Sustainable Fashion Brands Research Articles

Roles of Brand Benefits and Relationship Commitment in Consumers' Social Media Behavior around Sustainable Fashion.

As climate change continues, environmental sustainability has become a popular topic among brands and consumer groups. The fashion industry has detrimental impacts on the natural environment; however, little is known about how brand benefits can help sustainable fashion brands develop relationships with consumers and promote consumer behavior. This study focuses on Instagram to investigate how consumers' perceived brand benefits predict relationship commitment, electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM), and purchase intention. Prior studies have overlooked the possible effects of various benefits. This study outlines five benefits of sustainable fashion brands: inner self-expression, social self-expression, warm glow, green, and economic benefits. Results from a survey of sustainable fashion brand followers on Instagram showed that eWOM positively related with economic benefits and negatively with warm glow and green benefits. Findings further indicated a mediating effect of relationship commitment between benefits and consumers' behavior. Lastly, the level of environmental attitude influenced the mediating impact of relationship commitment. The implications of these findings are discussed, and suggestions for future research are provided.

Slow Fashion as a Communication Strategy of Fashion Brands on Instagram

The objective of this research is to study the reasons for the growing impact of sustainable slow fashion brands in the fashion industry and, in particular, how they manage their communication and which digital strategies they employ. We applied a mixed research methodology: a comparative content analysis of qualitative and quantitative indicators, as well as in-depth interviews with 10 professionals and experts in fashion and digital communication, with the aim of contrasting their opinions with the results of the study. The five sustainable fashion brands (YosoLOVEamor, LIFEGIST, ECOALF, Alohas, and ECOOLOGY) chosen are distinguished by the fact that they base their business projects on social and environmental responsibility, and their Instagram accounts were studied over a period. This paper demonstrates the social interest in and concern for sustainability, ethics, and corporate social responsibility in the fashion industry. Additionally, it is evident that slow fashion brands need to have a good online strategy, as it is the future of fashion. No greenwashing was found, but sustainable fashion is a controversial issue with no regulation and a short history, so it has to develop.

Social Media Influencer Promoted Sustainable Fashion: Effects of Sponsorship and Benefit Association

Increasing pro-sustainability concerns have motivated clothing and fashion brands to adopt sustainability-focused business practices and offer a sustainable product range. The influence of sponsored versus non-sponsored social media influencer (SMI) posts in promoting sustainable fashion brands was investigated in this study. Further, the moderation of the benefit association (self vs. other-oriented) of the SMI-generated sustainable fashion brand-related post was investigated in this research. Three studies were conducted. Study 1 was an exploratory social media field study, and Studies 2 and 3 were experimental. It was revealed in the results that non-sponsored SMI posts were more persuasive, leading to higher message authenticity and behavior intention. Additionally, a significant interaction effect of sponsorship status and benefit association on customer outcomes was found. The benefit association was other-oriented, leading to higher message authenticity and behavioral intention in sponsored posts. Valuable insights for sustainable fashion brands engaging in SMIs were offered by the findings. Authenticity may be stimulated by SMI posts containing other-oriented benefit associations, persuading the intention to purchase.

The Core Value of Sustainable Fashion: A Case Study on “Market Gredit”

Sustainability and ethical consumption have emerged as essential topics globally in the carbon-neutral era. The adoption of eco-friendly production and distribution methods have been prominent in the fashion industry as well. This study performed a qualitative case study analysis based on a literature review and in-depth expert interviews. The search yielded ten keywords reflecting how value producers pursue sustainable fashion. These keywords are “eco-friendly”, “recycled”, “vegan”, “upcycled”, “zero waste”, “local production”, “fair trade”, “women-owned”, “gives back” and “animal protection”. The values are divided into five core environmental values and five core social values. Based on in-depth interviews with domestic sustainable fashion experts, the core values and detailed standards of sustainable fashion were specified and presented as practical values. These values were also applied to the Market Gredit platform, an integrated e-commerce platform for sustainable fashion brands in South Korea. This research contributes to improving the environmental and social impacts throughout the value chain of the fashion industry by presenting the core values and detailed standards of sustainable fashion suitable for communication with consumers.

