The phenomenon of diversity and inclusivity has been widely discussed in various contexts.
Given that it is such a complex subject that encompasses a lot of different types of diversity, a lot of research covering various topics of diversity in relation to different industries is available.
The relation between the importance of representation of ethnic diversity and consumer attitudes and identity is arguably well-established by, for instance, Frisby (2019) in “Black and Beautiful: A Content Analysis and Study of Colorism and Strides toward Inclusivity in the Cosmetic Industry”. Moreover, it has been well-established by Fromm & Read (2018) in
“Marketing to Gen Z: The Rules for Reaching This Vast and Very Different Generation of Influencers” that Gen Z consumers are different from previous generations, particularly in terms of their awareness of issues pertaining to all kinds of diversity, hereunder ethnic diversity, and that the ‘defining cause’ that create the basis for Gen Z’ers’ behavior is human equality, including racial equality (Fromm & Read, 2018, p. 27). However, in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement and the effect this paper seeks to examine whether it had on the beauty industry, along with the argued influence of newer beauty brands entering the market with a revolutionizing diversity aware marketing strategy, such as Fenty Beauty, this paper argues that a shift in demands on the market can be identified. Given that the flare-up of Black Lives
connection to a socially aware generation such as Gen Z, which known for, amongst other things, valuing an authentic representation with diversity and inclusivity, this area of research is still relatively un-researched. For this reason, the research that exists on the topic of the potential lack of diversity and inclusivity in the beauty industry lacks either the generational marketing aspect or the argued significance it has for “identity nomads” as Gen Z consumers have been known as. Moreover, there is very limited availability of research that examines how Danish Gen Z consumers address the topic of diversity and inclusivity, and the connection or possible disconnection between consumer attitudes and consumer behavior in regard to consumer values.
Thus, this is the gap in research that this paper aims to ‘complete’ or, at least contribute to by way of its analysis and subsequent findings. This paper strives to contribute to existing research that concerns this topic with aiming to illustrate how brands can accommodate Gen Z consumers’ argued demands for diversity and inclusivity in the beauty industry, how and if this can be seen reflected in the Danish beauty industry in terms of consumer behavior, and moreover, the influence of the Black Lives Matter movement.
It is argued that no single existing research paper incorporates the knowledge needed to examine the problem statement of this paper along with its accompanying research area.
Therefore, it can be said that there is a gap in the existing research for the exact research area that this paper attempts to examine and accomplish.
At the outset, when collecting data for this paper, it was the intention to include Danish sources for the majority of secondary data and secondary literature. However, it became evident that there are not a lot of Danish sources about Gen Z consumers to be found. The vast majority of Danish data and literature about ‘young consumers’ covers Millennials, who are the generation that precedes Gen Z. This was cause for curiosity, as there is a surplus of international or English data and literature about Gen Z to be found. Thus, this paper is compelled to use data primarily based on global or U.S. Gen Z consumers, which it is acknowledged does come with its limitations. Given that there arguably are differences to be identified between e.g. U.S.
consumers and Danish consumers, it can be argued that the applicability of some of the secondary data included in this paper cannot be transferred with a 1:1 ratio. However, this paper argues that there is sufficient data about Danish Gen Z consumers that suggests a certain
similarity between Danish and e.g. U.S. Gen Z consumers for this paper to maintain an appropriate level of validity.
Critical Review of the Literature used in this paper
As this paper argues that there does not exist a model developed specifically to illustrate or analyze the research area and problem statement to an adequate extent, this paper applies various theories in its analysis in an effort to go about this in the best possible manner. This means that theories and literature have been applied to examine the research area of this paper, even though it may have been developed to examine something else. Consequently, it is important to note the implications of this and the limitations of theories in regard to application to this given case, which is what this section of the paper will account for.
This paper applies the theory of The Personality Approach by Heding et. al. (2016) to examine the importance of congruence between consumer values and brand values in regard to the construction of a consumer’s ‘ideal self’. This paper used this approach in an effort to illustrate how Gen Z consumers might have a preference towards brands that expressed valuing diversity and inclusivity, as this is one of the core values that this paper argues to be characteristic of Gen Z consumers. Heding et. al. (2016) present ten approaches to brand management, out of which The Personality Approach was selected due to its argued relevance of application.
However, it should be noted that the possibility of multiple approaches being relevant to the topic of this paper does exist. The brand approaches by Heding et. al. (2016) illustrates the different approaches as belonging to different ‘schools of thought’ in terms of the consumer perspective of the nature of the brand, but the theory does also state that different approaches are able to coexist. Therefore, it can be said that this paper’s choice to only include one approach to analyze consumer perception of brands might be flawed and that it could possibly have strengthened the analysis to include more than one approach. This could, for instance, have been The Relational Approach, as The Personality Approach is, according to Heding et.
al., a prerequisite to The Relational Approach (Heding et. al., 2016, p. 24).
