By: Hong-An Phan
How do we manipulate mainstream communications?
‘Brat summer’, ‘demure’, and ‘espresso’. Without a doubt, these three terms have been heavily advertised due to Generation Z’s affinity for micro trends. Corporate offices around the country likely raced to their social media accounts to promote their ‘very demure, very cutesy’ products.
Take Owala, a water bottle brand that has exploded in the past year. The product is well-known for its multi-functional straw, a hybrid for drinking or sipping. While its versatile design is what brought it much praise, the brand has also created a somewhat controversial reputation for ‘lid-switching.’
The overall design of the product uses color-blocking. From the lid to the actual bottle, anywhere between two to three colors are highlighted, and the combination of hues can sometimes be unappealing to customers. Due to this, many have taken to stores and switched bottle lids to customize a water bottle that they would prefer to buy.
Complaints and arguments have since reached the ears of those seated in Owala’s headquarters, because on August 20th, the brand released a new line featuring neutral shades. These new shades are labeled: “Rose Quartz”, “Down to Earth”, “Calm Waters”, and “Green House” as written on their official website. Compared to past names, these new bottles feature earthy and nature-loving titles.
On the Owala TikTok account (@owalalife), the company released a slideshow of the new bottles with the words: “Very demure, very cutesy, makeup still intact, hair still very nice” in a recreation of the viral video posted by creator Jools Lebron on August 5th. In this video, Lebron features “How to be demure and modest and respectful at the work place”. Since then, the video has accumulated 47.8 million views and 4.6 million likes. The audio has 83.1k posts and is still growing with every passing day.
Gen Z quickly flocked to their social media accounts upon the promotion of this ‘unique word’ and corporate America struck once more. With such a simple trend, companies were able to market their products as ‘demure’ by posting videos to a short audio clip and clicking ‘post’.
As seen with Owala, it is clear that marketing is taking a turn towards digital trends and the interests of Generation Z. But these microtrends do not last long, and the tastes of the youth are ever-changing. How long will it be until we find something that sticks? Or will the market continue to be manipulated by the whims of this generation?
Photo by John Schnobrich, Unsplash.
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