Jie Zhu

Among the four pillars of sustainability, ‘people’ can be represented as a diversity of customer segments, which can be divided into different groups of people in terms of race, age, gender, hobbies, professions, etc. These categories allow the fashion market to target its own customer segments at the moment. As shown in Figure 1, the different eras can be divided into five categories. It can be seen that Generation X has the largest workforce in the UK, accounting for 35% of the workforce, which shows that the pressure is greater in that era, while in today’s Generation Z, where technology takes over most of people’s lives, it can be seen that they are more dependent on IT and are relatively savvy in their consumption levels, with the brands also over-saturated.

What’s generation Z? How to attract them?

The Z Generation is one of the most iconic and youthful customer segments of today. Warren(2022) mentioned that people born from 1997 to 2012 are considered to be part of Gen Z. That means that the eldest among them will reach a quarter-century of life in 2022.

Consumers of Generation Z want to be at the center of every brand universe and they demand experiences that meet their personal needs at any given moment, which also means that modern brands must offer opportunities for personalization and customization in unique and meaningful ways.(Fromm & Read, P129, 2018) Such as the Glossier brand, who, having learned before setting up their brand that the Generation Z crowd preferred the experience of living in the wild, used a pale pink oasis to fit in with the skincare aesthetic, attracting thousands of young people with a unique interior design that made visiting this shop a mission. Their brand objective is very clear, the touch points are through their Instagram page and blog, the brand theme of letting everyone be who they want to be, which is also very relevant to the idea of young people in the Z Generation. So in order to attract more Generation Z customers, brands need to anticipate the psychology of this generation, their shopping habits and how they can best meet their needs to make them feel happy and satisfied, then spread the benefits of their brand through the social media platforms that this generation loves to stand out.

In a fashion factory, diversity is something that has to be taken into marketing, different brands market this in different ways. Some brands use advertisement to highlight people or groups that may be underestimated in the hope that the target consumers will identify with the brand’s products by understanding these groups, as in this ad for Adidas, which expresses the interplay between creativity and diversity to celebrate the black history month, with the boundaries that gender or race is irrelevant through the video.

https://www.adforum.com/creative-work/best-of/12399/best-ads-that-promote-diversity/play#34560656

References: Refuelagency(no date), 6 Examples of Brands Who Got Multicultural Marketing Right

Available at https://www.refuelagency.com/blog/multicultural/examples-of-brands-who-got-multicultural-marketing-right/  (Accessed 30th October 2022)

2. Fromm J & Read A (2018), Marketing to Gen Z : The Rules for Reaching This Vast–And Very Different–Generation of Influencers, AMACOM pres

3. Refuelagency(no date), 6 Examples of Brands That Got Gen Z Marketing Right Available at https://www.refuelagency.com/blog/teen/gen-z-marketing-examples/ (Accessed 30th October 2022)

4. Priyapatel(2020), How Glossier has Gen Z hooked Available at https://www.priyapatel.net/how-glossier-has-gen-z-hooked/  (Accessed 29th October)

What is sustainability and pillar?

In the Brundtland Report (1987), sustainability can be defined as meeting the needs of the current generation without jeopardizing future generations’ ability to meet their own needs. In the world of fashion business, the four pillars of sustainability are people, planet, profit and purpose, the planet, as one of the main pillars, is always given priority, but the environmental pillar is always the weakest in fashion factories. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, fashion now accounts for up to 10% of global carbon dioxide emissions—more than international flights and shipping combined (Dottle and Gu, 2022).This is why brands are now implementing the use of recycled materials and launching annual sustainability reports detailing their goals to use more recycled or organic materials, which is a reflection of the fashion industry’s ongoing commitment to better protect the planet.

What is circular economy in fashion industry?

A circular fashion industry is defined as a regenerative system in which garments are circulated for as long as their maximum value is retained, and then returned safely to the biosphere when they are no longer of use.(Motif, no date) The fashion industry is responsible for around 8% of global CO2 emissions and global clothing consumption is expected to rise from 62 million tonnes to 102 million tonnes by 2030（Pereira, 2020), these facts and forecasts are inspiring a rapid shift away from fast fashion, the toxic methane gas that is emitted every year as textile waste is broken down. For example, A.BCH is a brand with a recycling concept that allows clothes to be recycled when they reach the end of their useful life. This is a great way to change the way consumers dispose of their clothes, which in the end also reduces environmental damage caused by resource extraction and protects our planet.

Sustainability in relation to fashion

In conjunction with one of the pillars of sustainable development, the planet, sustainable fashion is about protecting the environment and clothing producers by reducing CO2 emissions and addressing issues such as overproduction, which in general means the way clothing is produced and consumed, there are still relatively few fashion brands that can address all of this and always room for improvement, so there still has to be a radical change in consumer buying habits and the way clothing is consumed.

SDGs

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as the Global Goals, were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity.The 17 SDGs are integrated—they recognize that action in one area will affect outcomes in others, and that development must balance social, economic and environmental sustainability.(UNDP, no date)

In the fashion factory, many clothing brands have embarked on a series of sustainability goals, such as the sports brand Nike, to achieve the goal of ”good health and well being” by inspiring and supporting communities around the world to play more sports and to develop children to be more active so that they can perform better on the pitch and in the classroom, as well as eventually in their professional careers as adults; An act that shows that as a sports brand, it has managed to focus more on people’s health and active lifestyles.

In summary, sustainable fashion is now the most unified goal in the fashion sector, as brands are working in different ways to better protect the world’s environment in the fashion sector, whether by using circular economy systems or manufacturing as part of the SDG goals.

References:

Manchester(2022), UoM online Sustainable Development Goals exercise, Available at https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/uom-online-sustainable-development-goals-exercise/ (Accessed 8th October)

Gu, J and Dottle, R(2022), The Global Glut of Clothing Is an Environmental Crisis, Available at https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2022-fashion-industry-environmental-impact/?leadSource=uverify%20wall (Accessed 8th October)

Motif(no date), Moving Towards a Circular Fashion Economy, Available at https://motif.org/news/circular-fashion-economy/ (Accessed 9th October)

Pereira, J. (2020), 18 Sustainable Fashion Brands Leading the Circular Economy, Available at https://goodonyou.eco/circular-fashion-brands/ (Accessed 9th October)

Figure 1: Motif(no date), Greenstrategy, Available at https://motif.org/news/circular-fashion-economy/ (Accessed 8th October)

UNDP(no date), What are the Sustainable Development Goals? Available at https://www.undp.org/sustainable-development-goals (Accessed 9th October)

Figure 2: United Nations (2015), Sustainable Development Goals kick off with start of new year, Available at https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2015/12/sustainable-development-goals-kick-off-with-start-of-new-year/  (Accessed 9th October)