Abstract
Social media is now a marketing platform effectively utilizing influencer marketing to connect with the target consumers. The young Generation Z consumer is extremely active on social media attracted by the lure of influencers, opinion leaders, and active creators, and they utilize social media to gain knowledge about their brands. Fashion brands nowadays have been trying to meet the consumer demand for sustainable products by utilizing social media and influencer marketing to develop, advertise, and showcase corporate social responsibility (CSR) around green sustainable fashion products. The consumer seeks cognitive information from their social media experience, fulfilling aesthetic and entertainment gratification, received through appealing images, social media videos, stories, influencer content, and interaction enabling information gathering, entertainment, and allowing consumers to transform their knowledge into intent by purchasing green, sustainable fashion brands.
TopIntroduction
In an environmentally conscious era, consumers have demanding requirements in many areas. Being aware of environmental issues, nowadays, consumers seek eco-friendly products. People have started looking for “Green Products” everywhere (Hasan et al., 2022; Khan et al., 2022). In terms of fashion apparel, consumers' purchasing decisions were previously based upon comfort, style, aesthetic appeal, etc., but now more on the eco-friendliness of products. Sustainable fashion can be described as eco-friendly clothing (Elisa & Cecilia, 2016; Wagner et al., 2019), slow fashion focusing on style orientation rather than fashion orientation (Gupta et al., 2019), consumers' long-term relationship with their clothing (Petersson McIntyre, 2021) and the positive role of biosphere and altruistic values influencing sustainable clothing consumption as opposed to the negative role of hedonistic values promoting overconsumption and excess (Geiger & Keller, 2018). Many clothing companies have started providing clothes made from eco-friendly fabrics, and the demand for these green products is increasing (Bielawska & Grebosz-Krawczyk, 2021). The criteria to judge any material as “environmentally friendly” are renewability, the ecological footprint of the resource, and the usage of any chemical to grow/process to make the product ready for use. If textile-producing companies embrace these trends, they capitalize by increasing profits and sleep better, knowing they are playing their part in protecting our environment. Adopting friendly practices such as reusing and recycling wastewater is an excellent start for accomplishing these goals. Current business models are directly linked to sales and production volumes, with sustainable consumption leading to reduced volumes and decreasing profitability in production, not as an opportunity for a new kind of green business (Meyer, 2001). Green brands such as H&M, Zara have been implementing environmental conservation and environmentally sustainable practices through their products (Albino et al., 2009; Y. S. Chen, 2010).
Key Terms in this Chapter
SAB: Sustainably aware fashion brands do not find origins in sustainability but undertake public sustainability efforts incorporating sustainability into some aspects of the supply chain.
SMFI: Social Media Fashion Influencers are celebrities or bloggers with a high number of followers who create fashion content through their social media channels and have the power to influence their followers to adopt new fashion trends, styles, and movements.
ROI: Return on Investment is a metric that describes how well an investment has performed. It is a percentage of total profit (or loss) divided by the initial cost.
UGT: Uses and Gratification theory in studies of mass media behavior, understanding the intent of consumer motivations and the resultant gratifications received during mass media consumption.
CRM: Customer Relationship Management combines practices, strategies, and technologies companies use to manage and analyze customer interactions.
SFB: Sustainable fashion brands work on sustainability principles with product sourcing, production, marketing, and disposal during the supply chain, done sustainably.
SDT: Social Determination Theory is the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation behind live streamers, online brand communities, fashion influencers, and sustainable product consumers. Hence, while intrinsic motivation is the enjoyment received from a process, extrinsic motivation is the need for reward or punishment.
eWOM: Electronic word of mouth is the positive referral shared about a brand with peers or fellow community members by writing, liking, sharing, or recommending fashion brands-related messages through digital channels, social media platforms, websites, blogs, and video logs.
WOM: Word of Mouth is a social communication in marketing literature meant to transfer information about a product or brand from person to person as either a recommendation or peer review.
TFB: Traditional fashion brands) do not affiliate with a public sustainability effort. They focus on product and functional characteristics and market them accordingly.
UGC: User Generated Content, content explicitly created on digital media that is publicly available for end users, resulting in electronic word of mouth.