Drexel University Study Finds Clothing Marketers Should Use “Average-Size” Models

A new study by Hoori Rafieian, a doctoral student in marketing at the LeBow College of Business at Drexel University in Philadelphia, finds that clothing manufacturers would have more success if they used “average-size” women as models.

In an experiment, Rafieian showed a group of women a series of clothing advertisements with thin, average-size, and plus-size models. She found that women had a more favorable attitude toward the advertisements when average-size models were used.

Rafieian’s research found that “if clothing companies start featuring fuller body female models in their advertisements, not only can this help women have a better evaluation of their body — and a higher self-esteem as a result — but it will also make them have a more favorable attitude toward the ad. It is basically a win-win situation for both the company and the customer.”

“My passion is to help people have healthy and realistic evaluations of their ‘self,’” Rafieian said. “I am a woman and I am familiar with the pressure that is imposed on women as well as men, for that matter, to try to look more like the idealized images that the society expects them to be like.”

Rafieian is a graduate of the Isfahan University of Technology in Iran, where she majored in mathematics. She holds an MBA from the Tehran University of Economic Sciences.