Fashion Consumerism: the Impact of Marketing Strategies on Generation Z Consumers

The fashion industry is one that constantly changes due to worldly events. One of the most common ways to market fashion to consumers is through social media. Interestingly, Generation Z is one of the leading causes of social media use for marketing. With COVID-19 drastically impacting all aspects of life, the researcher chose to answer this question: “How have fast fashion and sustainable fashion brands adapted their social media marketing to target Generation Z in The United States as a result of the pandemic?” The method chosen for this paper was a content analysis looking at 1,200 Instagram posts uploaded to the accounts of five fast fashion brands, and five sustainable fashion brands within chosen dates between 2019 and 2021. The study found that the biggest shifts in social media marketing lay within advocacy of worldly events, sustainability, and a decrease in regular clothing advertisements. While fast fashion and sustainable fashion brands are certainly different, there are interesting parallels between them as it pertains to social media marketing.

Design Characteristics of Sustainable Fashion Products of Indonesian Brands

This study aimed to examine the design characteristics of four sustainable fashion brands in Indonesia as a case study of sustainable fashion trends in Indonesia. This study was conducted through reviews of prior research on sustainable fashion and books on the subject, as well as Internet searches. The observation period began in March 2020, and product observations carried out by the author included brand collections in 2020 and 2021. The results of the study were that Indonesia

지속가능 패션마케팅 활동이 브랜드 신뢰와 브랜드 애착, 구매의도에 미치는 영향

This study investigated the effects of sustainable fashion brands’ marketing activities on trust, attachment, and purchase intention. Data were collected by surveying 800 female Korean consumers after a pilot test and questionnaire revision. After removing incomplete questionnaires, 728 were used for the statistical analysis. The results of this study are as follows. First, four factors were extracted for sustainable fashion marketing activities: economic activity, environmental activity, cultural activity, and social activity. Second, the environmental, social, economic, and cultural activities of sustainable fashion marketing showed significantly positive influences on trust. Third, trust exerted significantly positive effects on attachment and purchase intention. Attachment also showed a positive effect on purchase intention. Fourth, trust had a mediating effect on economic activity, environmental activity, social activity, and brand attachment. Trust also had a mediating effect between social activity and purchase intention. The results of this research suggest that sustainable fashion marketing activities play an important role in trust.

Sustainability in retail services: a transformative service research (TSR) perspective

PurposeRetail organizations that consider a service ecosystems view of sustainability focused on transformation have the potential to contribute to the wellbeing of individuals, business and society. The purpose of this paper is to explore the transformative nature of sustainable retail fashion organizations and their impact on wellbeing within a sustainable retail service ecosystem.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative in-depth case study research design was implemented using four sustainable fashion brands. Data were collected from multiple sources including secondary data from company websites and publicly available reports and interviews with founders and/or high-ranking managers within the organization.FindingsThree overarching themes critical to transformation in sustainable retail service ecosystems were identified: (1) embedded core purpose or ethos, (2) relevance of fit and (3) breadth and depth of message. Corresponding wellbeing elements were found within the three themes – community and society wellbeing, environmental wellbeing, business strategy wellbeing, consumer wellbeing, leadership wellbeing, employee wellbeing, stakeholder and value chain wellbeing and brand wellbeing.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research offers an important opportunity to further explore the relationships between sustainability, TSR and wellbeing in other service contexts.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to transformative service research literature by conceptualizing a sustainable retail service wellbeing ecosystem framework.

