Consumer loyalty remains rooted in trust and emotional connection, but greater choice, algorithm-led discovery and changing expectations are reshaping how it is expressed, according to industry leaders at the MRSI session ‘Loyalty Reimagined: Understanding the Next Generation Consumer’.
Anjana Pillai of Quantum, Ketki Sitapati of Hindustan Unilever and Rituparna Dasgupta of Zee Entertainment discussed how brands can build loyalty through meaning, continuous relevance, cultural participation and consistent experiences. Uttara Dhawan moderated the conversation.
The discussion examined evolving consumer loyalty amid greater access to choices, information and multiple engagement channels, and the implications for building and sustaining consumer relationships.
Anjana noted that the definition of loyalty has not changed, describing it as an intrinsic emotional commitment to someone or something.
She pointed out that loyalty is sustained through a sense of belonging, ideology and meaning, rather than only rewards and incentives. She noted that brands today often mistake loyalty for loyalty programmes, making the relationship more transactional rather than building intrinsic loyalty through a meaningful connection.
However, while the definition remains unchanged, Anjana said the manifestations of loyalty have changed. Consumers can no longer be assumed to be loyal to one brand for life, particularly as they have more choices.
Consumers may also be loyal to multiple brands at the same time, depending on their needs, moments and occasions. She noted that younger consumers, particularly Gen Z, are often most loyal to themselves and choose brands that help construct their ideal selves.
On legacy versus D2C brands, Anjana observed that scale and familiarity are not necessarily sufficient to create proximity with younger consumers. Large, established brands can sometimes create distance, while newer brands often use strong product propositions, transparency and detailed storytelling to create a closer relationship with young consumers.
She also highlighted that loyalty differs across generations and geographies, noting that Gen Z in India may differ from Gen Z in other countries, while urban and smaller-town Gen Z consumers can also have different loyalty triggers. She challenged the perception that Gen Z is not loyal, saying that they can remain loyal and consistent when brands create meaning for them.
Anjana also spoke about the need for brands to understand Gen Z’s digitally native lives and create opportunities for real-world, tactile experiences. She suggested that brands can also build loyalty by staying true to their archetypal role, citing IKEA as an example where consumers develop an attachment to products through creating and constructing them themselves.
Ketki Sitapati agreed that loyalty is a human truth, but said the way brands interpret it needs to evolve. She noted that product, price and availability, which were once key building blocks of loyalty, are now hygiene factors. Consumers are increasingly moving from inertia to active reselection in every purchase cycle, across both high- and low-involvement categories. With greater choice and algorithm-led discovery, she described today’s consumers as a “detective generation” that actively seeks information and knows what goes into the products they buy.
Ketki emphasised that brands can no longer rely on talk-down advertising and need to earn loyalty through visible delivery, meaningful conversations, consumer involvement and proof that consumers can engage with and talk about. She also discussed the “Six Cs” framework for understanding how consumers decode brands.
While product, price, value for money and availability remain important, they are now hygiene factors. The framework includes Chemistry, the visceral pull towards a brand; Conversation, or how brands speak to consumers; Conviction, the confidence consumers develop in a product; Comfort, which can come from nostalgia and familiarity; and Courage, or how boldly a brand pushes category norms.
She noted that legacy brands face the challenge of evolving while retaining the familiarity that consumers associate with their established DNA. For newer and D2C brands, Ketki said loyalty is increasingly being built around moments rather than demographics. A consumer can experience multiple moods and needs within the same day, and brands need to understand and respond to these different contexts. She highlighted the importance of building portfolios, content and experiences around moments, moods and jobs to be done.
On Gen Z, Ketki highlighted differences between urban and rural consumers. Urban Gen Z is more focused on boundaries, digital identity, aesthetics and understanding what goes into products, while rural Gen Z places greater emphasis on forward movement, self-growth and small upgrades that signal progress.
She also noted a growing emphasis among rural Gen Z women on prioritising personal goals. For urban Gen Z, she said loyalty is increasingly about brands being part of their world, while rural Gen Z may still expect brands to play a mentorship role, particularly when there are financial implications to making the wrong choice.
Ketki explained that legacy and new-age brands also need different approaches to loyalty. For legacy brands, the focus is on retaining the same DNA while making the brand more contemporary. She cited Clinic Plus and its “Meri Beti Strong” platform as an example, where the core emotional idea remains consistent while the stories evolve.
For more premium brands, she highlighted the growing role of creators and experiential initiatives in enabling consumers to participate in culture and conversations.
She concluded that brand success is moving beyond reach and frequency towards how deeply a brand resonates with consumers, drives engagement and shapes behaviour. She described loyalty as “not captivity, it’s companionship”; with brands participating in consumers’ worlds, helping them navigate choices and being part of something they feel proud of.
Building on these perspectives, Rituparna Dasgupta noted that brands were traditionally built on trust, quality and consistency, which remain the “price of entry” or hygiene factors.
However, these are no longer sufficient on their own. Audiences increasingly expect brands to be reliable while also being personally and culturally relevant.
Rituparna said brands need to remain mentally available across everyday viewing occasions, from family time and evenings to festivals and everyday realities. She shared the example of a Z5 show, Bakiti, where research around the setting revealed a hyperlocal announcement system that was incorporated into the show.
She said this helped bring in new consumers and demonstrated how consistency and “everydayness” can build loyalty through repeated, relatable experiences.
Rituparna also noted that research suggests Gen Z is not less loyal than millennials, but loyal under different conditions. Millennials grew up with fewer choices and stronger institutional brands, with loyalty typically built around reliability, familiarity and long-term value. Gen Z, having grown up with greater choice and algorithm-led discovery, is more likely to associate loyalty with continuous relevance.
She said youth research shows that Gen Z forms strong attachments to creators, communities, shows and formats that they feel part of. They do not simply consume brands but participate in ecosystems that contribute to who they are becoming.
Rituparna also noted that Zee seeks to represent Gen Z and millennials together in its shows, reflecting how both generations coexist on the same entertainment platforms and engage with the same stories in different ways.
Rituparna further highlighted the importance of consistent presence rather than sporadic campaigns. Brands can remain mentally available by showing up across television, OTT, social media and cultural moments through relevant IPs and relatable content. She noted that loyalty is not a one-time achievement and needs to be continuously reinforced through relevant content, characters and experiences.
Looking at future growth, Rituparna outlined two complementary approaches. The first is to identify consumers who share characteristics with existing loyal audiences but are not currently viewers of the network, and use the right marketing and content strategy to bring them into the fold.
The second is to attract entirely new audiences through new content formats. She cited FIFA on the Z network as an example, which brought in a new audience that the network then sought to retain by understanding what they wanted to watch and offering content such as international programming, Korean content and anime.
Overall, the discussion highlighted that while the fundamentals of loyalty remain rooted in trust, reliability, quality and emotional connection, the way loyalty is built and expressed is changing.
