Teatox- How Millennials are Being Targeted for Weight Loss Products

I recently stumbled across a very interesting phenomenon revolving around tea. What's so special about tea you ask? Well for starters, I happen to love tea. I claim to be something of a tea connoisseur. I cozy up to all kinds of teas- black tea, green tea, oolong, white tea, red tea- you name it. Each kind of tea has its own healing properties and special taste. Nowadays though tea has become the hottest new dieting fad. How are brands marketing their newest weight loss tea? The answer: Instagram.

Companies are reaching out to popular Instagram users to pose with their products and comment positive reviews.  Of the many I looked at, most Instagram sponsored users emphasized that they didn't change anything about their eating habits or exercise. This ensures that their thousands, to even millions of followers are enticed to try the tea program. 

Most programs are purchased as 14 or 28 day sets. Their marketing stressed that the programs were extremely easy to follow since the consumer did not have to change their already existing routines. All one has to do is drink the tea 30 minutes before each meal. The hope is that the tea will suppress hunger and "burn fat."

Perhaps most influential of all the Instagram publicity is still celebrity "testimonial." For instance, Kylie Jenner posted about her teatox diet. 

Companies like Byron Body Tea are even using Instagram photos for the their testimonial pages on their website. Which is quite dishonest if you ask me because the users used for the testimonials have all been paid/sponsored- meaning they couldn't say anything negative about the tea, even if they believed it to be so. Perhaps more credible would be a blog post or YouTube review (see below).

As someone who values healthy eating and lifestyle choices, I don't find this new teatox craze to be effective. Although some of the teas may work to suppress hunger, they are not a sustainable ways to attain and maintain weight loss. Also the markup for the tea is exponential and similar tea products could easily be bought at the grocery store for a quarter of the price. 

I will say though, I almost bought into the Byron Body Tea program last week. A fashion blogger friend of mine posted about it and I took her word for it. (The photo is above- the one with the sushi and tiny man in the tea cup). After doing research however, I found it to not be worth the investment. It goes to show you how tricky companies can be with their marketing. I think that Instagram as a platform tends to comes across as the most relatable and authentic out of all the channels. I'm thinking this had to do with how impressionable I was looking at my friend's photo. 

The Art of Listening: Why Victoria's Secret Is Losing Customer Base to Aerie

     Recently there has been a lot of chatter on the Web about positive body image. This is not a new topic, however, only lately has it had a serious impact on consumer brands. For instance, Victoria's Secret is currently losing its market share in the lingerie industry, as well as losing its customer base due to not listening to consumer feedback on their marketing campaigns and for not offering plus size underwear. 

     According to Groundswell, "Your brand is whatever your customers say it is." In Chapter 5, the authors discuss the need for a company to seriously listen to what it's consumers are saying. Companies pay large amounts of money to do market research and learn general insights of their consumer's buying behaviors. However, in today's digital age a company can find invaluable feedback from its consumers through social media engagement or simply doing a Google blog search. 

Victoria's Secret "Body Campaign" was heavily criticized for not including diverse body types

      In the case of Victoria's Secret, they are losing their customer base to Aerie because they continue to do nothing with the feedback they've received on social media platforms and within the blogosphere for a change in their advertisement of unattainable beauty standards. Consumers now do not feel the Victoria's Secret brand represents their own body and values of acceptance for all body types.  

Aerie's #aeriaREAL campaign emphasizes loving one's body as it is

      The reading discussed the Mini USA case study, where parent company BMW increased total sales for the year of 2006, when they sold no new models. Their success for that year was directly linked to their marketing to their own customers and listening to what they voiced. Had Victoria's Secret listened to their consumer base, they may have had higher sales this past year. In comparison, Aerie's sales are soaring after listening to what their consumers had to say about the need for untouched photos and body type representation. 

How Blogs and Social Media Are Used in The Fashion Industry

      When was the last time you opened a fashion magazine? Most people these days would answer that they haven’t. Of course that question relates to those interested in fashion in the first place, but regardless within our digital world print media is going extinct. Instead to take their place are blogs and social media.

      Jane Aldridge currently at age twenty-three has designed several custom shoe collections for stores like Shoe Mint and Urban Outfitters, has been featured in most major fashion magazines, and has been sponsored by Chanel. It is rumored that she can earn up to about $5,000 for a sponsored post. How has Jane accomplished all of this so far in her career in fashion? The answer: blogging. Jane began blogging in April of 2007, when she was just fifteen years old. Her blog called “Sea of Shoes” features Jane mixing and matching luxury clothing and shoes in a way that was very uncommon compared to the average teenager her age. Jane represents the new “face” in the fashion industry. 

A photo of Jane from the post "Pinstripes & New Shoes" posted September 1, 2015

      Blogging is where a person or group of people post entries (“posts”) typically in reverse chronological order on a website. The word “blog” comes from a truncation of the expression web log. Posts can be made up of a multitude of material. For instance a post could be made up of photos from another fashion website and then the blogger would synthesize the trends of that specific season or look.  Most popular in fashion blogging, however, is the outfit post. The outfit post is where the blogger posts photos of their everyday outfit and then explains which clothing and accessories were worn, as well as their reason behind styling those specific pieces, or what they did that day while wearing that outfit.

       Fashion blogs are blogs that cover the fashion industry, clothing, and personal style.  What makes fashion blogs different than other blogs? One distinct difference is that fashion blogs are laced with advertisement and consumer recommendations. Meaning that there is a larger opportunity to make money from this kind of blogging than with other genres of blogging. In fact now designers and clothing companies are seeking out bloggers to promote their clothing because they see a new audience to market to.

       It is no surprise that blogging has changed the fashion industry greatly in the past decade. Before the rise of blogging, when the Internet was just beginning to boom in the 1990s, clothing companies advertised their clothing primarily in magazines. They would advertise both overtly in a full-page advertisement or they would send samples of their clothes to the magazines to be featured in an editorial spread.

"Fairytale Story" post published on February 12, 2015 sponsored by the designer Chloe

       However, it appears as though digital media tools have disrupted the exclusivity of fashion promotion. Nowadays bloggers, like Aldridge, are a new financial stream for advertisers seeking to sell the latest fashion. The advertisers and PR companies will send bloggers samples so that they can wear and write about the pieces in their posts. Unlike magazines, which produce one issue per month, bloggers post new content daily and in return receive hundreds of thousands of views per month. This has become a brand new way for advertisers to have access to more viewers than ever before. Fashion blogging has become a brand new way to profit for advertisers.