Content uploaded by Danielle Sponder Testa
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Danielle Sponder Testa on Aug 14, 2021
Content may be subject to copyright.
Engaging consumers with
sustainable fashion on Instagram
Danielle Sponder Testa
Apparel, Events, and Hospitality Management, Iowa State University,
Ames, Iowa, USA
Sonia Bakhshian
Apparel, Events, and Hospitality Management, Iowa State University,
Ames, Iowa, USA and
Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama, USA, and
Rachel Eike
Apparel, Events, and Hospitality Management, Iowa State University,
Ames, Iowa, USA
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this study was to explore drivers of consumer engagement with sustainable fashion
brands on Instagram to specifically answer the research question: what drives popularity of sustainable
fashion among digital consumers?
Design/methodology/approach –Twenty-five global fashion retailers were identified and categorized as
either (a) sustainable fashion brands (SFB), (b) sustainably aware mainstream brands (SAB) or (c) traditional
fashion brands (TFB). Content analysis of the 25 retailer’s Instagram posts over a three-week period was
analyzed and categorized according to content theme. Data were analyzed for quantity of Likes and Comments
(engagement) to identify engagement strategies with each of the brand groups.
Findings –It was found that different strategies may be taken regarding social media strategy for SFB, SAB
or TFB. Consumers were engaged with unfamiliar content, for instance, sustainability to a consumer
unfamiliar with the topic or how it applies to a specific brand. Digital consumers were looking for exciting and
aesthetically pleasing posts. Specifically, all consumers were engaged with posts about Fashion and Lifestyle.
Practical implications –As the result of this study, sustainable fashion best practices and social media
strategies were presented for the three brand categories of fashion retailers.
Originality/value –This study analyzed a cross-section of global fashion brands and identified “best
practices”for digital consumer engagement with sustainable messages through Instagram. The findings
provide original value, specifically in the area of fashion marketing via social media to communicate brand
identify to digital consumers for brand growth.
Keywords Instagram, Brands, Sustainability, Social media, Consumer engagement, Digital consumers
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
In the fashion industry brands with a focus on sustainability have gained esteem among
consumer which has incentivized more brands to place emphasis on sustainable efforts
(Rosmarin, 2020). These efforts align with consumers increased willingness to purchase from
brands that support a social or environmental cause (Amel et al., 2009;Shen et al., 2013).
Consumers are increasingly sustainably aware including increased awareness of fashion
consumption and disposal (Amel et al., 2009;Shen et al., 2013;Rosmarin, 2020). Millennials
(28%) and Gen-Z consumers (31%) consider protecting the environment to be their top
concern than any other issues (Deloitte, 2020).
As brands develop sustainability initiatives, many are using social media to communicate
intentions to consumers (Onete et al., 2013;Li and Dou, 2017). Social media refers to “[n]ew
media technologies facilitating interactivity and co-creation that allow for the development
and sharing of user-generated content among and between organizations and individuals”
Consumers with
sustainable
fashion on
Instagram
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/1361-2026.htm
Received 25 November 2019
Revised 17 April 2020
6 August 2020
7 November 2020
Accepted 11 November 2020
Journal of Fashion Marketing and
Management: An International
Journal
© Emerald Publishing Limited
1361-2026
DOI 10.1108/JFMM-11-2019-0266
(Filo et al., 2015, p. 4). Social media aligns with the present-day digital climate as a medium
where posts may be used to communicate sustainable messages (Amed et al., 2017). Social
media allows brands to engage with consumers directly and capture immediate feedback
through likes, shares and comments (Nelson et al., 2019).
At the beginning of 2020, there were 3.8-billion social media users worldwide (an increase of
about 9% from the year prior) (Kemp, 2020a), and by October, social media users grew to 4-
billion, adding 2-million new users each day (Kemp, 2020b). As of October 2020, the average
social media user was spending about 15% of their waking time on social media (Kemp, 2020b).
Purpose
Social media is used to communicate a variety of branding messages (Briggs, 2010). As
brands navigate social media communications, it is essential to understand effective
engagement techniques with consumers for growth, particularly involving messaging of
“sustainability”. However, engagement may differ across different types of brands, such as
those focused on sustainability and those to which sustainability is peripheral to the core
brand message. While previous studies have explored social media as a platform for
sustainability (Reilly and Hynan, 2014;Li and Dou, 2017), a cross-section analysis of global
fashion brands sustainability messaging via social media, to determine best practices to
consumer engagement, has yet to be conducted. Further, while sustainable fashion brands
communicate both fashion and sustainability messages, it is unknown which category of
messaging receives a stronger response from consumers.
