Our recent Epsilon Pulse generations report revealed that sixty one percent of boomers remain loyal to brands that offer good value, while nearly half of Gen Z adults are willing to spend more to reach higher loyalty point tiers or better rewards. This highlights a key strategic question: Can your loyalty program deliver value across generations?
It’s very common for loyalty programs to provide an incentive at sign-up and follow-up with offers meant to encourage ongoing participation. While these tactics are essential to building viable first-party data, they sometimes lack the personal touch that’s needed to foster the type of customer loyalty that will grow with your brand over time.
Generational loyalty can help brands be more effective in orchestrating personalized member journeys that increase engagement, boost affinity and build lifetime value.
When it comes down to it, different factors—like community, family values and societal trends—define each generation. They shape perspectives in unique ways, impacting who people are and what they find important.
Cross-generational factors work in the same way, they run deep—influencing behavior.
Generational loyalty refers to loyalty that’s based on different age groups—Gen Z minors, Gen Z adults, millennials, Gen X and boomers. Essentially, brand loyalty—like product value, shopping convenience or brand authenticity—varies by generation.
Let’s take a closer look at how each generation is defined—from Gen Z to boomers.
Each of these groups has specific expectations—making it a powerful tool to leverage for increased precision in your loyalty marketing strategies.
Brand loyalty isn’t the same for all generations. What each defines as value—emotionally and functionally—is very different. Our cross-generational research also revealed 42% of millennials have switched away from a brand they were loyal to because their prices changed, while 34% of Gen Z adults switched away from one brand because they found a better brand.
Building brand loyalty that responds to cross-generational preferences allows you to see who your customers truly are and engage with them in ways that resonate. Knowing that millennials are more tech-savvy and expect seamless interactions and that boomers engage with brands they can trust, gives you the ability to offer what matters to them, which creates meaningful moments that give shape to shared experiences of your brand over time.
For this reason, brands that have figured out how to resonate with people of different ages aren’t just recognized—they’re experienced and loved.
Another Epsilon Pulse research report on consumer loyalty found that 80% of consumers like it when brands personalize their communications based on their loyalty program interactions and status.
This sheds light on a widespread truth about loyal consumers: Personalization is a key driver of engagement. But, why does it feel so hard to get right? Because most customer data sits in silos.
Advanced loyalty technologies, built on a solid foundation of data and , can clean and enrich your first-party data, unifying fragmented customer records and enhancing them with robust data attributes that offer a full view of each of your customers—allowing you to seamlessly communicate with your loyalty program members, across generations.
Rewards alone aren’t enough to create sustained engagement—customers respond to relevance.
In our consumer loyalty report, half of the respondents stated they were motivated to actually open communications from their loyalty brands when the product, service or perk being offered to them was a good deal, while 65% said they disliked or left a loyalty program when the rewards weren't worth it or were too limited.
Full data summary: Communication preferences
Fostering affinity through smarter loyalty programs (Epsilon Pulse Research, 2025)
Leveraging first-party data to customize experiences across generations provides additional insight into behaviors and preferences—ensuring you’re able to deliver what people want authentically, with interactions that match their interests.
People are more likely to seek out and buy from brands they feel "know them." Customers that make an emotional connection to your products and services stay with your brand—and recommend it to others.
Whether you're sending a direct offer via text to Gen Zs or launching an email campaign with clear loyalty-based rewards to boomers—the right solution can deliver personalization at scale across all touch points and help you consistently provide experiences that resonate on an emotional level.
With the right technology, you can tap into measurement capabilities that assess a consumer's emotional connection to your brand. Metrics like Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) and Emotional loyalty can help you go deeper with your customers by revealing patterns in brand perception and emotional connection that go beyond surface-level feedback.
In our consumer loyalty report, sixty-two percent of consumer respondents said customized products and offerings are what make them feel good about continuing to participate in a loyalty program.
Full data summary: Consumer motivation
Fostering affinity through smarter loyalty programs (Epsilon Pulse Research, 2025)
Cross-generational segmentation can help you better understand your customers' expectations and deliver what they want. For example, you can see shifts in attitudes and dips in satisfaction for different segments, like: Gen Z consumers that are quick to disengage if they aren't in alignment with a brands values, or boomers with dwindling trust in your brand.
Ultimately, brands that have mastered the art of emotional connection have figured out how to offer shared meaning, memorable moments and values passed down through hyper-personalized loyalty marketing campaigns.
When you know what each generation wants from your brand, you can build relevant member journeys that drive meaningful engagement by appealing to their values, interests and beliefs. The right technology partner can bring your loyalty marketing efforts to life—empowering your brand communications with one unified message—delivered across touchpoints and generations.
If you’re looking to build a strategy that will dynamically engage cross-generational loyalty members, here are a few things to keep in mind:
By tailoring experiences to millennials, that are social, and value driven—while at the same time offering Gen X members practical offers, served up through traditional tactics—you are speaking directly to each segment simultaneously, and delivering exactly what each group wants.
Partnering with the right technology can provide valuable insights into how each group experiences your loyalty program, ensuring you can create data-driven strategies that change the way people interact with your brand—optimizing your loyalty marketing initiatives.
Every generation has distinct expectations that are unique drivers of brand loyalty. Generational loyalty brings you closer to who your customers are—offering direct insight into what motivates their decision-making—and ultimately, helping you orchestrate journeys that are suited to their unique needs.
Epsilon’s loyalty solution is equipped with advanced capabilities that share real-time customer sentiment—and can speak to all audiences—no matter the channel, or the generation. Investing in a platform that can seamlessly engage customers and appeal to them on a generational and emotional level can generate deep relevance—enhancing customer engagement, retention and lifetime value—ensuring your customers keep coming back.
These insights offer a condensed view of consumer loyalty pulled from broader trends revealed in our generational research and consumer loyalty report.
