Is It Love or Just Like? Generation Z’s Brand Relationship with Luxury.

01 Why it matters.

One of the first dedicated academic studies of Gen Z’s relationship with luxury brands — and its central finding is both counterintuitive and commercially important. Across 56 participants who created brand collages covering 38 luxury brands, the dominant emotional register was not love but like. Gen Z showed high loyalty in attitude and behaviour, but without the deep, passionate attachment that characterises brand love in older cohorts.

The strategic implication is significant: a consumer who likes a brand is conditional, not captured. They choose the brand but are not defined by it. They are more sensitive to perceived inconsistency, more open to alternatives, and more likely to move when a better alignment presents itself. This paper reframes the Gen Z luxury challenge — it is not about reaching them, it is about building the kind of relationship that turns into love.

02 Key takeaways.

1. 01 Gen Z’s relationship with luxury brands is characterised by “like” rather than “love” — high loyalty in attitude and behaviour, but without passionate attachment.
2. 02 This “conditional loyalty” makes Gen Z more mobile than Millennial or Gen X luxury consumers — more sensitive to brand inconsistency.
3. 03 Gen Z luxury consumers respond to identity alignment and values congruence more than heritage or prestige signals.
4. 04 The like-not-love pattern holds across brand categories and price points within luxury, suggesting a generational rather than category-specific dynamic.
5. 05 Brands that successfully convert “like” to “love” among Gen Z do so through consistent cultural participation, not through campaign-based activation.

03 Used in our research.

1. 01 InsightGen Z Is Rewriting the Rules of Luxury — and Brands Are Listening
2. 02 InsightJewelry Is the New Handbag: Why the Category Is Winning the Decade
3. 03 Case StudyBurberry: How Gen Z Brought a British Icon BackComing soon