The purpose of this study was to explore drivers of consumer engagement (detailed in
methods section: Phase 2) with sustainable and sustainably aware fashion brands via social
media. Engagement in this study was operationalized through quantitative terms and is
discussed in the methods section under the heading “Phase 2: Consumer Engagement
through Likes and Comments”. The study sought to specifically answer the following
research questions:
RQ1a. What messaging practices are utilized by fashion brands to engage with
consumers?
RQ1b. What messaging practices are utilized by fashion brands to engage consumers
with sustainability?
RQ2. How are consumers engaging with sustainable messages from fashion brands?
Literature review
Social media communication
Content-based social media advertising continues to be a key opportunity to reach consumers
(Ramanathan et al., 2017). Social media communication platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram and TikTok exist. Several studies have focused on consumer engagement through
Facebook (e.g. Escobar-Rodr
ıguez and Bons
on-Fern
andez, 2017;Jin and Rye, 2019a;Nelson
et al., 2019), while further studies have explored consumer engagement on Instagram (e.g.
Bakhshi et al., 2014;Jang et al., 2015;Li et al., 2018;Jin and Rye, 2019b). However, an
opportunity exists to explore consumer engagement with sustainable messaging via social
media, particularly Instagram, to identify best practices for fashion brand marketing. This
opportunity is appropriate since consumers have stated increased interests in environmental
and social sustainability topics (Chery, 2020).
Instagram. Instagram allows users to share images or videos with other account holders
via posts. With more than 1-billion monthly users (Kemp, 2020a), more than 200-million
Instagram users access at least one business-profile on Instagram every day (Instagram
JFMM
Business, 2020). While it is not the largest social media platform, Instagram is frequently
considered the most influential social media source for fashion brand messaging (O’Connor,
2018). It accounts for 50% of fashion posts made through all social media platforms. The
prevalence of Instagram reflects the necessity of conducting fashion marketing research on
this specific platform. Therefore, this study will specifically address consumer engagement
with sustainable brand messages via Instagram.
Instagram users interact through functions of “Likes”and “Comments”. Users can double-
click on a post by another user to show they “Like”it, or they can add a specific “Comment”in
response to the post. Further, posts on Instagram can be in various formats, including single
photo, multiple photos, videos, [image of] text, text-embedded photos or text-embedded
videos. According to Gandomi and Haider (2015), post format impacts consumer engagement.
Therefore, within this study, the post format was recorded as it may further impact overall
consumer engagement.
Sustainable social media engagement
Delivery methods of sustainable messaging to consumers have been researched. Reilly
and Hynan (2014) explored how companies addressed sustainability through review Chief
Executive Officer (CEO) letters and annual Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reports
of diverse global corporations. They found significant differences in communication of
sustainability across industries, particularly between those that labeled themselves as
“green”companies. Dovleac (2015) studied the appropriateness of social media as a tool
for spreading information about sustainability issues and found it to be an appropriate
and impactful tool. Rettie et al. (2013) suggested that portraying sustainability within
standard marketing messages may normalize concepts. Johnstone and Lindh (2017)
found that social media influencers (i.e. individuals) impacted consumers’sustainability
awareness.
While research exploring sustainability-engagement has been conducted in academia,
best practices for communicating brands’sustainable values and actions through social
media have yet to be formally researched. Furthermore, a lack of research exists involving the
social media messaging practices of brands focused on sustainability compared to brands to
which sustainability is a peripheral message in order to identify industry marketing best
practices for optimal consumer engagement. Therefore, this study will explore consumer
engagement with sustainability messaging via Instagram posts to identify best practices for
sustainable fashion brands, sustainably aware fashion brands and traditional fashion
brands.
Theoretical foundation
Researchers have highlighted the unique role and impact of the paid, owned and earned
media (POEM) framework. As social media has emerged as a key channel of communication
(Jackson and Deckers, 2013), POEM was selected as the ideal framework to guide this study.
Paid media refers to media purchased by the company and includes advertising, such as
promoted posts, social media banners and collaboration with influencers. Owned media
belongs to and is controlled by the company, such as websites and social media accounts.
