Retail analyst Neil Saunders shares insights from PacSun’s groundbreaking youth report, revealing why authenticity and values—not brand size—drive the next generation of shoppers.
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Show Notes:
In this episode of Mission Matters, Adam Torres sits down with Neil Saunders, Managing Director and Retail Analyst at GlobalData Retail, to unpack the findings from PacSun’s new youth consumer report. Saunders explains how Gen Z and Gen Alpha are challenging old assumptions, demanding authenticity from brands, and reshaping industries with their democratic approach to consumption.
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Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest on the show. To head on over to mission matters.com and click on Be Our Guest to Apply. All right, so today I’m in Los Angeles, California and I’m at the Pac Sun Summit. And let me tell you, we are, we’ve had all kinds of fun. There’s influencers in the audience. There’s um, there’s, you name it, like individuals that are setting trends. Selling clothes and more importantly, building community. So we got a lot to talk about today. My next guest was on the stage earlier today and, uh, he’s, he’s the one of the names behind the data and the report that we’re here to celebrate today. So, uh, Neil, first thing, first, welcome to the show. Thanks very much for having me. Great to be here. Alright, so I saw you on stage today, so maybe for our audience at home, um, first off, what brings you to PacSun, uh, to the summit? How did this, all this collaboration begin, like talked about, about the report? Yeah, sure. Well, this is really Brie’s vision. Hmm. She has had a vision for a long time that understanding the youth consumer is really important. Mm. And she wanted to produce insightful and actionable research. Mm-hmm. To help. The community to help people, even other businesses, really understand what makes the youth consumer tick. Mm-hmm. So our job was really to help her realize that vision, because we are a research company, global Data, who did the research as a research company. So we worked very closely with Bri and her team to, and to take the research and bring it to life. Mm-hmm. And bring the findings. Into the community, which we are doing at this event. Hmm. What does it take? Um, before we get into the report, I, I’m just curious on my end, I’ve never done a, my last time I did a report or research, this doesn’t even count. I mean, college. So let’s not call it a real report. Let’s call it a book report. Maybe. Um, at best, what does it take to put together a report of this magnitude? Let us, let us be a fly on the wall in your office. Yeah, sure. So I think the first thing it takes. It’s like baking a cake. You need a lot of different ingredients. If you want to research properly, you need a lot of different inputs. Mm. So we are a research company, so we’re very fortunate to have access to a lot of different things that we can use to understand a market or understand degeneration. So for example, we have a consumer panel. Mm-hmm. We can go out and. To younger consumers, we can talk to them via closed quantitative surveys. Mm-hmm. We can talk to them via focus groups or conversations. We have things like social listening tools that make sense of all the noise on social media. We have economic forecasters who help us, help us understand spending trends and patterns. Mm. We have style forecasters whose job it is to look at how trends are evolving in fashion and elsewhere. Yeah. Our job in a way is to take all of these ingredients. Put it in a structure and make sense of it and deliver it to say, okay, this is what’s happening in the market. Yeah, but more importantly, this is what it perhaps means for your business. For your brand or whatever you are looking to apply the research to. Mm-hmm. So when, um, when Paxon approached you originally, and they’re like, we, we have this vision, or Bri Bri, the CEO said, we have this vision. Um, what does it, what does that look like from initial vision to then starting to build, uh, a, a report of this magnitude? Yeah, so it’s, it’s a long process, especially the first time that you do it. It doesn’t happen overnight. Yeah. So what we have to do is like, okay, the vision is. To help people understand the youth consumer. Mm-hmm. So then the question is, okay, well what do we want them to understand about the youth consumer? What’s useful, what’s not? Hmm. So you have a discussion of what the content might look like, what type of headlines you would like. Yeah. Now obviously you can’t guarantee those headlines happen, but it helps you structure