come to be known as a share economy, with share space platforms like AirBnB, Uber, and other web-based concepts helping to define their socio-economic outlook. They use the Internet for everything -- from booking tickets, to doing research, to socializing, to shopping, to making plans. They are the first truly digital generation and they are open to branding, to being part of a system of Big Data, where their digits, habits, and personality cues are harvested by corporations trying to generate leads on how to market to these individuals in a fragmented marketplace. They understand the process, they have been brought up in the shadow of Big Government/Big Brother overreach (with TSA, NSA, and Homeland Security all seeming natural to them), and they accept it.

Gen Z differs from Gen Y in the sense that the Gen Y generation (Millennials, born 1980-1995) is more "immune to most traditional marketing and sales pitches" (WJS, 2015). Gen Y has also grown up under the PC culture cloud and is more sensitive to "cultural" issues stemming from the progressive left (recognizing LGBT rights, etc.), and they to have come to maturity alongside the rise of the Internet. While Gen Y has seen it all in terms of marketing, they still tend to identify themselves according to older labels, such as conservative/liberal/independent (Iacosta, 2015).

The marketing strategy that MyCreativeApproach.com could use to target Gen Z's over Millennials would be to lock onto the tech savvy, Internet-friendly (solid website; easy, scrolling access with clear links and navigation available; informative) needs of Gen Z's. This generation wants to interact with companies online and to take part in the consumer experience via the Web. They tend to look for a deal without sacrificing quality, and are open to having a unique experience -- to finding the next "thing" -- and to utilizing vendors who are not mainstream or corporatist in nature. A company like MyCreativeApproach.com should play up its strengths as an independent publisher/printer/user of social media -- all of which could appeal to Gen Z, depending on how the company markets its products and services (are these products/services things the Gen Z's cannot do on their own? Do you they need a business to do it for them? How is this not a DIY store? -- these questions should all be answered by the marketing campaign).

One of the challenges that the online service faces with Gen Z is that it offers social media servicing for clients who do not know how or do not have time to use social media for their business, for networking, and for establishing a base of clientele connections, followers, etc. The issue here is that Gen Z's typically have no problem using social media to meet their needs; they have grown up with it, they are adept at utilizing it, and it is not something that "eats up" their time, as sending out tweets or posting on Facebook or YouTube is like second nature to them. Therefore, marketing this service to Gen Z over Gen Y will be an uphill battle and will require using the idea of making life simpler for Gen Z by including it an all inclusive package deal that includes the brochure, letters, and other business needs of the Gen Z client, who is then left free to pursue pure business ideas, which should generate a positive emotional impact with the Gen Z audience, as it is also attune to making good use of time in order to grow oneself financially or in a business sense. Thus, by advertising the manner in which the online store will simplify the life of the Gen Z's rather than asserting that it can do things Gen Z's can already do themselves, MyCreativeApproach.com can overcome this first major obstacle.

The channels of marketing that the company should utilize are both traditional and new media (digital) channels, such as social media and mobile marketing.

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Traditional marketing channels would include print publications (newspapers, trade magazines), radio/TV spots, billboards, postal service, telephones, and face-to-face marketing (meeting people in person at fairs, conventions, creating buzz). Each of these still has benefit in the sense that by adopting all approaches, the company can create a saturation effect (like saturation bombing) that will plant the idea of using the service of the company so deeply in the mind of the audience that it will automatically think of using the company's services as soon as the need arises. By constantly drilling home the idea that this company is imperative to Gen Z's success, the seed is planted and the marketing channels have done their work.

However, traditional marketing is only way to the heart, mind and pocketbook of Gen Z. As JCDecaux (2011) points out, "people are becoming more and more mobile and are spending more time outside of their homes" (p. 9). This gives rise to the concept of outdoor advertising using digital media platforms (such as interactive digital advertising screens, where Gen Z's can use smart phone technology to link to information prompted to them by the outdoor advertising, which can allow the company to gather Big Data and information about the users accessing the links). This is one example of using new media to target Gen Z's tech-heavy approaches to lifestyles, experiential learning, and consumption.

Another is to promote the concept of branding -- via the development of brand identity and brand loyalty. Generating brand awareness is the basis of laying the foundation for all future relationships with Gen Z's and the implanting the deep emotional need within the consumer is the overall marketing aim that should be achieved (Bloemer, Kasper, 1995). The issue at hand is whether the company can establish "manifest satisfaction" within the Gen Z consumer, so that the consumer is aware of associating a positive feeling with MyCreativeSpace.com to their own needs to expand their networks, etc. Likewise, Mullen and Johnson (2013) show that by associating the psychological with the marketing, the company creates a solid feeling of dependency within the consumer that the new media channels can access more readily via social media sites like Facebook (establishing fan pages, followers, updates, connections, etc.) and Twitter (putting out links, quick updates, press releases, and staying in general at the top of mind, which is where every company wants to be in the consumer's mind).

Additionally, Aaker and Biel (2013) assert that by creating a "memory trace" within the consumer via new media tools like social media, Faceboook, YouTube, Twitter, MySpace, etc., the company can link brand identity with the positive feelings generated by ads, by experience, by needs, and by desires. Thus, if a Gen Z experiences a need to get help printing brochures, pamphlets, portfolios, or using social media to generate buzz for his/her own business, the first thought that should come to mind is the good feeling of using MyCreativeApproach.com, as the Gen Z has already seen the ads on billboards, in print, heard them on radio or seen the TV spots, seen the ads on Facebook, received the tweets on Twitter, and watched the viral videos created for YouTube (following the model of the Dollar Shave Club's success in this department). Creating a quip or buzz line that the Gen Z consumer could recall easily (like American Express's "Don't Leave Home without It!") could be all the catch that is needed for the memory trace recall to go into effect.

Channeling the recall then is the priority of the company via marketing avenues and mobile marketing strategies, such as the utilization of QR codes which allow users' phones to link up to system sites/information where more data can be accessed, are an essential aspect of the mobile marketing strategy -- especially as QR codes are more and more proliferative in today's outdoor marketing atmosphere. Likewise, smart phone apps are a way for companies like MyCreativeApproach to create an ease-of-access direct line from the consumer to the company's site, services and products by the touch of a phone screen.

Ultimately the goal of the company is to move products and provide services, but in order to put itself in that position, it needs to become "data rich" regarding Gen Z's and be able to assess which sector of the Gen Z population it should be targeting most heavily -- which is….....

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