CONNECTION IS EVERYTHING
Amsterdam, 17th June 2026
A Strategic Playbook for Building Customer Loyalty, Brand Intimacy, and Emotional Resonance.
speech
summary.
2026 marks the 1st anniversary of the Beat Generation joining us.
We now have seven different consumer generations in society, with 55% of the European population being Millennials and under.
While generations like the Traditionalists, now in their 80s, sit more in the ‘Do It For Me’ space, DIY industry spend is dominated by Boomers and Gen X.
Boomers have high wealth, high project spend when they do invest, but project frequency is slowing down for this generation.
Gen X are at their peak income earning, peak spending, active in both repair, redecorating but also in larger scale renovations, and also in secondary home investment.
Both Boomers and Gen X over-index in DIY spend versus their share of the population. But that is the present. It is the future we look to for growth.
Millennials account for 24% of the population and 22% of DIY spend, a slight under-index, and of course Gen Z only account for 6% of spend v 18% of the population. As this generation ages, it is the one we should be looking to for growth.
When we say ‘Millennials’ many of us still think of ‘young people’, pre-family, early career cycles and low incomes. The reality is that half the Millennials are now aged over 40, with young children and greying stubble!
Half of Gen Z are in their mid-20’s to early 30’s and present a significant opportunity for the DIY industry.
Traditionally, the generations are presented as 15-year segments, and if you stay with that 15-year frame, we can isolate the most important generational segment for the future of the industry – the ZILLENNIALS. Born from 1987-2002 they are aged 24-39, made up of the younger 50% of the millennial population and the older 50% of Gen Z.
Work €3.1 trillion in general spending today, they are set to be worth €5.5 trillion in 15 years.
So, what do Zillennials want?
They want geographic freedom, flexibility, and home ownership becomes secondary to geographic mobility.
The age of leaving home has risen significantly since the 1980s. While individual country data differs, 22 was the average age children left the family home in the 80s. Today that is 27 and up to the age of 30 in mediterranean countries.
Again, in the 80s 55% of 30-year-olds owned their own homes. That is only 27%. Over the last 7 decades we have had a continuous decline in home ownership and an increase in renting.
The issue with this is of course, the variance of annual DIY spend between an owner and a tenant. Again, it will vary by country and region, but the averages come out at about €600 for a tenant versus X5 times that for a property owner -€3,000.
We are looking at a significant hole in potential industry revenue because of this shift from ownership to renting. We need to unlock that spend by targeting the renter market more effectively.
This means offering power tool rental, support for smaller freestanding projects, landlord-approved products, solutions that make moving between properties easier, inspiration for improving rented spaces, and flexible monthly payment plans.
Unlocking the rental spend is key to future growth for DIY. And so too is leveraging AI.
AI and robotics are not here to steal jobs. It is here to optimise inspiration and impulse spend in our industry.
AI will fuel the great commoditisation of the Customer Experience. Everyone will have good service via AI agents. You cannot rely on this as a competitive advantage any longer. We need to develop Customer Intimacy, to foster a sense of closeness and delight the customer.
Agentic AI will fundamentally change the nature of the consumer decision making process. As customers and the trade start to use personal AI agents, those agents will choose the products and brands best for the project. For brand owners that is terrifying.
But AI also provides the industry with personal inspiration, more powerful than we have ever seen before. Gone will be the days of searching on YouTube to find an instructional video.
We already see AI transforming interior decoration and renovation in terms of inspiration. It is but a small step forward to have all the relevant products for a project then delivered and personalised instructional videos rendered for each and every customer.
This has the power to unlock significant spending in our industry, beyond what we have been capable of prior to such AI tools in the pocket of every customer.
Lastly, we have to look at our stores.
Still functional and transactional in the extreme, we need to unlock the low-hanging fruit and make the stores more inspirational. Even the online stores we offer are product and promotion-led instead of inspirational.
We need to inspire people and have them look at the possibilities, not products. Think of an IKEA store more than a warehouse of products.
The overlap between building more inspirational store experiences, harnessing AI tools and unlocking rental spend is where the immediate growth lies for the DIY industry.
The brands that do this well will win. Those that do not will fight for attention and share in the cul-de-sac of commoditisation.
Your Strategy Audit
5 Questions to Answer
01
How are you adapting your product range or retail experience for the Zillennial customer?
02
How are you bringing to market products or a retail experience that focuses on unlocking the limited spend from those renting?
03
How are you harnessing AI to inspire trade and end-customers to use more DIY products?
04
Do your AI investments focus on increasing customer spending or simply on your own internal efficiency and process?
05
If you look at the retail experience in-store and online, how is it inspirational v transactional? What more can you do to inspire rather than bring products to market?
More content
from Ken.
THE CUSTOMER INTIMACY LADDER: FROM SERVICE TO SOUL
QUANTUM PHYSICS & THE ILLUSION OF SEPARATION: WHY ENTANGLEMENT MIGHT BE THE MOST POWERFUL METAPHOR IN CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE (CX)
DECODE, DELIGHT, DEVOTE: TURNING CUSTOMERS INTO TRIBES THROUGH GAMIFICATION
For those too lazy to read blogs, and to view further visual content and past performances from Ken Hughes, check out the YouTube channel where he discusses all things consumer and customer experience related.
If you want to develop a true understanding of Customer Intimacy and Brand Advocacy and understand the power of the EX/CX relationship, get yourself a copy of my latest book. Packed with inspiring stories around CX/EX, it is your backstage pass to brand brilliance.
