Do brand coolness and brand romance synchronize with sustainability? Insights from a mixed-method approach

Purpose: This study aims to analyse the synchronization sustainability has with coolness and how promotion of sustainable fashion can be dealt in an ameliorate way. It also provides insights to the fashion brands on how they can engage customers through brand coolness and romance for meliorated bottom and top lines.

Design/methodology/approach: It employs mixed-method approach through the combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods. For qualitative part, data is garnered through in-depth interviews (n=23) with sustainable brand owners, marketers, academicians, bloggers and influencers having different roles to play in the strategizing sustainability, slow fashion and consciousness amongst Gen Z. On the other hand, quantitative data is collected from apparel shoppers (n=688) through structured questionnaire.

Findings: The qualitative data transcribed is analysed through NVivo and findings received in this regard limns that sustainable fashion to be embellished as cool. Moreover, brand coolness has relationship with sustainable fashion, emotional attachment factor such as brand romance affect purchase intention of sustainable fashion clothing. Furthermore, brand romance is identified as a mediating variable between brand coolness and purchase intention of sustainable clothing.

Research limitations/implications: Limitations of the study is that with a structured interview, the respondents could not be asked to freely associate “anything related to cool”, rather they were directly asked to “define cool” and tell whether “they think sustainability in fashion can be stated as cool”. Without this constrain, the result could have been possibly being different. Moreover, the participants for the quantitative study were from developing countries which leads to limited generalizability of research findings.

Practical implications: This research attempts to develop an understanding of sustainable fashion so that brand managers can face the present challenges in a better way. The findings in this attempt of ours suggest that the sustainable fashion can be better employed only when both customers and brands are acting responsible. To make customers purchase the brands the organizations must connect consumers through coolness and romance towards their brand.

Originality/value: When there is dearth of literature on the association sustainability has with coolness, the present study holds originality in adding to the literature on the pertinent aspect. Besides this, present study addresses the lack of an academic understanding of literature on sustainable fashion in its own way through conduct of in-depth interviews with experts working in the area of sustainable fashion and then validating the same by surveying the Gen Z buyers of sustainable clothes.