Marketing to Centennials in Digital World

Book excerpt: This compendium is a collection of papers which were presented in the First International Conference on Marketing “MarkTech -2019” on the theme “Marketing to Centennials in Digital World” organized by Department of MBA, I.T.S Engineering College, Greater Noida on April 5th, 2019. Through this compendium we aim to collate the ideas generated in the conference and bring them to the readers. Gen Z, post-millennials or centennials. Call them whatever you want, but this demographic — born roughly between 1995 and 2008 — are increasingly emerging as the most scrutinized bunch among brands and marketers, stealing the spotlight from millennials. Centennials are widely recognized as the next consumer powerhouse. That’s a lot of emerging shoppers. It won’t be long before understanding the Centennials perspective will be a key to marketing success. Centennials use different platforms for different activities. These centennials showcase and share their aspirational selves and real life moments on Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and Facebook. The collection of papers in this compendium focuses on various dimensions of on the contemporary and emerging trends of marketing to centennials in a digital world and major issues and challenges for the future marketers of business organizations. The compendium is a collection of ten selected research papers by academicians and industry functionaries. It is complied for reference of participants and other stake holders. Various marketing strategies are adopted by marketers for sustainable business in global scenario. Usage of the marketing strategies for personalization, the major requirements of Centennials and impact on business practices is an important issue which has been dealt by the contributors. Papers relating with recent technology use for effective marketing strategies are also taken care by the authors. “The Effect of Social Media Communication on Centennials Purchase Intention” exhibited the usage pattern of social media among Centennials in the NCR cities through the primary data collection while a paper titled “Continuance of Social Networking Sites in India: A Modification of Expectancy- Confirmation Theory” suggest important role of flow and perceived value in predicting the continuance intention and a moderating role of habit between continuance intention and continuance. Paper titled “Consumer Behaviour and Centennials” explained the conceptual understanding regarding factors affecting the buying decisions of the consumers in recent digitalilization era. Social Media is the core of marketing strategy for any business organization in recent times. This phenomenon is discussed by paper titled “Social Marketing in India” especially with respect to its relevance regarding the awareness of social causes with Case Studies of Two Multinational Companies i.e. Nestle Ltd. and KFC. Also Paper Titled “Personal Branding: A Theoretical Review” explored the importance of Social Media for the Personal Branding. Use of Digital Marketing for political campaigns in recent times by the political parties has increased at a phenomenal speed. Paper titled “Marketing Political Branding Digitally: How Social Media is Marketing Political Campaigns in India” dealt with this extremely important issue and focused on the individual social platform like Facebook, Twitter and Blogs are used by the political parties and evaluated the importance in recent Lok Sabha Election 2019. Technology has played an integral role in the growth of marketing over the years. As new technologies show up, marketers need to keep up with the trends to ensure they are able to speak their audience’s language. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and VR (Virtual Reality) are the latest tools used in recent times by the marketers for this purpose. Paper Titled “Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Sales” focused on the usage of AI as a marketing tool for the minimization of cost and improving the business performance. It was estimated that buying power of the centennials will reach $250 billion by 2018, which makes them an important target of banks. Almost half of the centennials today have a mobile banking app and they do not value face-to-face communication and personal advice. Banks risk losing “Z” customers if they are not able to attend customers’ needs. Paper titled “Consumer Perception on Banking Digitization - A Study of District Mandi” stated the factors that plays role to stimulate the customers for opting E-banking services. Generation “Z” Employees want highly engaged managers and regular feedback. Even though, they grew up with technology and use it to get things done, they “crave” in-person communication for feedback and to collaborate with workers. This is dealt by the paper “Challenges and Prospects in Managing Modern Workforce Mix” analyze the different value system shared by different generation and corresponding management strategies to manage generation mix in an organization. We express our gratitude and appreciate the commitment and efforts of the authors who have contributed their thoughts to cover the theme of the Conference. The diversity of thoughts of authors have made this compendium a reservoir of knowledge and will make a major reference source for future researchers on the subject. We also express our sincere gratitude to the Management, Faculty, Staff, and Students of Department of MBA, I.T.S Engineering College for their support in organizing the conference and bringing out this Compendium.