Gen Z Market Research

Touchstone Research delivers Gen Z market research that helps brands understand the behaviors, preferences, and decision-making of teens and young adults. Through safe, age-appropriate research, we connect brands with authentic Gen Z perspectives across media, products, and digital experiences.

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Gen Z Research Built for How This Generation Engages

Gen Z is shaping culture, commerce, technology, and entertainment faster than any generation before them. Their expectations, values, and digital behavior differ sharply from Millennials and Gen Alpha, making it essential for brands to understand what drives their choices. Touchstone Research helps organizations stay ahead with insights grounded in real Gen Z voices, real behaviors, and real-world context.

Gen Z Research That Meets Teens Where They Are Today

In-Context Gen Z Consumer Insights: Research is designed around how Gen Z actually interacts with content, brands, and experiences, capturing responses in environments that feel natural and relevant.
Safe, Age-Appropriate Participation: Studies follow strict youth privacy and consent standards, ensuring ethical engagement with teens and young adults while maintaining data integrity.
Methods Designed for Gen Z Communication Styles: Approaches reflect how Gen Z prefers to participate, balancing speed, interactivity, and clarity to encourage thoughtful, authentic feedback.
Insights That Inform Real Decisions: Findings are translated into clear implications that support creative development, product strategy, and brand decision-making.
Researchers Experienced with Gen Z Audiences: Projects are led by teams who understand how to engage Gen Z participants respectfully and effectively, fostering trust and high-quality responses.

Gen Z Research Services That Support Real-World Insight

Touchstone Research offers full-service and flexible options for conducting Gen Z studies. Research programs are designed to explore media engagement, product feedback, and consumer behavior among teens and young adults, combining digital fluency with methodological rigor and deep youth expertise.

Qualitative Research

Delve into the motivations, behaviors, and preferences of Gen Z participants through qualitative research designed for teen and young adult engagement. Approaches such as focus groups, in-depth interviews, and ethnographic methods are adapted to reflect how Gen Z communicates and interacts.

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Gen Z Quantitative Research

Quantitative research for Gen Z captures measurable insight into brand perception, message effectiveness, and purchase intent using mobile-first, visually engaging surveys designed for younger audiences.

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Recruitment & Fieldwork

Recruitment and fieldwork for Gen Z studies follow strict screening, validation, and youth privacy standards. Processes are designed to ensure high-quality participation from teens and young adults across local and global research programs.

Learn More About Our Qualitative Research Recruitment Services

Gen Z Market Research Recruitment & Fieldwork

UX Research

UX research with Gen Z explores how teens and young adults navigate digital experiences, helping brands refine usability, journeys, and interfaces to align with Gen Z expectations.

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Insight Communities & Online Panels

Custom Gen Z insight communities and online panels support ongoing feedback from teens and young adults, enabling iterative research across concepts, experiences, and trends over time.

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Gen Z Insight Communities & Online Panels

Dial Testing

Dial testing captures real-time feedback from Gen Z audiences as they experience media, creative, or messaging, revealing moment-by-moment engagement and emotional response.

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Gen Z Secure Content Testing

Secure Content Testing safeguards Gen Z-facing assets during research using controlled access and watermarking, helping brands protect sensitive content while gathering meaningful feedback.

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Gen Z Insights in Action

Real-world examples of how Touchstone Research helps brands connect with, understand, and empower the next generation.

Closing the Cybersecurity Gender Gap (Non-Profit & Tech)

The Challenge: Girls Who Code needed to understand the specific barriers preventing teenage girls from entering the tech workforce and required deep market research for technology to guide their advocacy.
The Solution: We executed a national quantitative research study with 2,105 U.S. teens, utilizing a comparative analysis between general population youth and program alumnae.
The Outcome: The study statistically validated a critical “confidence gap,” providing the foundational evidence for the Breaking Barriers report and shaping national policy recommendations.
View Full Case Study

Optimizing AI Creative Features for Gen Z (Generative AI)

The Challenge: A major digital communication platform needed to validate if their new Generative AI creative tools aligned with the intuitive expectations of Gen Z users before a public release.
The Solution: We conducted a remote qualitative UX study using screen-sharing and expectation mapping to observe how teens and young adults navigated the feature in real-time.
The Outcome: The research identified specific usability friction points, enabling the product team to prioritize design refinements and align the feature with user mental models prior to launch.
View Full Case Study

The Gen Z Audiences Behind Our Research

Gen Z research spans a wide range of backgrounds, interests, and life stages, ensuring insights reflect the diversity and complexity of this generation.

