Content marketing: Gender and age differences in generation Z
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15291/oec.4555Keywords:
Content marketing, Digital environment, Demographic features, Instagram, Generation ZAbstract
There is a growing number of users who expect personalised information and experiences that meet their personal needs and preferences. Therefore, companies emphasise that creating valuable content through digital channels is a vital element for the success and reputation of companies which also creates greater value for their users. The objective of this research is to determine the differences between the age and gender of Generation Z in relation to attitudes towards content posted on Instagram. The sample contained of 311 Generation Z social media users who were surveyed between April and June 2024. Non-parametric statistical methods such as the Mann Whitney U-test and the Kruskal-Wallis H-test were used in this study. The results show that there are statistical differences between age and attitude towards Instagram content. The research results show that there are partial differences between gender and users' activities on Instagram, but not in their intention to follow content in the future. There are also statistical differences between time spent on Instagram and attitude towards Instagram content. The results of this study contribute to the theoretical background of the literature on social media content marketing and also provide an empirical contribution for companies creating customized social media content, especially on Instagram, for Generation Z.
References
Akter, S., Hani, U., Dwivedi, Y. K., Sharma, A. (2022) The future of marketing analytics in the sharing economy, Industrial Marketing Management, 104, pp. 85–100.
Andac A., Akbyk, F., Karkar, A. (2016) Customer Satisfaction Factor in Digital Content Marketing: Isparta Province as an Example, International Journal of Social Science Studies, 4 (5), pp. 124-135.
Ashley, C., Tuten, T. (2015) Creative strategies in social media marketing: An exploratory study of branded social content and consumer engagement, Psychology & marketing, 32 (1), pp. 15-27.
Asogwa, C. E., Okeke, S. V., Gever, V. C., & Ezeah, G. (2020) Gender disparities in the influence of social media advertisements on buying decision in Nigeria, Communicatio: South African Journal of Communication Theory and Research, 46(3), 87-105.
Baer, J. (2013) YouTILITY: why smart marketing is about help not hype, Penguin, pp. 1-19.
Barbosa, B., Saura, J. R., Zekan, S. B., Ribeiro-Soriano, D. (2024) RETRACTED ARTICLE: Defining content marketing and its influence on online user behavior: a data-driven prescriptive analytics method, Annals of Operations Research, 337(Suppl 1), pp. 17-17.
Behera, R. K., Gunasekaran, A., Gupta, S., Kamboj, S., Bala, P. K. (2020) Personalized digital marketing recommender engine, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 53, pp. 1-24.
Benhamou, L. (2015) Everything you need to know about Generation Z, In Yahoo News < available at: https://sg.news.yahoo.com/generation-z-born-digital-age-160347481.html
Bruce, N. I., Murthi, B. P. S., Rao, R. C. (2017).A dynamic model for digital advertising: The effects of creative format, message content, and targeting on engagement, Journal of Marketing Research, 54(2), pp. 202–218.
Chaithanapat, P., Punnakitikashem, P., Oo, K. K., Chi, N., Rakthin, S. (2022) Relationships among knowledge-oriented leadership, customer knowledge management, innovation quality and firm performance in SMEs, Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, 7(1), pp. 1-10.
Chopra, M., Singh, S. K., Gupta, A., Aggarwal, K., Gupta, B. B., Colace, F. (2022) Analysis & prognosis of sustainable development goals using big data-based approach during COVID-19 pandemic, Sustainable Technology and Entrepreneurship, 1(2), pp. 1-8.
Content Marketing Association (2017) About the content marketing association - definition of content marketing”, < available at: http://the-cma.com/about-us/[accessed 25.06.2024]
Content Marketing Institute (2017), “What is content marketing?”, < available at: https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/what-is-content-marketing/[accessed 25.06.2024]
Čvirik, M., Naďová Krošláková, M., Milić Beran, I., Capor Hrosik, R., Drábik, P. (2023) Influence of health-conscious consumer behaviour on consumer ethnocentrism during the COVID-19 pandemic, Economic research-Ekonomska istraživanja, 36(1), pp. 1510-1526.
de Oliveira Santini, F., Ladeira, W. J., Pinto, D. C., Herter, M. M., Sampaio, C. H., & Babin, B. J. (2020) Customer engagement in social media: a framework and meta-analysis, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 48, pp. 1211-1228.
