Spectra Youth helps brand future-proof their products and services

It’s hard to overlook the rising force in Asian consumer dynamics — Generation Z. This digitally-native, mobile-first generation, born between 1996 and 2012, will make up a quarter of Asia’s population by 2025. Worldwide, 32% of the globe’s consumers are already Gen Zs, so we’re paying close attention.

Sandy Sze, leads Spectra’s Youth Marketing practice, including their Inner Circle and Insiders youth communities. She shares with us her thoughts on how businesses and brands stay relevant with Gen Z.

Marketing: What is it about the Gen Z consumers that justify a specific youth marketing effort from brands?

Sze: Brands such as Peroni, FTLife, and Ocean Park have been trusting us to devise sharp youth marketing strategies. We have helped them study and engage with Gen Zs and found out that as a consumer cohort, Gen Zs diverse purchasing behaviour warrants the use of a whole new approach. This should not be separate from the brand’s general strategy, but rather as a critical and complementary effort to secure the future of the business.

Marketing: What makes them so special?

Sze: Gen Zs grew up as digital natives, that is obvious, but they extremely active in seeking out and engaging around physical events and activities. This reflects how they offer a much greater level of complexity than any generation prior.

To stay on top of the paradoxes and contradictions we formed our Inner Circle community – 1,066 socially-significant Gen Zs around Hong Kong. Unlike KOLs and big influencers, the Inner Circle members are genuine consumers and give us a in-depth and on-going look into the drivers and factors that earn Gen Zs attention and loyalty.

Marketing: How does Gen Z compare with Millennials?

Sze: Lump them together at your own risk. Gen Zs are anything but a passive audience. And their trust is a lot harder to earn.

To achieve that trust, brands cannot feed them content but must engage them in making content. Brands can’t just create products or services for them, but with must co-create with them. And especially by not just saying the right thing through CSR programmes, but by doing the right thing through Shared Value-based initiatives.

Our Insiders group, is a small, active group of socially-significant Gen Z youth in Hong Kong. We engage them to work alongside brands to help business and marketing leaders unlearn, and relearn how to engage with his new consumer group.

Marketing: How do brands and business know if they’re missing out on youth consumers?

Sze: We use 5 very simple points to assess if you are missing out:
1. You’re reading this and thinking your brand does not need to worry about Gen Z
2. The great majority of your customers are older than 25 years old
3. CSR is still a term widely used in the company, instead of CSV
4. Your latest 5 products or services have not been co-created with consumers
5. Your company has not streamlined and cost-optimised video production

Marketing: What type of Gen Z related problems you help brands and companies solve?

Sze: Using our proprietary consumer research tools – including Focus™, the Inner Circle and Insiders – we help our clients future-proof their brands by creating a strong customer-centric foundation. By then applying design thinking and rapid prototyping, we help our clients avoid expensive guesses while shortening time to market.

Luxury brands, hotel operators, property investors, insurance and finance players come to us with two main challenges:

- Assess how well prepared their brands are to adapt to Gen Z consumer behaviours and to a fast-changing competitive landscape

- Drive fast-track innovation & transformation of products, services, and corporate culture to grow into or sustain themselves as category-leading brands

This article was brought to you by Spectra Partnership, for more on the topic of Gen Z and co-creation, click here.