Earned media refers to free media, publicity and user-generated content. In the realm of
marketing, owned media has been found to be increasingly influential (Jackson and Deckers,
2013). Further, researchers have found that consumers trust created content on social media
over paid social media advertisements (Coker et al., 2017). Therefore, this study specifically
explores social media posts generated by brands as general posts for their followers –people
who elect to see media created by the brand, rather than paid advertisements visible to non-
followers.
Consumers with
sustainable
fashion on
Instagram
Methodology
A mixed methods approach was used in this study (Shekhar et al., 2019). Thematic,
qualitative, content analysis was used to analyze the visual content of social media post
(Braun and Clarke, 2006). Additionally, quantitative analysis was utilized to interpret
consumer engagement through Likes and Comments across post types, brands and brand
groups. This method is supported for social network analysis by Stieglitz et al. (2018) who
identified three critical areas of social media analysis including the identification of trend or
topic, the sentiment and statistical analysis. Therefore, this study was conducted in three
phases.
In Phase 1, two coders qualitatively evaluated content of Instagram posts across the three
groups of brands (i.e. sustainable fashion brands, sustainably aware fashion brands and
traditional fashion brands) to identify central themes (Braun and Clarke, 2006). In Phase 2, an
instrument was developed to measure and compare consumer engagement across brand
types and social media message types. This included Like-ratio which is discussed at length
in the “Phase 2”section below. In Phase 3, qualitative and quantitative findings were
triangulated for aggregated results (Jick, 1979;Carter et al., 2014).
Data source and data selection
Fashion brands were purposefully selected to represent diverse sustainability interests.
Brands were categorized into three groups: sustainable fashion brands, sustainably aware
fashion brands and traditional fashion brands. Sustainable fashion brands (SFB) were
defined as brands founded based on one or more sustainable principle. Sustainably aware
fashion brands (SAB) were defined as brands that did not originate from sustainable
principles but have made a public sustainability effort. Traditional fashion brands (TFB)
were defined as brands that have not identified sustainability as a public initiative. Posts
were analyzed over a 3-week period in the beginning of November 2018. This timeframe was
selected to capture high post frequency and consumer engagement leading into the holiday
season.
Twenty-five fashion brands were sought through news articles, magazine and blog posts,
global ranking of top retailers and independent company websites (Deloitte and Stores
Magazine, 2017). For inclusion in the study, a strong social media presence of at least 50,000
followers and verified Instagram account, demonstrating a confirmed account of a public
figure, celebrity or global brand, was required.
An initial list of brands in equal quantity by brand type was created. Then, a review of
Instagram posts was conducted to reduce the number of total brands while maintaining
similar quantity of total Instagram posts by each brand group. Due to varying frequency of
posts by brand group, during the group reduction phase, more brands were retained in the
SFB and SAB groups than in the TFB group. However, this allotted a comparable number of
total posts across groups for both qualitative and quantitative analysis. The review of brands
resulted in a total of ten sustainable fashion brands, nine sustainably aware brands and six
traditional fashion brands (Table 1). Followers ranged from 57,000 to 80,000,000 within each
brand group. During the identification of brands, specifically within the SFB group, many
brands had more than 50,000 followers and numerous magazine and blog reviews; however,
they did not have a verified status and therefore were excluded from the study.
Phase 1: Thematic content analysis
In the first phase of analysis, thematic content analysis of the 25 brand’s Instagram posts was
performed. Content analysis allowed researchers to describe and analyze the content of
written, spoken and pictorial communication in a methodical, impartial and measurable
manner (Vogt, 1999;Neuendorf, 2002;Braun and Clarke, 2006). Each coder reviewed and
JFMM
recorded themes from posts within each of the three groups: SFB, SAB and TFB. All posts
and themes were then validated by the second coder. This development of themes through
content analysis is referenced in the study as “thematic data.”