Furthermore, another limitation of using The Personality Approach is that it is theoretical and does not provide any numbers or statistical insights into how many consumers actually feel the need to emotionally bond with a given brand’s personality. As can be seen from the survey of
this paper, the majority of respondents say that alignment between personal values and brand values are moderately important, however, a not-insignificant number of respondents rated it as being either not important at all or only slightly important. Thus, the applicability of The Personality Approach can be discussed, provided that its very basic assumption of consumers seeking brand-consumer value congruence is challenged by the aforementioned findings of this paper. Moreover, The Personality Approach maintains that the main function of a brand is not to provide utilitarian attributes and benefits but to enable consumers’ construction and expression of self by providing signal value (Heding et. al., 2016, p. 120). However, it is possible to argue that, perhaps in the cosmetics industry, consumers may value utilitarian attributes to a higher extent than they do signal value, as cosmetics once applied does not show any branding like e.g. a piece of clothing might. Therefore, it can be said that this paper has applied a theory to analyze its problem statement, despite the possibility that the basic assumptions of this theory might not be transferable to this topic.
Similar to the application of The Personality Approach (Heding et. al., 2016), this paper also used Belk’s (1988) theory of The Extended Self. This theory was chosen as it further describes how consumers use consumption as a means of creating a ‘desired self’, which this paper argues to be of relevance when seeking to analyze Gen Z consumers especially, for the same reasons argued in The Personality Approach. The theory of The Extended Self argued that consumers attach meaning to possessions, and view possessions as an extension of themselves. However, it can be argued that the way in which this paper applies this theory to imply that consumers use consumption to signal their support for diversity and inclusivity misses the mark on what Belk argues to be part of what constitutes ‘an extended self’.
Furthermore, Belk’s definition of the extended self does not involve values and is intended in a much more visible manner, than what this paper has utilized it for. Belk does not mention anything about consumer values and value signaling in his theory, and thus, it can be argued that this paper uses this theory to illustrate something else than the theory was intended to illustrate, challenging its appropriateness of application to the context of this paper. Although this paper does argue for the applicability of this theory, it must also be noted that in the process of utilizing a theory for anything other than its intended purpose, the findings of that analysis can be argued to be questionable. This exemplifies a possible limitation for the theory in itself as well as a limitation in this papers’ application of the theory.
As this paper, among other areas, aims at investigating how Gen Z’s values are expressed through their consumer behavior, the theory presented by Solomon (2020) on consumer attitude and behavior has been applied. Solomon (2020) is an educational literature with a collection of theoretical frameworks on consumer behavior, originally proposed by different theorists. The use of this literature can be argued to be limited as it compresses existing, perhaps complex, theories into shortened theories. Hence, the theories presented are not explained in-depth. This might have limited the authors’ understanding of the theories and the extent of theories related to consumer attitude and behavior.
In order to illustrate and provide a possible explanation to the phenomenon of why there can be a mismatch in expressed consumer values and consumer behavior, Klein et. al.’s (2004) theory of Consumer Motivations for Boycotting is applied in this paper. This theory is strictly concerned with possible explanations as to why consumers decide to or decide against participating in a consumer boycott.
This theory has a limitation due to the fact that it is based on, arguably, much more ‘harsh’
cases of consumer boycotts, such as companies being boycotted due to unsafe and immoral working conditions, child labor or not behaving responsibly in regard to the environment. It can be said that these cases are much more extreme and may arguably call for more extreme measures by consumers, than launching a non-inclusive shade range of foundation might.
Although this paper does argue for the importance of diversity and inclusivity, it might challenge the applicability of this theory to the context of this paper, that it was developed in analyzing more severe cases of wrong doing by companies. This might cause the findings of the theory to be different than if it had been developed for examining why consumers encourage each other to “cancel” non-inclusive brands on social media, or moreover, why consumers decide against participating in such a boycott despite expressing belief in the end-goal. The theory fails to examine the possibility of consumers caring about a given value but only to a certain extent. It does provide two possible explanations to this, i.e. counterarguments and constrained consumption, but it might also be true that there could be something else at play in the case of the cosmetics industry. Once again, this is a limitation of transferability of findings, as the case study the theory is based on, examines something else than the research area of this paper.
