ADPR 4300 — Book Report #1: Sarah Weise’s

“InstaBrain: The New Rules for Marketing to Generation Z”

Synopsis:

Generation Z is a population that has witnessed so many social and cultural shifts and is a population with a rapid appetite for consuming media that worthy of their attention. The primary audience that the ad and marketing industry have overlooked for too long. Internationally-acclaimed researcher and author, Sarah Weise set out to inform markers, B2B and B2C professionals that they must be willing to adapt to the evolving culture and influence Generation Z breeds. Thus presenting opportunity to engage with a new audience for many brands to extend their reach toward this population of teens and young adults ages 13–24.

This book serves as a wake-up call for those in this industry to pick up InstaBrain because its main message is directed toward educating professionals who are already well seasoned in the advertising and marketing arenas. Weise’s approach is explicit and her research demonstrates how she’s been able to witness her own principles produce effective results, all of which she is eager to journey through together with her readers. As she notes, “this generation surpasses the population total of millennials by 3M and makes up 40% of consumers, garnering $44 billion in direct buying power and influences.” Weise’s point here is that brands need to value the engagement and potential to reach Gen Z because the majority of overall household buying decisions stem from their motivations and feelings about a product.

“A game-changing approach to marketing, sales and advertising”, said Michael Salamon, Co-Founder of UX Master Academy. “InstaBrain is instant insight… Sarah Weise’s research can take your marketing target to a whole new level. Stop assuming you know what Generation Z wants, says Ryan Foland, 4- time TEDx speaker and author of “Ditch the Act”. Those are just some of the noteworthy praises marketers and advertisers have shared as a result of tracking through InstaBrain and taking on Sarah’s actionable strategies began propelling them to revamp their objectives and to begin considering engaging with the GenZ audience sooner than later.

Her goal that she hopes her target audience will walk away knowing is:

1. Where Gen-zers go for different types of content where to view or generate his or her own. (Which social platform(s) pose the greatest opportunity to reach them for a selling point of purchase or brand awareness?)
2. What factors draw them to interact with online content and brand messages?
3. How do they make a final buying decision?
4. What brand loyalty means for their demographic. (What attracts them to keep coming back?)
5. How to best tailor your marketing strategy for Generation Z in a way to compels them to be future customers if they’ve yet to grab hold of your brand’s mission.

Key Takeaways:

1. There is an unprecedented amount of emphasis set for expectations around diversity and inclusion among Gen Z. This impacts their buying decisions as well. Not only do they desire to know what the product can do for them but they choose brands that align with their values and represent themselves.
2. Visually, attractive stimulating content is a plus. With more and more information available in seconds, Gen-Zers decide to react to posts or messages that feature a visual component. Gen Z juggles their attention between 5 screens at once, in comparison to millennials who bounce back and forth between 3 screens at once (67% increase).
3. More multitasking, less attention. This isn’t entirely a bad thing! Our brain properties have been forced to evolve and catch up with hours of content this population disposes of daily. As a result, the brain is able to and automatically latches onto information it finds to be worth keeping top of mind and is able to be processed at faster rates.
4. Build communities online and offline. Not only is developing a relationship with your consumer crucial to implement online, organizing in-person events and conferences that revolve around the product, buzzing developments/projects is a personal way that will allow customers to spread awareness about a brand indirectly.
5. The “convenience” and “self-starter” generation. Venmo, CashApp, PayPal and Amazon Prime are all becoming the norm of buying for this generation. Knowing this insight is useful in finding out how brands can encourage Gen-Z to connect with their product or service as a way of promoting entrepreneurship and as a function of career advancement.
6. Research your specific customers. Sarah shared that her most significant insights came as a result of her ethnography experiments, contextual interviews, and other ways to gather extensive qualitative and quantitative research.

Personal Opinion:

“InstaBrain” is an insightful book that is upfront in exposing the truth that many marketers and advertisers have failed to make to shift to incorporate Gez Z into their target markets. Even if they may not be the intended market for a specific product, Weise makes it clear that knowing the basis for what drives their behavior with content and motivations will lead them to a sound understanding on this population’s buying decisions and how they should be evaluated.

Throughout each part of the book, she tied in narrative and experimental examples of encounters of those who associate in the Gen Z population. For example, when she was expressing to the readers what an “influencer” is defined as and how they are impactful in their habits and buying preferences, including real-life influencer like how strong the fandom of James Charles is was a prime example of this term. The use of relative examples like that helped me to be able to understand her insights in a more relative way since her examples where current. Before purchasing this book I noticed that it was targeted toward business professionals in the marketing fields. Yet, I found myself going away with reasoning why and how many of my social media habits are impacting what brands I’m more likely to purchase from. Likewise, exposing why it’s more crucial for brands to make their move. I would give Weise’s exceptional book a rating of 4/5 stars.