conclusion
the first page of their website. It is easy to understand why the company receives an “A” ranking on the www.rankabrand.org website. Frequent shoppers and those who are actively interested in sustainability and new lifestyles will learn about the services, but it requires a special interest to find information about them on the company websites. A brief survey of another ten established Swedish fashion brands’ web pages reveals that there is no company who communicates their sustainability policy or activities directly on the first page of their website. There are however some young Swedish fashion entrepreneurs who like Uniforms for the Dedicated, for instance Castor Pollux, who is committed to quality and sustainability and indeed communicates it through the brand story. Some companies, such as Acne, Odd Molly and Gina Tricot, follow the same strategy as Filippa K and H&M and have a special link to their CSR activities under the tab ‘About the company’. These are often very informative, so the companies will certainly claim they are active when it comes to sustainability and they are transparent about this. In the stores, however, where decisions on purchase are made, most companies do not communicate sustainability, so we are expected to
[3] http://www.ecosalon.com
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look at the company’s websites to find information about what the company is doing – or be knowledgeable about the brand stories. To be fair, many companies now have training and education of their staff, including shop personnel, about sustainability. Nevertheless, with no special campaign and no immediate first-page information they will not capture the attention of those consumers who only have a tepid interest in sustainability and never ask questions. Some companies are highlighted in the media for their design and crafting quality, referred to as slow fashion and in that sense as sustainable companies (e.g. Ecosalon.com) [3]. Those companies – and consumers – who invest in the quality of their products are indeed contributing to sustainability, but the question is to which extent it changes consumer behaviour and the fashion system.
There are different strategies for how companies communicate their sustainability to consumers. Some companies have sustainability as the core of operations, like Filippa K and H&M, but not as core of the brand, as for instance Nudie Jeans and Uniforms for the Dedicated. Instead they are very careful not to mix the core brand with anything other than fashion – and quality and trends. The Nudie Jeans website gives no doubt about the passion for jeans – and for sustainability. Sustainability endorses the brand and as a consequence innovative services to support this strategy are provided to the consumers. Compared to most fashion companies the extensive information about Nudie Jeans’ policy and activities for sustainability is however rather an exception. For those companies who do act in a sustainable way, the strategies for sustainability, services and communications are summarised in Table 1.