people

Modeling started in the early 1800s (Anna, G. 2019) but was also a problem for society from the beginning. this is because certain beauty standards had to be met. A white skinny girl was the typical model, which led to uncertainty among people who, for example, were plus size or had a different skin color. Fortunately, the new generation, Gen Z is changing a lot about these standards. This generation are those born between 1997-2012 (Emily, S. 2019) and was also the first generation with social media and technology. They are distinguishable from previous generations because this big change provided more influence on people. Gen Z feel that companies have a certain responsibility to address environmental and social issues. So as consumers, the gen Z is more critical of how fashion and cosmetics businesses react to this ask for change or how they are trying to adapt. Brands could for example, take a stance on social issues. 31% of gen Z reports that they would switch, avoid, or boycott a certain brand that’s part of a social cause they don’t align with. they also think diversity is very important so as a brand you should make sure you make products for every body size, skin colour… also using models with different body sizes and skin colours is important. Something else a brand could do to attract gen Z is to work with nano and micro influencers. These influencers have a maximum of 100K followers, which leads to an engaged following. They influence costumers a lot because they intend to gain people’s trust and build a personal relationship with their followers. The third and last example of what a company can do to attract gen Z is to build a community around their brand. Gen Z is a lonely generation, and study shows that 82% of Gen Z want to join a community because they value the networking. Also, to share similar principles or interests. An example of a brand that responded to diversity is Fenty Beauty because they expanded the amount of different colours of their make-up products. They have make-up for every skin colour now which is a great change for more diversity. All CEOs of incoming fashion and cosmetics brands should be aware of this need for change and diversity. They should also try inventing new ideas and need insight to maximize diversity.

references

• Anna, G. (2019) the history of modeling
• Emily, S. (2019) Gen Z: born to be digital 
• Imran, A., Anita, B., Marco, B., Achim, B., Saskia H., and Felix, R. (2019) the influence of woke consumers on fashion 
• Andrew, B. (2023) marketing to gen Z: what the new cosumers want 
• Sandy, S. (2019) how Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty delivered ‘Beauty for All’ — and a wake-up call to the industry