Instagram
Brand Handle Followers
Group 1: Sustainable fashion brands
1 Stella McCartney Stellamccartney 5,200,000
2 Patagonia Patagonia 3,600,000
3 Reformation reformation 1,100,000
4 Everlane everlane 557,000
5 ThredUp thredUP 254,000
6 All Birds allbirds 207,000
7 Edun Edun 77,200
8 Tome tomenyc 64,500
9 Eileen Fisher eileenfisherny 59300
10 A Day thisisaday 57100
Total SFB followers 11,176,100
Group 2: Sustainably aware brands
1 H&M H&M 27,000,000
2 Mango mango 9,000,000
3 Levi’s Levis 4,400,000
4 Alo Yoga aloyogo 1,600,000
5 Re/Done shopredone 311,000
6 ASOS Marketplace asosmarketplace 264,000
7 Rachel Comey rachelcomey 170,000
8 Kering kering_official 66,700
Total SAB followers 42,811,700
Group 3: Traditional fashion brands (control group)
1 Forever 21, Inc. forever21 15,300,000
2 Chanel chanelofficial 25,300,000
3 Alexander McQueen alexandermcqueen 6,500,000
4 Free People freepeple 3,400,000
5 Teva teva 266,000
6 Converse converse 8,200,000
Total TFB followers 58,966,000
Grand total followers 112,953,800
Source(s): AlexanderMcQueen. (2019), Instagram, available at instagram.com/alexandermcqueen/; Allbirds.
(2019), Instagram, available at instagram.com/allbirds/; AloYoga. (2019), Instagram, available at
instagram.com/aloyoga/; AsosMarketplace. (2019), Instagram, available at instagram.com/asosmarketplace/;
ChanelOfficial. (2019), Instagram, available at instagram.com/chanelofficial; Converse. (2019), Instagram,
available at instagram.com/converse/; Edun. (2019), Instagram, available at instagram.com/edun/;
EileenFisherNY. (2019), Instagram, available at instagram.com/eileenfisherny/; Everlane. (2019), Instagram,
available at instagram.com/everlane/; Forever21. (2019), Instagram, available at instagram.com/forever21/;
FreePeople. (2019), Instagram, available at instagram.com/freepeople/; H&M. (2019), Instagram, available at
instagram.com/h&m/; Kering_Official. (2019), Instagram, available at instagram.com/kering_official/; Levis.
(2019), Instagram, available at instagram.com/levis; Mango. (2019), Instagram, available at instagram.com/
mango; Patagonia. (2019), Instagram, available at instagram.com/patagonia; RachelComey. (2019), Instagram,
available at instagram.com/rachelcomey/; Reformation. (2019), Instagram, available at instagram.com/
reformation/; ShopRedone. (2019), Instagram, available at instagram.com/shopredone/; StellaMcCartney.
(2019), Instagram, available at instagram.com/stellamccartney/; ThisIsADay. (2019), Instagram, available at
instagram.com/thisisaday/; ThredUP. (2019), Instagram, available at instagram.com/thredup/; TomeNYC.
(2019), Instagram, available at instagram.com/tomenyc/; Teva. (2019), Instagram, available at
instagram.com/teva/
Table 1.
Sustainable Brands
(group one),
Sustainably Aware
Brands (group two)
and Traditional
Brands (group three)
along with Instagram
Handle and number of
approximate followers
Consumers with
sustainable
fashion on
Instagram
Phase 2: Consumer engagement through Likes and Comments
Quantity of Likes and Comments were recorded for each post. Thematic data were
quantitatively analyzed for frequency of themes and follower engagement. Followers were
considered to be representative of each brand’s current and sought consumer base. Follower
engagement was analyzed as a ratio of responses, in which Likes (L) and Comments (C) for a
single post were measured as a portion of total Likes or Comments for all of the Brand’s (or
Group’s) posts. The quantity of individual post Likes was taken as a ratio of total Likes to
interpret the relative engagement in relation to theme frequency across brand groups.
Comments were likewise rationed. These engagement proportions are henceforth referred to
as Like-ratio and Comment-ratio. In this study, Likes and Comments were analyzed
separately and engagement via Likes was emphasized for two reasons: (1) due to the larger
and more interpretable figures and (2) because Comment responses were skewed due to
taglines such as “Comment for a chance to win!”.
By comparing engagement as a portion of Likes, each post’s reach could be evaluated in a
manner that allowed comparison of engagement by theme. Additionally, to interpret highest
potential engagement, maximum response rates for single posts were analyzed. Maximum
response rates referred to the highest amount of Likes on an individual post. For each brand
group, total posts, Likes sums, Likes means, standard deviation, maximum response rat, and
the Likes-ratio were calculated and analyzed. Further, engagement by format was recorded
as a portion of total for each group to identify similarities and differences across groups.
Brand-level analysis. Total consumer engagement across brands were compared. Likes as
a portion of total followers were analyzed in this phase of the study. This was referred to as
follower response. This allowed researchers to address which theme had the highest
engagement for the brand or group as a portion of followers.
