People

The People Pillar

The People pillar’s main focus is people, from the customers to the designers, and how the companies communicate with their consumers.

Who are Gen Z’s?

To build a successful business model it is vital to research your customer base. One way of categorizing your customer group demographically is through generations. There is no exact agreement on when exactly the Millennial generation stop and Gen Z starts, however usually demographers refer to Gen Z when talking about the people born in the early to mid-1990s through the mid-2000s. Gen Z is the first generation of consumers to have been raised in an entirely post-digital era. For Gen Z technology and social media is an inevitable part of their daily lives (Fromm, Read 2018). Therefore, social media has become one of the main tools when marketing to Gen Z. Each generation has a common set of values that affects their behaviors, one such value for Gen Z is human equality. With social media, they started to get more control over huge companies through cancel culture. When a fashion business uses some practices that don’t align with their beliefs, they use social media to spread the information and ‘cancel’ the brand for unethical behavior.

How to Attract Gen Z?

To attract Gen Z many brands have started using different social media platforms, such as TikTok. Companies started to hop on the latest trends to get their items viral on TikTok. In the summer of 2020, Cottage Core gained massive popularity on TikTok which helped Lirika Matoshi’s strawberry dress reach large amounts of sales. However, as the TikTok trend cycle is short, the brand didn’t keep up with it. After fast fashion dupes started to appear online, customers started to move on. To hold Gen Z customers’ attention companies have to show more personality to build a strong online figure that wouldn’t need to hop on every trend (Criales-Unzueta, 2021).

Savage X Fenty as an Example of a Successful Diverse Brand

As human equality is one of the values shared by Gen Z, diversity is vital when building a corporate culture and image. One brand that has succeeded in creating an ethical and diverse image is Savage x Fenty. When Rihanna launched Savage X Fenty in 2018, her collection already featured bras in sizes ranging from 30A to 46DDD (McKinnon, 2022). Savage X Fenty fashion shows feature models with curvy hips, tattoos, shaved heads, and prosthetic legs. The brand has gained a large audience by creating a positive diverse image and contrasting with brands such as Victoria’s Secret which has been lacking in representation and diversity and dropping in sales (Fernandez, 2020).

Important Skills for Running a Fashion Business

For each brand to be successful it is necessary to have a comprehensive understanding of your customers, therefore research skills are vital for running a fashion business. By being able to find customers’ deepest wishes and by quickly reacting to them, brands can build customer loyalty and trust which would make them willing to purchase new products that would be coming out. Another important skill to have is collaboration skill. There are many successful examples of brands collaborating with other designers or artists that achieved cult status. A perfect example is Vintage Louis Vuitton Takashi Murakami bags, which were first released as part of the Spring/Summer 2003 collection under then-creative director Marc Jacobs (Mondalek, 2021). In an age of social media, it is natural that brands have started to share more ideas which leads to them gaining attention and recognition in the fashion and art industry. 

• References:

• José Criales-Unzueta: To Hold Gen-Z’s Attention, Brands Need to Show Some Personality (2021). Available at: https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/marketing-pr/to-hold-gen-zs-attention-brands-need-to-show-some-personality/

• Chantal Fernandez: Is Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty Lingerie Turning Its Hype Into Sales? Available at: https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/marketing-pr/rihanna-savage-fenty-victorias-secret-show-amazon-lingerie-megan-thee-stallion/

• Jeff Fromm, and Angie Read Marketing to Gen Z : The Rules for Reaching This Vast–And Very Different–Generation of Influencers (2018). Available at: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ual/reader.action?docID=5275471

• Tricia McKinnon: How Rihanna’s Fenty Brand is Leading in Diversity &  Inclusion (2022). Available at: https://www.indigo9digital.com/blog/fentydiversityinclusion

• Erica Kagan: Takashi Murakami x Louis Vuitton: The Fashion Collaboration That Defined A Generation (2022). Available at: https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/takashi-murakami-x-louis-vuitton-the-fashion-collaboration-that-defined-a-generation

Images Sources:

1. https://lirikamatoshi.com/products/strawberry-midi-dress-black?_pos=2&_sid=9e195c2ce&_ss=r
2. Getty Images