A common adage is that rebellion is part of growing up, but Generation Z seems to be growing up without it. Instead of turning against their parent’s generation, young people – many of whom are now starting out in the workforce – are simply setting their own standards. This is confronting companies worldwide with a whole new set of challenges. Farber Castell has found a fruitful response.
Impatient and demanding, technology-focused, native to the internet, diverse, and conscious of the environment and their health. This is how the consulting and accounting company PricewaterhousCoopers, the second-largest professional services network in the world, describes Generation Z, who were born between 1995 and 2012. While their precedents the Millennials are known as the digital pioneers who witnessed the victory of search engines, smartphones and instant messaging, Generation Z is acknowledged to be the first truly online generation.
This has a wide variety of implications. It means that products and services aimed at GenZ should be fast, intuitive, entertaining, and sustainable. Analysists say that those who pay no heed will simply not land in the online shopping basket1.
Present on all platforms
The Baby Boomer generation (born between 1955-1964), for example, have spent most of their lives without mobile phones and are used to reading daily newspapers in print and following programmed television. For Gen Z, this kind of traditional media plays a very minor role. They get their information from websites, podcasts, blogs and social media.
“GenZ is highly relevant for Faber-Castell, which means we also take the communicative culture of the following generations into account,” says Verena Haner, Head of Marketing Playing & Learning at Faber-Castell. “This also means that an industry leader like Faber-Castell communicates on all platforms that are relevant to our target groups.” Faber-Castell was, for example, an industry pioneer when it went on TikTok in 2021.
That same year, as part of a back-to-school campaign in the DACH region in Europe, Faber Castell promoted the writing instrument edition for teenagers on social media channels. More than 70 million contacts were reached with an influencer campaign on Instagram, as well as the nationwide out-of-home campaign staging the writing instrument series on big info screens in railway stations.
High expectations of diversity and sustainability
The omnipresence of the online world has a reason: GenZ loves the world wide web for the possibilities for international collaboration and networking that it makes possible. These global connections offer glimpses of different life circumstances, which cultivates open-mindedness and tolerance. This reflects the value systems of GenZ.
From companies and brands, GenZ also expects diversity and awareness about the environment and good health. If their expectations are not met, they quickly turn to brands that better suit their values, which is a possible reason they are often described as being disloyal by sociologists and market researchers.
This means that companies have to take heed, not least, in order to gain the workers and managers of the future and keep them.
Attracted by appealing values
“Gen Z expresses political engagement and activism differently: they are less radical and look for unity and standing together for something.”
Effective, not radical
One commonly held stereotype of this generation is that they are very passive. This remains an empty prejudice since Gen Z is less inhibited in giving their opinions and more forthright on following through on them than previous generations2. Here too, it is the internet that enables a new, networked “culture of responsibility”, which enables them to demand and create change.
In comparison to the protest movements of earlier generations like those who protested in the late 60s, Gen Z expresses political engagement and activism differently, with more desire for unity and to stand for something to create change. In answer to the question “How do you want to be remembered?”, Gen Z give answers like: “As someone who changed the world in a positive way.”3
More creative than previous generations
When expressing their values and expectations, Gen Z utilise innovation, creativity and authenticity. People under the age of 24 more often think that people should have the freedom to express themselves in their own way.
Having grown up with online tools and company platforms where they can offer their content, Generation Z define a new era of influence and creative communication. US market researchers report that the super-creative Generation Z combine everything digital with craft and artistry in very appealing ways.
Where other generations regularly derive inspiration from a singular past decade, Gen Z is inspired by all decades. In their 2022 Design Trends eBook4, the creators of the popular image editing app Picsart note that today’s digital culture has taken nostalgia to the extreme. Gen Z creatives are more likely to combine several sources of inspiration from the past into a singular image. This combination of synergy makes best use of Gen Z’s desire for compact information processed in a short span of attention.
“It was remarkable how specific the ideas of this target group are, and what a finely tuned sense of aesthetics they have.”
Eva Stoerrlein, Product Manager, Gen Z
A finely tuned sense of aesthetics
People from Gen Z also utilise tools of design from the entire palette. For example, they like to put hand-drawn illustrations over digital images and combine influences from all over the world5.
This is a great reason for Faber-Castel to dedicate an entire product line to these primarily digital group of customers. “We conducted intensive market research and had many conversations to really understand the needs of Gen Z,” says Eva Stoerrlein, Gen Z Product Manager. “It was striking how exact the ideas of this target group are and what a strong sense of aesthetics they have. Respondents were, for example, especially attracted to displays that are designed and colour-coded like displays for cosmetic products. The result of the development work is a product series in primarily muted colours that matches Gen Z style carrying the slogan “Write your own future.”
Keeping the balance with time devoted to analogue processes
As digital natives, Gen Z is mostly online at home. Despite this – or perhaps because of it – they are drawn towards analogue processes; they yearn for things that are physical and real.
With a real need to escape their constant digital stress, it has become clear that Gen Z is now putting a higher value on relaxation and taking care of mental health than constant self-presentation. For example, writing by hand or ‘bullet journaling’ is becoming increasingly popular, as Genz Z attempts to get their overly digitalized everyday life under control, and reaches for tools to process and imagine their own present and future realities.
The future is knocking. Sociologists and demographers have already identified the Alpha Generation, which includes everyone born between 2020 and 2024. Mark McCrindle, the Australian researcher who coined the term ‘Gen Alpha’, estimates that by the end of 2024, more than two billion ‘Alphas’ will populate the earth6. This generation will be the largest the world has ever seen.
(1) PwC, Europe Consumer Insights Series, Part 3, https://www.pwc.de/de/handel-und-konsumguter/so-tickt-die-generation-z.html
(2) McCann Worldgroup, The Truth about GenZ, https://truthaboutgenz.mccannworldgroup.com/p/1
(3) McCann Worldgroup, The Truth about GenZ, https://truthaboutgenz.mccannworldgroup.com/p/1
(4) PicsArt Inc. / 2022 Design Trends eBook: What’s Catching the Eye of Gen Z and Millenials, https://picsart.com/blog/post/design-trends
(5) Adobe Inc. / The Harris Poll, Who is Gen Create?, https://express.adobe.com/page/edFsVAeHNfNWU/
(6) McCrindle Research Pty Ltd, https://mccrindle.com.au/article/topic/generation-alpha/generation-alpha-defined/