ETBWS 2025: Are Gen Z the Labubus of the modern world?

Time of India

7 days ago

They are 377M strong in India; that's more than the entire population of the US. It's the generation that's already driving $860 billion of consumer spending in India. By 2035, every 2nd rupee spent in India is expected to come from this cohort. They are the hyperconnected world's main character energy, and marketers' next big case –
Gen Z
.
At the recently concluded
ETBrandEquity's Brand World Summit 2025
,
marketing
leaders from Swiggy Instamart, Dove (Unilever), Lay's (PepsiCo), Starbucks, and Burger King shared how each of them are listening and engaging with this generation. Here are key takeaways.
Cute, monstrous, and hopeful
Saumya Rathor, Marketing Director, Lay's India (PepsiCo), vividly characterizes Gen Z as the Labubus of the modern world — cute but monstrous. She echoed the sentiment of contradictions, noting Gen Z are 'the most judged generation but they judge the most,' and are both 'attention-starved' despite having much to do, yet also 'the most bored.' Despite these dichotomies, she expressed hope, seeing them as 'filled with positivity' even amidst their daily 'drama' and ever-evolving vocabulary.
Keeping it real all the time
Aakanksha Kumar, Global Brand Director – Dove, Unilever, emphasizes how Gen Z women are paving a way to appear effortless while often putting in significant hidden effort. Case in point, the famous 'no-makeup makeup' trend. This generation's curated online personas often hide the 'hustle' behind them, a stark contrast to older generations who often display their hard work.
Mitali Maheshwari, Head – Product and Marketing, Tata Starbucks, has similar views. She observes that Gen Z desire raw, unfiltered customization and personalization. This goes beyond simple preferences, extending to questioning traditional norms. It's a generation that values the ability to make products and experiences uniquely their own, just like a cup of masala chai with oat milk.
A chaotic generation with Canva skills
Abhishek Shetty, Head – Marketing, Swiggy Instamart, describes Gen Z as a chaotic generation with Canva skills. He notes their ability to seamlessly shift between diverse content, from conspiracy theories to mindfulness reels and capitalist memes.
A brand like Swiggy Instamart views them as a force to be reckoned with, constantly roasting, remixing content, and even starting trends. According to Shetty, the goal for brands is simply to keep up and avoid getting ratioed (where comments and shares outweigh likes, indicating negative sentiment).
Kapil Grover, Group CMO, Burger King (Restaurants Brands Asia), makes similar observations. He says while Gen Z may have constant partial attention, this isn't superficial; there's always a purpose and engagement behind while they are multitasking.
Co-creation, a cohort to stay
Rathor from Lay's India (PepsiCo) says the way to understand the pulse of Gen Z is by listening to them. For instance, Lay's as a product is used in various street food in India, from sandwiches to dosas. There are innumerable content pieces around it — all organic. According to her, brands can't simply talk at them; instead, it's like a multiplayer game. Brands make a move, then Gen Z responds, and marketers must be ready for whatever comes their way. This playful dynamic fosters engagement and drives positive responses.
Kumar of Dove (Unilever) candidly says marketers cannot be lazy anymore. The era of a single, year-long ad campaign is over. Brands have to shift to constantly generating engaging content rather than just creating content to beat the algorithm. For legacy brands like Dove, it's not about changing who they are but how they show up for Gen Z consumers, ensuring the communication aligns with Gen Z's preferred style.
Dove, as an iconic brand with a long history, navigates the competitive personal care market to connect with Gen Z. She acknowledged the challenge of maintaining uniqueness in an era where authenticity and inclusivity are widespread.
Cultural hijacking works
Shetty of Swiggy Instamart agrees that one cannot be a 'broadcast brand.' Swiggy Instamart's internal strategy is to 'culturally hijack the conversation.' Gen Z don't just want to participate in brand conversations; they want to take over.
Therefore, brands need to act like a friend who gets an inside joke to foster relatability. He shared a powerful example of a viral user-generated content (UGC) reel where a content creator organically integrated Instamart into his bulk-eating challenge. This low-cost collaboration outperformed many paid campaigns of the brand.
Grover from Burger King adds that Gen Z are remarkably genuine and authentic in their views. In their recent campaign, users even compared Burger King's Korean burger with competitors in the same reel. This willingness to openly compare and offer unfiltered opinions, whether positive or negative, highlights Gen Z's demand for authenticity and transparency from brands. Brands must be prepared to take it with a pinch of salt and appreciate the honesty, believes Grover.
The I word
Brands in several categories such as beauty and food cannot do away with influencers. Gen Z is described as light-hearted and fun, necessitating a shift in a brand like Dove's content guidelines. Traditionally, Dove's visuals were a white world in a studio-like setup. Now, the brand encourages content creators to shoot in their authentic setups, recognizing that Gen Z values genuine environments over polished ones. This subtle but significant change allows for a more relatable and engaging experience, says Kumar.
Dove aims to build longer-term relationships with influencers, viewing them as a personal army. This fosters genuine advocacy, as influencers want to be treated as 'real people' rather than mere content producers. In a recent campaign, Dove used the popular internet acronym BYOB and gave it a spin, calling it Bring Your Own Bar. At the event, influencers were encouraged to test their everyday soap against a Dove.
Maheshwari of Tata Starbucks echoed this sentiment, stressing the importance of authenticity and credibility in influencer partnerships.
Not so long ago, Tata Starbucks saw that their Gen Z customer base was increasingly drawn to single-origin and specialty coffees from around the globe. To push its blonde roast, the brand hosted an event where they invited influencers who genuinely cared about coffee. The content that came from this featured them tasting the blonde roast, and without any prompting from the brand, they started tagging others they knew would appreciate it. This organic sharing felt incredibly seamless and natural — almost like a friend recommending something they truly love, says Maheshwari.
Vibe loyal vs. brand loyal
With the problem of plenty in hand, can brands really gain loyalty from Gen Z? The answer is yes and no both. Kumar candidly says that traditional brand loyalty is a bit of a distant dream. She, Grover, and Maheshwari collectively believe Gen Z are vibe loyal.
Rathor, on the other hand, shares her framework for earning Gen Z's 'STAN' (fan) loyalty, an acronym she uses:
Storytelling: Connecting through human truthsTopicality: Staying relevant to their current livesAuthenticity: The 'buzzword' of the panelNo bull#%&*: Gen Z 'will see through lies completely'
Shetty opines, Gen Z values energy over SKU and demands consistent authenticity. 'Otherwise, a brand can be easily replaced by an indie brand from Bandra,' he concludes.