In order to explore the possible importance of consumers feeling represented in the beauty campaigns and shade range availability they see in the beauty industry, this paper draws on elements of Maslow’s hierarchy of Needs (1943) and Baumeister and Leary’s (1995) theory of The Need to Belong. This has its limitations, as this paper uses the theories to describe Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs was developed to be looked at as a prioritization of an individuals’ needs, and not as a means to examine why ethnic minority consumer groups may feel the need for acceptance and representation in the country, they reside in. The same can be said of the Theory of the Need to Belong. This theory was more so developed to illustrate the psychological, physical, and societal effects of individuals not feeling like they belong to a social group, and not getting sufficient socialization. This paper recognizes that these theories were not intended to be used to describe the need for certain ethnic groups to, firstly, belong to a group and, secondly, feel that that group is reflected in the beauty industry, and lastly, feeling that their group is being catered to in terms of shade range. Although this paper argued for the relevance in applying the theories to describe this, it must be noted that this application is beyond what the theories are intended to encompass and illustrate.
In order to provide contextual background knowledge on Gen Z as a generation, hereunder trends, demands, and statistics, several pieces of literature specifically on Gen Z were utilized.
Three pieces of literature utilized in this paper arguably have a very similar function.
Generation Z: A Century in the Making by Seemiller and Grace (2019) offers insight into nearly every aspect of the lives of those in Gen Z. It draws on several research studies and claims to be an authoritative defining work on Generation Z for market researchers, consumer behavior specialists, and employers. Similarly, The GEN Z Frequency: How Brands Tune in & Build Credibility by Witt and Baird (2018) is a book for marketers, communicators, strategists, and creatives who seek to build skills in order to grab and keep Gen Z’s attention. Marketing to Gen Z: The Rules for Reaching This Vast and Very Different Generation of Influencers by Fromm and Read (2018) serve as a practical guide to marketing to Gen Z. Thus, based on the purpose of the literature, it can be argued that these pieces of literature serve as a guide for researchers and marketers, making it valid for this paper to make use of, as the authors act as researchers. However, the literature can be argued to be too broad for the purpose of this paper, as they do not present research on specific areas related to the beauty industry. Furthermore,
they are not intended to be used specifically on consumers in the beauty industry. Thus, this paper could have benefitted from utilizing literature specifically related to the research area, however, as explained earlier, these are limited.
Journal articles and reports related to Gen Z and specific research areas of the beauty areas can be argued to support data on Gen Z in general. For instance, the report Gen Z: Building New Beauty by Saunter and Shin (2019) seeks to identify Gen Z’s behavior in the beauty industry and recommend actions for brands, making this report more specific and relevant for this paper than the applied pieces of literature on Gen Z in general. However, an arguable limitation of making use of journal articles and reports is how the research of those papers is too specific to utilize in this paper’s research. This is also argued to be the case with the aforementioned journal article Black and Beautiful: A Content Analysis and Study of Colorism and Strides toward Inclusivity in the Cosmetic Industry by Frisby (2019), resulting in this paper applying knowledge related to a research area that was, however, not meant for this paper’s specific scope. This can be argued to be true about all journal articles and reports used in this paper, as they are conducted to shed light on specific research areas that are not specifically meant for this paper.
Critical Review of the Authors’ Biases
When conducting research, researchers must arguably be critical of their own approach and their limitations. The authors of this paper acknowledge that they have biases limiting the quality of the research that needs to be critically reviewed. The authors had a personal interest and initial insight into the research topic which contributed to the motivation of the research.
This personal motivation can be argued to contribute to confirmation bias defined by Pohl (2017) on how research information is searched for and interpreted in a way that it confirms the research’s predetermined conceptions. It can be argued that the level of the authors’
knowledge of the beauty industry prior to conducting the research resulted in the authors actively seeking information and data that correlated with the expected outcome. The authors have not actively collected data that contradicts these possible biases, arguably making the research area limited and “blind” to other perspectives. However, the authors were aware of this bias early in the research process, arguably making the authors conscious of being and staying as objective as possible throughout the research process. It is arguably not possible to
eliminate biases completely, nonetheless, this paper argues being aware of these biases can contribute to strengthening the research process, although, it cannot be determined to what degree confirmation bias had an effect on the study. Another possible bias of the authors is arguably how the authors consider themselves to be a part of the older segment of Gen Z, thus, limiting the willingness to find data that is not consistent with the personal opinions on how their generation behaves. Here, personal opinions and experiences of the generation might have influenced this research paper’s direction. Being a part of the investigated generation, it can arguably strengthen the confirmation bias as the authors sought to collect information and data that supported the values and demands of the generation correlating with the authors’.
Nevertheless, the authors reflected upon this bias continuously throughout the research process, aiming to constantly stay critical of findings.