it. Mm-hmm. The next thing is to say, okay, well we kind of know what we want to research and we know what the end result looks like. Mm-hmm. How do we get there? What tools do we need to use? What research do we need to run? What questions do we need to ask? So then we go through a whole process of a research design phase, um, and. Then we run the research after designing it. So you might run a survey. Mm-hmm. You might run focus groups conversations, then the hard work starts. Yeah. ’cause obviously you get all the data back. Yeah. And how do you make sense of it all? How do you tie it together into stories? How do you look for the trends? And so our team of analysts goes away and they basically just pour over the data. Mm-hmm. And they’re expert in their industries as well. Course. They know how to apply these things to, to commerciality. And then we start to structure it into a, into a story. And then you refine, edit, refine, edit. Mm-hmm. And a lot of the editing, honesty is editing down because you start off with something that looks like this. Mm-hmm. And actually no one can read or digest that much, so you have to take it down to that. So you’re really trying to pair it down to the essentials, the things that really, really matter. And we did that with Brie and, and her team. Yeah. Um, and then as you get to the end of that process, you start getting something that takes shape Yeah. Into the reports and. The thing you’re going to put out there. Mm-hmm. So it’s a very intricate process, but it’s also fun. Sounds like it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It’s a lot of learning along the way. So let’s, um, that’s a good transition. So what, speaking of the learning, um, let’s get into the report that you unveil today and maybe some of the key findings for the audience. Yeah. So one of the things I say is that is a really big finding, and it’s not the most mysterious of findings. Mm-hmm. But I think it’s an important one, is that. A lot of the stereotypes about Gen Z and Gen Alpha mm-hmm. Are simply not true. Mm-hmm. They, they’re very lazy stereotypes. Actually, gen Z and Alpha have a lot that unites them as a, as a cohort of youth. Mm-hmm. There’s a lot within Gen Z, a lot within Gen Alpha that unites them. There’s a lot of common trends. Yeah. But there’s also a lot of individuality as well. So you’ve got to look at the nuance sometimes, and not just the complete, you know. High level picture. Yeah. You’re gotta really dive into it to understand them. So that’s one of the big things. But I think if you look at the common themes and things that are generally true across that youth generation, the first one is that this is a very democratic generation. I don’t mean that in a political sense. Yeah, yeah. But I mean is in a commercial sense, this is a generation that. Is happy to use. Small brands often create small brands themselves. Interesting. Does not just accept the narratives of big brands. Does not just accept that because a brand has been doing something for years, that they’re the best. You shop there or they’re the best. Yeah. They take a very critical, in an intelligent way, a very critical approach to assessing brands. Mm. And and what that means is that actually no one. Has the right to be safe. Mm-hmm. Yeah. You could be a Walmart. You could be an Amazon. Yeah. Massive brands. But if you are not connecting properly with these youth consumers, they will punish you for it. Mm. Um, and that I think is exciting because it means it’s a very dynamic marketplace. Yeah. You actually have to pay attention to the consumer, say they do. Which it wasn’t that way once upon a time. Time. So like that’s where, when they talk, when sometimes these generations, um, the youth generation now where, however you wanna classify that, sometimes they get some of these lazy stereotypes. I’m always like, are you kidding me? The reason why. We have a better quality of, uh, of living on a lot of these products, even at the grocery stores. The reason why we, we have better groceries and better food now, it’s not because previous generations started boycotting those. No. We would’ve been eating the same stuff that was processed and fed to us. ’cause we never looked at the label. Yeah. Like, or, or if we did, we were just like, eh, whatever. Like, whatever that version is. I know I’m simplifying it, but now. I feel like many products in men, whether it’s consumer packaged goods, whether it’s just all these other things, um, sustainability, like in implementing that into the supply chain of many clothing brands and other things like that, that didn’t happen because somebody was just sitting there like, oh, we should do