Gen Z has long confounded brands for whom loyalty is the overriding KPI. They appear to be a generation that rejects the very notion of brand loyalty, willing to switch brands at the first sign of dissatisfaction and use product dupes to save money. They’re cynical towards marketing campaigns and willing to call out not only mismatched messaging but the very product itself.
Gen Z’s global spending power is on track to reach $12 trillion by 2030 (per Nielsen IQ and World Data Lab), which means brands can’t afford to write this generation off.
Brands can easily conclude that the narratives and reputations they’ve developed for decades are totally lost on this generation. But while it is true that Gen Z won’t have the same relationship with brands as other generations, Gen Z is certainly capable of forming their own relationship with a brand. Brands just have to rethink what Gen Z brand loyalty looks like, and evaluate it on that generation’s terms.
Gen Z is most loyal to its communities, creators, and causes. When brands attempt to infiltrate these trust avenues, the results are mixed at best. But when brands accommodate them by making their propositions unambiguous and by designing supportive customer journeys, they earn an authentic role in Gen Z’s natural environment — and a consistent presence in their shopping cart.
To help brands develop effective strategies in response to this new generation’s needs and demands, this guide explains how choice, control, and connection influence Gen Z’s sense of what they want from brands. We’ll also map out how Gen Z researches and evaluates their options as consumers, and what a new model of Gen Z brand loyalty could look like for the brands that open themselves up to it.
Gen Z’s Priorities As Consumers
Our report on The New Gen Z Loyalty Economy breaks this generation’s priorities into three groups: choice, control, and connection. Brands can meet each of these priorities with thoughtful marketing and product design choices.
Gen Z Wants Choice
Choice reflects the market of infinite options that Gen Z consumers are navigating. Gen Z consumers are at once overwhelmed and empowered by this, knowing that they can find a better fit or a better deal somewhere other than your brand; 49% of Gen Z shoppers have intentionally bought a dupe of a premium product (per Morning Consult), and 44% say they’ve switched banks in the past year — two to three times the rate their parents did (PYMNTS Intelligence).
This kind of behavior is what has led brands to conclude that Gen Z have killed brand loyalty. In reality, they’ve done away with exclusivity. The Gen Z consumer is perfectly happy to be a repeat customer when a brand gives them a compelling reason to choose their product for a particular moment, goal, or need.
Gen Z Wants Connection
Gen Z has a strong desire for connection amid a fragmented society. This is why online enthusiast communities and fandoms loom large as natural gathering hubs, as do strong causes.
Brands can facilitate this connection by understanding where endorsements matter. A brand’s own voice is largely inert until a trusted messenger vouches for it; that messenger could be a trusted creator with a following, or it could be consensus among an established community of enthusiasts with deep knowledge of a product category (e.g. skincare or automotive).
Where appropriate, brands can even make the brand itself a point of contact by allowing consumers to iterate on a product. Giving Gen Z consumers a meaningful sense of participation is more powerful than telling them what they want to hear with highly targeted messaging. The more brands listen to customers, the more opportunities for such integration will be revealed.
Gen Z Wants Control
Gen Z expects brands to make life easier while preserving their autonomy. They welcome guidance but reject manipulation. This priority is where the digitalization of the consumer environment has the largest impact. Consider the idea of control on four levels:
Personal Control
Gen Z consumers are aware of the several forces pulling at them: algorithms, personalized recommendations based on data collection, influencing campaigns, and beyond. Although they are aware of the convenience these forces offer, they desire autonomy, the ability to look out for their own interests.
Informed Confidence
It follows that to have autonomy, one needs to have the right information to make a decision. But with all the information in the world at their fingertips, this generation can feel overwhelmed rather than empowered. They want to feel that they’ve done their homework and can rest easy with their choice.
Freedom to Explore
With the awareness of so many options for products and services, these consumers don’t want to feel boxed in by a single choice, whether by price or by a long obligation: anything from a bank contract to a lengthy skin regimen can feel like an undue commitment.
Trust and Security
Every other form of control breaks down without this one. Algorithms narrow autonomy by deciding what a person sees before they see it. Fake reviews, paid influencers, bots, faulty AI summaries, and marketing content muddy the information Gen Z needs to feel confident. And financial insecurity raises the stakes on every purchase. The same market that produced “low-loyalty” consumers is the same one that has failed to cultivate a sense of trust and security.
These priorities are the driving forces behind Gen Z’s customer journey: what inspires need, how they research products, and what ultimately drives a purchase.
How Gen Z Considers Products
Shopping among Gen Z consumers is driven by the need state: browsing begins when an occasion or identity moment demands an answer.
