A Gen Z Perspective on Packaging and Branding

I'm spending my summer as a strategy intern at Sterling, a consumer branding firm specializing in package design. Being immersed in the work has sharpened my thinking attention on how my generation relates to the products we buy. As a member of Gen Z — a cohort often labeled as fickle when it comes to brand attachment — I've seen firsthand how packaging has become part of our personal brand.

Walk into the 7-Eleven near my college campus and you can see this in practice. When I’m with friends grabbing a drink before heading to the library, the choice isn't just about what we are thirsty for. We’re also thinking about what we’ll have sitting on our desks for the next four hours. A neon energy drink gives off a very different impression than a modern BFY soda. We grew up so used to managing our personal image that the everyday things we carry naturally turn into social cues.

The same rule applies to our off-campus apartment kitchens. Older generations might leave products out wherever they land, but we decide exactly what stays visible and what gets hidden away, the same way we curate our digital feeds. We'll hide the store-brand flour in the cabinet, but the squeeze bottle of olive oil stays right on the counter next to the stove. These items act as intentional signals of our taste and cultural awareness. Great packaging keeps working as a real-world endorsement long after purchase. That's the truth behind our fickle reputation: we're not disloyal, we're intensely loyal to the brands we proudly display.

The brands we adopt rarely feel like they were designed to chase Gen Z at all. They're designed for a specific person with a distinct point of view: the foodie who leaves their olive oil out, or the friend who brings tinned fish to a picnic. Our interest is sparked when a brand’s point of view says something we want said about us.

What I'm learning this summer at Sterling is that this is a strategy problem before it's a design problem. Define your consumer before you design the package. Because when your consumer is well-understood, your packaging will reflect their functional needs, of course, but more importantly, it can be a mirror of their emotional needs and social currency that gets your brand noticed.