Influence with Gen Z

Marketing prof “Dr. Raj” turns TikTok takes into fame

He might not be easily recognizable on campus, but Marketing Professor Rajesh Srivastava is a star in the TikTok universe.

That wasn’t his initial plan. What began as a way to welcome students to his social media marketing class turned into more than 170,000 followers and nearly 5 million likes on the popular video-snippet platform.

Dr. Raj, as he is known by Gen Z around the world, is now making the most of his social media fame in an area where he also conducts research.

“Every business in America will be advertising on TikTok,” he predicts to his students, according to a profile by Sidelines. Dr. Raj also considers storytelling as the top skill students should develop, he told the MTSU student news outlet.

With that in mind, Srivastava often offers businesses advice through his research on how to market to Gen Z, his own TikTok target market of ages 15 to 22. He certainly has used his knowledge in the field to create his own brand after exploding in popularity on the app.

BIG HIT

To improve his own social media presence, Srivastav started out creating a couple of videos with the help of his daughter for his social media and marketing management courses. They quickly shot to 350,000 views, prompting him to go all in and post a weekly video for the next eight months.

Now, since one of his videos hit 1 million likes last September, Dr. Raj is posting a video daily for 1,000 days.

YouTube gamer/influencer Sssniperwolf and a New Zealand influencer are among those who have boosted his popularity on the platform. In only a week’s time, his followers rose from about 8,500 to 25,000.

But he’s now having to be more strategic and creative not only with his content, but also with TikTok trends to keep engaging views. Many of his posts relate to student struggles with college life.

A recent video, for instance, finds a student asking Dr. Raj to round a 69 up to an A. Another popular post (more than a half million views!) shows his class about to leave just as the professor enters the lecture room to Lady A’s lyric, “It’s a quarter after 1.”

In a recent business article co-written with Pramod Iyer, an MTSU assistant professor of Marketing, Srivastava discusses marketing to the Gen Z demographic based on their research.

With a rising purchasing power of about $143 billion, Gen Z is an attractive advertising audience but also an “often misunderstood target for marketers.” The group is the most educated and ethnically diverse population in the U.S., the professors say.

“Today, people in the Gen Z demographic want to be charmed, engrossed, and influenced into buying products and services that can speak to their social or individual self,” Srivastav and Iyer write.

Some more expensive brands have thrived with Gen Z over alternatives due to collaborations with influencers on younger social media channels such as TikTok, consisting of 15- to 30-second videos, and Instagram Reels.

And Gen Z prefers engaging, real-world people (as opposed to celebrity influencers for Millennials), according to the duo.

Looks like Dr. Raj is one of those people-next-door that Gen Z finds funny and worth the follow.

A Sidelines report by Mikayla Hart contributed to this article.

Marketing to Gen Z

Some key points Srivastava and Iyer make:

• These younger consumers are “deal-seekers” and aren’t as brand-loyal as predecessors.

• Gen Z values diversity, equity, and inclusion as well as durability and sustainability.

• They spend more than 2 hours a day on social media, but their attention span is about 8 seconds.

• Gen Z avoids ads, skips marketing content, and may have negative attitudes toward excessive advertising.