Thriving Gen Z Dynamics
In a digital era where Gen Z's thumb rules the screen and AI reshapes reality, understanding these dynamic forces isn't just beneficial—it's essential for brands aiming to stay ahead. Brands looking to grow, thrive, and adapt to today's reality must understand consumers' changing needs and attitudes and strive to foster a meaningful, authentic and trustworthy connection. While all generations have their contextual factors and attitudes influenced by the environment and formative years, the young digitally savvy Gen Z consumer is a prime consumer in India for various brands.
Generative AI has come to the limelight recently, comprising artificial intelligence that generates new content (text, code, images, videos, chatbots, audio, etc.) and brings it to everyone. Gen Z on their hand has the power of the internet and access to information and content. It is a critical element of what influences and transforms how they behave and interact with the world around them.
Hyper-cognitive Gen Zers
Urban, educated Gen Zers are hyper-cognitive, enthusiastic about immersive experiences, and have a point of view that they aren't shy of expressing. Participation, co-creation, and self-expression are essential to this generation. Gen Z increasingly values inclusiveness and seeks transparency and sustainable practices. They embrace diversity, and it is essential to ensure that brands are inclusive while brand activations are also unique to make them share-worthy and talk-worthy.
While digital platforms can bring a high level of engagement from content developers, brands, and publishers, trust must be built and earned. The younger generation expects authenticity and sincerity in terms of the content, a sense of conversation, transparency, resonating functionality, and a believable storyline that connects with them.
As the role of digital and media evolves, we need to grow in how we, as brands, relate to the younger generation. Collaboration with like-minded influencers, personalisation, connecting on topics they care about, building resonance on relevant values, and tapping into their passions can strengthen their connection with them if done authentically, staying true to the brand's purpose and what the brand stands for. Appealing creative formats are often mobile-first, long or short form as appropriate, using upfront messaging and leveraging digital tools. As digital penetration continues to rise, young consumers in tier 2 and below population strata are also getting higher exposure and exhibiting greater openness while keeping relevant brand propositions in view.
Omnichannel success
The new era of shopping demands a deep understanding of the complex shopper journey, going beyond transactional dynamics, whether online or offline, to fast-forward omnichannel success. Catering to short attention spans with multi-screens, and snackable content can open the doorway.
Brands that leverage advanced technologies to tailor the consumer experience across the funnel are well-placed to deliver better outcomes, including more robust consumer acquisition, higher repeat purchases, brand loyalty, and better return on investment.
A slew of alternate business models at varying levels of maturity are redefining online shopping, and the younger generation is often discovering products online, interacting in communities, using personalised filters, paying great attention to reviews, using image search, using wish lists to create a repository of shortlisted products, choosing quick delivery platforms, etc. AR/VR and AI are bringing the offline store experience to the comfort of consumers' homes, and platforms utilise AR to create virtual replicas of products and make shopping easier. This indicates the need to leverage capabilities around technology, data, algorithms, and intelligence to strengthen human-centred connections and conversions.
The attention of brand marketers to AI and generative AI has skyrocketed to harness its potential to accelerate digital transformation, improve productivity, and scale automation efforts.
Harnessing AI Responsibly
The starting point for marketers is to identify the problem or opportunity with the objectives of deploying Gen AI and then look for the right solution. Gen AI has dynamic capabilities and speed in content development and adaptation, with rapid improvement in its capabilities, but its precision still has to evolve. In today's fast-paced world, where consumers always look for faster, easier, and more convenient solutions, AI can help lift the game.
By offering relevant content that is engaging, shoppable, and entertaining, a brand is more likely to nurture interest and stickiness. AI creates new opportunities to improve people's lives everywhere and opens new frontiers, but we need to harness its capabilities responsibly. AI usage must not compromise ethics and privacy; facial recognition should not be inappropriately applied to publicly available video content. Data for training AI models should be diverse, and practices that help avoid bias and discrimination are needed. Gen AI will continue to disrupt and evolve, and brands will leverage the capabilities to meet the ever-changing expectations of always-online young consumers. The key is to stay agile and responsive to consumer trends and technological advancements.
In a world where consumers crave genuine relevance, brands that prioritise empathetic understanding and personal value resonance, as well as leverage the right technologies to create attractive and meaningful consumer experiences will win. As always, combining human understanding with technological advancements can help brands build a strong connection with consumers. Above all, marketers must continually dive into the minds and screens of this generation reshaping the market.
(Chandan Mukherji is the Director & Executive Vice President, Strategy, Marketing & Communication at Nestle India)
