British shoppers opt for diverse selection of models in marketing campaigns, says GlobalData

An H&M 2019 campaign for sustainable fashion.

A huge 71% of UK clothing shoppers would like to see retailers and brands use more models of varying shapes and ages in marketing campaigns, proving that despite retailer investment in this area, there is still a long way to go for consumers to feel adequately represented, according to GlobalData, a data and analytics company.

Chloe Collins, Senior Retail Analyst at GlobalData, commented: “Females and males aged 25-44 feel strongly on inclusivity in clothing campaigns, creating a need for retailers targeting these groups to increase their marketing efforts to stay relevant, or risk losing shoppers.”

Although many fashion retailers such as ASOS and New Look have extended their clothing ranges to cater for plus-size, tall and petite shoppers, more retailers must extend this inclusivity to their marketing campaigns. 

PURE LONDON catwalk shows in July 2019 at London Olympia showcased SS20 fashion.

Photo by Lucia Carpio

A model at

PURE LONDON

July 2019.

Photo by Lucia Carpio.

Collins adds: “More than 80% of women across all age groups said they would like to see retailers using more models of varying shapes, meaning retailers such as Topshop and Zara – which only use slim models in their campaigns and fail to offer ranges that serve those over a UK size 18 – must increase their body type representations or risk losing popularity. One retailer that has achieved this is online pureplay PrettyLittleThing, which collaborated with plus size model Ashley Graham, and selected rap artists Lioness and Ms Banks to front its petite and tall collections and a specialised ‘shape’ range that caters for those with hourglass figures.”


Despite significantly fewer males demanding models of varying shapes (56.6% males verses 82.5% females), demand was much higher for males aged 25-44 at 68.6%. 

London-based MOT Models has a division called RETRO in response to latest developments that the post-war baby boomer generation is leading the way in the world of luxury purchases.  Seen here are two of MOT's top models Remco and his father Aad Van Der Linden. 

Photo by Thomas Kettner.

Collins continues: “Menswear retailers serving this age group such as Matalan, H&M and Primark must strive to include a more diverse selection of sizes within their campaigns, as younger brands such as ASOS and boohooMAN have done. They should also follow Nike’s lead by introducing plus-size mannequin’s instore.”


According to GlobalData, greater age inclusivity is just as sought after by clothing shoppers, with 72.1% agreeing that they want a wider range of age groups showcased in marketing campaigns. This surprisingly declines in the over 55s, the age group you would expect to feel the least represented, but this is heavily driven by males. Women in all age groups would like to see more age inclusivity, with 86% of over 45s agreeing, in comparison with 82.6% of under 45s.

Brands and retailers are moving quickly to provide more seamless omnichannel shopping experiences—but customers are moving faster.

Very significant changes are shifting the way apparel companies are keeping pace with digital competitors, while their customers’ behaviors and expectations are evolving ever faster, according to a new Apparel Omni-channel Survey report from McKinsey.  The study unveils a number of important insights.

For example, six out of ten people now use at least one digital channel when shopping for an apparel garment, which has major implications for physical stores. However, for most apparel companies, brick-and-mortar stores are still essential because  more of the best customers are using a combination of offline and online channels when they shop.

In exploring customer-experience and merchandising factors that drive customers’ behaviour, online leaders in consumer-facing industries, from books and music to insurance, find that customisation and personalisation are key sales drivers.

The businesses use countless data sources and artificial intelligence to customize offerings to millions of people every day, says the survey.  Cosmetic department store  Sephora—a best-in-class example—takes cross-channel personalisation to the next level with features like location-targeted text messages to notify customers that a nearby store has a new, limited-edition product in stock.

McKinsey's analysis reveals that personalization, such as “tailored for me” product suggestions and advice, is a key driver of trips for both monobrand and multibrand retailers across online and offline channels. 

Furthermore, customers indicate that personalization gives an opportunity to differentiate from competitors and delight them.

To personalize effectively, however, brands and retailers first must know who their customer is—to link and identify the one in three shoppers who researched online before coming into the store or researched in the store before visiting the website.

Apparel companies can outcompete online-only giants at specific moments in the consumer shopping journey. According to their research, one in four apparel shoppers visits Amazon early in the apparel shopping journey. However two-thirds of those visitors buy elsewhere, meaning Amazon is critical in the search, inspiration, and discovery phases of the journey (an insight supported by its growing role as a marketing and media platform) but is less effective for evaluation and the purchase transaction itself. This creates an opportunity for apparel companies to differentiate and win the actual sale.

Photos show general retail scenes in London - © Lucia Carpio 2019

Wasteful World: Study reveals our collective delusion on hoarding possessions.

Findings from a recent study reveal one of humans’ most common demons that many of us who have recently moved homes can relate to – and that is we tend to collect too much stuffs than we need, thus resulting in a lot of wastage.

Are we collecting more than we need?
To conduct a recent survey, relocation company Movinga polled 18,000 heads of households in 20 countries with the following questions: What percentage of your wardrobe hasn't been worn in the last 12 months?; What percentage of your grocery shopping ends up as waste?; Since your most recent move, what percentage of your transferred belongings are still not in use? The company then collated the responses with data from the World Bank and other scholarly studies on the topic.

The Berlin-based relocation company Movinga have just concluded a study that reveals the world’s most deluded countries in a bid to highlight our collective issues with waste and hoarding.

Says Glenn Miotke a spokesperson at Movinga:
“With the oceans becoming ever more polluted with plastic, and the fast fashion industry bigger than ever, it’s time to start encouraging individuals to really consider whether they really need more.”  

In this study which studied the collective delusion we face as a society when it comes to hoarding and waste had revealed that the UK, Switzerland, Canada suffer the biggest lapse in judgement on their consumption levels.

UK comes in place 17 with an average delusion of 23.33%, an average delusion of 39% for clothes that people think they wore during a year, an average delusion of 10% for food waste, and 21% for relocation.

The USA wastes the most food, according to the study, but Belgium is the most deluded about their grocery shopping waste and Russians are the most realistic when it comes to their habits.
Overall, Russia was the country with the lowest level of delusion with 3.33% and Switzerland had the highest with 26.33%.

For this unique study, Movinga had conducted a poll among 18,000 heads of households in 20 countries and compared individual’s perception on how much they own versus how much they actually use to reveal the level of cognitive dissonance we live in.

The results revealed that individuals are unable to perceive their own part in the global issues we face in terms of over consumption and waste generation, and Movinga hopes this study can raise consciousness and spark a discussion on how we do our part to help.

“At Movinga, we are personally invested in ways to make the moving process more effective and less stressful for our customers, however we are becoming increasingly aware of our responsibility towards the world we live in.” Says Glenn Miotke a spokesperson at Movinga. “With the oceans becoming ever more polluted with plastic, and the fast fashion industry bigger than ever, it’s time to start encouraging individuals to really consider whether they really need more.”

The full study allows the responses to be filtered based on these categories for a more in-depth exploration of the findings.

You can find the original tables on Movinga’s website.