Summary:
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The era of brand devotion is evolving into trend loyalty, driven by social media and viral products.
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Gen Z shifting towards trend loyalty, with 43% buying trending products and 64% loyal to products, not brands.
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Brands must adapt to real-time relevance, personalization, and turning viral hype into sustained value to capture trend loyalty.
The era of unwavering brand devotion may well be over. According to the latest “Customer Loyalty Index 2025” from SAP Emarsys—a survey of more than 10,000 consumers across five countries—what’s emerging instead is a new allegiance: what the report calls “trend loyalty.”
For many shoppers, particularly Gen Z, loyalty no longer hinges on a brand’s legacy or values. It’s increasingly being driven by the moment—a product that breaks out on social media, rides a surge of interest, and earns trust fast.
In the SAP Emarsys data, 45 % of respondents said they are more likely to trust a product if it goes viral; 64 % said they’re more loyal to specific products than to the brands behind them.
Gen Z is fundamentally shifting its spending habits, according to the fifth annual Customer Loyalty Index from SAP Emarsys.
The report finds that 43% of Gen Z consumers buy products simply because they’re trending, while 64% say they’re loyal to products — not brands.
Rather… pic.twitter.com/PV6GB3keFH
— What’s Trending (@WhatsTrending) October 20, 2025
Among Gen Z shoppers, 43 % admitted to purchasing a product purely because it was trending. The shift beneath the surface
For decades, brand-loyalty strategies assumed a slow-burn arc: a consumer discovers a brand, finds satisfaction, repeats, and becomes an advocate. But that script is cracking. In the 2025 index, SAP Emarsys identifies six kinds of loyalty—among them “True Loyalty” (the deep-trust, long-term kind) which has fallen for the first time in five years, now at 29 %. In its place, “Trend Loyalty” creeps in: a fast-moving, hype-driven attachment led more by social momentum than by brand heritage.
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This change makes sense in a social-media-rich world where discovery happens across multiple touchpoints—TikTok videos, influencer drops, in-feed reviews—and where the window of relevance is short. The idea of sticking with one brand through decades seems less compelling when the next viral product is already clicking into view.
Within the data, Gen Z stands out as the vanguard of this trend-shift. They are not rejecting brands entirely, but they are far more willing to follow what’s trending rather than what’s familiar. One in five Gen Z respondents say they are loyal to brands because those brands trend, while 25 % say they will reduce loyalty if a trending product disappoints them.
What brands must reckon with
The rise of trend loyalty presents a double-edged sword for marketers. On one side is enormous opportunity: capture the cultural moment, spark viral lift, and convert attention into purchase. On the other side is amplified risk: if the moment fades, or the product under-delivers, the loyalty evaporates.
As SAP Emarsys’ CMO Sara Richter puts it: “Trend Loyalty is both a risk and an opportunity for brands. It’s driven by hype, not history.”
In response, two strategic priorities emerge:
1. Real-time relevance and personalization. Brands need to operate at speed and precision—track what’s bubbling, understand how individual consumers are reacting, and respond with offers, messaging, or experience that aligns with that trend moment. The report stresses that AI-powered personalization at scale is key to converting trend response into repeat engagement.
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2. Turning one-off hype into sustained value. While capturing a viral hit matters, the bigger challenge is converting that attention into deeper loyalty. That means ensuring product quality, managing expectations, and offering experiences that go beyond the viral moment. According to the report, 59 % of consumers say product quality drives loyalty—and 54 % say declining quality damages it.
