Respond to both student's posts *not the prompt* 

Prompt: summarize the 5 methods below and include an analysis of how you, as a marketer, can apply these methods by using media vehicles such as snapchat, tiktok, and instagram to communicate to the gen Xers.

First student:

"the way in which we market to consumers is an ever-changing task that has created many positive as well as negative challenges and opportunities for many businesses today. It has allowed us to open our brains and get creative about how we can better our consumers’ lives through the way we market our products and services. One point that caught my attention in the article was that gen zers overcome the limitations of our software. They have somewhat of a “hacker” mentality. They look at barriers and limitations as things to challenge and overcome. Therefore, making it important but sometimes difficult to truly appeal to their likings and interests.

The points that the article makes are that it is important to: sell an experience, show engagement and community, express transparency as well as privacy within the business, get to the point, and speak through their brand. This mixture of elements tests a company’s ability to interact with this younger generation. I found it interesting in the article when it said that gen zers have an 8 second attention span. With the way that we engage constantly with our screens now it makes me wonder what this attention span will be in a year from now, 5 years, or even 10 years from now. How will our marketing improve and change to squeeze into people’s view just for those couple of seconds? To get in touch with this generation we need to be able to sell experiences. In a way, giving them a bigger bang for their buck. In my own experience of talking with businesses it is often the ones that market the experiences the best that can charge a premium price for the same product as everyone else. All because of the experience, education, honesty, and transparency that the customers receive from purchasing the product. "

Second student:

"the five methods of marketing solutions for gen zers is something you will see all over social media. The selling experience gen zers seem to want to experience is seeing how the products work and watching firsthand others reactions to these products and this is something tiktok has been known to do. My future daughter-in-law is a prime example of this experience, before she buys, she wants to watch and see how the product works and how others react.

Lush is a company that falls under engagement and community talked about by hodges, if you watch tiktok these products are handmade and environmentally friendly and are said to be great for your personal hygiene and again these products my future daughter-in-law purchases all started through social media for her, especially tiktok and instgram. Lush “engages with their customers and tailors their responses and they know that one-size doesn’t fit all (hodges, 2021).” Transparency and privacy allows for companies to engage with their customers by creating the loyalty and trust with the products they offer, standing behind what they believe, such as lush, who engage with their customers and get to know them and what will work best for them and at the same time it’s a personal experience and the information is kept private.

Gen zers tend to want to be captivated with the first few seconds otherwise they are scrolling to something else and tiktok and instagram are excellent sources when getting to the point. The last method of speaking through your brand is presenting the products and standing behind them, lush is “a bath, body, skin and haircare company devoted to creating fresh, ethically-sourced, cruelty-free, vegetarian, handmade, low-waste and effective products (lushusa, 2021).” Lush is not just selling the product or experience they are selling the value (hodges, 2021).

As a marketer you can apply these experiences through social media as i described through my analysis, just like what lush does. Utilizing social media such as tiktok and instagram allows for companies to show how the products are being used and how they work, and this is being done with real people and not just celebrities. You have the opportunity of reaching these gen zers and captivating them to want to try your products if they are seeing others actually using them and how they really work. According to our textbook, marketing communications activities must be integrated to deliver a consistent message and achieve the strategic positioning and by utilizing social media sites will help you market your product and stay consistent by reaching those potential consumers, such as gen zers."