Gen Z Branding:
Boosting Brand Awareness
Gen Z was the first generation to grow up as digital natives. This made the use of technology and social media an everyday occurrence and an integral part of their lives. Over a quarter of the population is made up of people in these age ranges who were born between the mid-1990s and early 2010s. This means that creating brand awareness that caters to this audience can be very important for a business’s success.
Due to the nature of what is popular on social media, Gen Z is more likely to get invested in and support brands that prioritize authenticity and transparency. As a result, they are less likely to support brands that don’t follow the consensus and beliefs of the generation. For example, Gen Z is generally very high on sustainability and maintaining a healthy environment. Therefore, they would support brands that operate sustainably.
In this article, we will take a deeper look at Gen Z branding and how businesses can boost brand awareness for the Gen Z market.
Creating engaging content
Gen Z tends to be a big advocate of eye-catching and engaging content or products. For example, as a rule of thumb, your branding should be easily recognizable and stand out from everything else in the same market. This is a great way to capture attention and make potential customers more likely to interact with your content, purchase your products, and invest in your brand identity.
Experimenting with different types of content and branding is the best way to find out what works and what doesn’t, as every brand will be different in what works for them. A branding agency in Manchester would look at the best strategy to promote your brand and help you create content that will set you apart from your competitors.
Social media influence
Taking advantage of social media is key to Gen Z branding. Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube are the three most popular social media platforms and are the best ways to promote your brand and increase brand awareness.
In 2024, it’s almost impossible to create a new, successful brand without the use of social media. There are several key ways that social media can be used to help boost your brand awareness for Gen Z, including:
- Developing and creating engaging video content
- Using trends and hashtags to get more views and boost engagement
- Responding to comments or direct messages
- Creating interactive polls to promote new products
With social media branding, consistency is key. Keeping branding consistent in colors and font throughout your platforms will etch your brand deeper in customers’ memories.
Connect with influencers
Influencer marketing has seen a huge rise in analytics over the past several years, with it being worth an estimated $24 billion in 2024. The popularity of short videos on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube has been taken advantage of by businesses to help promote their brand. Using influencers has helped them take advantage of the platforms even further.
Instead of marketing directly to your target audience, influencers will promote and market your key message to their audience. This gives your brand access to its niche audience in a way that comes across as relaxed and natural, as opposed to the forced feel of traditional advertising.
Once you develop your influencer marketing strategy, you can test campaigns and gain the required results. Your campaigns should inspire people to learn more about a service or product and be enticing enough for influencers to want to promote them on their social media platforms.
Endorse diversity and inclusivity
Marketers can best resonate with Gen Z by embracing diversity and inclusivity. Aligning with Gen Z values is a must for any business to grow its brand. Every business should already endorse diversity and inclusion, but making it apparent to your audience can help make a huge difference. User-generated content that showcases diverse stories and experiences can help promote these values.
Gen Z is very open about their feelings and will happily converse about any issues and problems, which is different from generations before them. Therefore, creating a brand that is equally as open will resonate with the generation and will create trust between yourselves and the customers.
Meme marketing
Although using meme marketing will not work for every business, it can be a great way to attract a Gen Z audience due to them growing up throughout the emergence of meme culture. It is fast becoming a common approach for many brands, as it is extremely easy for businesses to create and very cost-effective.
The main risk with using meme marketing is that it may seem out-of-touch if a meme is used too late or is not received well. However, if your business can keep up with trends, you should notice some great results for your brand. As a whole, using diverse visual content that is considered funny can inject personality into your brand’s identity.
Photo by Elsa Noblet on Unsplash