Phase 3: Triangulation
The final phase of the study included method triangulation of qualitative and quantitative
results (Jick, 1979;Carter et al., 2014). The qualitative coding and quantitative insights were
combined and examined to understand when individuals were most engaged with SFB, SAB
and TBF. In addition, by combining qualitative and quantitative insights, additional insights
regarding post frequency and post formats (i.e. video, photo) were identified.
Findings
Sample results
Across the three brand groups, 772 total posts were analyzed consisting of 239 posts from
SFB (31%), 195 from SAB (25%) and 336 posts from TFB (44%). SFB posted on average 1.14
times per day, SAB posted an average of 1.16 times per day and TFB posted an average of
2.29 times per day (Table 2). On average, each post received 38,573 Likes. SFB averaged
10,302 Likes per post. SAB averaged 51,903 Likes per post and TFB averaged 51,673 Likes
per post.
Emergent themes
Nineteen themes including Sustainability, Philanthropy, Social Awareness, Fashion,
Lifestyle, Current Events, General Branding, Promotion/Sale, Celebrity, Meme, Art/
Creative, Animals, Food and Beauty emerged from thematic content analysis (Table 2).
Sustainability. Eight original themes emerged in the realm of sustainability. These
included General Sustainability, Social Sustainability, Environmental Sustainability,
Philanthropy, Social Awareness and Current Events. A brief description of each theme is
outlined in Table 2.
JFMM
Lifestyle. Eleven lifestyle related themes emerged. These included Fashion, Lifestyle,
Celebrity, Meme, General Branding, Promotion/Sale, Art/Creative, Animal, Beauty and Food
(Table 2). Art/Creative, Animal, Beauty and Food emerged but had minimal results and were
therefore excluded from the analysis.
Group 1: Sustainable fashion brands (SFB)
Frequent themes. Fashion was the most prevalent theme for SFB with 138 posts, 2.5-times as
many posts as any other theme (Table 3). The next most frequent theme was Lifestyle with 53
posts. Promotion/Sale and Environmental Sustainability were the third and fourth most
common themes with 39 and 31 posts respectively.
Engaging themes. Comprehensive results for SFB showed the highest engagement came
from posts regarding Lifestyle. This theme was present in 53 post, less than 40% as often as
Fashion posts, but had a higher response rate and portion of Likes. Lifestyle had a 42.3%
Like-ratio in contrast to Fashion, which had a 19.1% Like-ratio. Similarly, while Promotion/
Sale was the third most frequent theme, it ranked fourth in engagement based on both Like-
ratio and portion of Likes. Environmental Sustainability had higher engagement receiving
15.9% of Likes.
Single post engagement. The maximum Like-ratio was 52.2% originating from a video post
from EDUN regarding Social Sustainability and Environmental Sustainability. It received
4,821 Likes out of 9,230 Likes for the brand in total. The highest ranked post in terms of
quantity of Likes was also a video, posted by Patagonia and received 184,467 Likes. This was
a follower response (L) of 21.3% for the brand. The post was themed Social Sustainability and
Lifestyle.
The post with the maximum Comment-ratio was also the post the highest quantity of
Comments for SFB. The post came from an Eileen Fisher and was promoting a sale
(Promotion/Sale). It received 2,265 Comments which received was a 75.5% Comment-ratio
and 15% of SFB total Comments.
Theme Description/Examples SFB SAB TFB
Total
posts
General sustainability Broad sustainable message 13 6 2 21
Social sustainability Ethics, workforces, society 5 24 2 31
Environmental
sustainability
Natural resource use, materials, pollution 28 7 1 36
Philanthropy Philanthropic deeds, charity, fundraising 11 3 6 20
Social awareness Inequalities or injustice; race and gender 15 5 1 21
Current events Public sphere; wildfires, public elections 5 3 2 10
Fashion Apparel, accessories, footwear product 135 151 238 524
Lifestyle Moments, “how-to”s, and daily life 37 44 61 142
Celebrity Contained a famous individual in the post 6 5 18 29
Meme Humorous or heartwarming images with
text
6 0 25 31
General branding Promotion of the brand, stores or events 30 63 32 125
Promotion/Sale Discounts, sales, available promotions 39 17 28 84
Art/Creative Creative or abstract imagery 12 0 7 19
Beauty Beauty products (i.e. makeup, facial
products)
229 13
Animals Presence of an animal in the post 1 1 10 12
Food Presence of food in post 2 0 6 8
Average themes per post 2 2 1 2
Maximum themes per post 4 4 4 4
Table 2.
