Jonah Goldberg - Mini-Case

Mini Case: Marketing to a Younger Generation Online

by Jonah Goldberg, Olin’s resident Gen Z writer

Case Prompt

Danielle Rabinek has led marketing at FitWater, a flavored sparkling water company, for more than a decade. She initially joined FitWater in 2010 after earning her MBA from Washington University’s Olin Business School. Before her MBA, Rabinek worked as a product manager in consumer packaged goods for five years.

FitWater has a target market of millennials (born 1981-1996) and Gen Z (born 1997-2010). Recognizing that Gen Z is incredibly active on social media platforms, Rabinek aims to bolster FitWater’s presence online in order to reach them. Rabinek considers the range of platforms to pursue: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Reddi, and TikTok. She also considers two marketing approaches. One route would be paid advertisements that will appear between posts as users are scrolling. The other would be branded content, posting content from the company account that users will voluntarily encounter, and that promotes attachment to the brand rather than directly discussing a product or sale.

As part of her due diligence, Rabinek spends time researching how other companies use social media to reach members of Gen Z on the platforms that they frequent most.

In her research, Rabinek stumbles upon the Reddit page r/FellowKids, where users post images of advertisements found on other social media platforms. The subreddit is named for a humorous clip from 30 Rock, where a middle-aged Steve Buscemi attempts to go undercover as a high-school student and introduces himself to other students with the line, “How do you do, fellow kids?”

The original “How do you do, fellow kids?” reference.

In r/FellowKids, users have posted a trove of advertisements and pieces of branded content that, despite a company’s best efforts, simply missed the mark. The entire subreddit exists solely for users to laugh at companies’ clumsiness in marketing to Gen Z, with uses of Gen Z lingo and cultural allusions in their marketing as inauthentic and as ridiculous as Buscemi’s performance.

As Rabinek reads through examples of content and criticisms leveled at them, she notices two problematic patterns: companies using outdated memes and companies being completely ignorant about a trend they try to reference. One standout disaster of this second type was DiGiorno Pizza promoting their product with the Twitter hashtag #WhyIStayed, when just two minutes of investigating other Tweets with this hashtag would have made it obvious that it was for survivors of domestic abuse to explain why they had not just left their partner once the abusive behavior began.

A post from r/FellowKids, showing the contrast between authentic tweets from the trending hashtag and the ill-conceived DiGiorno post, as well as their following apology. The added John Hamm photo is a meme used to emphasize the “what were you thinking?” tone.

On the other hand, Rabinek finds that a small handful of brand accounts have put work into understanding their audience and have come out on top. Articles have been written about the success of Wendy’s Twitter page, cataloging their funniest tweets that mock their competitors. 3.8 million followers choose to have Wendy’s content showing up in their personal Twitter feed, in contrast to advertisers paying the platform for that spot, meaning that the brand has earned its spot as truly one of the fellow kids.

This Wendy’s tweet makes a self-deprecating joke about social anxiety. While conventional marketing strategy says never to remind customers of their own insecurities unless you are positioning your product as the remedy, this post is relatable and thus entertaining for Gen Z.

Internet trends evolve much more rapidly than those of TV or print media. One conclusion from Rabinek’s research is that meeting Gen Z where they are requires constantly updating one’s knowledge of this culture.

For Gen Z, most internet spaces function as community centers—they have a sizable portion of their social interactions online, and they form parasocial relationships with internet celebrities like YouTube creators. A brand that tweets or makes TikToks in a Gen Z voice is walking in the doors of the school cafeteria and sitting down at a table with strangers. Wielding that language cleverly can mean a brand becomes part of the daily routine of its consumers—a genuine, positive association that they will excitedly share with their peers. But this generation’s relationship to the internet also means that clearly trying too hard can cause a brand to face that same, timeless playground social rejection, potentially putting it in a worse position than when consumers only thought about the company in terms of its product quality. Moreover, separate from the degree of success with Gen Z, trying to relate to the youth may alienate older generations who use different language and humor.

FitWater has two options for social media marketing. Which of the following two options would be best for Rabinek to pursue?

Option Alpha: Rabinek should stick with gaining visibility through traditional paid advertisements.
Option Beta: Rabinek should try to create branded content to increase younger customers’ loyalty to the brand personality.

The Professor’s Debrief (Commentary by Andrew Knight)

Based on the information in the case, we can presume that Rabinek is, herself, not a member of Gen Z. With fifteen years of full-time work experience and an MBA under her belt, it is likely that she is either an older millennial or, perhaps, a member of Gen X.

Rabinek would be wise to be wary of jumping directly into creating branded content, given the track record of corporate missteps in attempting to reach Gen Z. In essence, adopting a branded content approach requires a degree of fluency in speaking the language of Gen Z. If Rabinek herself is not fluent in this language, she should carefully take stock of what resources she has that could help navigate these treacherous waters.

Two options that she might consider, as she scours for resources, are (a) in-house knowledge already at FitWater and (b) external knowledge-for-hire. With respect to in-house knowledge, Rabinek should consider the composition of her marketing team, particularly with respect to people’s fluency with contemporary social media trends popular with Gen Z. Although not necessarily a function of age, Rabinek may find that younger team members—including undergraduate or graduate student interns—possess the fluency required to guide initial steps toward a branded content strategy.

If Rabinek does not have Gen Z knowledge within her team, she might consider the second option—accessing external knowledge-for-hire. Some marketing consulting firms have attempted, for example, to elevate their familiarity with Gen Z as a primary competitive advantage. Without internal talent, it would be prudent for Rabinek to draw upon an external resource who can advise on the benefits and risks of branded content, assess the fit with FitWater’s brand personality and, if appropriate, recommend an incremental implementation of a branded content approach.

In sum, Rabinek should only pursue a branded content strategy if she has access to the resources—internal or external—that would facilitate a skillful and deft implementation. Without the knowledge of members of Gen Z and the expertise of people who can navigate the dynamic terrain of modern social media content, Rabinek should stick with what she knows.

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