CASE STUDY
A Brand with a Mission: How Goodwill and Gen Z are Growing Together
Goodwill of Southeastern Wisconsin and Metropolitan Chicago, one of The DRG’s non-profit clients, is dedicated to serving people with disabilities or disadvantages who seek greater independence. This work is made possible primarily from the sale of gently used items donated by the public.
Goodwill’s loyalty program data revealed that, while average spend per customer has been increasing across all generational segments, their Gen Z shopper numbers were growing by over 16%. While they could have simply taken that win, Goodwill saw an opportunity to build on this momentum and actively gain a deeper understanding of their Gen Z customers.
Their objectives were future-focused: attract new Gen Z customers, create enhanced shopping experiences, and provide more meaningful loyalty program value propositions long-term based on data-driven customer feedback.
non-profit
The Solution
The DRG designed a two-phase, scalable framework to address these strategic questions:
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- What cultural trends are contributing to sales growth among Gen Z customers and loyalty members?
- In what ways can Goodwill improve their loyalty program and enhance overall customer experiences?
- How can the growth among loyal Gen Z customers be leveraged to attract new customers to the brand?
Getting to the heart of Goodwill’s Gen Z customer story called for quantifying specific purchase experience details in an online survey including:
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- Overall shopping behaviors by channel
- Retailer consideration set and reasons for choice
- Customer satisfaction and NPS
We paired the quantitative study with interactive online focus groups to capture the feelings, emotions, and motivations underlying Gen Z thrifting purchase moments. A series of projective techniques was used to bring shopper profiles to life, explore purchase decision influencers, and gauge the depth of their brand connections.
they were the right choice
Not only did they tailor an approach to meet our objectives, but as the project progressed, The DRG made adjustments and enhancements to the process that added great value. The timely, thorough results clearly spelled out steps to take to put these findings into action.
-Market Analytics & Insights Manager at Goodwill
The Wins
We uncovered critical findings, like learning the importance Gen Z shoppers place on price and their excitement around finding great thrifting deals. That excitement is, in part, brought on by the growing culture around thrifting and showing off unique finds with friends.
The study also revealed insights about Gen Z’s values and motivations, like their strongly held beliefs in sustainability, corporate ethical standards, and positively impacting their community – all of which they exercise by shopping at Goodwill.
These collective insights are helping Goodwill create targeted value propositions tied to price savings and the thrill of finding one-of-a-kind items to tap into Gen Z’s growing passion for thrift shopping.
Building on the alignment between its mission and Gen Z values, Goodwill is also creating marketing and loyalty program strategies to convert Passive Gen Zs to Promoters using NPS as a key performance indicator.
this could be your win
And we can help you get it. We’re here to make the complex simple and reveal the unknown around your customers, brand, employees, and market.
