How Gen Z’s ‘little treat culture’ is influencing brand marketing strategies

Gen Zers are strong proponents of “little treats,” a term they’ve coined for small, everyday indulgences such as overpriced coffees, fresh-baked pastries or trinkets such as Sonny Angels, as a form of self-care. With so-called “little treat culture” encouraging Gen Z consumers to splurge on snacks, beverages and beauty products, brands from Glossier to Diet Coke are embracing the little treat philosophy in their product launches, social media campaigns and other marketing tactics in hopes of making it into the rotation of items Gen Zers treat themselves to. TikTok Trends Tracker Breaking down viral social trends and how brands can engage Click here For beauty and fashion brands such as Glossier, Dove and LoveShackFancy, that’s meant incorporating sweets such as fruits and pastries into their products and marketing imagery. In January, Glossier unveiled its new “Black Cherry” makeup collection with a marketing campaign that leaned heavily into the cherry aesthetic, including a photo of the four products in the collection resting on a bed of cherries. The brand also introduced a set of treat-inspired lip balm shades, Espresso and Biscotti, ahead of the holidays. The Instagram post revealing Glossier’s cherry-themed collection has been “one of [Glossier’s] top-performing social posts” of the year thus far, Kleo Mack, Glossier’s chief marketing officer, told Ad Age. The collection also exceeded sales expectations by over 115% in the two-week window following its launch, Mack said, which has driven her team to “continue to think about how we play into this idea of little treats—not only in the product we create, but also how we go to market and think about our merchandise strategy.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Glossier (@glossier) In response to the rise of the “little treat” trend, Glossier has put the desserts and fruits that its lip balms are named after, such as birthday cake and mango, at the forefront of its social content, performance marketing ads, emails and other marketing strategies, Mack said. “We’ve actually reshot a lot of our ‘Balm Dotcom’ category to bring more food-forward content to life,” she added. It’s kind of shifted our overall content strategy across our marketing funnel on what that content looks like, and then we’re also tapping into creators to create short-form videos … with their interpretation of those little treats.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by 𝐈𝐒𝐀𝐁𝐄𝐋𝐀 (@belajuliana_) Dove similarly blended beauty and sweet treats when it partnered with Crumbl Cookies on a collection of cookie-scented body wash, deodorant and other products last December. The products quickly went viral on TikTok after Crumbl superfans @TurnUpTwinsTV promoted them in a Dove-sponsored video, which spawned hundreds of additional videos about the products that collectively generated nearly 60 million views, according to a Dove spokesperson. Sales of the Crumbl collection have exceeded Dove’s forecasts by more than 50%, the spokesperson said. Within a month of the collection hitting store shelves, it had driven three times more sales than any previous Dove product launch, Marcela Melero, chief growth officer, Dove Personal Care North America, in an email. That success drove Dove to add a new, highly requested vanilla cupcake scent to the Crumbl product line last month, Melero said. And Dove expanded the campaign offline by bringing a pop-up truck to four Walmart stores and engaging with roughly 500 fans of the product line, she added. “There’s something magical about opening Crumbl’s signature pink box and seeing the treats inside,” Melero said. “That spark of delight is what we wanted to capture with the Dove x Crumbl collection.” @kelstill this might have to be my favorite pr package EVER 💓 thank you so much to @Dove Beauty & Personal Care and @Crumbl! i can’t wait to smell like a strawberry crumb cake #dove #dovexcrumbl #crumblecookie #gifted ♬ original sound - TurnUpTwinsTV 👯♀️ Gen-Z-favorite skincare brand Rhode has made dessert a core part of its marketing since influencer Hailey Bieber launched the brand in June 2022, collaborating with Krispy Kreme in 2023 and regularly weaving treats such as cinnamon rolls into its product names and imagery. LoveShackFancy also recently tapped into the “little treat” trend. In January, the fashion brand partnered with candy shop chain Dylan’s Candy Bar on a candy collection inspired by LoveShackFancy’s pink and floral aesthetic. LoveShackFancy founder and creative director Rebecca Hessel Cohen said in an email that the collaboration wasn’t directly connected to the trend, but acknowledged that “‘little treat’ culture is definitely having a moment.