CONNECTING YOUR BUSINESS WITH GENERATION Z

Four practical use cases for applying the Generation Z framework

Use case 1: Designing superior employee engagement at a global beverage company in ways that matter to Gen Z

Our client, a global multinational beverage company wanted to deliver a step change in employee communications. Their employees were well served from a communications perspective, but a proliferation of digital platforms used inconsistently at individual levels and across geographies was affecting ability to effectively engage and capture the pulse and feedback of the organisation.

In our discovery and design process, we met with leaders, conducted surveys and ran focus groups with key users representing different functions and demographics. This deliberately included Gen Z representation, reflecting a large percentage of the user base. Building on our proprietary ‘Meaningful Brands’ longitudinal data, relevant to 21-25 years old, we were able to bring hypothesis into our design sessions for challenge and experimentation. In the sessions, we were able to tap into the cognitive diversity that Gen Z brings to the workplace, experiment, test and co-design innovative and transformative solutions.

This ultimately meant that in our proposal on how to move forward from strategy to design, our end state solution would emulate the consumer-grade and habitual digital experiences that occupy a huge place in their lives. Thanks to Gen Z – a generation of ‘communaholics’, we were able to inject the element of hyper-connectivity between markets that would drive creativity, support rapid innovation and collaboration and enhanced speed to market. In addition, we were able to enable democratisation of communication that would engage people, strengthen belonging and activate priceless and unique takes on external brand advocacy. As it was expressed in the research: “the more connected we are, the more free we are to express our beautiful differences”.

Use Case 2: Improving digital colleague experience and engagement through personalisation, customisation and/or gamification

Our client, a British multinational groceries retailer wanted to improve colleague experience and engagement of its internal comms platform – particularly for Gen Z users – and wanted us to consider options that used personalisation, customisation and/or gamification to do so.

We used both broad survey data and deeper insight from a series of subsequent focus groups. We then worked with product managers to ideate 40+ features and prioritise these based on their perceived user value, Focus groups allowed us to explore the outputs and delve deeper and extract qualitative insight from testers on some of the survey results. Our work with Gen Z users drove greater use of key areas the retailer was trying to drive engagement with e.g. the ‘Rewards and Benefits’ pages. Gen Z users promoted the use of entertaining and personalised content in this area including pop-ups and prompts to provide short, digestible information and this has driven engagement with the content. The Gen Z users were very thoughtful about the use of gamification. Whilst recognising it would appeal to their peer group, they did not want elements like ‘digital badges’ to replace in-person congratulations for achievement/ length of service etc. as these are more authentic and heart-warming. In addition, they opposed the creation of individual or team rankings that were highly public, due to the risk of creating divisions and lowering morale.

Overall, the focus on Gen Z and other sub-groups within the employee base has helped to create reliable and realistic representations of your key audience segments for reference as to what is important to users, to assess the viability and attractiveness of new features and to accelerate those that support this.

Use Case 3: Developing warm and empathetic customer experiences designed with Gen Z customers in mind

Our client, a leading UK high street retailer had recently changed ownership, re-platformed its business and wanted to deliver online experiences that matched its renowned in-store customer service, but also make it relevant to its growing Gen Z customer base.

To inspire and inform our client, we walked through the X index, Havas’ proprietary customer experience barometer explored how brands can use efficiency, pleasure, personalisation, privacy, and community to deliver exceptional consumer experiences. Three areas we drilled down on were:

customers expecting brands to offer a perfect experience from a functional point of view, but also from an emotional one;
The ability to achieving personalisation with empathy and a human touch in the era of algorithms; and
The shift from customer to community experiences with demands for diversity, representation and accessibility

Working in these areas and relating it back to our client, we were able to co-create digital design principles that would guide new omnichannel experiences that feel human, warm, empathetic and deliver a “hyper-experience” that can win Gen Z hearts and minds.

Use Case 4: Developing a value proposition for a leading media group to attract and engage students and young professionals

Our client is a trusted multi-platform source of premium news, insight, opinion and analysis in Ireland. Already on a digital transformation journey, the leadership team identified students and young professionals as a key growth demographic for current and future product and service offerings.

To support better understanding the needs and wants of this demographic, Gate One partnered with a group of Masters students to develop recommendations on how to attract and engage this (primarily) Gen Z audience. The students used the Gate One Gen Z framework and its six segments to explore and develop initial research areas that were then localised and corroborated via a detailed survey of 320+ respondents. The outputs led to a range of insights that were then grouped in terms of media consumption, channels, competitors and brand awareness.

Engaging students and young professionals directly was seen as hugely beneficial by our client as we were able to include feedback and clarification loops not possible without the ongoing engagement. The Gen Z framework allowed the recommendations to be grouped in a mutually exclusive manner with clear actions and owners that would deliver collective step changes in how the client attracted and engaged its target demographic.