Controversial Rebrands & Clothes Shopping Trends | Gen Z Marketing Insights - 12th March
Freshers Festival Group
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Welcome to Gen Z Marketing Insights,?where we showcase the latest news, trends, and insights into student and Gen Z marketing. Be sure to subscribe to stay up to date with everything that's been happening in the youth marketing space!
Today we discuss a major Gen Z rebrand that has the whole internet talking, we look at some heart-warming student news, and we examine how exactly students are shopping in 2025.
?? Marketing News - Regretting the Rebrand?
Our favourite ad of the week comes from Quaker Oats UK ! The porridge brand has launched its latest campaign, Deliciously Ugly, designed to encourage consumers to embrace the product despite its less-than-glamorous appearance. The ad features a simple bowl of porridge topped with a few berries, accompanied by the tagline: Lumpy, bumpy, messy, and real. The message? Not all picture-perfect breakfasts are tasty or nutritious!
In other Quaker Oats news, the brand has partnered with the National Trust for an exciting giveaway! Purchasing a promotional pack gives you the chance to win a family day pass to any National Trust location. Since it takes just two minutes to make a bowl of porridge, winners will be selected every two minutes between 7-9 AM, with a total of 2,520 passes up for grabs. Even if you don’t win, you’ll still receive a 25% discount on standard tickets for up to five people at National Trust properties. Pretty awesome!
This week has been full of fashion brand drama, and one of the biggest stories has to be PrettyLittleThing.com 's surprise rebrand! The fast-fashion giant went dark for 48 hours, leaving fans puzzled—only to return with a fresh new look. Gone are the bright pink logo and unicorn symbol, replaced with a sleek, neutral-toned design. Owner Umar Kamani revealed that the rebrand was driven by concerns over declining clothing quality. However, loyal customers were shocked to see prices soar, with the brand’s signature ￡4 dresses now selling for up to ￡70. Many have also criticized PLT for missing the opportunity to make sustainability a bigger focus, calling for more ethical packaging and environmentally friendly clothing. As will be discussed later in this article, sustainability and price are some of the major selling points for Gen Z, so it's surprising that PLT have gone a different way with their rebrand...
TikTok announced some updates this week as well:
?? Student News - Graduating Grannies
University of Worcester will see an 81-year-old graduate next week. Wendy Hill recently finished her master's degree, and has urged other mature students to do the same! We wonder if her three grandchildren will attend the ceremony. We've heard students in their mid-twenties complaining about feeling old at university, but it seems like these people have nothing to complain about... A huge congrats to Wendy!
In other news, after lecture disruption at Dundee University last week due to staff strikes, Newcastle University have now begun 14 days of strike action this week as well. We aren't sure exactly how lectures will be impacted, with the university stating they will do their best to keep academic teaching going, but we are sure some disruption will be likely. With more cuts on the horizon, it looks like there will be more universities facing similar issues in the coming weeks and months...
?? Trend of The Week - Gen Z Clothes Shopping Trends
As we've seen, clothes brands have been making headlines amongst Gen Z this past week, with the PLT rebrand causing some controversy. But how exactly are Gen Z shopping for clothes in 2025? What sort of things do they look for?
We asked our students to find out more...
Online clothes shopping has unsurprisingly taken over amongst Gen Z, with the majority now shopping online rather than in-store. This also appears to have increased the regularity of clothes shopping, with over 25% of our audience purchasing new clothes either weekly or monthly. With how easy it is to browse online for new garments, it has made regular clothes shopping a habit amongst much of our audience.
Both free/fast delivery and discounts/deals are valued strongly by our audience, with more preferring to choose value over delivery date, which is perhaps the reason fast fashion giants from abroad, such as Shein, have been doing so well amongst Gen Z.
What about sustainability and quality? Again, both of these are valued by our audience, with over 3/4 stating sustainability is very or somewhat important, and just over half stating they prefer quality to quantity when it comes to clothes. However, each time Gen Z admit that price matters most, and without great value and student deals, they will look elsewhere.
Overall, this shows more than anything that it's important to understand your audience. If you are a brand relying on the Gen Z market, tripling the price of your clothes and moving to high-fashion is probably an extremely risky move. Whilst Gen Z (like everyone) enjoys quality and sustainability, they value a great deal more than anyone else. With so many options when it comes to fast fashion and great value retailers, if you cannot compete on price, Gen Z will look elsewhere. Cost is king!
That's all for this week, see you next time!
The Freshers Festival Team