Retail Marketing Summit: ‘They’re happy to pay extra for this convenience’ – Why Gen Z is the next frontier for retail marketers
Speaking at Mumbrella’s Retail Marketing Summit on Wednesday, Uber, Coca-Cola, Brown Forman and IPG Mediabrands agreed that society’s generation of up-and-comers are a fountain of revenue for retail marketers, so long as brands know how to target them effectively.
Moderated by Michael Levine, head of advertising sales AUNZ at Uber, the session delved deep into the power Gen Z holds over the current retail marketing industry, citing the demographics’ purchasing habits and behaviours as potential disruptors for brands.
(L-R): Anna McLoughlin, Mariano Favia, Hope Williams, Michael Levine
When asked about the challenges she has seen brands face when trying to reach Gen Z, Hope Williams, head of commerce at IPG Mediabrands, confirmed that the typical purchasing funnel holds virtually no sway nowadays.
“It’s not a funnel anymore,” Williams said. “I think that they [Gen Z] are the one generation that’s completely collapsed the funnel.
“They like to shop at the point of inspiration, and there’s also research to show that they are shopping and then going back and researching a product afterwards,” she added, before explaining that, as digital natives, Gen Z have acclimated to their online environments so well it has forced retail marketers to shift their approach to brand equity.
“We’re building brand equity very differently… to what we’ve experienced in the past with the baby boomer generation.”
Brown Forman’s e-commerce manager Mariano Favia agreed, saying there’s an increasing importance of on-demand purchasing for Gen Z.
“Sales has shifted from web sales to on-demand,” he said.
But the session didn’t solely focus on Gen Z’s penchant for buy-now-and-ask-questions-later. It also touched upon the idea that brands should embrace hot cultural moments to stay afloat, a lesson championed by Coca-Cola Europacific Partners’ head of digital, Anna McLoughlin.
The panelists speaking at the conference
Referencing her company’s involvement in last year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup, McLoughlin explained that Coca-Cola leveraged its partnership with Uber (and the data insights it held) to remain at the forefront of the public conversation while promoting its brand.
“Uber was a perfect partner for us because…[we] were able to leverage both [Uber} Eats and Mobility data,” McLoughlin said.
“We [were able to] trigger ads in real time, based on proximity to games or stadiums.”
Levine rounded out the session by asking the speakers to give their final takeaways for the delegates.
Williams said the importance of collaboration, Favia stressed embracing retail media now (and not later), and viewing retail media as an “opportunity to be incredibly customer-centric”, according to McLoughlin, are three pillars that can help brands better target Gen Z.
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Matthew is the editorial assistant at Mumbrella. He previously worked for a marketing agency that focused on managed service providers and IT.
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