Don’t Worry About Millennials — Here’s How to Win Over Gen Z
Millennials aren't who you think they areSelling to millennials isn’t your problem. You’ve heard all about how millennials are killing the car industry (and the restaurant industry, and the paper towel industry, and…), but studies show that millennials now buy cars as enthusiastically as their parents did.1 We’re not in the clear yet, though. There’s bigger problem on the rise. You probably haven’t heard much about "Gen Z," but the generation at the end of the alphabet is the real challenge. They grew up with the internet; they live on the internet (even more than millennials); and the internet defines how they interact with the world – including how they view the automotive industry. They’re who you need to focus on.
Who is Gen Z?You keep hearing about millennials as “the digital generation,” but millennials are older than you might think; in reality, Gen Z are the true children of the internet. Where millennials were born between 1981 and 1996,2 Gen Z are “internet natives” born in 1997 and later.3 Millennials adapted to the internet; Gen Z was born into it. This makes Gen Z a very different customer. According to Forbes,4 Gen Z prefers “direct autonomy and control in decision making,” and “does not like being ‘sold to.’” They make their decisions "based on peer reviews, product information, and retailer ratings." In other words, they make their decisions online, away from salespeople. If the traditional dealership wants to have a role in Gen Z’s future, then it’s time to change the way we approach this young audience. Taxis are losing to Lyft and Uber not because of price or service quality, but because people won't phone a taxi company or hail a cab when they can order a ride-share from an app. Dealerships need to take a hint. Forbes5 reports that Gen Z is “technologically savvy, switching easily between multiple platforms, across smartphones, TVs, laptops, and tablets to exchange information, conduct transactions, or communicate.” Basically, they want everything to be omni-channel.
Become competitive through digital retailingOmni-channel digital retailing is about more than lead forms and pricing widgets. To court the next generation of consumers, the car buying experience has to offer the same cross-platform convenience as Uber or Foodora. This starts with a digital retailing platform – one that makes it easy to start online and transfer intuitively to the showroom.
It's partly circumstance. Environmentalism and urban congestion have tempered Gen Z excitement about car ownership. Even necessity has diminished: with options ranging from rentals (U-Haul) to car shares (Zipcar) to ride-share apps (Uber), young consumers simply don’t have a compelling reason to lease or own. Add the headache of a traditional car purchase, and can you blame Gen Z for rejecting ownership?