WHY SKINNY FASHION MODELS ARE BAD FOR SALES

Last week, on my regular visit to one of the top fashion designer in Ghana, we engaged in our usual conversation about the fashion industry. Talking about models, she gave me reason why she always requested for large/plus size models from me for photo shoot and why she does more garment for large/plus size instead of the common skinny models done by most of the designers. I decided to dig a bit into the matter and here I come with reasons why skinny models are not too good for advertising your business.

I talk to few plus size women and majority of them said they feel shy, intimidated and embarrassed sometimes when designer tell them the lovely designs they saw on mannequins, magazine, or catalogs cannot be make for their size.   

In a study conducted with 2,500 women of all ages and sizes by Ben Barry, a modeling agent. It was found that more women were willing to shell out money for a dress after seeing how great it looked on a woman whose figure resembled her own. Women liked seeing models of their own size, to see how the garment hung and hugged different parts of the body.

Women increase their purchase intentions by more than 200 percent when the models in the mock ads were their size. In the subgroup over size 6, women increased their purchase intentions by a dramatic 300 percent when they saw curvier models. Conversely, when women saw models who didn't reflect their size, they decreased their purchase intentions by 60 percent, and women over size 6 dropped their purchase intentions by 76 percent."

Women over the age of 35 were 200% more likely to buy the dress if it was shown on a more mature model.

May be Israel lawmakers see the business aspect of this that is why they declared war against too skinny models. LOL.  Two months ago Israel lawmakers enacted legislation to banned too-skinny models. That means models working in the Israeli market — which is hardly as influential as European or even South American market — must have a body mass index of 18.5 or higher, or at least “not look underweight.” (The World Health Organization defines underweight as having a BMI below 18.5.) So a 5’ 10” model must weigh 129 pounds, a 5’ 11” girl must weigh at least 133 pounds, and so forth. Many models of about that height walking runways and posing for magazines today easily weigh around 100 pounds so it at least sounds like a good idea. The Israel law also requires fashion magazines to disclose when images have been manipulated to make the models look thinner.

Using only white models is another sales error. African black/American women were 1.5 more times likely to make a purchase if they see the dress on a black model.

Contrary to long-held marketing wisdom, fashion ads don’t need to lead women to aspire to an unattainable ideal to sell products but now fashion ads gives women confidence and makes them feel beautiful seeing people of their own size.

So, if you continue using skinny models for your ads, you are only selling to 30% - 40% of the market and losing out 60% -70% of the general market.