Home / The Rise of the Dumb Phone: How Do You Market to Gen Z Digital Detoxers?
A lot of ink has been spilt recently about the trend of “dumb phones”. The potentially new phone sector has been written about in BBC News, the Guardian and the New Yorker to name a few, all off the back of high-profile dumb phone releases. Pulitzer Prize-winning rapper Kendrick Lamar and his company pgLang collaborated with Light Phone to produce a limited edition of the phone; Dutch beermaker Heineken and fashion brand Bodega teamed up to launch the “Boring Phone”; and Texas company Techless have developed a sequel to their Wisephone in the last year. They’ve each taken a different name but with a familiar theme – phones that are unplugged from the constant notifications, social media obsession and tracking that smartphones have become.
Dumb phones take the cellular device back to a time before Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone in 2007. A time when Nokia and Motorola were ruling the roost instead of Apple and Samsung and designs were far more wide-ranging than a black brick. One could argue that this is part of the “Y2K” nostalgia cycle we’re currently living in where fashion and pop culture icons from the early 2000s are cool again, but there’s a deep feeling amongst these users that we are too far gone from what we need on a smartphone, and that the features that make them “smart” are simply distractions. Operating systems like iOS may have app timers to counteract this, but to these users, it’s not enough – they want to purge their screen time the comprehensive way.
Though it remains a niche and isn’t going to have Apple break into a sweat, the dumb phone trend is a signifier of a wider trend among Gen Z. According to GWI, their time on social media has fallen since 2021, the only generation to do so. The Guardian found that three in every five Gen Zers would like to be less connected to the digital world. When the new generation wants to avoid many avenues of digital marketing, how can you reach and connect with them as an eCommerce brand? That’s what this blog is designed to show you.
Although these new digital detox customers are looking to purge their smartphone consumption, they still have digital concerns on their minds. According to the press release for Heineken and Bodega’s Boring Phone, 36% of Millennials and Gen Zers confess to checking work emails when hanging out with others. Many dumb phones are still capable of browsing emails, albeit in a basic format.
Email is not just an important means of communication that manages important aspects of their life, but a direct channel that they can control. This shows that younger generations want more personal ways to connect with the brands they enjoy, not the ones advertised to them. Use this to your advantage with a well-structured and consistently rewarding email marketing campaign.
There are offline ways to entice them onto the mailing list, such as slipping in a flyer in their order with a discount for signing up. From there, focus on value-led emails that offer essential order information, product launches or exclusive offers. Keep emails concise in their content and presentation, ensuring that they are easy to navigate on even the most basic of email clients. And finally, consider the cadence at which you send your emails; these digital detoxers want to get away from the bombardment of notifications they experience on smartphones, so make sure that your email schedule keeps them informed without overwhelming them.
Aside from email marketing, another, more underutilised direct marketing campaign is SMS marketing. This is the most back-to-basics form of brand communication and involves sending simple text messages regarding updates to orders and the occasional, carefully planned promotional messages. An effective SMS communication in the latter category should always offer a huge incentive, be it a discount or exclusive access – you want your customers to feel like they are part of a VIP club. Make sure to send messages during the daytime so as to not disturb customers during more private hours, and keep messages brief to keep within the standard text message length limit of 160 characters.
Get it right, and you’ll develop a highly potent way of distributing a promotion to the most loyal of customers: according to Martech, an incredible 75% of consumers make a purchase as a result of SMS marketing.
Having a strong customer base requires your customers should feel like they are being rewarded for their loyalty. Even through a digital detox, they have stuck with your brand because they connect with you, so offering a discount or voucher through their email or SMS is a win for both parties. For them, it feels like an unexpected bonus, and it could be the catalyst that sparks them to spend at your business.
For a full breakdown of the marketing funnel, from making new customers aware of your business to giving them the final push to convert, check out our blog on explaining the full marketing funnel.
For more information on how Brave can help you improve your online presence and engage your customers, contact us today.
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