Personalized content in approaching Vietnamese Gen Z customers : an approach of inbound marketing method in creating content

In the context that most companies apply a one-size-fits-all content strategy to their audiences, content personalization has become a new trend that serves individual interests and needs more effectively. The thesis aims to identify Vietnamese Gen Z audiences’ preferred content trends for personalization and create a recommended personalized content strategy to assist marketers in reaching out to this young generation. The theoretical framework sets a foundation for the study by presenting different theories related to marketing and personalization. The author discussed respectively about marketing fundamentals, digital marketing, inbound marketing method and especially the main concept - content personalization along with its five key elements. These theories are later used to clarify the empirical analysis. The thesis adopted mixed methods research to conduct the study. In quantitative method, an online survey was distributed to gather Gen Z-ers’ opinions about personalized content. Meanwhile, qualitative method used interviews to consult from marketers’ perspectives. Data collected from a total of 198 respondents in the survey and two content creators in the interviews was then synthesized and analyzed. The result exposes that most Gen Z audiences in Vietnam prefer short-video content in social media platforms. They also expect the content to have both educational and entertaining factors. Additionally, content quality is the determining factor in how long they would stay. Importantly, during their personalized experience, young people show great concerns towards the utilization and protection of their data. Besides, the author was also able to generate a recommended strategy for content marketers. Based on the findings, further suggestions are provided to continue the study in many directions such as in other markets or in different time periods