The new 3Ps of sustainability marketing: The case of fashion

Sustainability marketing in the fashion industry is the subject of this theoretical synthesis. This conceptual essay entails dissecting the conceptual underpinnings and construction components of sustainability marketing derived by current scholarly perspectives to offer an updated articulation of sustainability marketing as a flourishing interdisciplinary research area. As a result of our theory synthesis approach, this paper developed a sustainability marketing model, referred to as the new 3Ps of sustainability marketing—Preservation (Environment), Public (Society) and Performance (Economy) which add to the traditional 4Ps- “Product, Price, Place, and Promotion.” The paper further examines the role of these new 3Ps of sustainability marketing in fashion, considering the COVID-19 pandemic. The model offers a uniquely integrated framework for designing marketing strategies in the fashion industry consistent with sustainability marketing and aims to promote, communicate, and educate consumers who are either existing or potential customers of sustainable fashion brands. The framework encompasses segments of the fragmented fashion industry whilst mapping strategies for marketing sustainability and presenting new post-pandemic opportunities across all value-creation stages. Finally, we offer implications and directions for further research.

ANALISIS PENGEMBANGAN DESAIN FASHION BERKELANJUTAN DI INDONESIA

Analysis of Sustainable Fashion Design Development in Indonesia describes how a design approach strategy can be put into practice to contribute to the development of sustainable fashion. Fashion is an industry that has great potential for Indonesia's creative economy and employment, but on the other hand it has negative social and environmental impacts. Sustainable fashion is a new trend and aesthetic that is developing in urban society. There are various strategies to develop sustainable fashion, one of which is through a design approach. Using a qualitative descriptive approach, this paper further analyzes the implementation of this strategy through purposive sampling of the brand, Sej auh Mata Mem andang, as one of the pioneers of sustainable fashion brand in Indonesia. Based on the results of virtual observations and data analysis, it is concluded that there are six sustainable design strategies carried out by Sejauh Mata Memandang that can be used as references as best practices for developing sustainable fashion design in Indonesia.

Greenwashing and Bluewashing in Black Friday-Related Sustainable Fashion Marketing on Instagram

Growing awareness of the fashion industry’s negative impact on people and the environment has led to considerable growth of the sustainable fashion market. At the same time, Black Friday purchases increase annually as the sales event develops into a global phenomenon. As sustainable fashion brands are choosing to participate in the event, many communicate their offers via the social media platform Instagram. To gain a competitive advantage and maintain their sustainable corporate images, some brands use greenwashing and/or bluewashing strategies. The first part of this study explores which strategies were employed in Instagram content posted by sustainable brands, using quantitative and qualitative content analysis. We propose a research-based model of nine greenwashing/bluewashing strategies. The second part of the study examines predictive factors for consumer evaluations of Black Friday ads by sustainable brands, using an online survey and a stepwise multiple regression analysis. Findings show that consumers’ critical attitude towards Black Friday and high ad skepticism predict positive evaluations while sustainable purchase behavior predicts negative evaluations. These insights suggest that ‘sustainable’ Black Friday campaigns may appeal to consumers who show a general concern for the environment and issues of social sustainability, but not to those who exhibit actual sustainable behavior.

A Closer Look at CSR Practices in Sustainable Fashion: A Guideline for Apparel Brands

While it might be greenwashing that impedes consumers' eco-consumption, the researchers posit that this gap is also due to fashion brands’ weak CSR communication and inconsistent understanding of CSR activities. This study aims to 1) determine the ease with which consumers can navigate sustainable fashion brand websites to find corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities, and 2) construct a framework that clearly identifies CSR activities, CSR dimensions, and the business operation stages at which they occur. Website content analyses were conducted on 27 sustainable fashion brands in the United States to investigate their CSR activities. A framework was proposed to better understand current CSR activities and guide the future development through literature reviews and definition analyses (CSR definitions in the past 40 years). This study seeks to better understand the effectiveness of CSR presentation on brand websites, to create consistency among CSR activities, and to provide consumers, scholars, and market practitioners with a tool to implement and identify CSR activities.

