Did Gen Z Kill the Marketing Funnel?

‘The consumer funnel was built for the old world - and Gen Z doesn’t live there anymore.’

This is the most eye-catching line from this Vogue Business article.

It raises several questions, perhaps most importantly:

How do you communicate in a world where entertainment, shopping, education and news are blurred beyond distinction?

Let’s dig into how this matters…

Purchase is the Beginning, Not the End

To quote Fast Company, ‘for the vast majority of consumers, the purchase is just the beginning. Fifty percent of consumers admit to doing brand research after they buy a product.‘

And when Gen Z are doing that research, we know that it’s increasingly on social platforms, not Google. But there is another, less discussed place for consumer investigation…

Amazon for the Dupes

As per the Vogue Business article, almost half of Gen Zs use Amazon as a tool to hunt down ‘dupes’ (lower-priced products that look or function like the original). The research was conducted in the U.S. but I’m sure the results would be similar in other markets, albeit with other shopping sites also being used.

There are two takeaways here. Firstly, more brands should consider how they show up on Amazon as part of this new, messy marketing funnel. Secondly, if people are searching for dupes of your product, perhaps you should consider selling a lower-priced alternative to capture more of that revenue?

Where’s the Loyalty?

To return to the Vogue Business article:

‘This crowd are much more likely than their millennial counterparts to say that showing brand loyalty means simply telling your friends about a brand’.

It’s likely that this loyalty is driven by trust, which comes from consistency but also sharing a story that people can connect with and even feel part of.

Why does this matter for marketers?

If the purchase funnel is no longer relevant for a Gen Z audience, it potentially changes how every campaign is promoted to that demographic.

This is even more important in a world where people almost never see the social posts in their feeds in the order they were created by the brand due to the platform algorithms.

In conclusion, marketers should worry less about where the different assets fit into a funnel. Instead, spend time asking whether the advert is increasing this new type of consumer loyalty.