this ’cause it’s the right thing. No, it’s because speaking of the democratic side of things, people are voting, not youth generation, voting with their dollars. Yeah, it’s exactly right. And it’s exciting because it’s given rise to whole new categories. Yeah. I mean like wellness in food, for example. Mm-hmm. You have now food packaged with with adaptogens. Yeah. You have things like probiotic sodas. Mm-hmm. Which didn’t. I mean, they kind of existed, but they weren’t main mainstream. Could have, but they weren’t like it. To me it’s not, I’m making that generalization, not you, but, but, but it’s, uh, now big business because actually someone has decided that actually that is important. That food is functional. Yeah. That it’s about wellness. And, and often it is the younger generation that’s powering a lot of these, these trends. And then it doesn’t mean to say older generations don’t look at it and say, Hey, that’s a good idea. Yeah. Because they do, of course. But actually I think the younger generation is a lot more energetic about changing things up and not just defaulting to the brands that are big or the brands that are there. Yeah. And they’re prepared to, you know, as you said, you know. Vote with their dollars. Yeah. Effectively. Mm-hmm. And, and that does drive a lot of change. Yeah. Any other key highlights or anything else from the report that you wanna share? Just in general? Mm-hmm. I think another thing that’s really important is that, um, it, it’s about the product. Yes. It’s about the, the brand. Mm-hmm. But it’s also about how you show up for the consumer. ’cause one of the big findings is just how important mental health is to the younger generation. I don’t think that’s surprising in and of itself. Yeah. They’re a very empowered generation and it’s a very noisy environment in which they operate. There’s so many different social media feeds. Mm-hmm. So many different news streams for sure. Busy, everything changes every two minutes. It causes a lot of stress, and so what people really value is their mental health quietness. Mm-hmm. Being able to kind of take a step back and sometimes brands go, oh yes, we are into mental health. You know, this is important for the consumer. And it’s actually really the wrong way to think about it. Yeah. You can’t just turn up and say, oh, we’re gonna help your mental health. It’s not very authentic. Yeah. What you have to think is like, how do we help with the mental health? What are we doing in our brands, our activations, the way we connect with consumers? Mm-hmm. Our products. Even that helps consumers to lead a quieter life, to have some of that mental clarity and not have that overload, that cognitive overload. And that’s about the processes. It’s about brand, it’s about marketing. It’s much more nuanced than just saying, Hey, we give money to a mental health charity. Important though. That is, yeah, it is. Um, and I think a lot of brands don’t think that deeply. It’s almost like, oh, mental health is important, let’s talk about it a bit. Mm-hmm. And it’s like, well that’s great. It’s a start, but how you actually implementing it into your policies, your business practices, and your brand. Yeah. Because that’s the other thing that also comes through from the report. This generation is all about authenticity. Mm-hmm. They see through. Garbage. Yeah. Very quickly. Yeah. And they punish it because they can say like, this is just marketing speak. Mm-hmm. They want the authenticity. So if you are gonna talk to them about issues that are important to them mm-hmm. Or integrate it, you have to be really authentic. Yeah. And, and that sometimes is an anathema to people in marketing. ’cause marketing isn’t always authentic. Yeah. It can be very fake. Which is actually another interesting finding. That’s why this generation is so connected with things like social media influencers. Mm-hmm. Because a lot of them are are real people. Yeah. They’re people who started school, they’re relatable. Yeah, exactly. They’re relatable. Mm-hmm. They’d see themselves in it. Yeah. And that message resonates and it carries much further than some of the traditional marketing, which, and then you get into this whole thing. All of this is really interesting because what this generation has the potential to be is highly. Highly disruptive. Mm. Because retail, consumer brands, marketing, music, it doesn’t matter what industry it is. Mm-hmm. There’s disruption there. Yeah. Because of the changes in the consumer. And of course they’re only just getting started because they’re still. Very young, especially Gen Alpha. Hmm. I love it. Yeah, I love that. I love that you stress authenticity. Like