That doesn’t mean older consumers don’t trust digital brands at all. However, it might mean that they simply haven’t spent enough time with them to develop trust.
But that still doesn’t explain why younger shoppers are apparently so ready to trust brands that aren’t just a lot newer than legacy brands, but sometimes ones that—to use the vernacular—are a little sus.
The fact that Google’s AI notoriously advised running with scissors and eating rocks last year last didn’t stop millennial respondents from anointing it their most trusted brand. Conspiracy theories “thrive” on YouTube, according to a 2022 University of Sydney study, but that didn’t keep it from being the most trusted brand of zoomers, either.
And then there’s TikTok, the wildly popular app that’s been banned in America over its strong ties to the government of China and was labeled a national security risk by the FBI three years ago. In one of the study’s Standout Brands charts—which ranks brands by the gap in trust scores between millennials and adults overall—millennials trusted TikTok more than adults as a whole by nearly 14 points. In the Standout Brands ranking for Gen Z, those youngsters trusted it over adults in general by a spread of 25 points.
Does that mean everyone under 45 is just asleep at the switch? Of course not. But it might suggest that younger consumers formulate a feeling of trust in a different way than older ones did.
“Older generations formed brand loyalty through legacy media (TV, radio, newspapers, etc.) Their trust was built on product reliability and corporate reputation over a longer time horizon,” said Daniel Iles, an authority in performance-driven content strategy.
By contrast, “younger consumer groups have endless choices in brands to consume on social media, and what earns their trust isn’t always polished,” Iles said. “Trust on social media can be built in hours, binge watching content. This allows them to form conclusions on a brand far faster than previous generations.”
It’s about the vibes
Veteran brand strategist Deb Gabor, founder of Sol Marketing, posited another reason why younger consumers build trust differently than older ones. Gen Xers and boomers judged brands based on how the products performed; many of today’s youngest consumers assess brands based on how the brands make them feel.
“Story sells—and not just the story that the brands tell about themselves,” she said, “but how young people internalize those stories and make those stories about them.”
That might help explain why zoomers trust YouTube more than any other brand.
While an older consumer might scoff at the notion of YouTube content being reliable, Morning Consult’s Cartwright points out that, for millennials and zoomers, clicking on YouTube is as familiar to them as flicking on the TV set was for mom and dad.
