To say Gen Z’s spending landscape is highly nuanced is … well, a bit of an understatement. Gen Z consumers are making budget-conscious decisions (consider the dominance of thrifting and dupe culture) while splurging on experiences or select products they find particularly meaningful. That high-low duality is combined with Gen Zers’ desire to align with the values of the brands they choose. Combined, these factors reflect a generation of customers making deliberate, informed decisions.
Winning over Gen Zers requires brands to look beyond traditional transactions—presenting themselves instead as trusted portals to active community and offering accessible emotional value to picky spenders.
Brands need to focus on two key goals to succeed with this demographic: Communicate with unpolished transparency and prioritize connection over commerce. Brands focused on winning over Gen Z should focus on creating authentic, meaningful connections built around shared values and interests.
That’s how brands will create lasting consumer-brand relationships rooted in emotional bonds. At The Lacek Group, we call that Brand Devotion—a deeper, more durable, and reciprocal version of loyalty.
How do we know? Because our 2026 interns offered their reflections and insights on how to build lasting loyalty with their generation.
Emma Johnson (Account Services)
In my experience, Gen Zers like to be picky about where they spend their money. It’s a save-splurge continuum. We spend less on items we view as nonessential to save up for the things that matter to us.
And often what matters is status—sometimes that means the status of a known brand or embracing products trending on social platforms, particularly TikTok and Instagram.
Previous generations will pay more for what they consider a premium-quality product—something that will really last. Meanwhile, Gen Z will spend more for a product because the brand name on it is worth the premium price. (In one recent study, 59% of Gen Z respondents reported preferring name brands.)
The popularity of Stanley water bottles and tumblers is a great example. Less expensive options were plentiful, but Gen Z gravitated to the Stanley name. Then HydroJug came on the scene, offering more diverse patterns and colors and collaborating with influencers and clothing brands. Suddenly, many Gen Zers were rethinking their need for a Stanley tumbler.
Smartphones offer another vivid example. Although the price point is higher, Gen Z leans heavily toward Apple’s iPhones over products that use the Android operating system. Gen Zers will judge (unflatteringly) the texts that appear in an Android-green bubble rather than an iMessage-blue bubble.
Gen Z has a bias toward name-brand goods, even if they’re not necessarily the better product. Despite that, 41% of us will choose a dupe or a private label version of that product—and celebrate the achievement, probably on TikTok.
Gabe Cauwels (Strategy)
Like previous generations, Gen Z values status and prestige, just not in the same ways as older cohorts. Wealth as the end goal and the rewards it offers are less important to Gen Z than to our predecessors. We’ve shifted our aspirations toward experiential access and the status it can signal to our peers.
Take American Express, for example. Once viewed as a luxury brand for business executives and a wealthy subset of consumers, Amex is now a powerful status symbol among Gen Z. That’s due, in part, to the travel benefits it can bring, such as access to airport lounges for Amex Platinum cards. But it’s also fueled by TikTok’s wallet-flex trend, where Gen Zers post unboxing videos as they open their new high-tier credit cards.
Amex is embracing Gen Z’s penchant for experiences over things, and it’s paying off. According to an Amex representative, 70% to 80% of new cardholders each quarter are millennials and Gen Zers.
Most members of our generation would opt for a rare experience (like being in the room for a high-demand occasion) over a generic luxury opportunity (for example, a VIP suite at a sporting event). As an official partner of Grammy-winner Olivia Rodrigo’s upcoming global tour, Amex appeals to Gen Z’s musical taste and our desire for experiences. Amex is offering exclusive presales for Rodrigo’s The Unraveled Tour, which kicks off in September 2026—allowing cardholders to sidestep a difficult and potentially expensive process through Ticketmaster or other ticket brokers.
Amex is also innovating brand partnerships that speak to Gen Z and others. In May 2026, Amex announced a partnership with the global sports platform Fanatics. According to the company’s research, almost 80% of current Amex cardholders are sports fans, and the partnership aims to speak to those customers—Gen Z included—by offering exclusive experiences and a points-transfer option so cardholders can boost their FanCash balances and then redeem for tickets, apparel, experiences, and more.
Lisa Kalle (Copywriting)
For Gen Zers, purchases are connected to community, a phenomenon that’s fueled by social media. As a group, we love social media, we display our individuality through our aesthetic choices, and we’re comfortable navigating a crowded shopping landscape. All of those factors create the opportunity for community to form. You might say it’s consumerism as a shortcut for human connection. And the algorithms pitching us ads and sorting our searches fuel that.
