The fashion and beauty marketing function is in flux.
In 2025, both industries face a number of challenges — from increasing customer acquisition costs to competing for attention across saturated channels. Although inflation has waned, consumers have a diminished appetite for discretionary spending amid today’s turbulent global economy.
This market reality requires brands to make additional investments to communicate their value proposition and to encourage consumers to part with their money — a pressure largely shouldered by marketing teams.
Meanwhile, consumer trust is under threat amid price hikes. Over the past 50 years, US brands have historically raised prices by 5 to 7 percent annually, more than twice the rate of inflation, according to Bernstein research. As a result, 73 percent of US Gen-Z consumers report changing spending habits because of increased prices, according to The Business of Fashion’s The State of Fashion 2025 report, published in partnership with McKinsey & Company.
Communicating brand trustworthiness is increasingly complex. The effectiveness of performance marketing has dwindled, making it difficult for brand communications to cut through — 80 percent of Gen-Z globally report feeling overwhelmed by their exposure to brands, according to The State of Fashion 2025 report. The introduction of data privacy regulations, meanwhile, restricts customer targeting, meaning fashion marketers need to find new ways to engage shoppers.
This knowledge report, published in partnership with Ekimetrics — a leading tech-enabled data science firm which has supported over 50 luxury brands to pioneer the use of advanced analytics and AI to improve marketing effectiveness — will explore common challenges to marketing success, and how to overcome them. The report includes actionable insights from expert consultants, marketing leaders and executives from brands including Calvin Klein, Tod’s Group, American Eagle, Rare Beauty and Merit on how to rethink marketing strategies in 2025.
01. Building and Measuring Brand Equity
Quantifying the impact of brand marketing on long-term business health has long been a challenge for CMOs, often lacking the evidence to present to their CFOs. We explore how fashion and beauty brands can continue to nurture brand connection, unify brand and performance marketing, and implement robust measurement frameworks to balance short-term KPIs with long-term brand health.
02. Tapping into Underserved Media Channels
As media channels expand and fragment, crafting an effective, integrated cross-channel strategy has grown increasingly complex. Marketing leaders are challenged not only to orchestrate reach and relevance at scale but to deliver measurable outcomes across a complex array of established and emerging channels such as sponsorship, retail media networks and influencer partnerships — many of which defy traditional evaluation frameworks.
03. Fostering Cross-Generational Reach
Consumers aged 50 and over now represent nearly half of global fashion spending and hold more than 70 percent of US personal wealth. To broaden their appeal beyond youth-focused marketing, fashion brands can leverage psychographic segmentation, interest-based media planning and customer lifetime-value insights to achieve genuine cross-generational reach.
04. Unlocking the Full Potential of Creative
A recent study by Ekimetrics and YouTube revealed that 81 percent of creative campaigns fail to follow best practices. However, optimising that process could allow brands to double their ROI. With brands more risk-averse and creative confidence waning, data-driven creative frameworks, localised content and measurement techniques emerge as crucial levers to unlock the full value of creative investment.
05. Strategic Pricing for the Long-Term
Over 70 percent of consumers say that sudden or excessive price increases negatively affect their perception of a brand. This chapter encourages CMOs to play a more active role in pricing decisions, advocating for the customer while leveraging price elasticity analysis, value-led storytelling and cross-functional collaboration to drive sustainable growth.
This is a sponsored feature paid for by Ekimetrics as part of a BoF partnership.