Consumers are becoming overwhelmed with how well they are over-informed, making it difficult for them to make precise decisions. With this, they are choosing brands that will provide value through education to enhance their knowledge. Not only brands, but social media platforms are also becoming educational channels for users. TikTok witnessed over 877,9 billion views on #LearnonTikTok. Initiatives on consumer education have proven to influence consumers to make the right and well-informed decisions and grow brand loyalty.

Educational Programs

Brands can invest in educating future employees and customers by implementing training courses and programs. They can support the young generation to develop new skills and knowledge to build their career. This program has to be more humane and real rather than an automated course scheduled by AI.

LVMH Moët Hennessy - Louis Vuitton introduced Inside LVMH as an education and career development platform for future talents. It possesses the information on the next courses and the job opportunities available that are coherent to the entire organization. After the course completion, the participants can share the completion certificate provided by the company on LinkedIn.

Farfetch has released its 4th edition of Plug-in Mentoring for Young Women which mentors and trains young women who are walking through the STEM academic careers in a period of nine months. New Optimist, a Dutch clothing brand, offers 5-7 students vocational training on tailoring at one of its workshops in the west of Amsterdam.

Influencing Sustainable Practices

As the term “sustainability” is becoming increasingly crucial day by day, it is a brand’s responsibility to offer educational initiatives on implementing sustainable practices to both its employees and customers. Driving consumers to make sustainable choices even when they are at the end of purchasing a product is important. Therefore, labels and retailers can work on building a team to work collectively on educating young minds by creating content that speaks about sustainability as well as the brands’ value, transparency, and authenticity.

G-Star RAW collaborated with Maarten Baas for the 'More or Less' exhibition at the Milan Design Week to let the audience know about the overconsumption of denim. CottonConnect from the UK began a training course for the farmers of India about sustainability, social, environmental and social responsibility.

Guiding with Games

Video games are being used by the brands to keep the consumers hooked and educate the brand values and heritage. In this way, they can improve customer trust and loyalty. One can also support green practices by rewarding users with exclusive virtual gifts rather than going with real-life products. The video games will provide a platform for the users to be who and what they can be.

Brands such as Balenciaga, Valentino, Burberry, and Marc Jacobs are going through various collaborations in the gaming world. Gucci has been an active participant in this topic with its games that also educate people about its heritage. The brand also presented Sabato de Sarno’s debut collection at Milan Fashion Week on Roblox and Zepeto. Gucci Town on Roblox was redesigned for the fashion week with a new name, Gucci Ancora.

Walmart launched a virtual simulation game app, Spark City, to train its employees to be better at daily operations.

Activertising and DIY classes

Gen Z consumers are expecting their ideal brands to make a statement on the social taboos and stigmas. It becomes an opportunity to empower consumer trust by providing informative facts on these controversial topics to show support. Brands can create strategies to incorporate activist-style marketing.

Lottie London offered an informative campaign named Consent to Kiss to educate the Gen Z audience about sexual harassment and what can be done if they get sexually harassed online. Brands such as Tiffany & Co., Fenty Beauty, MAC, and Nike have expressed their support for being more inclusive by launching new campaigns.

Gen Z is more interested in self-teaching. Supporting them by launching DIY stunts can help brands develop loyalty. It has driven around 64% of Gen Z and Millennials in North America to learn something new. The #howto has a total view of 109,6 billion on TikTok.

Unilever Group and TikTok partnered to collaborate with more than 100 content creators to upload DIY content on cleaning that includes the reviews of its brands with the hashtag #CleanTok (reached 111,9 billion views).

Cover Image: G-Star Raw's 'More or Less' exhibition with Maarten Baas at Milan Design Week, courtesy Wallpaper Magazine.