Gen Z have grown up with the internet and social media. They are used to being bombarded with adverts on all fronts and people desperately trying to get their money. You should consider them an incredibly cynical yet realistic group of people. Claiming to have the best product in the world will only make you part of a meme. With millennials and Gen Z’s likely to make up a significant part of your future target market, ignoring them now would be foolish. So how can you appeal to the generation that is coming up?
Ethics
Gen Z are used to having a wealth of choice in their products and have strong ethics. They are the most eco-conscious and socially aware generation, and they are starting to hold businesses accountable. If you want to interact and appeal to Gen Z, then you need to show what your ethics are and your stance on key issues, such as the environment and the ethical treatment of workers around the globe. You should carefully examine your practices, from where you get your wholesale jewelry to the break policies for your staff – make sure that you are on safe ground, and then you can advertise yourself as eco-friendly, supportive of civil rights, or make sure everyone involved in the manufacture of your products has a safe working environment and is paid a fair wage. If you are found to be lying, you will be punished, your reputation will be damaged, and you are unlikely to recover without an extensive branding effort. Reacting quickly and decisively to bad publicity can help you out of a tricky spot.
Branding
You might decide that your branding is off when trying to appeal to Gen Z. Certainly, if you relied a little too much on the ‘show your neighbors you can afford luxury and are therefore better than them’ marketing technique, you’re unlikely to succeed with the younger generation. If you want to change your branding, you should work out which segment of Gen Z you want to appeal to – approaching them as one homogenous mass is likely to fail and make you look fake – the death knoll from Gen Z.
You should try to keep your brand consistent across all channels – if you already have an established clientele who you don’t want to alienate, consider setting up a sibling business, one under the umbrella of your company, but that can focus on appealing to the younger generation in terms of products and image, without throwing away the customers you already have.
Collaborations
As mentioned before, Gen Z has grown up on the internet and with social media. They could easily be friends with more people from another country or another state than they might be with people on their street. Social Media has allowed people to interact in a way that was previously only dreamed of, and connecting with like-minded people is now possible, rather than simply being friends with someone you don’t particularly like purely because they’re close.
You should take advantage of social media and this interconnectedness as much as you can. One method that has worked well for jewelry firms is to strike up collaborations with influencers and celebrities. Of course, the larger brands are the ones that are most likely to appeal to influencers, but the principle can work no matter how large or small your business is. Just make sure that you choose to work with a collaborator who is going to uphold your own ethics and standards, as well as appeal to your target market.