Du Plessis, C. (2015a) An exploratory analysis of essential elements of content marketing, In Proceedings of the Second European Conference on Social Media, pp. 122-129.
Du Plessis, C. (2015b) Academic guidelines for content marketing: research-based recommendations for better practice, Proceedings of the LCBR European Marketing Conference, http://uir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/19134 [accessed 25.06.2024]
Duffett, R. G. (2017) Influence of social media marketing communications on young consumers’ attitudes, Young Consumers, 18(1), pp. 19-39.
Farooq, U., Nasir, A., & Bashir, M. F. (2022) The COVID-19 pandemic and stock market performance of transportation and travel services firms: a cross-country study, Economic research-Ekonomska istraživanja, 35(1), pp. 6867-6883.
Giunta, C. (2017) An emerging awareness of generation Z students for higher education professors, Archives of Business Research, 5(4).
González-Padilla, P., Navalpotro, F. D., Saura, J. R. (2023) Managing entrepreneurs’ behavior personalities in digital environments: A review, International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, pp. 1–25.
Hernandez, B., Jimenez, J., Jose Martin, M. (2011) Age, gender and income: Do they really moderate online shopping behaviour?, Online Information Review, 35(1), pp. 113–133.
Ho, J.Y. Dempsey, M. (2010) Viral marketing: motivations to forward online content, Journal of Business Research, 63 (9/10), pp. 1000-1006.
Holliman, G., Rowley, J. (2014) Business to business digital content marketing: Marketers’ perceptionsof best practice, Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, 8(4), pp. 269–293.
Janavi, E., Soleimani, M., Gholampour, A., Friedrichsen, M., Ebrahimi, P. (2021) Effect of social media adoption and media needs on online purchase behavior: The moderator roles of media type, gender, age, Journal of Information Technology Management, 13(2), pp. 1-24.
Johnson, P. R., Yang, S. (2009). Uses and gratifications of Twitter: An examination of user motives and satisfaction of Twitter use. In Communication Technology Division of the annual convention of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication in Boston, MA (Vol. 54).
Kee, A. W. A., Yazdanifard, R. (2015) The Review of Content Marketing as a New Trend in Marketing Practices, International Journal of Management, Accounting & Economics, 2(9), pp. 1055-1064.
Khan, M. L. (2017) Social media engagement: What motivates user participation and consumption on YouTube? Computers in human behavior, 66, pp. 236-247.
Kilgour, M., Sasser, S.L. and Larke, R. (2015) The social media transformation process: curating content into strategy, Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 20 (3), pp. 1-32.
Kim, S. E., Kim, H. L., Lee, S. (2021) How event information is trusted and shared on social media: a uses and gratification perspective, Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 38(5), pp. 444-460.
Kolter P, Keller K, Koshy A, Jha M. (2009) Marketing Management 13th Edition. New Delhi: Preason.
Lehnert, K., Goupil, S., Brand, P. (2021) Content and the customer: inbound ad strategies gain traction, Journal of Business Strategy, 42(1), pp. 3-12.
Leung, L. (2009) User-generated content on the Internet: an examination of gratifications, civic engagement and psychological empowerment, New Media & Society, 11(8), pp. 1327-1347.
Lin, X., Sarker, S., Featherman, M. (2019) Users’ psychological perceptions of information sharing in the context of social media: A comprehensive model, International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 23 (4),pp. 453-491.
Liu, H.W. Huang, H.C. (2015) Tradeoff Between Push and Pull Strategy: The Moderating Role of Brand Awareness’, in H. Spotts (eds.), Marketing, Technology and Customer Commitment in the New Economy. Developments in Marketing Science: Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Science. Springer, Cham, pp. 259–264
McCloskey, D. W. (2006) The importance of ease of use, usefulness, and trust to online consumers: An examination of the technology acceptance model with older consumers, Journal of Organizational and End User Computing, 18(3), pp. 47–65.
