Brand Advocacy Across Generations

To round off this week’s series on the online purchase journey, today’s chart looks past the purchase, at the rates and reasons for brand advocacy.

We saw yesterday that free delivery trumps all other considerations for buying online, and it’s a similar story for brand advocacy. High-quality products is the top incentive for brand advocacy across all generations, followed by financial incentives like free gifts and discounts.

It’s after this point where differences between generations become noticable. Younger internet users are more likely to advocate brands for an emotional connection, over-indexing for love of a brand, feeling involved and enhancing their online status. This gets less relevant with age, as Gen X and Boomers are more likely to value good customer service instead.

All in all, younger users are more likely to advocate a brand based on emotional associations, whereas older users value more concrete factors, like effective customer support. But exclusive content has a greater pull for younger internet users, and this is a concrete factor which can dovetail effectively with their desires to feel involved with a brand and to have their online image enhanced.