For Gen Z, brands are woven into our sense of community; they’re part of what defines us. Sometimes consciously, sometimes not. Shared experiences and perspectives, whether in-person or virtual, facilitate our relationships and are the foundation of our Brand Devotion. And today’s brands are finding effective ways to appeal to Gen Z communities to build emotion-based brand connections. Here are three examples:
Gen Z’s “clean girl” community seeks minimalist beauty, wellness, and curated aesthetics. Rhode, Hailey Bieber’s skincare and makeup brand, capitalizes on those values as a pioneer of a signature, hyper-hydrated look popular with clean girls. And Bieber’s casual “get ready with me” videos lend the brand a convincing authenticity.
Similarly, “healthcare baddies”—young medical professionals—use modern apparel to foster professional solidarity and self-expression on the job. The banner example is FIGS, which brings style and tailoring to medical scrubs. FIGS helps healthcare professionals transform uniforms into a badge of mutual support and shared values.
Meanwhile, “gorpcore” enthusiasts merge urban streetwear and outdoor utility with high-performance brands like Arc’teryx.
Chloe Huang (Design)
It’s hard to overemphasize Gen Z’s habit of being deeply selective about saving and spending. We’re anxious about the economy and our employment prospects as recent college grads in a job market being transformed by AI. At the same time, we appreciate nice things.
Gen Zers are fans of small, frequent splurges to reward ourselves without draining our bank account. Whether it’s a $7 Blank Street matcha drink, a $15 Smiski blind-box mini figure, or a $20 Rhode lip gloss, these small indulgences offer a dopamine hit to counter our anxieties.
That reflects a different strategy from our immediate generational predecessor, millennials. As a group, they tended to focus on saving for big purchases—such as a car or a house, or other investments in line with starting a family. Many Gen Zers feel those larger financial goals are out of reach. So we default to living in the moment, making the most of each day, and soothing ourselves with more immediate gratification.
We’ve been immersed in the digital world our entire lives, and we’re conditioned to seek short-term rewards. We scroll our socials quickly. We expect fast delivery. And we spend money in ways that reflect those generational realities.
One particularly illuminating example is the viral “dopamine site” and app called FoodNeverComes, which mimics the experience of food-delivery services like DoorDash. Users can browse menus, add items to a cart, check out, and track the delivery—all without paying or actually receiving anything. The process satisfies the brain’s craving for the anticipation of a treat, without diminishing your bank account.
Lara Schmidt (Account Services)
Brands need to evolve to meet Gen Z’s high expectations. That begins by trading careful polish for transparent integrity—because, for this generational cohort, there is no loyalty without integrity. Gen Z views silence about pressing social and political issues as a definitive stance, assuming uncommunicative brands are either hiding something or actively failing to act.
We see collaborations with influencers and spokespeople as mutual endorsements, meaning when a brand hires an influencer, that person’s values and behavior reflect directly on the brand. So, it’s vital for brands to find influencer partnerships that will enhance rather than tarnish their reputation.
These ideas intersect in Coach’s coachtopia, a line of products made from recycled, repurposed, or renewable materials—e.g., handbags created from leather scraps created while making traditional Coach bags—and co-created with Gen Z designers. This focus on circular fashion responds to Gen Z’s call for sustainability, desire for responsible luxury, and influencer trust. Coach grew beyond its legacy as an exclusive luxury taste maker toward a more collaborative, eco-conscious approach.
One key takeaway: Gen Z shies away from flawless perfection. To capture our attention, brands must be willing to be a bit raw, unfinished, and appealingly human.
Brands that want to earn our devotion should start by thinking beyond standard transaction metrics toward building a more holistic relationship.
Gen Zers want to build community with brands that demonstrate authenticity and align with values worthy of their support. We want options for little luxuries that make us feel rewarded but are within financial reach. We embrace dupe culture to keep costs down, but we’ll pay for luxuries we believe are really worth it. We want to spend with brands that act sustainably.
And we’re bringing our perspectives into the next several decades.
Gabe Cauwels (Strategy), Chloe Huang (Design), Emma Johnson (Account Services), Lisa Kalle (Copywriting), and Lara Schmidt (Account Services) are The Lacek Group’s talented 2026 summer interns. For more than 30 years, The Lacek Group has been perfecting the art and algorithms of Brand Devotion. We help world-class brands identify their highest-potential customers, engage them across channels throughout their lifecycles, personalize each relationship for optimal long-term results, and measure the true effectiveness of those efforts. The Lacek Group is a WPP Enterprise Services company.