Medina-Molina, C., Tienda, M. D. L. S. R. (2022) The transition towards the implementation of sustainable mobility. Looking for generalization of sustainable mobility in different territories by the application of QCA, Sustainable Technology and Entrepreneurship, 1(2), pp. 1-11.
Müller, J., Christandl, F (2019). Content is king–But who is the king of kings? The effect of content marketing, sponsored content & user-generated content on brand responses, Computers in Human Behavior, 96, pp.46–55.
Pazeraite, A. Repoviene, R. (2016) Content marketing elements and their influence on search advertisement effectiveness: Theoretical background and practical insights, Management of Organizations: Systematic Research 75, pp. 97–109.
Pentina, I., Guilloux, V., Micu, A. (2018) Exploring social media engagement behaviors in the context of luxury brands, Journal of Advertising, 47(1), pp. 55-69
Pulizzi, J. (2012) The rise of storytelling as the new marketing, Publishing Research Quarterly, 28(2), pp. 116–123.
Quan-Haase, A., Young, L. (2010) Uses and gratifications of social media: a comparison of Facebook and instant messaging, Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, 30(5), pp. 350-361.
Ribeiro-Navarrete, S., Saura, J. R., Palacios-Marqués, D. (2021) Towards a new era of mass data collection: Assessing pandemic surveillance technologies to preserve user privacy, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 167, 120681.
Rowley, J. (2008) Understanding digital content marketing, Journal of Marketing Management, 24 (5-6), pp. 517-540.
Saura, J. R., Palacios-Marqués, D., Ribeiro-Soriano, D. (2021) Using data mining techniques to explore security issues in smart living environments in Twitter, Computer Communications, 179, pp. 285-295.
Seymour, T., Hussain, J. Z., Reynolds, S. (2014) How to create an app, International Journal of Management & Information Systems (Online), 18(2), pp. 123-138
Sigurdsson, V., Larsen, N. M., Gudmundsdottir, H. K., Alemu, M. H., Menon, R. V., Fagerstrøm, A. (2021) Social media: Where customers air their troubles—How to respond to them?, Journal of Innovation & Knowledge., 6(4), pp. 257–267.
Steenburgh, T., Avery, J. and Dahod, N. (2011) Hubspot: Inbound Marketing and Web 2.0, Harvard Business School Press, Boston.
Suderman, J. (2016). Generation Alpha: marketing or science, Acta Educationis Generalis, 7 (1), pp. 107–115.
Sykora, M., Elayan, S., Hodgkinson, I. R., Jackson, T. W., West, A. (2022b) The power of emotions: Leveraging user generated content for customer experience management, Journal of Business Research, 144, pp. 997–1006.
Wall Emerson, R. (2023) Mann-Whitney U test and t-test, Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, 117(1), pp. 99-100.
Wang, R., Chan-Olmsted, S. (2020) Content marketing strategy of branded YouTube channels, Journal of Media Business Studies, 17(3–4), pp. 294–316.
Wang, Z., Tchernev, J. M. (2012) The myth of media multitasking: Reciprocal dynamics of media multitasking, personal needs, and gratifications, Journal of Communication, 62(3), pp. 493-513.
Wilk, V., Cripps, H., Capatina, A., Micu, A., Micu, A. E. (2021). The state of# digitalentrepreneurship: A big data Leximancer analysis of social media activity, International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 17(4), pp. 1899–1916.
Williams, A. (2015) Move, Over, Millennials, Here Comes Generation Z. New York Times, < available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/20/fashion/move-over-millennials-here-comes-generation-z.html
Yang, L., Ha, L., Wang, F., Abuljadail, M. (2015) Who pays for online content? A media dependency perspective comparing young and older people, International journal on media management, 17(4), pp. 277-294.
Yau, J. C., Reich, S. M. (2019) “It's just a lot of work”: Adolescents’ self‐presentation norms and practices on Facebook and Instagram, Journal of research on adolescence, 29(1), pp. 196-209.
Zahay, D. (2014) Beyond interactive marketing, Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, 8(4).
Zerbini, F., Golfetto, F. Gibbert, M. (2007) Marketing of competence: exploring the resource-based content of value-for-customers through a case study analysis, Industrial Marketing Management, (36) 6, pp. 784-798.