Rethinking Brand Loyalty Across Generations

Generational Loyalty

Debates about brand loyalty across generations have been ongoing for years. During my senior year of college, I wrote a paper titled, “Why Brand Loyalty Will Die With The Baby Boomers.” It drew on various studies showing how Baby Boomers were extremely loyal to their household brands, while younger generations were not. At that time, Millennials—my generation—were still in their 20s, and advertisers were particularly interested in the 25-34 age demographic. The belief was that capturing these individuals during significant life events would make them lifelong customers.

When it became apparent that Millennials were less brand loyal than their Baby Boomer parents, many brands scrambled to adjust. A popular narrative emerged: younger buyers craved deeper connections with brands, preferred companies that stood for specific (often progressive) values, and wanted open dialogues through social media. While there might be some truth to these claims, it often feels like the sort of thing an agency creative director might pitch to a boardroom full of aging executives—disconnected from the realities of most buying decisions.

Today, we hear the same narrative about Gen Z. Countless articles and marketing conference presentations proclaim that Gen Z is fundamentally different from previous generations. But if you swap 'Millennials want to have an open dialogue with brands through Twitter' for 'Gen Z is only buying products on TikTok shops,' it becomes clear that we’ve heard this story before. I’m not denying that these trends exist, but rather than over-indexing on specific tactics—like TikTok shops—it’s crucial to understand the larger context of consumer behavior.

If we accept that most consumers are satisficers—that repeat purchasing is often about habit and convenience rather than emotional connection—we might look at generational loyalty in a new light. Could it be that older generations simply lack the time, energy, or bandwidth to constantly explore new options? Is it possible that as people get married, have kids, and face a growing number of daily decisions, they become more likely to satisfice?

Evidence of Changing Loyalty Patterns

There is research to support this theory. A 2024 study by Morning Consult found that nearly half of Millennials surveyed reported being more loyal to brands than they were five years ago. As a Millennial myself, I can relate. Just living with my spouse has made us habitually loyal to certain brands

My wife and I recently questioned why we buy Colgate toothpaste. When I was single, I bought Crest, but somewhere along the way, I remember my wife saying she “hated the taste of Crest.” To me, toothpaste is just toothpaste, so I switched to Colgate, and it stuck. She now claims she never made that comment, implying I was the one who preferred Colgate (for the record, she definitely did). In the end, it doesn’t really matter; we still buy Colgate. And when we travel, we buy travel-sized Crest because that’s what Target sells in their travel section.

Speaking of Target, I shop at Target because my wife shops at Target. If I buy something that might need to be returned, I choose Target because I assume she’ll have returns too, so we can make a joint trip. We can go together, and plan to do so on a day we visit my parents—there’s a Target on the way to their house. For us, it’s more about ease than brand loyalty.

We both work fulltime jobs. We have a dog, and at the time of writing this, our first child on the way. We don’t have the time or energy to carefully consider every purchase decision. When we order takeout, we usually pick from the same three restaurants. Better options probably exist, but why take the risk?

The U-Shaped Curve of Loyalty

But don’t just take my word for it. A study published in the Journal of Marketing Analytics by University of Amsterdam professor Dirk Sikkel, titled “Brand Relations and Life Course: Why Old Consumers Love Their Brands,” found that brand loyalty follows a U-shaped curve across a consumer’s life. Younger consumers show declining brand loyalty from their teenage years through their 40s, after which they gradually become more loyal over time.

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This pattern was consistent across multiple categories, including banking, automotive, personal care, food, mobile phones, electronics, and vacation destinations. However, the exact shape of the curve varies by category. For example, loyalty to electronics, personal care, and food brands declines significantly by the time consumers reach their 20s. In contrast, loyalty to automotive brands and vacation destinations doesn’t wane until their 30s.

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Why Older Consumers Become More Brand Loyal

Sikkel's study doesn’t just explain why younger consumers become less brand loyal; that part is relatively straightforward. Younger people are often seen as rebellious and are navigating significant life changes that affect their tastes, needs, and desires. What’s more interesting is why loyalty increases as people age. Several factors contribute to this trend:

Future Time Perspective: As consumers perceive their future as more limited, they shift their goals and become less interested in change.‍

Cognitive-Affective Complexity: Older consumers are less inclined to adopt new technologies, products, or brands that require significant learning.

‍Innovativeness: Younger consumers are more likely to seek out and enjoy new products, either to solve problems or simply for the novelty of being seen as innovative.

What This Means for Marketers

When consumers view the future as exciting and full of possibilities, they’re more receptive to marketing messages and less influenced by their existing habits. However, as people age, this excitement diminishes, and the potential impact of marketing messages weakens. The study’s findings suggest that brands should communicate to older consumers that "We have a long future together, our new products are attractive, and we won’t take you out of your comfort zone."

For media planners and marketing strategists, there are clear implications here. While younger consumers may be fickle and more likely to shop around, older consumers tend to simplify their path to purchase. This means that brands targeting younger demographics need to be present across various touchpoints in the “Messy Middle” of the buying journey. Social media, blogs, instructional videos, and review platforms all matter for this group.

Conversely, older consumers tend to have fewer touchpoints on their path to purchase. While their journey can still be somewhat messy, it’s less so than that of younger consumers. For this group, the quality of the message is far more important than sheer quantity. Brands targeting older consumers should convey trust, quality, and ease of adoption. They are more likely to become repeat, loyal customers, allowing marketers to model a higher lifetime value (LTV) for this cohort compared to younger consumers.

This, of course, is a drastic oversimplification. Never always, never never.