Marketing to Gen Z with Chris Epple

Intro: Welcome to the Daily Bolster. Each day we welcome transformational executives to share their real world experiences and practical advice about scaling yourself, your team, and your business.

Matt Blumberg: Welcome to The Daily Bolster. I'm Matt Blumberg, co- founder and CEO of Bolster, and I'm here today with my friend Chris Epple. Chris is a consumer marketing guru. He has a great career of experience at companies from Kraft to Pepsi, to A + E, now at Harman. He has one of the coolest jobs. Every time he tells me something he's doing for work, he's like going to Yankee Stadium or I was just about to call it Shea or Citi Field and things like that. Chris, welcome to the Daily Bolster.

Chris Epple: Matt, thanks. I would say it's a nonstop fun job for sure.

Matt Blumberg: All right, Chris, so my question for you today is about Gen Z. So generations I think are fascinating things to study, particularly from a marketing perspective. You see now the boomers are all aging and every time you drive around there's a new 55 plus residential community getting built somewhere. People are marketing there. Our generation, gen X kind of has its own thing. Gen Z is now entering kind of mainstream consumer. They're entering the workforce, they're having disposable income of their own. How do you see marketing changing with the coming of age Gen Z?

Chris Epple: Yeah, I've been studying Gen Z marketing now for the last several years, and I'm fascinated by this cohort. They have upwards of $3 trillion globally in disposable income and influence on purchase being the home as well. They are the most diverse generation we've ever had, and their whole philosophy and thinking is different than any generation we've had. There are three things I've seen with this generation that have really changed how marketers are working. Number one, personalization for them is so key. So if millennials were all about, I want to wear the same shirt as you that we both bought at the Gap, but I just want to make sure mine's a different color. Maybe that's their version of making it a little bit different. Gen Z is all about what is exactly right to exude who I am as a person. So personalization of other products and services is so key. Two immediacy. So this generation is the first generation to have grown up in 100% of their life in a social media environment. So social commerce is a growing field because they're used to, I can go online, I see something, I like click on it and it's in my house in a week.

Matt Blumberg: Personalized and in my house for free in a week.

Chris Epple: Exactly. Exactly. And probably able to be returned if they want to, just as easily. And then the other thing about Gen Z, which I really love, is they really want to believe in the brands and services they purchase. So they are the first generation to really refine, go deep into what is the ethos of the company whose products I'm buying? What do they stand for? So for brands, I think this means all brands and all companies obviously should have brand identities and values. However, I think this generation wants you to wear that on your sleeve. They want you to display that and be proud of it, and they're going to find it. So what are your sustainability efforts? What are your labor practices? Is your board diverse? These are questions we're being asked that we had never been asked before, which it's just great. It is allowing for so much more transparency and frankly for my company, it's allowed us to make sure what we stand for and what our values are much more forward facing. Typically, it'd been something that had maybe lived in an annual report, but now we're realizing it's actually part of our marketing mix is to make sure we're demonstrating speaking the values with which we stand for.

Matt Blumberg: Yeah, I totally see that. And it's so interesting. Leadership 20 years ago started becoming about transparency and authenticity in a way that it really hadn't been before. And I think that has just flowed straight through to brands and it's part of your story.

Chris Epple: And you know what? Credit the generation, because like you said, that transparency sometimes it's not a muscle you always flex. You do your thing and you hope to remember to get there. I think this generation is making sure we keep it at the forefront. And I think that's going to allow all companies to really just raise their game and just be better organizations, be better at what they do, and be better at the way they do things because they know that consumers really want to see that. So credit to this generation, I think we are, they are hardworking, they want to succeed, they're driven to succeed. And the other thing about Gen Z is I think they believe anything's possible. So that is for how brands are and just how they're going to live their careers and be leaders one day themselves.

Matt Blumberg: Chris Epple, consumer marketing thought leader, thank you for being here with me today.

Chris Epple: Absolutely, Matt. Thanks.