How Two Fast-Fashion Brands Remain Successful through the Culture of its Social Media Presence

By: Hayley Meerdo

3 min read.

Leaning away from the tips and tricks this month, I wanted to share how different fashion brands, that we all likely know and love, are using their social media to successfully market their products and branding in the fashion industry. These are the top fast fashion brands currently dominating social media strategies and campaigns:

As we know, fashion trends shift constantly and social media is the main influence of these trends. Fast fashion appeals to consumers like us because although many of these brands are not entirely sustainable, they are convenient, affordable, and quick to change out as trends transition. 

Zara’s brand image on Instagram at first glance is simple, mature and elegant. With 61.4 million followers, Zara attracts consumers worldwide. This large following impacts the content they post. If you look at the products on social media and online compared to the clothes actually sold in most of their physical retail stores, they are very different, yet appealing to all fashion trends. The billion dollar brand appeals to customers because of their convenient and affordable products, that are sold through digitally dominant platforms.

With 17.9 million followers, Pretty Little Thing is forming quite the name for themselves. They fulfill their brand image on social media with a consistently pink and black color palette, following a trendy and aesthetic board of posts. 

The brand also connects to consumers by integrating light-hearted posts about various influencers between their promotional posts of their clothing. Some of these include Justin Bieber, the Jenner sisters, Selena Gomez, Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter. This creates more interaction on their posts. Pretty Little Thing uses their platform to engage consumers worldwide between strong digital marketing strategies and giving back through giveaways, trips and new deals on their products.

Why support these two fast-fashion brands?

It’s simple really. Although the manufacturing of the clothing between Zara and Pretty Little Thing may not be the most natural or renewable, both brands carry on well built brand initiatives to make up for the lack of product sustainability. We know that fast fashion is usually not made with high end, resourced material, rather convenient, quick and relatively cheap material to provide fast and affordable products. It is important to look at what these companies are doing to keep the well being and concerns of their consumers in mind. 

Zara has been aiming to improve its social and environmental goals by starting a #JoinLife initiative where the company is taking milestones to move towards more sustainable ways. This includes fabrics, materials and packaging, recycling of old products and unused materials. The campaign even provides customers with access to clothing care guides that informs how to to maintain the lifespan of clothing pieces and even encourages clothing donations for upcycling.

Pretty Little Thing doesn’t seem to have the highest ratings on the sustainability scale, but the brand has an abundance of campaigns supporting things like body positivity and breast cancer awareness, which some are of interest to consumer based concerns in the fashion industry. Pretty Little Thing x Coppafeel was a campaign the brand released where clothing profits would fundraise money for breast cancer awareness and research. All in all, PLT is a brand that shows their support for women around the world.

To learn more about either of these brand’s description, mission or newsletters, visit zara.com and prettylittlething.com. 

#fastfashion #upcycle