90% of gen z believe brands don’t fully understand their life
WE SET OUT TO WRITE THE DEFINITIVE REPORT, BUT ENDED UP WITH A WARNING FOR BRANDS
So much time and so much money and so much energy has been spent by businesses and brands trying to win over the next generation of consumers, and yet 90% of Gen Z feel brands just don’t get them.
One in ten believe brands “don’t even try” to understand them.
Gen Z are projected to account for 40% of the UK's total retail spend by 2030.
They’ll be 33% of the workforce by 2030.
That means in the next 5 years, Gen Z will be the single most valuable consumer segment.
If brands don’t understand this audience, they will cease to exist.
we’re sharing our insight to help brands truly understand the gen z audience
Brands see Gen Z as aliens to be dissected, and in doing so believe they can understand them
Gen Z is not the idealistic, progressive, purpose-driven, trend-obsessed generation that brands often believe, or have been sold.
That version of this demographic was always a projection, a homogenous cohort with a convenient story that allowed brands to feel good about saying the right things without doing the hard work of actually being useful to them.
gen z wants to believe brands are being real with them
The reality is much more honest, and a whole lot more challenging than that.
It would be easy to label young people as hypocrites, that’s not what we’re here to do. This generation has been lectured at, marketed to, pandered to, and misrepresented for their entire lives, everyone’s exhausted and this cycle of misunderstanding has led to a negative effect on Gen Z’s wellbeing.