The Outside View: Reading Fashion’s Data Science Tea Leaves

What does a brand have to do to inspire Millennial and Gen Z loyalty? At PreciseTarget, we used machine learning technologies to look at more than 5 billion purchase transactions spanning more than 2,300 fashion brands. The analysis clearly indicates younger consumers are a brand-switching bunch, although this attribute is often misunderstood by marketers.  These two generations — together, the Gen Zennials — are the product of nonstop social streams, algorithmically designed to stream something new, different and often shocking every time they pick up their phones. Social media created a class of novelty seekers who have a nonstop expectation of new and different. They don’t dislike you, they dislike that you aren’t new. Before writing them off as one-and-done customers, you should know they have remarkable loyalties. They’re loyal to their personal tastes. They might have seven different jeans brands in their closet, but each pair will be remarkably similar to the others.  Our analysis zeroed in on the 20 to 30 product features — like price, size, color, fabric, style — that make a product unique. It showed young consumers rarely veer outside the white lines of their established tastes. When we looked longitudinally, it also showed that consumer tastes are remarkably

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