Sustainability labelling in Fashion: Manipulating consumer engagement
From Firenze University Press Journal: Fashion Highlight
Ermanno Petrocchi, University of Macerata
The concept of sustainability is ever more important in the fashion industry and has been playing an increasing role in consumers’ clothing purchasing decisions. This trend has been growing positively since the 1990s. However, despite such an increase in attention towards sustainability, mainly verged as environmental sustainability, only around 10% of the current clothing market is dedicated to sustainable fashion (Jacobs et al., 2018). Even if people express sensitivity to sustainability and show a growing interest in sustainable fashion, their purchasing decisions do not reflect this inclination (McNeill & Moore, 2015). The causes of this phenomenon are multiple and include economic, cultural and behavioural factors.There is a clear asymmetry between consumers’ attitudes towards sustainability and their purchasing behaviour. This discrepancy is defined in the literature as the ‘attitude-behaviour gap’, whereby many consumers recognize the importance of environmentalism and agree with the principles of sustainability but their purchasing actions do not reflect this ethical awareness (Wiederhold & Martinez, 2018). Addressing this gap requires a holistic approach that involves not only consumers but also companies, governments and the other key players in the fashion industry. Furthermore, the gap highlights the complexity of consumption dynamics and the need for more effective strategies to promote sustainability in the fashion industry.The paper aims to analyse these aspects of sustainable fashion by relating them to the mechanisms underlying digital platforms. The analysis delves into the consumption patterns of sustainable fashion and the impact that persuasive technologies (PTs) have in influencing consumers’ behaviours. With the overarching goal of highlight-ing the potentially adverse effects of PTs, the paper’s objective is to demonstrate how these technologies can significantly impact the formation of consumer identities within the sustainable fashion sector. To show the different implications of PTs influences, the paper draws on the insights from the theory of consumer preferences. The paper states that PTs in the sustainable fashion field create the possibilities for the formation of people’s controversial self-iden-tity representations.The paper is structured as follows. After this introduction, section 2 delves into various aspects of sustainable fashion, elucidating how apparel can demonstrate to be sustainable. This section focuses on the importance of sustainability labels. Section 3 introduces what PTs are and analyses the role they play in influencing users’ fashion choices. This section shows the implications of the functioning of PTs on two different types of consumers: those who make purchases following the criterion of sustain-ability and those for whom sustainability represents just one of the many factors that play a role when buying a fashion product. Section 4 concludes by detailing some final remarks highlighting how dangerous preferences’ manipulation is related to fashion items.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/fh-2706
Read Full Text: https://riviste.fupress.net/index.php/fh/article/view/2706
