25% of the population. 2 billion people. Gen Z – the people born after between 1995 and 2009 – has become the biggest slice in the population cake. And watch marketers are trying so hard to reach out to this clientele, which spends 4-6 hours on screen – and often do their shopping (online, of course) at the end of the day.
What surprised me with the reports made by CREA, Geneva’s leading school for Creative, Marketing, Communication, Digital, AI, Luxury and Event management, as well as “The emerging culture of luxury watchmaking,” made by Parisian communication agency, the latter by making deep interviews with around 100 Gen Z people, was the way Gen Z obtains knowledge about luxury items. You could basically describe it in 4 stages – and maybe it is not that different between generations. But here goes:
1. Discovery via social media.
2. Learning more – often through AI.
3. And here comes the surprise: there is a large skepticism of AI, and a well-founded understanding about the deceiving powers of marketing. Thus, the third step is fact checking via Google, official sites – and last but not least:
4. Seeking validation from an expert.
This final expert can be a human being, but the reports also showed that many in Gen Z thinks of luxury print publications as validating experts. Print magazines are for this segment becoming an object of luxury in themselves, as they are an antidote of the ephemeral. Magazines represent an ultimate luxury, de-connecting from the screen.
Another surprise was that what may come across as chaotic doom scrolling in those 4-6 hours per day (outside work or school), is very often actions in the above 4 steps. Because this way of operating can be applied to obtaining knowledge in general, not just luxury. This makes your average Gen Z is detail-obsessed curator rather than a chaotic person at a loss. And since they are able to (quickly and assuredly) generate new knowledge before us old farts are barely out of the starting blocks, the reports talk about a tidal change. Gen Z is now said to be the big influential generation – catch one generation Z bird in your hand and you have seven, not in the bush, but in your hand.
“Gen Z has become actors of transmission. It is not the older generation transmitting to the younger, but the opposite,” said Capucine Delaunay, which co-wrote the report by l’amour extreme.
To me all this sounds amazing. But right now, this is not what I am seeing around me. To me it is somewhat symptomatic that these reports are made by people from an older generation. When I wanted to have Gen Z voices for this article, no-one got back to us despite multiple reach-outs (made by a Gen Z colleague). So, to a large extent there is business as usual, with white middle-aged guys (and some women) holding the marching stick. I am waiting for this generational change. I want to learn more from Gen Z. But where are you?
FAQ:
Q: What age range is Gen Z?
A: Gen Z refers to the generation born between 1995 and 2009, according to research by Geneva's CREA school and Parisian agency L'Amour Extreme Group. This generation now makes up around 25% of the world's population, roughly 2 billion people, making it the largest demographic slice alive today.
Q: How many Gen Z are there?
A: Gen Z counts roughly 2 billion people worldwide, about 25% of the global population, per reports from CREA and L'Amour Extreme Group. This makes Gen Z the largest generational group today, with reports describing a "tidal change" as Gen Z increasingly guides rather than follows older generations.
Q: Where does Gen Z shop?
A: Gen Z typically shops online, often at the end of the day after several hours spent on screens. Before buying, though, research on the generation's luxury habits shows Gen Z follows a four-step process: discovery via social media, research through AI, fact-checking via Google, then validation from an expert.
Q: How much screen time does Gen Z have per day?
A: Gen Z spends around 4 to 6 hours a day on screens outside school or work hours, according to reports by CREA and L'Amour Extreme Group. Rather than aimless scrolling, researchers describe this time as a structured process of discovering, researching, and validating information, including about luxury purchases.