whenever I’m, I, we’ve launched a lot of shows in my company over 250, and I do, and I do quite a bit of podcast interviews. I host nine shows, do thousands of interviews. Wow. So one of the things we talk about whenever I’m talking to somebody that’s a newer podcast or just getting into. And maybe I look maybe a little bit more polished than when I started. Of course. So when I started, I was like, I didn’t know what I was doing. I used to say when I was recording, I think this is a podcast. I don’t know, maybe I’m supposed to, I, it was so authentically bad that I, that I think then I obviously didn’t know what I was doing. Maybe I still don’t, I don’t know. Maybe if you’re, I don’t know, may, that’s for the audience to decide, right? But, um, uh, it was so authentically, in my opinion, bad. Then people just kept listening. I remember people would say, they’d say things like, Adam, the editing’s off, or this or that, or whatever, whatever. And I wasn’t even editing it. I’m talking way, this is nine years ago, I wasn’t even editing it and I was like, listen to it again. We’re gonna fix that and let me know if it’s not. We still weren’t adding. I just wanted some more downloads, but it was so authentically bad that over time, like some of those original die hard fans, that’s our core. They’re proud, they’re excited. Yes, they, that’s why we come to events like this ’cause that we wanna bring them with us. We know not everybody can travel the world coming to conferences like this and it’s okay, but I like to say I’m bringing that experience to them wherever they’re at, doing whatever matters most to them. So that authenticity so important. I love that. Yeah. And it’s interesting what you say. I mean, I think, you know, yeah, it may have been scrappy. Yeah. Initially, but you made a start. Yeah. And you tried it. And I think that is a trait of this younger generation as well. There is an attitude of, well, let’s just try it. Let’s put some stuff out there. Let’s see where it lands. Some of it doesn’t land, and that’s just fine. It doesn’t matter. Yeah. The main thing is that you’ve tried and that you are. Experiencing things. And actually, you know, social media is so transient that it, it, people don’t remember Exactly. People don’t remember. And it’s also not that costly. Yeah. You know, in the old days, even even a podcasting, you know, you needed equipment, you needed a platform. Mm-hmm. Maybe you needed to market yourself. Yeah. Nowadays you just need your phone. Yeah. Basically. And that’s it. And if, if you’re authentic Yeah. And your message is interesting, you, you can take off. And that, that’s what I mean by democratic. Yeah. Um, you know, and, and actually there. They’re stealing share from some of the biggest and most professional platforms for sure. That are out there. Even like news platforms. Yeah. I mean, podcast is stealing share. No, there is, yeah. News is being surfaced on social media longer for some of the traditional platforms. Totally. It’s really interesting to see that pivot. Yeah, it’s a very exciting, I think a dynamic time for, for business as a whole. It’s amazing. Neil. I know they’re calling you up there and I know you got some other things to do at the summit. So, um, last thing I want you to do, look into the camera. How do people follow up if they wanna know more about your company, getting reports done, research, anything else And how do they get a copy of this report that we were given today? Yeah, sure. So, uh, people can email, um, our company, the email address is [email protected]. Um, and that goes to our retail and consumer team. So you can come and ask us questions or if you want to work with us, that’s also great. Um, I’m on LinkedIn, um, so you can follow me there. You can also follow obviously Paxon there. And Paxon has shared the results, um, of this digit fee. This report digitally, so if you go on LinkedIn, you can find it there. Or if you email us as well, we, we can send you a copy of the PacSun report. Awesome. And everybody at home watching, just so you know. We’ll definitely put some links in the show notes so that you can, um, you can connect with the, with the PacSun and also Neil’s team. And speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with Mission Matters and you haven’t done it yet, hit that subscribe or follow button. This is a daily show. Each and every day we’re bringing you new content, new ideas, and hopefully. New inspiration to help you along the way in your journey as well. So again, hit that subscribe or follow button. And Neil, man, appreciate you coming on. Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you for having me. It’s been great.