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Dylan's Candy Bar (@dylanscandybar) The ‘little treat’ philosophy These dessert-themed partnerships are more than just an aesthetic choice, however. They’re part of brands’ growing efforts to capitalize on Gen Z’s tendency to splurge on “little treats” by positioning their products as potential indulgences for the age cohort. “‘Little treat culture’ is not just describing a buying behavior—it’s almost more like a philosophy,” Julia Peterson, director of consumer marketing at youth culture agency Archrival, wrote in an email. “Young people see ‘treating’ themselves not as a luxury, but as a necessity for staying grounded and finding joy in the wake of tough cultural and economic times. I think more and more brands are reading that shift and adjusting accordingly.” Indeed, “little treat culture” has exploded across social media as more Gen Zers have entered adulthood and found themselves burdened with student loan payments, credit card debt and surging rent prices. On TikTok, especially, Gen Zers regularly endorse treats such as a latte from a coffee shop as a way to cope with economic and political uncertainty. @likhalately Little treats for life ♬ Let's Vibe - FRENCHGRL The little treat philosophy is “informing how they [Gen Z] buy, what brands they buy from and even the occasions in which they choose to purchase,” Peterson said. “It’s really changing the way young people think about their money and how they spend it.” A February report from consulting firm McKinsey & Company revealed Gen Zers are more likely to treat themselves than any other age cohort. In a survey conducted by McKinsey, 59% of Gen Z consumers, those born between 1997 and 2012, reported planning to splurge on everything from groceries to beauty products over the next three months. Millennials, too, are more inclined to treat themselves, with 53% saying they intend to do so in the next three months. That’s compared to the 35% of Gen Xers and just 20% of Baby Boomers who said they plan to indulge in a little treat in the near future. “‘Little treat culture’ is to Gen Z as ‘nostalgia’ is to millennials,” said Grant Weber, senior creative strategist at Archrival. “Consumers seek moments of simplicity and happiness when most other things seem uncertain.” Despite the sweet-sounding name, “little treats” encompass more than just desserts. For instance, many Gen Zers consider a Diet Coke their daily indulgence—so much so that the soda brand took note and tapped into the trend with a new series of ads running across linear TV, out-of-home displays and Diet Coke’s social channels. The “Know the Signs” campaign is an updated take on the brand’s “Diet Coke break” messaging from the 1990s. Also read: Diet Coke’s comeback fueled by social media Trinkets such as keychains, charms and novelty figures, including the aforementioned Sonny Angels, are also popular little treats among Gen Zers. Glossier included a cherry-shaped keychain that doubled as a lock in its Black Cherry collection to capitalize on that trend, Mack said, and the keychain sold out less than four hours after it launched on Glossier’s website. The brand reserved some of the sold-out keychains for pop-ups tied to the Black Cherry launch, where consumers could also buy cherry stickers and eat cherry-flavored Van Leeuwen ice cream, she said. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Glossier (@glossier) Little treats versus luxuries Although Gen Z is more willing than other generations to treat themselves, most lack the funds to splurge on pricier luxury items. But brands such as Prada, Burberry and Louis Vuitton, not wanting to be left out of the little treat phenomenon, have all recently hosted pop-up cafés in hopes of enticing Gen Z consumers with a coffee or dessert. “Brands are using food as almost a luxury now because of the economy,” said Joel Marlinarson, a Gen Z content creator who freelances with clients such as Amelia Dimoldenberg’s viral “Chicken Shop Date” series. “People are not buying or splurging on expensive products in the same way that they used to. So, they'll treat themselves to a $20 Erewhon smoothie, as opposed to splurging on that $1,500 bag.” In other words, Marlinarson said, little treat culture is effectively a repackaged version of the so-called “lipstick effect,” the economic theory that consumers will indulge in more affordable luxuries (like lipstick) during economic downturns.

How Gen Z’s ‘little treat culture’ is influencing brand marketing strategies

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