Browse the Fashion Merchandising Collections
« Previous | 6 - 10 of 32 | Next »
Assessment of Branding Sustainability in the Fashion Industry
As our impact on the environment grows, sustainability has become more popular among consumers. However, while consumers call for more sustainable business practices, companies are still hesitant to implement sustainability. To understand why businesses were reluctant to transition to sustainable practices, a content analysis was conducted. A collection of eighty comments from various sources were coded into units of analysis where patterns were identified in the data. A survey was also created and distributed to further determine consumers’ opinions on what sustainability means to them and to what extent fashion businesses are achieving sustainability. The results of the content analysis and the survey confirmed that consumers care about sustainability. A majority of the comments collected in the content analysis were positive impressions about sustainability. The survey reflected the same opinions. However, the survey and content analysis also showed that consumers feel that businesses need to do more to promote sustainability within their brand, and to protect the environment. This study emphasizes on the fact that businesses need to educate themselves, and move toward sustainable business practices. The biggest reason companies have not made more progress to transition to sustainable practices, is because they believe multiple untrue statements about sustainable businesses. This study aims to teach businesses the importance of sustainability, and simple ways companies can start to make changes to their brand and methods. With this, the fashion industry as a whole can move one step closer to closing the loop.Consumer Perception of Cotton Sustainability
This research focuses on consumers’ perception, knowledge, preferences, and the amount of importance they place on cotton sustainability. Specifically, we developed an online survey to investigate what consumers value when making purchase decisions, consumer knowledge regarding sustainable cotton, and how accessible sustainable cotton products are for today’s consumers. We found that many of our participants were in the 18-24-year-old age range and value how their clothing is produced. This age range had the greatest knowledge regarding cotton sustainability compared to all other age ranges. 75% of the survey participants relayed that sustainable cotton is only moderately available to them when shopping. Over 50% stated that pricing strongly affects their purchase decisions. In all, our results suggest that consumers are conscious and willing to incorporate sustainability into their shopping patterns. However, price reduction and increase in availability would encourage consumers to shop even more sustainable.Inter-Fiber Competition and Consumer Preferences
In this research project, we studied the inter-fiber competitions between consumer preferences in the fashion industry. We focused on sustainable cotton versus synthetic fibers or a blend of both. We conducted prior research in the form of literature reviews and a content analysis with coded reviews based on consumer preferences. We coded 100 reviews based on whether they were positive or negative regarding the sustainable/fiber aspect of the product. We then used this prior exploratory research to conduct our own Qualtrics survey using the Snowball and Convenience methods where we gathered 33 survey responses that gave us a better understanding of consumer’s preferences when purchasing clothing. Our responses came from a diverse group of men and women over 18 with varying degrees of income, education, and living environments. We found that overall consumer’s perceptions of the fibers that go into their garments are clearly influenced by surrounding circumstances and overall understanding of varying factors such as price, production, material, and perceived quality. These findings are crucially important for retailers and manufactures to understand in order to maximize profit and customer satisfaction as the fashion industry continues to head in a direction of more sustainable and ethical practices.Cotton in the Athleisure Market
Abstract: Cotton in the Athleisure Market Grace Flanagan & Charlotte Reilly For our project we conducted a lot of research to figure out how the athleisure market affects the cotton industry. We studied how the growing athleisure market is affecting the cotton industry and all the jobs it provides to people. The cotton industry is slowly declining and there are many people trying to change this and the way the industry works. After managing our research, we conducted a survey to figure out how many people support the growth of the athleisure industry, and what their buying patterns may have consisted of. After doing all of this, we realized how much of a negative impact this market is having on the cotton industry and our eyes were opened to all of the efforts people are making to try and combat this. The main goal of our research was to fix the negative impact the athleisure market has on the cotton industry by keeping track of the profitability of athleisure brands. By doing so, we looked at customer comments online through a variety of social media platforms. After completing our extensive research and administering our online survey, we concluded that the production of cotton and the cotton industry has a more positive influence on the retail industry as a whole than we ever considered, and we must do as much as we can to repair the damage that has been done to cotton’s image in the eyes of consumers.Marketing Organic Cotton to Consumers
Over the past few decades there has been an increase in the awareness of sustainability and the unethical practices of many fashion companies have been exposed. Having a shift in awareness has caused an increased pressure on fashion companies to be more transparent, foster more sustainable and uphold ethical practices (Hepburn, 2013). One way brands are striving to be more sustainable is through the use of organic cotton. We know that there are a variety of ways brands can market organic clothing which can increase consumer interest and sales. The challenges consumers are facing is the lack of knowledge about organic cotton due to businesses not educating people properly. We know that a combination of organic and social responsibility certification, label utilization, and consumer education can all be helpful marketing tools to help increase consumers interest in organic cotton clothing and their desire to purchase. What we do not know is how much consumers care about organic and social responsibility certification, label utilization, and consumer education so that is the primary goal of our research. We understand that we can gain a significant amount of data on how consumers perceive organic cotton by furthering our research through conducting surveys and looking at the comments from consumers on clothing brand websites, online articles, and social media. To achieve our goal we will gain quantitative data on what topics are most important to consumers when considering and purchasing organic cotton, changes can be made to help market and brand organic cotton more effectively.