Commentary

Forget Millennials -- Gen Z Will Make Brand Purpose A Priority

Some interesting research that recently came out suggests, to me at least, that all the talk about brand purpose -- which I often take with a pinch of salt -- could be coming true. That's because we're now talking Gen Z rather than millennials.

Brands have been told by speakers …

2 comments about "Forget Millennials -- Gen Z Will Make Brand Purpose A Priority".
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  1. Kevin McCollum from None, June 7, 2019 at 3:10 p.m.

    Your youngsters (and mine) will continue to support this idealism with their meager wages as long as they don't have bills to pay and mouths to feed.  The unfortunate reality is that many of these support positions will fall to the wayside when they can't afford to support them.
    That's the problem with these surveys, they aren't conducted in the real world environment, and they aren't followed through to see if they put their money where their mouth is.  That's EXACTLY why the millenials petered out.  Why else would they not have lived up to all of the hype of being the generation that supported brand causes?
    Don't get me wrong, I'm very much in support of companies acting environmentally responsible.  However, brands of publically-traded companies have no business picking up and waving the flag of many of today's social issues (with the exception of a precious few that are near-universally held to be true), unless the position is endemic to your brand.  Pushing one side (regardless of which side) of a hot-button social issue will alienate a huge number of your consumers, which is an irresponsible move to both your shareholders and employees (both of which will have some proportion that don't agree with your position).  Private companies have all the leeway they want/need to pursue whatever brand purpose they want, but public companies should leave politics to the politicians.
    I dread the thought of a coming day when I have to change all my brand preferences based on the positions they choose to take.  Why make choosing between Coke and Pepsi any more polarizing than it is already?

  2. Sean Hargrave from Sean Hargrave replied, June 12, 2019 at 5:03 a.m.

    Good point Kevin,
    When the bank of mum and dad is no longer funding a greener more 'woke' lifestyle, will GenZ carry on worrying? I'm a little more confident they will because of the Extinction Rebellion movement making climate change a front page news story and concern plus greener products, I suspect, are going to become more mainstream, making them less of a financial stretch. 
    But you're right, at the moment the 'woke' lifestyle is being funded by parents and guardians, we'll have to see what happens when the bills start landing on their own doorstep!

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About the Author

Sean Hargrave is MediaPost's London Editor. You can reach him at seanhargrave@btinternet.com.

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