Gen Z is the people who have born in the period of 1997 to 2000 and are your new customer. So, it means that the member of this Gen Z must have done an MBA and will search for a job now. So, they are your new customer and will give you growth. But selling or marketing the product to Gen Z is easy. For selling the product to them and targeting them, you have to understand their characteristics, the way they behave, etc. # **Traits of Gen Z** 1. ==**Active Online Connection-**== This generation lives, walk, talk on social media. Social Media and the Internet are an important part of this generation’s life. According to a survey, 50% of youngsters spend more than 6 hours on the internet. So, take your brand on social media marking your presence on it. Concentrate more on video content to make them more focussed and attentive to videos. Long articles will be rejected by them. 4. ==**Hate Hard Selling –**== Today's youngsters are very smart and easily understand which brand is making more efforts to sell their product and which brand genuinely want to reach them by making them understand their product. Below is the example of a brand that tried to sell by hard selling and the other one who by their content attracted Gen Z. **Example 1:** Cadbury is a good brand which does good advertising. A campaign of Cadbury that was launched on 15thAugust 2010 on twitter failed. The idea of this campaign was to make a single chocolate bar by different colours. They want to give the message that the country should come together without any discrimination. They gave names to this bar as a unity bar. The message was good but it didn’t connect with the youth. **Example 2:** Eurex is the market leader where all brands do almost traditional marketing on television or on print media which does not make connection with the youth as these brands are hard to sell brands to them and they don’t want to use this. 3. ==**Attention Span of a Gold Fish –**== As per the study ****Gold Fish has the attention span of 5 seconds and the attention span of the generation before Gen Z was 12 seconds and Gen Z attention span is of just 8 seconds. There is so much content on social media that it is difficult to pay attention to one thing for long. So package your content and market in small. Previously the ads were of 1-minute duration which people enjoyed like a story. Then it reduced to 30 seconds but now branding with a message is done for 15 – 20seconds only. **Examples:** - YouTube has many ad formats but their bumper format is of 6 seconds only that appeal to Gen Z. - AirBnB’s Canon Baller adds are of 6 seconds and after seeing this ad you feel like going their only. - Why Tik Tok is popular? Because it is entertaining, snappy, and has content that the new generation likes. On Tik Tok, they get actual fun and engagement. - Like Instagram is used by these youngsters for aspirational selves r how people should see them. - On snap chat they are real. Like they talk in real life the same they feel in snap chat. - Twitter is a medium for news and opinions for the youngsters. - On Facebook, they get information, update their status, and posted photos by which they get entertainment. - YouTube gives them information about the latest trends and what is going on in the market and recommendations. So, choose your platform accordingly. Instagram, Twitter, Tik Tok, and YouTube can be good social media platforms for making good connect with Gen Z. 4. ==**Gen Z focusses on value –**== Don’t only focus on making money but also focus on making value. If a business owner only focusses on sales and offers, then this strategy will not work for a longer period. Gen Z will understand your intentions if you only focus on money so give them some value through Blogs, Content. But it will work only if it impacts their own lives and thoughts. **Example:** Nivea started a campaign long back called Moms strategy. They used hashtags on social media. They published the story of Moms Sacrifice on Social Media. These are the story of mothers who have sacrificed and struggled a lot in life for the future of their children. Viewers liked it and the stories touched the heart of viewers. Many people donated money for this cause so that it can be used for the study of these kids. Also when these stories were shared, Nivea donated 100 grams of rice to poor and needy people. Though Nivea is not a new brand but it made connect with this marketing strategy. **Example:** If you purchase a pair of shoes from Tom Shoes then they donate one pair of shoes to a needy child who doesn’t have the shoes. So, these types of messages, make good connect with Gen Z. 5. ==**Contextual Relevance –**== It means to the point engagement. Groupon is the company that gives you a coupon for restaurants, shopping, travel. You can use this coupon to get a discount. They started making videos on YouTube by targeting one type of audience through one video. Like audience is interested in travel were shown travel video, for people interested in cooking had the recipe video, people interested in skin facial were given a beauty discount video. And these were going to the right targeted group and by this campaign, they got 1.6 Lacs new customers who were maximum GenZ and also their brand publicity increased. 6. ==**Talk To them –**== Don’t try to give any instructions or orders to GenZ but in fact talk to them. Like Zomato talk to the customers and don’t advertise by which they do help and sales both. Recently they launched a campaign on Twitter where they asked few questions from their customers like which restaurant is most creative. Many People responded with comments along with liking their posts. They keep on tweeting like “Ghar ka khana khao bahar sey na order karo zyada”. By this people comment on these types of tweets and people order also. So communication should be connecting and talking type with Gen Z. 7. ==**Flexibility –**== Gen Z like flexibility. They want work done as per their desire and time. They want their brand on laptop, mobile, and television. Why Netflix is popular? It’s because whenever they want they can watch anything on Netflix. As per the survey of IBM, 75% Gen Z generation is on mobiles and smartphones. They want to do all their work on it only. So give them the option to choose their medium that is physical which means your store and digital that is social media or website. Make the entire process easy. 8. ==**Honesty and Transparency -**== If there is not trust and truthfulness in the relationship of today’s boys and girls then break up is sure. GenZ wants a true relationship and they mostly avoid conflicts. They are not good at commitments so stay apart from it and expect respect and honour from everyone. Therefore, don’t lie, Gen Z, if they are your target customer and be transparent to them. Also, don’t hide customer service mistakes from them. If you give them what they want, they will praise and promote you on social media by giving good reviews and will not puzzle you. If the mistake is yours, then saying sorry is the best option.