Chapter 2: Sustainable Fashion Marketing and Value Creation: Moving Beyond the Cannibalisation of Fashion

By the end of this chapter, you will be able to:

This chapter examines the processes and practices that receive criticism within fast-fashion production, consumption and marketing, and argues that rather than being the focus of condemnation, production processes can be positioned and marketed to create value that is underpinned by sustainability. Awareness for the impact that fast-fashion has upon the environment is growing and the fashion industry currently contributes more to the climate crisis that the aviation industry (United Nations, 2020). Similar to the allegations that garment-workers are exploited during the production of fast-fashion (through poor working conditions and low salaries) that have overshadowed the industry for the last few decades (Holenstein, 2020), while consumers express distaste for exploitative practice that impacts on people as well as the planet (Chen, Perry, Yang, & Yang, 2017), this has not resulted in behavioural change (Cairns, Ritch, & Bereziat, 2021; Carrington, Neville, & Whitwell, 2010). Within the literature, this attitude-behaviour gap where consumers express concern for unethical practice and sustainability, but do not purchase ethically or sustainably produced goods, is well documented (Cairns et al., 2021; Ritch & Brownlie, 2016; Taljaard, Sonnenberg, & Jacobs, 2018; Wiederhold & Martinez, 2018). However, given growing awareness and concern for the climate crisis, it is reported that more consumers are incorporating sustainability into their behaviours, and this has become more important to consumers since the COVID-19 pandemic (Granskog, Lee, Magnus, & Sawers, 2020). Moreover, acknowledging sustainability has the potential for value creation and engaging with consumers’ hearts and minds (Kotler, Kartajaya, & Setiawan, 2021). While fashion marketing has focussed on tactics to encourage frequent impulsive consumption (Arriaga, Domingo, & Berlanga Silvente, 2017; Keegan, Ritch, & Siddiqui, 2021), adopting a sustainable fashion marketing lens has received less attention. This chapter will explore the potential for sustainability to be central to fashion marketing, as a means to create value and to assume responsibility for the impact of production and consumption.