People
By Sophia Pandeli
People is one of the 4 pillars of fashion business school. They are what creates the fashion industry and the reason why the industry is the way it is in today’s society. Furthermore, people use fashion to express themselves and showcase who they are to experiment with different ways of being themselves (McKinsey 2019 ‘True Gen’) or follow trends and be influenced, especially with social media, Gen Z has the access to discover new fashion trends and shop from the palm of their hands.
Gen Z consumers are the most likely to shop via social media and the internet out of all generations however in a survey conducted by IBM, hybrid shopping is the primary method for 36% of Gen Z consumers (2022 consumer study: Consumers want it all, 2022). In addition to this, they place high importance on the brand’s ethics and corporate responsibility they look into more sustainable and diverse brands.
To attract Gen Z consumers a fashion brand should be as sustainable as possible. A Gen Z consumer would be more inclined to purchase from a sustainable brand rather than a brand that isn’t and doesn’t have good ethics behind it (Gen Z Consumer Behaviour: What You Need to Know | Talon. One, 2022). Another thing is that advertising on social media would also attract Gen Z due to the digital age that they’re in, a brand would get more recognition from Gen Z consumers via social media and the internet. Furthermore, to attract Gen Z, there should be diversity involved within the brand and modelling/advertising the brand. This means that not only does the brand use diverse models and offers them to advertise their products but also has them working within the brand and behind the scenes. For example, a brand that has responded to diversity is Fenty Beauty and Savage x Fenty Clothing. Fenty is a worldwide known brand designed and created by the famous Rihanna, her desire when creating her brand was to be inclusive and diverse and she has been a success with this desire as she uses models to represent her brand from different cultures and backgrounds and who have different body shapes and sizes from each other.
An image of Savage x Fenty’s diverse and inclusive models representing the Fenty brand
The key people skill a fashion brand needs to be successful is to have good communication with people as people may have interesting ideas and thoughts which could be highly useful to a fashion brand’s success. Also to have a successful fashion brand you need to have an inclusive mindset in order to have a brand people want to work with and purchase from.
Bibliography:
– GEN Z CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW | TALON.ONE
(Gen Z Consumer Behaviour: What You Need to Know | Talon. One, 2022)
Talon. one. 2022. Gen Z Consumer Behaviour: What You Need to Know | Talon.One. [online] Available at: <https://www.talon.one/blog/gen-z-consumer-behavior-what-you-need-to-know> [Accessed 12 October 2022].
– 2022 CONSUMER STUDY: CONSUMERS WANT IT ALL
(2022 consumer study: Consumers want it all, 2022)
IBM. 2022. 2022 consumer study: Consumers want it all. [online] Available at: <https://www.ibm.com/thought-leadership/institute-business-value/report/2022-consumer-study> [Accessed 12 October 2022].
– McKinsey (2019) ‘True Gen’: Generation Z and its implications for companies [Accessed 12 October 2022]