Gen Z: the financially savvy generation has landed.

“So, how do I engage my financial brand, products and services with Gen Z?”

It’s a question I was recently asked by a client. And I understand why it’s a matter of concern for brand and marketing managers.

So, we did some research.

We asked 500 members of the Gen Z generation in the UK what they thought about money.

Do they just spend, spend, spend, or did they save?

Who do they trust?

What do they know about money?

Gen Z—defined as being born from the mid-to-late 1990s to the early 2010’s – is emerging as the world’s largest and most diverse generation, born into a world of seismic social change.

For these digital natives, “on-demand” is not a buzzword, it’s a mode of existence.

The oldest are now out there in the workplace, earning salaries and forming firm choices about what brands they want to engage with – and not.

What do we know about their relationship with money and attitudes towards their financial futures?

• In the US, Gen Z are wealthier compared to other young peopleof previous generations
• They’re also a generation that is increasingly suspicious of debt, having been bitten hard by cheap credit. This is a attitude likely to be fuelled further by their experiences during Covid
• And yet, they’re also more likely to be anxious and stressed about their jobs and security, which is no doubt another Covid hangover

Financially speaking, Gen Z are a more conservative generation of young consumers. Less likely to believe the hype.

Consider for example bitcoin et al.

As a digitally native generation, Gen Z understand technology better than anyone. But they aren’t fooled.

When we asked them about the brands, institutions and organisations that they’d listen to when it came to money matters, cryptocurrencies lagged at the back with just 3% of respondents saying they would turn to them.

Challenging times for Gen Z, opportunities for brands

Much has been written about this generation and the hopeless picture they face: the cost-of-living crisis; the pension black holes; the property ladder…

The average house price throughout the 1970s sat at just £9,277, the equivalent of £68,493 today after adjusting for inflation. The average house price today is four times higher!

Young people could be forgiven for thinking, “What’s the point?!” and spending all that cash.

But our preliminary research is bringing that thinking into question, they’re much more conservative than the media and politicians paint them to be.

It was millionaire property developer Tim Gurner who questioned whether millennials and Gen Z would ever buy a home if they continued to keep spending $40 a day on smashed avocado and lattes. And he’s not the only one to attack this generation without any real foundation to do so.