Quarantine certainly allocates plenty of time to doze off, eat excess food, and perhaps stray away from our usual routine. That being said, a very popular social media app has been downloaded more and more; by people of all ages, and that is none other than Tik Tok. This app consists of audio bites that are condensed anywhere from 15-30 seconds and people make memes, do dances, and various challenges to pass the time and post them. That being said, Tik Tok has been the ultimate time waster and users are starting to notice more and more subtle marketing added, with fashion such as She In, Revolve, and Brandy Melville and these “clothing hauls”.
Although it is hard to differentiate between a sweet, 16-year old girl expressing her excitement towards her clothing haul, doing free marketing; or actually subtly getting paid for these hauls–users have been more drawn to many of these clothing brands mentioned. This includes: Brandy Melville, Boohoo, AliExpress, Revolve, and the most recognizable one: Shein, pronounced as “She In”.
I went ahead and did some personal research, specifically on SheIn–since I have heard so much about it both on and off Tik Tok. Much to my dismay, it is fast fashion, and people are drawn to this for the ridiculously low prices with cute styles. Go figure, why would I expect a 16-year-old to cash out at Neiman Marcus or Gucci? That being said, whether SheIn is paying these Tik Tok users under the table or not–they’ve apparently had a major increase in sales since quarantine. Speaking to my friends who are loyal customers to SheIn, they were complaining about SheIn prices potentially skyrocketing, knowing that these “innocent 16-year-old girls with the SheIn hauls” are encouraging others to look into it and buy stuff. One of my friends even made mention a shirt she was looking at “sold out quickly” and she has never seen that before.
Like any Tik Tok user would, I went ahead and kept scrolling through these clothing hauls, which started to get really repetitive. All the similar clothing styles but in the form of dancing videos, memes, and general “Look Book” videos. Although there isn’t any preface of these videos being an “ad” like most of the authorized Tik Tok ads are, marketing definitely trickles down at the social level; as girls think that the butterfly hoodies and plaid skirts are considered “trendy” for this time and more and more people will turn to places like Brandy Melville and SheIn to obtain this type of merchandise.
To end here, fashion marketing seems to never fail–as the social element always seems to kick in and do the rest of the work for them. I am personally fascinated by the fact that these common, popular fashion brands were able to still make an appearance and were smart enough to gauge how and where their products would be placed, in an app as confusing as Tik Tok is for most working adults. Going forward, I would be curious to see if these brands take it a step further and continue promoting their products via Tik Tok even after quarantine.
mallorys.fashion.blog 