Imagine a consumer wakes up with oily skin. A cursory chat with AI leads them to conclude that the solution is a new cleanser. The AI gives them a number of product options.
But the Gen Z consumer doesn’t stop there; they want to see the AI’s reasoning and make their own assessment. They may seek out skincare communities or creators who can vouch for the products that the AI put forward. (Reliable answers are just one concern Gen Z and other users have about AI alongside privacy and security.)
Especially pertinent is the endorsement of someone who shares the shopper’s complexion: perhaps a TikTok creator who has posted a 30-day journey with this product, or an established Reddit community whose users have lined up to sing a product’s praises.
The shopper is now homing in on a purchase. But there are a few final concerns to address. Perhaps amid their research, they noticed a couple dupes that are worth considering. Maybe they’re worried they completely misdiagnosed their oily skin.
Whatever the line of inquiry, the pre-purchase scroll marks the final moment of doubt before a purchase. They’ll weigh the pros and cons between a dupe and the branded product; perhaps that’s packaging quantity, price, or overall experience. They’ll hop to another established voice, such as a dermatologist posting in-depth explainers on YouTube.
Some version of this journey plays out across every category, from automotive to finance, and brands have opportunities to accommodate its every step.
How Brands Can Support Gen Z and Build Brand Loyalty
The first step in redefining Gen Z brand loyalty is to let go of owning the entire brand relationship as a goal. Comparison is normal, not a sign of brand weakness; the goal is to be compared favorably and earn a place in the Gen Z consumer’s rotating mix of products, not to dominate it.
Brands earn a place in Gen Z shoppers’ brand portfolios by shifting their messaging strategy toward proof points rather than bold claims. Creators and communities discuss the real merits and drawbacks of products, and brands build trust with transparency and legibility that can help inform these discussions.
To position proof points advantageously, brands can create experiences that demonstrate value: support and highlight genuine user-generated content; be open and direct in soliciting feedback from creators rather than relying on paid placements.
Any time these shoppers interact with the brand itself — the website, the point of sale, encountering the brand in the wild, or post-purchase interactions — the brand experience must be designed around those priorities of choice, connection, and control.
Let’s return to the skincare example to explore how this can look. Imagine a shopper has taken a skincare quiz on a brand website and is recommended a particular serum. What if the website connected that shopper with a friend or a creator that they follow on social media, who uses that same product? Reading a brand’s product recommendation feels like an ad; reading an actual friend’s review, or a candid video about the product from a creator, feels like an earnest recommendation.
This guides the shopper directly to the type of community-driven endorsement that they are naturally inclined to seek out, in a way that is convenient and thoughtful. But to go the extra mile, brands should make it just as convenient to opt out: allow shoppers to wipe their data from the site, from the recommendation profile to their purchase history, and give them a clear overview of what’s been collected and discarded.
The same logic extends into categories that look nothing like skincare. 79% of Gen Z want AI agents to find and recommend the right car for them, against 58% of baby boomers (per Salesforce) — but wanting the shortlist doesn’t mean skipping the gut check. A car buyer weighing two sedans might get more from an hour in a current owner’s driveway via vlog content, or from seeing the same model’s real repair history at five, ten, and fifteen years, than from any spec sheet: proof instead of a promise.
In finance, an investment platform that lets a new customer test an account on fake money before committing real savings, or that pairs every recommendation with a second option it would also stand behind, builds the same informed confidence a skincare quiz builds by handing a shopper off to a trusted creator. The category changes, but proof and transparency are constant sources of trust.
Gen Z Brand Loyalty Means Continued Consideration
The brands that strategize for Gen Z’s distinct consumer journey might not attain the same brand loyalty that they’ve been designing for across previous generations. But the generation’s perceived “brand promiscuity” belies the potential for brands to earn a continued place as an option these shoppers will genuinely consider again and again.
If a brand has made the case, through strong proof points and clear propositions, that they are a strong option for whatever need-state a Gen Z consumer is attempting to solve for, then it’s not a loss when that same consumer picks a different product or service. Gen Z’s consumer journey is not one-and-done; they reassess and undergo the full research process every time the need state arises.
That means that brands who serve up proof repeatedly — letting it lead their marketing, making it available at every turn within the brand experience — will be strongly considered again and again as Gen Z does their research and finds that trusted sources can vouch for the brand’s offerings. Those same brands have the potential to rack up wins as Gen Z continues shopping against their recurring needs.
Gen Z consumers might not “swear by” your brand the way previous generations did. But if trust is built, they’ll be happy to see an option they trust every time.
Looking for more ideas on how to reach Gen Z? Download our full report, The New Gen Z Loyalty Economy, for a deeper dive, thought starters, and insights.
