How Brands Can Engage Gen Z: Loyalty, Influencers, and the Power of Authenticity

Gen Z already makes up around 21% of the population of the US. Globally, it is expected that if current trends hold, they will account for 27% of the workforce in OECD countries by 2025.

Likewise, Gen Z commands sizable buying power, which will only increase in future years. According to the latest report, Gen Z already has 450 billion USD in spending power worldwide. 40% of global consumers are Gen Z.

The Chinese market alone has over 250 million young people, the Chinese Gen Z population is believed to be worth over 5 trillion CNY.

Understanding Gen Z: The First True Digital Natives

So, for brands and companies, it proves vital to engage with Gen Z if you wish to have a futureーof course, they are the future. How, then, to build relationships with Gen Z based on brand loyalty? How can loyalty programs play a role in this? These are crucial questions for any business to answer.

But the answers may be in reach if one examines the background of members of Gen Zーwho are, born between 1997 and 2012. Members of Gen Z did not witness the rise of the Internet or social media, rather it was always there in their lives. In this sense, members of Gen Z are true digital natives, who are the first generation to be truly born post-Internet. Furthermore, having grown up after the rise of social media, members of Gen Z tend to be used to engaging with the internet through platforms such as social networks as compared to earlier iterations of the internet that required more of a learning curve.

In this sense, Gen Z has grown up with a vast array of choices before them in terms of brands, businesses, and services, as accessible through the Internet. How to distinguish one’s self from the competition?

Why Authenticity Matters: Gen Z’s Relationship with Brands

This is not to say that Gen Z is not loyal to brands. But Gen Z has grown up seeing far too much advertising around them all the time. Gen Z, then, values authenticity and shared values in terms of brands. Sustainability and social justice are important issues for Gen Z, something ultimately rooted in this desire for authenticity.

The Role of Social Media in Shaping Gen Z’s Purchasing Habits

To this extent, as digital natives, while in-store experiences are important, online shopping is the habitual mode of purchase. Choice of product purchases is often based on what is seen on social media platforms, such as Instagram or YouTube, which can calibrate content that is offered based on an algorithm.

This explains why Gen Z gravitates towards influencers as tastemakers. Influencers provide recommendations of services and products, but in this sense serve to personalize the experience. But what influencers do not recommend also serves to influence choices in purchased goods or products. As such, partnering with influencers is highly recommended for advertising today, playing a role similar to celebrity brand endorsements in the pastーtoday’s celebrities are oftentimes, influencers.

The Importance of Gamification for Engaging Gen Z Consumers

But influencers also make the buying experience a fun one, often adding a lively element of personalization for interactions that could be purely transactional. This points to how gamification can be highly successful as a means of outreach to Gen Z, as another means of refining outreach and personalizing it. Gen Z likes to have accomplishments, leaderboards, and prizes to share on social media.

Utilizing Online Survey Platforms to Personalize Experiences

Online surveys, then, are effective and important in understanding Gen Z consumers.

Members of Gen Z, used to posting on social media, are often more willing to volunteer information about themselves freely if this customizes or personalizes an experience. Nevertheless, having also grown up with the reality of constant internet spam, it proves necessary to show members of Gen Z that they have something to gain from volunteering data about themselves through online surveys.

This can take the form of gamification, in making the process fun or having some kind of social engagement metric. Or this could take the form of providing rewards for participating in online surveys. Yet above all else, the experience cannot come off as depersonalized, anonymized, and one-size-fits-all. But with online surveys, one can gain knowledge about consumers to understand what motivates and appeals to them, in an age in which the algorithm dominates. This proves highly important for any brand or businessーafter all, Gen Z is the future.

To learn more about how you can monetize your loyalty program, get in touch with our consultants today!