High School Students
Tech-Savvy Teens
Social Media Enthusiasts
Gaming Aficionados
Movie & TV Buffs
Loyal Consumers of Teen Brands
Youth Trendsetters
Creative Young Minds & Aspiring Artists
Young Influencers & Content Creators

Eco-Conscious & Socially Aware Teens
STEM Enthusiasts
Athletes & Sports Fans
Music Lovers & Concert-Goers
Digital Natives
Fashion-Forward Teens
Diverse Cultural Backgrounds
And many more!

Gen Z Consumer Insights Across Key Industries

Because Gen Z behaviors, expectations, and values vary by category, research is tailored to deliver insights that are relevant, actionable, and grounded in real-world context.

Creators & Influencers

Generative AI

VR / AR

Multicultural

And More!

Gen Z Research FAQs

What is Gen Z research?

Gen Z research explores the attitudes, behaviors, preferences, and decision-making patterns of teens and young adults. It helps brands understand what influences their choices across media, products, technology, culture, and consumer trends.

How is researching Gen Z different from other generations?

Gen Z expects transparency, relevance, and digital fluency. Research with this group requires mobile-first methods, fast-paced activities, creative engagement, and an environment where teens feel comfortable sharing honest perspectives.

What methods do you use in your research on Generation Z?

We use qualitative and quantitative methods tailored to teen communication styles, including mobile surveys, video interviews, moderated groups, ethnography, online panels & insight communities, UX testing, and real-time feedback tools such as Dial Tester.

Can you recruit teens for qualitative and quantitative research?

Yes. We recruit teens and young adult participants through rigorous screening and multi-step validation. For participants under 18, we follow strict privacy procedures and require verified parental consent.

Do you conduct international Gen Z research?

Yes. We support global studies in more than 60 markets, using localized recruitment, translation support, and cultural adaptation to ensure accuracy and relevance across regions.

What types of industries benefit from Gen Z consumer insights?

We support brands across technology, media and entertainment, education, retail, CPG, gaming, fashion, food and beverage, nonprofits, and more. Any organization seeking to understand the next generation can benefit from Gen Z research.

How do you ensure participant privacy and data protection?

All Gen Z research follows strict youth data privacy standards, including parental consent for minors, secure data handling, and industry-leading compliance protocols aligned with SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, and CCPA.

Can you test Gen Z reactions to content, products, and digital experiences?

Absolutely. We conduct usability testing, concept evaluation, prototype testing, media testing, and campaign validation—capturing what resonates with Gen Z and why.

Do you offer ongoing or community-based Gen Z research options?

Yes. We build custom Gen Z insight communities and online panels, allowing brands to gather continuous feedback from teens and young adults over time.

Looking for research with younger audiences beyond Gen Z? Explore our youth and family market research services

Trusted Gen Z Research Partner for Global Brands

What Our Clients Say About Our Gen Z Research

Touchstone Research has been an invaluable partner in our product design process, helping us reach a hard-to-reach population (K-12) students, and upholding the highest standards around safety and accessibility for participants. … Having worked with other research panels in the past, Touchstone has the best customer service, and panel quality. We plan to keep working together for the foreseeable future!

UX Researcher
Ed-Tech Company
With the knowledge gained in our user research efforts with Touchstone, we have been empowered to make more data informed decisions about our product by keeping user behavior and motivation at the forefront of our work. Along with being flexible in our partnership model, Touchstone has supported this effort by offering a dedicated team that continues to learn about our unique product and business needs and provides quick turnaround for participant recruitment, facilitation, and topline reports.

Senior Digital Product Manager
Ed-tech Company
I got the opportunity to work with the members Touchstone Research through another company. I was so impressed with them that they were the first group that I called when I got my own research project. Not only did they respond immediately, and give me a fair price for the work I requested, but they helped me along the way and were in constant contact. They found children from different regions from families of different interests. They also set up all of the online sessions, got the participants set up and ready to go so that all I had to worry about was myself! I just didn’t realize that this amount of support was possible, and now that I have that, I can never go back. For anyone who is unsure about doing online research, you don’t have anything to think about with Touchstone. They will take care of you and your project will go smoothly every time from start to finish.

Educational Consultant
Media & Entertainment Company