Case Study
A Brand with a Mission: How Goodwill and Gen Z are Growing Together
The Client & Challenge
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. Despite many challenges that emerged during the pandemic, Goodwill’s business remained strong, exceeding 2021 goals. Their loyalty program data revealed that, while average spend per customer increased across all generational segments, their Gen Z shopper numbers grew by over 16%. Here was an opportunity to build on this momentum by gaining a deeper understanding of their Gen Z customers through marketing research. Goodwill’s objective was to create enhanced shopping experiences, attract new customers, and provide more meaningful loyalty program value propositions based on data-driven customer feedback.
The DRG designed a two-phase, scalable research framework to address these strategic questions:
- 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?
“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
The Solution
Getting to the heart of Goodwill’s Gen Z customer story called for quantifying specific purchase experience details in an online survey including:
- 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.
The Wins
A critical finding was learning the importance Gen Z shoppers place on price and finding great deals. The study also revealed how Gen Z beliefs in sustainability, corporate ethical standards, and positively impacting the community are exercised by shopping at Goodwill.
These insights are helping Goodwill create value propositions tied to price savings and the thrill of finding one-of-a-kind items to tap into the Gen Z growing passion for thrift shopping.
Building on the alignment between its mission and Gen Z values, Goodwill is creating strategies to convert Passive Gen Zs to Promoters using NPS as a key performance indicator.
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