The assumption behind most brands' loyalty programs is that customers stay because the economics make sense and consumers value the exchange of points for rewards. New research from Ogilvy suggests that the loyalty relationship is more complicated.

Their global survey of 3,532 adults across seven countries found that the consumers who choose their favorite brand 75% of the time or more aren't primarily motivated by rewards mechanics. Instead, they're motivated by something harder to manufacture: The belief that the brand actually shares their values, improves their lives, and understands their world.

The trust gap brands

Among consumers who choose their brand 75% of the time or more, 63% agreed their favorite brand behaves in ways they respect or prefer, according to Ogilvy's data.

• Among less loyal shoppers, only 51% said the same. That 12-point gap on a values question, not a perks question, is a meaningful signal about what separates customers who stay from customers who drift.

The research confirms that loyalty programs generate some return, and the consumers themselves tend to agree. Nearly three-quarters (74%) of US adults say that value for money is the leading driver of long-term brand loyalty, according to July 2025 data from Net Conversion.

But when Ogilvy asked what separates high-frequency buyers from everyone else, the answers pointed consistently toward emotional and values-based factors, not discounts or points.

Some 85% of all consumers agree their favorite brand behaves in ways they respect or prefer, the single highest-rated factor across the entire Ogilvy survey. Eighty percent agreed it promotes or expresses what they value. Those numbers don't describe a loyalty program. They describe a relationship.

The millennial finding brands should stop ignoring

The conventional wisdom about loyalty is that Gen Z demands the most from the brands they patronize. The data disagrees. Millennials, not Gen Z, are the most loyalty-engaged generation across every driver the study measured. Some 67% of millennials agreed their favorite brand behaves in ways they respect, compared with 54% of Gen Z. Millennials also led on whether their brand improves their life (60% versus 51%), fits their world (56% versus 43%), and connects them to a community (57% versus 42%).

Gen Z values access. Some 66% said exclusive or early access offerings add value, versus 52% of boomers, according to the study. But access is a transactional motivator. The deeper loyalty drivers, the ones that track with repeat purchase behavior, skew millennial.

This generation is in peak parenting and career years, facing a genuine expertise vacuum in public life, and more likely than any other cohort to look to brands to help them navigate it.

The personalization paradox

Marketers have spent years treating personalization as a loyalty silver bullet. Get the data right, serve the right message at the right moment, and customers will feel seen.

• Personalization at scale is the top (38%) planned data activation use case investment for this year among worldwide marketers, according to a December 2025 survey from Supermetrics.

The Ogilvy research complicates that story. When asked what would add the most value from a brand, only 40% of respondents globally selected personalization. That puts it behind exclusive access (63%), consistency rewards (54%), and data control offerings (48%).

• Over a third (33.4%) of US shoppers say that retailers often get personalization wrong, according to November 2025 data from Amperity.

At the same time, other research from Accenture found that 33% of consumers will abandon a brand that fails to personalize at all.

Personalization is a floor, not a ceiling. Get it wrong and customers leave. Get it right and they barely notice. The brands pouring budget into personalization infrastructure while underinvesting in what they actually stand for may be optimizing in the wrong direction.

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