Author: Shelby Hansen                  Majors: Marketing and Finance

A Headshot of Shelby Hansen

During the Spring 2021 semester, I worked alongside my honors mentor, Dr. Molly Rapert, to complete my senior Honors Thesis. I am so lucky to have had Dr. Rapert as my mentor this past year – she has provided unmatched advice, guidance, and encouragement. My research has been dynamic and about a year and a half in the making – after a whirlwind of picking a topic, I decided to analyze the social media accounts of beauty companies in the sustainable and “clean” niche market and base my analysis off of the Perception of Scene Gist psychological theory. This topic has been exciting to study because of the rise of social media’s importance in business as well as the growing trend of consumers’ consciousness in their product purchases. Starting last spring, I began conducting an extensive literature, and, this semester, conducting a social media audit and survey evaluation. I will be graduating from the Walton College of Business this May with a double major in marketing and finance, with a minor in psychology. I hope to one day work in the beauty industry to apply my research, but for now, I’ll be headed home to Austin, Texas to pursue my interest in the financial market industry.

To analyze the social media accounts of “clean beauty” companies, I took several steps to understand my topic and the industry before studying Gen Z’s perception of the clean companies. I reviewed recent trade articles covering trends in the beauty industry, “clean” brands, what “clean” truly meant, and how Gen Z is using social media today. I also dove into studies over the Perception of Scene Gist to understand how our brains can process a complete scene or picture at a quick glance. The second step in my research was to conduct a social media audit. After researching prominent clean brands, I selected ten companies and reviewed the first nine images in their grid every Monday for five weeks. I made note of color scheme, follower count, posts per week, the type of content they posted, and more. After analyzing the companies myself, I released a survey that had Gen Z participants view the Instagram grids of the same ten companies and asked them if they thought the company was “clean” or not, and why. After compiling all the data, I found that some companies did a better job than others and I was able to distinguish what content and overall Instagram grid look conveyed that a company was “clean”. This has real-world application in that companies need to be conscious of the content they are posting on social media to curate the image they want. This is especially true if they have a unique mission. Some of the companies I studied very clearly portrayed their mission, others did not, and others were misleading towards consumers.

When choosing my topic, I knew I wanted to research sustainability in consumer products, but I wasn’t sure how to narrow it down from there. After sitting on that broad topic for a while, it became clearer to me that I was passionate about the beauty industry, especially products that are better for you and the environment. I was also curious how to tie that in with social media, and my topic fit naturally after I knew I wanted to fit it with Instagram. I first met Dr. Rapert as a sophomore, and I had heard her name from other professors and contacts I had. At the time, I was thinking of conducting my research while studying abroad, but after meeting with her for the first time, she had already helped me brainstorm a topic and how to go about researching it without having to go abroad. Dr. Rapert has been instrumental in helping me narrow my topic, organize my research, and analyze my data. She has been a great source of counsel and encouragement, while also allowing me to take my project in the direction that I wanted.

I learned a lot through my research project. My thesis was a lengthy process, and I was very glad I was pursuing a topic I enjoyed and was passionate about! I discovered that I was more excited about my topic than I was expecting to be and that allowed me to enjoy my work and want to take things the extra mile. When I consider what I learned that is specific to my topic, a big takeaway is how companies can be misleading when it comes to sustainability. Several companies I researched greenwashed their products and how they promoted them, which was misleading to me and my survey respondents. I want to be a more responsible consumer after learning about those misleading companies and also the companies who are doing great work and who are making great strides in the beauty industry. A challenging element of my research was developing ways to convert qualitative topics into quantitative ones so that I could effectively analyze my audit and survey results. This was tough because some elements of my research, such as perception, were hard to measure.

Although my thesis marks the end of my research at the UofA, my interest in this area will continue to grow. I see businesses leading the way in sustainability and caring for our environment, which I would love to be a part of in the future. I am so fortunate and proud to have received Honors College funding for my research during my last semester of college! Thanks to this grant, I was able to dive deeper into my research and further grow into my passion for sustainability, the beauty industry, and social media authenticity. I am thankful that the Honors College opened this door for me, and I hope others will take an interest in studying this topic as well.