Generation Z turns the business model of this CEO on the head

“This whole generation is to turn all of our business models upside down.”

I am a consumer who is somewhere between the baby mill nial generation and the geriatric generation Zer, and after hearing how Hootsuite CEO Irina Novoselsky talks about my generation, she understands it.

I am sure that it helps her to keep up with the younger consumers because she is a millennial and is therefore closer to generation Z than the average CEO, but I also think that she is through her determination as a marketer of others stand out.

It even went so far to speak to 500 members of Generation Z to understand their consumption and social media habits.

“What motivated me is that I came across statistics 65 % All company decision -makers will belong to Generation Zer or Millennials from next year, ”says Novoselsky. “The funny fact is that in 2024 there was already the first year in which there are such.” More generation Zers at work as a baby boomer. “

Novoselsky found that:

1. Gen Z is a generation of contradictions.

“You grew up in your pocket with a phone, but don’t want it to speak, you don’t want it to be sold and you don’t want our current push model,” she explains.

And she is right. My inbox is full and I don’t like it when companies play around on my cell phone, so I prefer to look for my next favorite lipline-gloss combination on my own conditions before I give my money to a brand.

According to Novoselsky, the current push marketing approach for consumers of Generation Z is a little too aggressive. All of these emails I get when I leave a shopping cart or rummage through a few items? Yes, I don’t read everything.

And Novoselsky says that this happens quite frequently in Generation Z.

She explains: “You go through 60 % of your purchase trip before you even get in touch with the sales employee because you want to discover and evaluate your company according to your own ideas.”

For example, when I was looking for a new record player, I searched the internet for tictoks, YouTube shorts, Reddit forums and blog posts with detailed recommendations and functions that I should look for before I was looking for the investment in the Fluance RT80 decided.

2. Forget to speak to the manager. Generation Z wants to hear from your CEO.

If generation Z is looking for a new brand, it is not only interested in its latest conspicuous product. You would like to know what your brand stands for, whether it represents important points of view online and whether your values ​​match your.

The most important thing is that you want to know what your leadership is about.

“Most of them will not do business with a company where the CEO does not post,” says Novoselsky.

Yes, that’s right. Your CEO cannot simply be the person behind the current situation. You have to pull out your phone, open tikk or reels and speak directly to the consumers of Generation Z.

For example, the founder and CEO of Huda Beauty, Huda Kattan, can be seen in almost every reel, TikTok, photo or advertisement for the make-up company. It also performed in podcasts and worked with celebrities such as Olivia Culpo and Kehlani.

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She is both a content manufacturer and business owner and CEO.

It also expresses itself very loudly Diversity and inclusion in the beauty industry and speaks about important causes what is crucial because a current study shows this 58 % of the consumers of Generation Z You lose confidence in a brand if it does not publicly deal with social issues.

Kattan’s approach works. The company has an annual turnover of around $ 200 million and a value of $ 1.2 billion.

So if you want to get in touch with Generation Z, tell your CEO that it is time to shine.

3. Generation Z wants to hear from its colleagues, not from their ads.

“And these peer reviews can come from social media platforms such as Reddit, LinkedIn or Instagram. Or it just comes from your own network, ”says Novoselsky.

Don’t you believe her? Well, here is statistics for you: a current analysis showed that Reddit appears 97.5 % of the time for product evaluation inquiries in Google search.

According to Novoselsky, Generation Z would like to know what their friends or community members use, how they interact with the product and whether it is worth investing in it.

Therefore, I strongly recommend building a community around your brand. Organize Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything), live streaming events or create platforms especially for your audience to make contacts, exchange ideas and talk about your brand.

One of my favorite examples actually comes from a former employer, a television station in Florida called First Coast News. In order to increase the ratings for his weather segment, the broadcaster founded a Facebook group called First Coast Weather Watchers, in which spectators join and share photos and videos of local weather phenomena.

The members would give each other advice on how to prepare for upcoming hurricanes and tropical storms, and they would have talks with meteorologists in real time to collect information about the weather that affects the region.

The community not only increased the ratings of the segment, but also built up trust between the audience and the broadcaster. So when a tropical storm raised, I often saw that spectators on social media recommend their fellow human beings to join the Facebook group and turn on our channel.

4. In principle, Generation Z will continue to turn marketing upside down.

Novoselsky is looking forward to the future of marketing and the kind of creativity that consumers and marketers of Generation Z will bring.

“Every time you are forced to do something innovative and look outside the box, it just challenges you to think differently,” she says. “This whole generation is to turn all of our business models upside down.”

And if you look outside the box, you also have to find new ways to present yourself organically at the target group.

Novoselsky says that marketers should ask themselves: “How do you create an environment in which you appear in this authentic, organic way and this generation can really have your own research and care instead of using this push model?”

“Gen Z really wants to have control,” she explains. “It starts to equip you with data in the places where you want to read you and create a mutual dialogue.”

Fenty Beauty sums up this approach.

The generation Zer flows into droves to Tiktok and one of the most popular functions of the app are its filters. So what did Fenty Beauty do? The brand has created its own filter in the app with which users can “try on” various lipstick and liner combinations. If the users then like what they see, you can buy the products via the Tikok Shop or look up on the Fenty website.

The company has reached its target group where it is currently (TikTok) and a funny filter that enables this consumer The power to decide for yourself whether you like the product. Then they made it possible to buy the product via the app.

Regardless of your target group, Novoselsky has a lot of wisdom that you can apply to your own marketing strategy. Consumers, the way they shop and how they interact with brands, change. So you have to be ready to look outside the box and adapt.

For example, 84 % of the marketers say that videos have contributed to increasing traffic on their website.

For this reason, I went beyond the usual framework of the letter and started the HubSpot blog video program. In this program, authors create short video content that accompany blog posts and give their content a second life on video sharing platforms such as Reels and YouTube shorts.

So take a page of Novoselsky’s book and break out of the traditional marketing form. It is time to hug generation z.