Health & Wellness + Financial Decisions Gen Zers are Making to Overcome Today's Life Challenges

Brought up in a digital era, Gen Zs have always connected, communicated and consumed content anywhere at any time. However, this generation is straightforward when it comes to making decisions about finances and health and wellness. 

At Least 49% of Gen Z go for tools that will enable them to customize their budgets, experience, and products. Like millennials, Gen Z prioritizes financial and emotional well-being over wealth to reduce their financial stress.  

Gen Z is investing more in physical wellness, with 68% choosing a balanced diet to maintain health and wellness. About 38% of global gym sign-ups accounted for Gen-Z, with 49% of them working out two to three times a week.

A better understanding of Gen Z will influence proper preparation for future health issues. Click here to learn more about what we have uncovered.

5 Common Challenges Facing the Gen Zers

Social Media Lifestyle

Despite knowing healthy and unhealthy lifestyles, looking good and sounding good on social media is more persuasive and weighty for Gen Zers. About 34% of Gen Z account for a simultaneous online and offline life, while 25% see no difference between online and offline community connectivity.

Stress and Mental Health

According to the American Psychological Association (APA), high profile issues significantly dominate stress and mental health for Gen Z. Most teens and young adults are becoming vocal about gun violence, breakups and sexual harassment.

Financial Crisis

Gen Z occupies the front seat with the accumulated student debt crisis. In addition, the covid-19 pandemic triggered uncertainty, heightening financial worries among Gen Zers. That has led to the majority of them reassessing their financial positions and goals.

Racial Discrimination

Every six out of ten Gen Zers believe discrimination led by systemic racism is widespread across society. A study shows that in every five respondents, one of them felt personally discriminated against due to their background factors. 

Illicit Drug Use

Brought up at a time when the legalization of marijuana is gaining ground, it is not a surprise that Gen Z is two times more likely to use marijuana than other generations. The use of cannabis has reached an all-time high, with 25% of 8th to 12th graders said to have abused a substance. 

That being said, brands within Health & Wellness and Finance need to be adapting and developing new products and services to address the need of this generation. The window is open. The time is now. The wait is over.

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Born from 1997 to 2012, Gen Z contributes up to 23% of the United States population, making over 68 million Americans. In addition, Pew Research Center refers to Gen Zers as the most diverse, with about 46% being racial/ ethnic minorities. Read on, and let's explore the various challenges the Gen Zers are facing, their health and wellness decisions to overcome them.

How Do You Connect With Consumers Who Are Disconnected?

Photo by Trinity Kubassek from Pexels

Picture this: you have a few years in the business and have managed to create a rather impressive audience, be it a social following, website visitors, or even buyers. These are all, in a sense, consumers.

But many businesses may notice that a considerable portion of their consumers are disconnected from their brand. They don’t respond to posts anymore, they don’t read your articles, or they’ve stopped buying.

So, how can you reconnect with disconnected consumers?

1. Find Out Why They’ve Left

There has to be a reason users became disconnected from you, and finding it out is imperative to get them to come back. Essentially, you have to look at the way you are talking to them or interact with them to see if something may have put them off. This has a lot to do with consumer expectations. Ask yourself, are you meeting them? Because a lot of businesses don’t. One survey showed that 4 out of 5 consumers believe businesses provide a disconnected experience. This means that the businesses are lacking in something consumers want or expect to be offered.

To find out why they disconnected, you can even send out a short survey and ask. Not everyone will respond, but even if just a few do, you will get a better sense of why people stopped listening to you. It could be a confusing strategy, too many newsletters, or an unpopular campaign. Either way, these can be fixed.

2. Incentivize Them to Come Back

People can find anything they want online, and for them, not paying attention to your brand isn’t really affecting them in any way. It’s always a lot for the brand, not the consumer.

But when a business wants to convince a user to reconnect, they have to make it worth that user’s while and provide compelling reasons to do it. This can be a generous discount, access to something exclusive or even making them part of your future activities. These incentives show a user that you really care about them, and are going the extra mile to connect with them.

3. Leverage Technology to Stay Connected

If your communications process has any type of gap, you risk losing consumers. These days, people expect to receive what they want, when they want it, which is usually right now. This is almost impossible to achieve without staying logged in 24/7 unless you are using a chatbot.

Chatbots can pick up where human resources leave off, and communicate with users at any time of day to provide clarifications, answer questions, or even help with routine tasks. It’s an easy method to ensure a consumer can connect with you whenever they want.

Conclusion

In marketing, many focus on bringing in new people constantly, which is not a bad strategy, but it can make you forget to take care of the people who are already on your side. Reconnecting with users who’ve stopped engaging is essential because these people already know your brand and services.

DO MODERN CONSUMERS CARE MORE ABOUT BRAND OR CONVENIENCE?

Marketing products and services to consumers have never been easy. For modern businesses, marketers, and entrepreneurs, it’s impossible to say if marketing to consumers in the 21st century is more difficult than in the past. But one thing is for sure - it’s more complicated.
 
Modern consumers care about a lot of things when it comes to choosing a product or service - efficacy, price, perceived value, brand story, and more. But what has really changed the rules of the marketing game is what’s known as The Amazon Factor. With the rise of the on-demand, store-for-everything, do modern consumers care more about brand or convenience?

The Amazon store model gives consumers convenience on steroids.
In the not-so-distant past, convenience for consumers meant the grocery store was within a reasonable walking distance. Or, they could have their items shipped and delivered to them within a couple of weeks. As far as selection went, a convenient selection for our grandparents meant there were three types of coffee to choose from instead of a single brand. One of which was merely, “decaf.”
 
Amazon and similar stores have completely turned the concept of consumer convenience on its head, and have pumped it full of steroids. The genie is out of the bottle, and there is no going back to the good old days of the “convenient” small town grocer.

Consumers are driven by a different set of expectations for the businesses they choose to support. Because of retail giants like Amazon, consumers want access to a variety of products, and they want to purchase it right now. But that’s not all. They want those products delivered to their door within two days. In some cases, even two days is not fast enough, and it’s one of the reasons why billion dollar businesses are experimenting with drone delivery.
 
On top of fast, convenient delivery, younger consumers who came of age with the rise in online shopping prefer to have a product delivered if cost and availability are comparable to getting in a car and driving to their shopping destination.
 
Having a reputable brand with a humanizing story isn’t enough for modern consumers. Consumers want online, quick access to a brands catalog of products and services.

Younger consumers are less likely to purchase from rigid verticals. Consumer reports from 2017 and 2018 have found that:

• Consumers prefer fast, simple, and efficient retail processes.

• Consumers who shop both online and offline visit a store to purchase something specific.

• Casual browsing, both offline and online, is less likely to happen in the digital era.

• 73% of shoppers say they visit both online and offline stores with a specific item for purchase in mind.

• 58% of surveyed customers cite having the ability to find what they want quickly and efficiently as the most critical factor in determining where they shop.

• 44% of consumers say that the second most important factor for shopping is a company’s customer service.

What’s the bottom line?
Consumers, especially Millennial and Gen Z consumers, care more about convenience than brand. Businesses will have to give consumers convenient, flexible shopping experiences to remain competitive. This doesn't mean forget about your brand, it just means there's a shift in priority and you need to recognize it... NOW!