By Juan Carlos Bustamante*
Young adults, mainly the Z generation and the first Alpha in the age of purchase, no longer travel the classic shopping funnel. With the simple gesture of sliding their finger, they discover, talk and buy within social environments enabled by technology, where entertainment and trade are integrated without friction. Each content creator acts as an advisor, each comment operates as a review and each live broadcast becomes an ephemeral store. Therefore, the question is no longer “Should I be there?”, But “how can my brand enter with legitimacy and create sustained value for both itself and the community that welcomes it?”
The starting point is to understand who the message is addressed. This implies abandoning the notion of generations such as homogeneous blocks (for example, assuming that all the gene z shares the same social or environmental consciousness). What truly cohesion is the interactions with microcomunities defined by shared values, codes and rituals: gamers Competitive, climatic activists, KPOP fans, well -being search engines.
The brands that today relevant are those that map these cultural territories, include their rules and gain the right to participate contributing knowledge, benefits or experiences, and not advertising noise. That demands qualitative research, deep social listening and internal teams capable of speaking the same cultural language.
Once these microcomunities have been identified, the next step is to find them and attend them in the spaces where they already talk and buy: the Social trade, that today serves as the new shopping center. Live broadcasts, collaborative and mini -losses within Tiktok, Instagram or YouTube concentrate discovery and conversion. Integrate catalog, payment and after -sales into these platforms ceased to be an experiment or eccentricity to become a critical infrastructure. The challenge consists of designing customer tours without shocks, where the payment integrated into the application, transparent logistics, simple returns and the precise measurement of the return per creator are essential capabilities to sustain the model.
It is not about generating more content, but strategically focusing it. In an environment saturated with stimuli, algorithms reward clarity and significant repetition. Therefore, it is convenient to choose two or three hero products – those with high symbolic potential and sufficient conversational margin – to build narratives that the community can appropriate and recreate: “how use it”, “before and after”, “behind cameras.” Around these products, challenges are designed, exclusive benefits are activated and the operation is aligned (inventory, fast shipments) to meet the brand promise. Powerful product + Shared story + coherent experience = multiplicated network effect. If that coherence fails, enthusiasm goes out in a matter of hours.
In this context, omnichannel means zero friction and maximum customization. It is not enough to have a physical store and website; A fluid route is needed where each contact point “remember” the above and anticipate the following. This implies connecting data (through customer data platforms), activating real -time decision engines and incorporating artificial intelligence to recommend adequate content, formats and offers at the precise moment. If the process has more than five steps or the recommendation sounds generic, the digital native abandons the experience in seconds.
All of the above requires own abilities: a flexible technological architecture, safe data environments, generative for content and service, and hybrid talent that combines marketing, analytics and product development. The budget migrates monumental campaigns to permanent capabilities. Agile and multidisciplinary equipment, with permanent listening to the voice of the consumer and metric boards in real time – as a percentage of content generated by users, conversion into transmissions, visualization time or repurchase, among others – allow to experience, learn and climb with speed.
We go from interrupting audiences to cook with communities; to pursue massive scope to cultivate contextual relevance. The new generations do not give their attention, they lend it when they perceive value. This value must be built in each story, interaction and shopping experience. If the brand does not turn with the community, the community will turn without it.
About the author:
*Juan Carlos Bustamante He is the National Director of the Master in Marketing of Egade Business School of the Technological of Monterrey.
Email: (email protected)
The opinions expressed are only the responsibility of their authors and are completely independent of the position and the editorial line of Forbes Mexico.
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