Marketing Tactics for Sustainable Fashion and the Circular Economy: The Impact of Ethical Labels on Fast Fashion Choice

Robert P. Hamlin and Lisa S. McNeill ()
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Robert P. Hamlin: Department of Marketing, University of Otago, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand
Lisa S. McNeill: Department of Marketing, University of Otago, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 13, 1-18

Abstract: This study aimed to contribute to the empirical literature on ethical fashion labelling. It investigates if complex, ethical, point-of-sale labels that ‘rate’ products’ ethical status on an ordinal scale influence consumer evaluations of fast-fashion garments (a) in any significant way at all and (b) in a way that is consistent with their reported ethical scores. In an experiment, 400 consumers evaluated a set of four fast-fashion garments with two levels of the Tearfund ordinal ethical label, a generic binary ethical label and garments with no label. Purchase intention was the dependent variable. The presence of a Tearfund label promoted significantly higher fast-fashion garment purchase intention, whatever ethical status the label was indicating. Thus, the rating label did significantly influence fast-fashion garment purchase intention, but not in any useful way. This is a novel and significant finding that indicates that fashion ethical labels are evaluated by using similar subconscious heuristic decision processes to those found in fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) markets. Ethical labels that rely on cognitive processing by the consumer may therefore be ineffective, and simpler iconic brand-like label systems that can support subconscious processing may be more useful in a fast-fashion setting.

Keywords: sustainability; ethical; labelling; fast fashion; consumer behaviour; decision making; fashion marketing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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