A Millennial Perceived Value Towards Sejauh Mata Memandang A Sustainable Fashion Product In Indonesia

As fast fashion contributes to environmental degradation, sustainable fashion has become the counter mechanism for retailers that become contributors to the garment waste promoting slow fashion to the people for a better environment. As for the different intentions the consumers have, purchasing sustainable fashion products means consuming less and only what is needed. Studies explained that in today’s society consumers have shown an increasing level of ethical concerns in the context of fashion purchase. This includes millennials. As the most influential generation to date, millennials are actively voicing out their concern on social media and are able to drive conversation for example but not limited to sustainable fashion. Therefore, to understand the reason behind millennials’ intention of purchasing sustainable fashion products, research on millennials' perceived value on one of the leading sustainable fashion products in Indonesia “Sejauh Mata Memandang” needs to be done. This research will be conducted with a quantitative methodology through purposive sampling. The quantitative method will be conducted by sending a set of questionnaires towards relevant respondents about their perceived value on a sustainable fashion brand. The research shows that sustainable fashion subtypes have a significant impact on the millennial’s perceived value of sustainable fashion products

The Use of Social Media to Promote Sustainable Fashion and Benefit Communications: A Data-Mining Approach

Numerous brands utilize social media to capture consumers’ interests while promoting their sustainability goals. To understand how sustainable fashion brands communicate with their consumers, this study explored the visual and textual information sustainable fashion brands post on social media. Data were collected from sustainable fashion brands’ social media pages, and a total of 1525 images and captions and 140,735 comments were analyzed. By employing color theory and the theory of speech acts, HSV color analysis and the SVM classification model were used to extract information. The results showed that the images and captions posted by all three brands were consistent with their brand identities and sustainability goals. We also found that there were significant differences among the three brands when comparing posts employing expressive and assertive acts with posts using directive and assertive acts. These results indicate that social media users are more likely to leave comments when they read posts containing expressive and directive acts. These findings will allow fashion social media marketers to select appealing images and colors to engage consumers as well as to choose appropriate speech acts to deliver information to achieve their sustainability goals.

Selling Sustainability

This study aims to evaluate the qualities required for sustainable clothing brands to succeed in an industry dominated by "fast fashion," an environmentally unfriendly manufacturing and distribution process. A number of cross-industry case studies were conducted, focusing on companies with sustainability built into their business models from several verticals. Our analysis found that the main reason for these businesses’ commercial success was not the fact that they were sustainable, but that they brought an innovative and marketable product that helped consumers. Their sustainability was not a selling point; instead, their products' benefits were, and we believe that sustainable businesses fail to do so. By marketing "coolness," the health benefits, luxury appeal, and clothing quality of Whole Foods Market, Tesla, and Patagonia allowed these brands to build extremely successful businesses, with sustainability benefits tacked on as a very positive externality. Generalizing, we claim that a sustainable fashion brand must be inexpensive, marketable, innovative, and profitable to find success in the fashion industry. We concluded that fashion companies should use advanced technology such as blockchain technology and biomimicry to create sustainable products that are appealing to the masses, mirroring the case studies above by providing outsized environmental benefits.

How do you depict sustainability? An analysis of images posted on Instagram by sustainable fashion companies

ABSTRACT Sustainability is strongly becoming imperative for all fashion companies to respond to stakeholders’ concerns and meet their expectations. While companies are more and more engaged in sustainability practices regarding all the activities carried out, there is also a growing opportunity for them to communicate it to reinforce the brand through various means. One of these is undoubtedly represented by social media. The social media landscape is increasingly characterized by the use of images as a highly impactful way of communication, with image-based social media such as Instagram that are experiencing significant growth among consumers and businesses. Consequently, the paper aims to understand how sustainability is depicted through Instagram by sustainable fashion companies. For these reasons, the paper investigates the use of images on Instagram by two sustainable fashion brands, Patagonia and Stella McCartney. To this aim, the paper employs the visual content analysis on over 300 pictures downloaded from the two corporate accounts on Instagram. The findings show the most used image categories to depict sustainability, and how such categories generate online interaction with users in terms of digital engagement. Implications for sustainable fashion companies and social media managers are provided.

