Marketing to Gen Z

by Jeff Fromm, Angie Read

Today’s teens are a force to be reckoned with.

Businesses focused on Millennials … beware! Their successors are right around the corner—promising bigger challenges, but much greater opportunities.

Drawn from original quantitative research and interviews, Marketing to Gen Z paints a fascinating portrait of the newest buyers now entering the scene. Having internalized the lessons of the Great Recession, this pivotal generation blends the pragmatism and work ethic of older generations with the high ideals and digital prowess of youth. For brands, reaching this mobile-first and socially conscious cohort requires real change, not just tweaks to the Millennial plan.

Marketing to Gen Z offers dozens of examples and insights for connecting and conversing, including how to:

Get past the 8-second filter • Avoid blatant advertising and tap influencer marketing • Reflect their values • Understand their language and off-beat humor • Adapt content and social media strategies • Offer the shopping experiences they expect • And more

By 2020, Generation Z is expected to comprise 40 percent of all consumers. The time to learn who they are and what they want is NOW.

Genres: Nonfiction, Business

224 pages, Hardcover

Published March 15, 2018

About the author

Although, not a millennial as defined by his age, Jeff Fromm is the Millennial Marketing Guy™. Jeff is President of FutureCast, a marketing consultancy that specializes in millennial trends, and is a contributing writer at Forbes.com. Jeff is a frequent speaker on marketing, consumer trends, and innovation. Jeff has published numerous research reports on the millennial consumer and is the co-author of Marketing to Millennials and Millennials with Kids.

Jeff has over 25 years of marketing consulting experience across dozens of brands ranging from Build-a-Bear Workshop to Whole Foods. He is a shareholder and Board Member at Three Dog Bakery, Service Management Group, Tickets For Less, and FutureCast. Jeff is a graduate of The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and was an exchange student at The London School of Economics

Reviews

[anarchoyoungadult (mournful soul arc)[#hiatus] · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gen Z'er here, please don't. It's quite obvious and really hard to do right (marketing to us). Especially with memes. Don't do it. You will be turned into a meme and ridiculed. Thanks for your time and bye.

edit: ngl, kinda weird how most zoomers are minors and you're already looking for ways to get our money. stop it, that's creepy

[Rachel Butler · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this is a Goodreads Giveaway, my husband and I are currently skimming through because he will be starting a business in the future. It seems helpful at this point, more details to come.

[Betsy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent amount of good information in here, but I almost missed it -- the first bit(chapter?) was off-putting because of how it was written....implying that xyz are traits ONLY of Gen Z. Then at the LAST chapter, it goes on to say that these characteristics are not age specific because of xyz reasons that people in various generations may also think/act in such and so ways. As someone who (a) didn't find the traits listed in chapter 1 to be a strange concept and (b) hates being typecast, I would have done much better had the last chapter topic been included from the getgo.

I do appreciate that there are chapter summaries at the end or each chapter.

1 star for chapter 1....4 for the rest of the book.

[Patrick Pilz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I met Jeff at the NAMI Meat Industry Summit and enjoyed him talking about marketing to GenZ. While I am not a marketer per se, and my target clients are mostly Boomers or GenX, the book is an interesting read. I got 2 GenZ's growing up in my household, and I am surprised to find some sound and reasonable explanations in the book on why they chose certain brands over others, or eat at certain restaurants, where we as a family never set foot in.

This is not only a book that marketing professionals enjoy, but also parents who have teenagers in middle school, high school or college.

[Devon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good information and nice case studies. The book really paints an accurate and detailled portrait of the lives of Gen Z or 'pivotals' as the Author calls them, and how to offer value to this new generation in order to grow a business.

[J. Franklin · Rating 2 out of 5]

It has some helpful suggestions on marketing to Generation Z (or Pivotals, as they like to call them), but suffers from a bias in its treatment of them (e.g. Gen Z is the best generation ever, they all think a certain way, etc.).

[Myrthe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, but very much focused on American brands and events. For those living outside of the U.S. those events and brands don't really ring a bell so some examples lost their power for me because of that.

[Luna Bokhorst · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this to give myself a better foundational understanding of Gen Z as they are the subjects of my Thesis research. This book is by now a bit outdated, of course, but there are still some good sentiments in there and it provided me with some relevant information I might be able to use.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating look at this generation that is becoming extremely important to companies selling/marketing - well done!

[Sharon C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good insight of the future consumers.

[Abbie Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a decent primer on the psyche of the next generation coming up the ranks. It was a good overview of Gen Z’s spending habits and opinions on value.

[Justin Henriksen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. I get it. But I think the Gen-Z buzz is all the buzz that Gen Y was and all of them before. Fads come and go. That's all you need to know. People are people.

[Aleksandar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty solid and straightforward book, though a bit dated (how time flies innit).

[Amerrica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely got me thinking of new strategies and ways to market to this unique generation. Looking forward to sharing some of the info with our team in hopes to make changes in our communication strategy.