Today's consumers have abandoned the perfect, you find it?

All along, the fashion industry has been telling female consumers about the "perfect" story: flawless skin, S-shaped body without a bit of fat, thick black hair ... Thanks to post-production, advertising models can show graceful stature and impeccable beauty, so that millions of ordinary women at the same time, constantly through the purchase of fashion products to make up their own shortcomings, so that they tend to perfection.

But now, this marketing strategy has begun to be questioned by ordinary consumers, awakening consumers no longer blindly pursue the fashion industry to create a "perfect" image, they admit their imperfections, no longer be advertised by the "perfect image" at the mercy of. To fashion brands, this means to cater to the public's aesthetic, can not be high above, but need to show more of the common people flawed beauty.

Resist the perfect

In a recent campaign "Perfectlyfit", American fashion brand CalvinKlein (CK) recently invited the model's "Tuba Model" (plus-size) Myla Dalbesio, with a group of "standard" Model together, took a group of print ads. In the modeling world, Myla Dalbesio is regarded as a "tuba" model because she has a plump figure of standard Model 4th. She is also Calvin Klein's first "non-standard" figure of the advertising model, Calvin Klein invited her to join, in an attempt to convey to consumers CK suitable for different types of women, different size of the message, Show their own aesthetic diversity.

But after the ad came out, perhaps the effect of post-production, "Big Girl" myladalbesio with a standard figure of the supermodel together, there is no Shong sense: the same slender arm, the same curved shape. The effect of advertising backfired, and brought a lot of criticism to CK.

Elle Magazine took the lead in attacking Calvin Klein's ads on Twitter: The idea is to advocate for women's diversity, but deliberately conceal the Myladalbesio "large" features, still showing a uniform standard figure. Implied that CK still "thin for the United States", words and deeds inconsistent.

Consumers also quit, said the "The"? They began to denounce CK on Twitter, and many questioned the suspicion that CK's ads were discriminatory, and joked that CK should be fitted with a pair of high myopia glasses to see what the "Tuba" was. Although CK later clarified the original intent of the ad in the New York Times, it was still hard to quell the outrage, with tens of thousands of consumers in social media leaving a comment that allowed CK to see the consumer's redefinition of "beauty".

As hot as CK, there is Victoria's Secret. November 2014, Victoria's secret invites a group of skinny skinny but chest plump models for its body series of underwear to shoot a set of theme "Perfectbody" ads, after PS, the advertising model has a larger than the average proportion of the big legs, slender waist and plump chest, Show what Victoria's Secret considers "the perfect body." After the introduction of advertising, the female consumers have been strongly resisted.

For the average female consumer, most of them do not have the perfect body of the advertising model, according to Victoria's Secret standard, this is "perfectbody", which means that most ordinary female consumers are not perfect. Clearly, women consumers do not accept such aesthetic standards, they are "I am Perfect" as a manifesto, to resist Victoria's secret advocated by the aesthetic.

Twitter also featured a "Iamperfect" (My perfect) slot project in which many women raised "iamperfect" signs in front of Victoria's secret billboard to protest the beauty it advocated; more than 15000 people signed a petition, Asked Victoria's Secret apology and stopped the ad, they wrote in the petition: "Every day women are bombarded by advertisements and uneasy about their imperfections, which makes them feel inferior to women who are not dressed in advertising."

Finally, in the pressure of public opinion, Victoria's secret finally had to quietly change the site's advertising slogan to "A body for the Every body" to make compromises to the public.

Both CK and Victoria's Secret encounters reflect the current women's change of self-identity, which raises questions and objections to the concept of beauty advocated by the brand. In this era of dominance in the hands of consumers, this means "Shunmo, Shang". If CK and Victoria's secrets provide a negative example, the same underwear brand, Aerie is a positive reference.

Truth is more touching.

Earlier this year, Anglo Eagle's underwear brand Aerie made a bold decision, in all of its underwear advertising and promotional materials, to give up PS and other pieces of the tool, directly show the model the most real, to encourage 15-21-year-old young women "real life, real thinking."

In Aerie's ad, still hiring a model, although they are still young and good-looking, thinner and bony than ordinary people, without PS and post-processing, advertisements are no longer thin, long legs, s-curves, or sculpted facial lines and porcelain doll skins. But closer to ordinary people: the waist does not conform to the curve of the Golden section, belly may have a micro-convex belly, the face of sunburn and wrinkles, body also has a stretch marks, tattoos.

"We want to be able to break the traditional pattern and in this way let ordinary girls embrace the beauty of the real me." "Aerie brand agent Jenny Altman the gist of this marketing strategy in an interview. At the same time, as a teenager-oriented underwear brand, Aerie would like to help young girls to establish a healthy aesthetic. Therefore, Aerie's advertising words change commonly used "You are perfect", but using the "real you are very sexy", emphasizing the real side of the model, to help consumers find themselves beautiful.

Aerie's strategy quickly won the hearts of consumers, these not so high cold models to make them feel more real, and the model of clothing collocation for them, more useful and practical value.

Another practical value of this strategy is that more and more women are now opting to shop online because they can't try them, and they want to see how they fit in with the average person who is close to their body. To this end, Aerie also made some adjustments to his website, on Aerie's website, if consumers look at a lingerie, but do not know how the effect of the upper body, you can see with their own size and bust similar models to wear out the effect, which to some extent make up for online shopping can not be tried to wear regret.

Aerie This daring attempt brought unexpected results. Aerie's latest quarterly earnings show sales grew 9%, while Aerie sales fell 2% over the same period last year. This is perhaps the most intuitive affirmation of the female consumer's approach to Aerie.

In the past few years, Dove launched the "True Beauty movement", found that the beauty of ordinary people, to now Aerie give up PS, let the model in the advertisement to show the close to the common consumer side, reflecting the overall marketing environment, the relationship between consumers and brands is changing, consumers have been passive for the initiative, No longer let the brand lead by the nose. and specific to women-related skin care, fashion industry, female consumers no longer need the brand for them to establish a perfect image, let them worship, crazy for them, they need, is to discover the beauty of themselves. For the brand, it means not to teach female consumers how to become more beautiful, or even perfect, but to learn to explore the beauty of ordinary people.