Generation Z means more digital, mobile & social for financial marketers
For decades, new accounts from younger consumers simply materialized through parents who spoon fed them to whichever institution had their business. With Gen Z, that's an anachronistic dream, thanks to Google and the omnipresent smartphone. As Gen Z edges onto financial marketers' radar, banking providers had better prepare for this next generation carefully because they are unlike anything we've seen before.
Few would dispute that Millennials caught many banks and credit unions flat-footed. But some financial marketers now think they learned their lesson, and that they are ready for Gen Z.
“That’s resoundingly not true,” says Jason Dorsey, President at The Center for Generational Kinetics, and one of the world’s foremost authorities on marketing to younger consumers.
His advice for financial institutions is simple. “Take the time to understand this generation now, rather than taking five or more years playing catch-up, is critically important,” he recommends. “They really are a distinctly different generation.”
How so? Superglue a smartphone to your hand, and build your everyday life around social media. Then you may begin to get Gen Z. They live in a world where, for them, social media is a key part of their reality, not a sideshow. And life experienced through the internet and most importantly the ever-present mobile device blends into physical being.
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