Purchase intention toward sustainable fashion brand: analysis on the effect of customer awareness on sustainability on willingness to pay

Customer awareness of sustainable products has increased very rapidly during the last few years. This phenomenon has encouraged international fast-fashion brands to develop a new line which is a more sustainable line. This paper aims to examine the effect of customer awareness on sustainability and willingness to pay on purchase intention toward sustainable fashion brands. This study obtained 211 respondents with the sampling method of purposive sampling with the criteria as follow: (1) Men and women who are Indonesians, (2) Men and women who enjoyed clothes-shopping at international fast-fashion brands stores, also (3) Men and women who aged 15 – 36 years old. Multiple regressions were used as a method to conduct hypotheses test of this study. The findings of this study stated that sustainability movement awareness and willingness to pay contributes a positive and significant effect towards the purchase intention of Indonesian customers. Furthermore, this study has found that the Indonesian market is already very aware of the sustainability movement and the concerns toward environmental health.

Exploring sustainable fashion consumption among eco-conscious women in Chile

ABSTRACT Although sustainable fashion is growing in importance around the world, there is a lack of research that addresses sustainable fashion consumption in Latin America. The purpose of this study is to explore how eco-conscious women in Chile consume sustainable fashion and which are the main drivers and inhibitors. Twenty-two semi-structured interviews with female consumers of sustainable fashion were held in Santiago. The findings show that sustainable fashion brands are high-end fashion with high prices, so eco-conscious women consume sustainable fashion mostly through practices, such as buying from second-hand retail stores or by reusing their apparel, instead of purchasing sustainable fashion brands. Four drivers of sustainable fashion adoption are identified: 1) concern for the negative impacts of the fashion industry, 2) feel good for contributing to a life in a better world, 3) authenticity of sustainable fashion, 4) supporting local businesses and workers. Furthermore, three factors are found to hinder the consumption of sustainable fashion: 1) distrust of sustainable fashion brands, 2) limited assortment, and 3) higher price of sustainable fashion. The findings are useful for sustainable fashion brands, retailers and public policy makers.

Engaging consumers with sustainable fashion on Instagram

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to explore drivers of consumer engagement with sustainable fashion brands on Instagram to specifically answer the research question: what drives popularity of sustainable fashion among digital consumers?Design/methodology/approachTwenty-five global fashion retailers were identified and categorized as either (a) sustainable fashion brands (SFB), (b) sustainably aware mainstream brands (SAB) or (c) traditional fashion brands (TFB). Content analysis of the 25 retailer's Instagram posts over a three-week period was analyzed and categorized according to content theme. Data were analyzed for quantity of Likes and Comments (engagement) to identify engagement strategies with each of the brand groups.FindingsIt was found that different strategies may be taken regarding social media strategy for SFB, SAB or TFB. Consumers were engaged with unfamiliar content, for instance, sustainability to a consumer unfamiliar with the topic or how it applies to a specific brand. Digital consumers were looking for exciting and aesthetically pleasing posts. Specifically, all consumers were engaged with posts about Fashion and Lifestyle.Practical implicationsAs the result of this study, sustainable fashion best practices and social media strategies were presented for the three brand categories of fashion retailers.Originality/valueThis study analyzed a cross-section of global fashion brands and identified “best practices” for digital consumer engagement with sustainable messages through Instagram. The findings provide original value, specifically in the area of fashion marketing via social media to communicate brand identify to digital consumers for brand growth.

Inditex and Sustainability: Are Inditex’s commitments enough to make the company a sustainable fashion brand?

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between Inditex’s fast fashion business model and their sustainability commitments, specifically looking at the environmental impact of Inditex’s supply chain. The methodology of the paper analyzes Inditex’s annual reports from 2014 through 2018 and their Commitment to Sustainability report published in 2019. I compare the commitments made in each report and look for any follow up information on these promises. My research aims to evaluate if Inditex’s business model can be considered sustainable or if their commitments and promises are a form of greenwashing. As a leader in the fast fashion industry, and a company that self-proclaims their leadership in sustainability, it is important to determine if Inditex can truly be a leader or if their attempts are just a way to distract consumers from their environmental impacts. Previous research shows that Inditex’s business model makes it a leader for brands of its kind and has been for some time. Their ability to design, manufacture, and transport apparel to their customers in such a short time keeps them ahead of their competitors. However, it is this business model that makes the company unsustainable. Despite commitments made and programs put in place, the company cannot be sustainable as long as their business model remains that of constant growth.