Building a Gen Z Juggernaut

American Eagle Outfitters is one of the most beloved brands of Gen Z. Their ability to connect with the digital generation has seen the jean brand achieve rapid relevancy and great business outcomes.

On the most recent episode of “Is This Thing On?” Podcast, CMO Craig Brommers shared just how American Eagle has overhauled its marketing approach to connect with the hearts (and wallets) of Gen Z.

American Eagle is committed to customer insights. They have a 2000-person Gen Z panel they continuously leverage to get smarter about their customer.?

This drives not only their marketing but their product decisions. When Brommers shared this, it was clear why American Eagle is doing so well.?

In business, we don’t see enough investment in customer insights. While first-party data is invaluable, talking to and engaging with your customer can give you an even clearer view of their motivations, passions and interests. This helps brands, like American Eagle, understand their customers as people, not just data points. If you want to create high-quality products and stories that impact culture, you need high-quality insights, and you need them from everywhere. American Eagle clearly has a leg up on their competition in this area.?

When it comes to their storytelling, American Eagle follows the data. While much of the fashion and beauty world is still largely preoccupied with beautifully crafted design and communication, American Eagle instead focuses on the content that works best in young people’s social feeds, which is often raw and unfiltered. This didn’t happen overnight. It was not a boardroom decision. They got there by running countless A/B tests. At GALE, we believe that “growth isn't guesswork.” There’s just no replacement for testing your creative and storytelling in the wild. This is something that many legacy brands talk about but few practice with regularity or consistency. If they did, you’d see a lot less traditional marketing.?

Another remarkable thing about American Eagle is the robustness of their creator marketing program with over 600 creators who create marketing for them at any given time. There’s still a role for crafted brand content, particularly with older customers, but if you want to reach and connect with Gen Z, you’re going to need creators, and lots of them. You don’t know what or who is going to resonate with your audience until you experiment and try. You need to start with a lot of irons in the fire. Creator and influencer marketing is not a new phenomenon, but many brands are still heavily under invested in this area.

Cool is not effortless in marketing. It’s a strategy, and the best ones are insight-driven. Liquid Death is one of my favorite brands. I love their unhinged marketing, but it’s their strategic savvy I appreciate most. Their work is breakthrough because they know that great advertising requires a protagonist and antagonist and that people want to be entertained, not marketed to.?

Similarly, American Eagle achieves the cool factor by knowing their Gen Z audience intimately. They’re 1000% focused on creating the kind of marketing that connects with their audience, not the industry.?