People
The pillar of People focuses on investigating all kinds of specific groups of people. It absorbs their ideas, preferences, consumption habits or other potential factors as the reference data of enterprises, so as to help enterprises make business decisions and make target consumers attracted by their products.
“Generation Z” is usually described as Gen Z, which refers to people born from 1996 to 2010. Gen Zers nowadays have lived through dramatic social events like climate crisis, epidemic lockdowns, and economic collapse. When the first crowd of Gen Z was born, it was the starting point of the rise of the Internet. Gen Z grew up with the Internet, smartphones and artificial intelligence. Gen Z has a long era span. The oldest Gen Z has begun to work independently and may shoulder loans, while the youngest group of Gen Z is still experiencing puberty. In such an era of complex social background and efficient information access, Gen Z has become an open and inclusive group.
To attract Gen Z, brands must highlight their commitment to societal challenges such as diversity, environmentalism, sustainability, climate change and world hunger. (Scott Clark, 2022)
Gen Z attaches great importance to personal uniqueness and social hot spots. Gen Zers will be more willing to cooperate and consume with enterprises and brands with the same values as themselves, as long as Gen Z is a digital aborigine, they are well aware of the marketing routines of designing media, so enterprises must truly have a sense of social responsibility, otherwise, Gen Z will easily identify some enterprises’ false propaganda for marketing purposes.
Make-up brand Fenty Beauty has proved that the brand is diversified through practical actions. Fenty Beauty opened with 40 colours of powerful foundation (now expanded to 50) and is committed to launching a foundation suitable for all races and skin tones. Fenty Beauty has subverted the beauty industry and become an industry benchmark, “it is not enough for a beauty brand to have less than 40 colours of foundation.” (Funmi Fetto, 2020)
As mentioned above, the key skill to a fashion brand with People as the centre is to always pay attention to its target customer group and analyse the customer group (or even potential customer group) thoroughly to ensure that the brand is accurate to the customer portrayal. Always update the data of target customers, such as fashion trends, economic income and social issues that they care about.
Bibliography
McKinsey. “What Is Gen Z? | McKinsey.” Www.mckinsey.com, 20 Mar. 2023, www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-explainers/what-is-gen-z.
Clark, Scott. “What Does Gen Z Really Want from Brands?” CMSWire.com, 1 Aug. 2022, www.cmswire.com/customer-experience/do-your-brands-values-align-with-those-of-gen-z/.
Fetto, Funmi. “How Fenty Beauty Changed the State of Play in the Industry.” British Vogue, 6 Apr. 2020, www.vogue.co.uk/beauty/article/rihanna-fenty-beauty-diversity.