In a world dominated by fast fashion giants, the rise of sustainable and slow fashion brands offers conscientious shoppers some hope.
The fast fashion industry is booming, with new trends emerging every few weeks and consumers buying clothes at an unprecedented rate. Fast fashion brands dominate the fashion industry market. According to Business Wire, the global fast fashion market is expected to grow from $91.23 billion in 2021 to $99.23 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.8%. The market is expected to grow to $133.43 billion in 2026.
However, fast fashion’s environmental and social costs are becoming increasingly apparent. As a result, there is a growing movement towards sustainable fashion, with brands prioritizing ethical production practices, quality over quantity, and sustainability.
While sustainable fashion brands offer a more sustainable alternative to fast fashion, they face several challenges when marketing their products.
Challenges
Marketing budgets: Fast fashion brands have massive marketing budgets, which they use to promote their products through various channels aggressively. Sustainable fashion brands, on the other hand, often have smaller marketing budgets. This makes it difficult for them to compete with fast fashion brands in terms of brand awareness and reach.
Price competition: Fast fashion brands are known for their affordability. On the other hand, sustainable fashion brands often have higher costs due to their use of higher-quality materials and ethical production practices. This can make it difficult for sustainable fashion brands to compete on price alone.
Consumer expectations: Fast fashion has conditioned consumers to expect new styles and collections every few weeks. Sustainable fashion brands, on the other hand, often focus on timeless, durable pieces that do not change as frequently. This can be a challenge for sustainable fashion brands, as they must convince consumers to shift their expectations from the fast fashion model.
Consumer education: Many must know about fast fashion’s environmental and social costs. Sustainable fashion brands need to educate consumers about these costs and the benefits of sustainable fashion.
Perceived prestige: Fast fashion brands have successfully created a sense of prestige and exclusivity, even at low prices. Sustainable fashion brands may need to work harder to establish themselves as prestigious, luxury, or high-end alternatives.
Solutions
Despite the challenges that sustainable fashion brands face, there are several things that they can do to market their products effectively. Here are a few tips:
Focus on your unique value proposition:
What differentiates your brand from fast fashion brands? Highlight your unique value proposition, such as using sustainable materials, ethical production practices, and high-quality construction.
Educate consumers:
Teach consumers about the environmental and social costs of fast fashion and the benefits of sustainable fashion. You can do this through your website, social media, and marketing materials.
Build relationships with influencers:
Partner with influencers who share your values and can help to spread the word about your brand.
Use targeted marketing:
Instead of trying to reach everyone, focus your marketing efforts on specific target audiences more likely to be interested in sustainable fashion.
Be transparent:
Be transparent about your supply chain and production practices. This will help to build trust with consumers.
Leverage technology and consumer ecosystems:
Go big on the consumer journey and create an ecosystem to gain a “share” of the consumer’s life.
To captivate audiences, fashion and retail brands should seamlessly integrate digital premium experiences, virtual try-ons, and personalized high-touch retail.
Younger generations coming into their prime productive and spending years demand the whole “Phygital” experience.
Data Superiority:
With a tighter margin to invest in marketing due to elevated production costs, brands in a sustainable fashion must be intentional about every dollar spent.
Having data-driven and measurable efforts will ensure the highest ROI and continuous improvement across marketing initiatives.
Invest in creativity:
Invest in creative people with the talent and craft to come through with ideas that will resonate with your desired consumer and make noise; creative people have the potential to imagine an impactful campaign that doesn’t need to “go viral.”
If a campaign is successful for the right reasons, it will earn organic amplification and put the brand at the top of mind for consumers.
Creativity represents an excellent opportunity for sustainable fashion brands.
Don’t forget about the consumer and the product:
It’s easy for marketing and sales teams to often focus only on margins, sales, and ROIs and forget what is at the heart of their efforts: what the consumer needs and how the product solves that.
The consumer-product dynamic should be centric to all conversations and decision-making from development to marketing. If the company thinks about how a particular product would be great to push to the market because it generates X margin, that is not the right direction. Instead, brands should ask what problem it is solving for the consumer.
By focusing on their unique value proposition, educating consumers, building relationships with influencers, using targeted marketing, and being transparent, sustainable fashion brands can overcome marketing challenges in a fast fashion world.
At Hylink, we can help you build the right marketing strategy to reach your target audience and educate them about the benefits of sustainable fashion. If you are a sustainable fashion brand looking for help with marketing, contact Hylink today. We would happily discuss your needs and develop a custom marketing strategy.