Resulting themes from
Instagram posts
content analysis for
sustainable fashion
brands (SFB)
sustainably aware
fashion brands (SAB)
and traditional fashion
brands (TFB)
Consumers with
sustainable
fashion on
Instagram
Theme a b c d e f G h i j k l m n o p
SFB total
Total posts 13 31 6 12 15 5 138 53 31 39 6 6 12 2 2 1
Likes sum 126,007 386,046 190,110 186,702 48,228 55,809 1,001,373 1,160,955 253,672 265,622 61,425 51,115 66,554 35,569 11,738 6,196
Likes mean 527 1,615 795 781 202 234 4,190 4,858 1,061 1,111 257 214 278 149 49 26
Standard dev. 2,537 7,830 11,935 6,537 2,943 3,212 10,693 17,157 4,573 6,215 2,148 1,991 1,626 1,970 536 401
Follower
resp. (L)
1.1% 3.5% 1.7% 1.7% 0.4% 0.5% 9.0% 10.4% 2.3% 2.4% 0.5% 0.5% 0.6% 0.3% 0.1% 0.1%
Like-ratio 5.2% 15.9% 7.8% 7.7% 2.0% 2.3% 41.2% 47.8% 10.4% 10.9% 2.5% 2.1% 2.7% 1.5% 0.5% 0.3%
SAB total
Total posts 6 7 24 3 5 3 151 46 63 17 7 21
Likes sum 284,811 14,664 234,691 1,237 54,991 2,369 8,682,639 5,567,273 6,157,719 171,225 4,273,064 92,940 45,059
Likes mean 1,591 82 1,311 7 307 13 48,506 8,732 34,401 957 1,502 519 252
Standard dev. 20,787 614 4,477 56 2,840 103 90,161 34,454 79,138 3,653 12,084 4,931 3,368
Follower
resp. (L)
0.8% 0.0% 0.7% 0.0% 0.2% 0.0% 25.8% 16.5% 18.3% 0.5% 12.7% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.3% 0.1%
Like-ratio 3.1% 0.2% 2.6% 0.0% 0.6% 0.0% 95.1% 61.0% 67.4% 1.9% 46.8% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 1.0% 0.5%
TFB total
Total posts 212632253 67 43 29 19 25 861211
Likes sum 121,932 9,249 41,547 250,719 22,629 64,226 11,820,618 3,394,709 2,802,406 1,709,032 1,816,913 2,284,905 697,396 259,415 900,183 495,954
Likes mean 5,384 132 594 3,582 534 918 273,961 46,131 120,581 15,982 45,445 15,688 15,482 1,601 32,325 4,576
Standard dev. 3,755 158 508 1,962 416 950 42,898 14,630 24,060 9,658 24,058 9,487 10,456 1,258 11,505 3,567
Follower
resp. (L)
0.22% 0.02% 0.07% 0.43% 0.04% 0.11% 20.05% 5.76% 4.75% 2.90% 3.08% 3.87% 1.18% 0.44% 1.53% 0.84%
Like-ratio 0.81% 0.06% 0.25% 1.53% 0.14% 0.39% 72.16% 20.72% 17.11% 10.43% 11.09% 13.95% 4.26% 1.58% 5.50% 3.03%
Note(s): Letters a –p represent the emergent themes as follows: (a) General Sustainability, (b) Environmental Sustainability, (c) Social Sustainability, (d) Philanthropy, (e)
Social Awareness, (f) Current Events, (g) Fashion, (h) Lifestyle, (i) General Branding, (j) Promotion / Sale, (k) Celebrity, (l) Meme, (m) Art / Creative, (n) Food, (o) Beauty, and
(p) Animals. Portion of Likes (B) refers to the portion of likes out of total likes for the brand, whereas Portion of Likes (T) refers to the total portion of likes that theme
garnered out of all likes for the group (SFB). Portion of Likes percentages may not add up to 100% because each post may have more than 1 theme, but each like was
counted only once
Table 3.
Group summary
by theme
JFMM
Brand-level results. Brand level results were measured through follower response. The
SFBs with the highest engagement in Likes and Comments were Eileen Fisher and
Reformation. Eileen Fisher had an average of 2.0% follower response (L) to posts and
Reformation had an average 1.7% follower response (L). Both brands focused on Fashion and
Lifestyle with infrequent posts regarding sustainability.
Group 2: Sustainably aware brands (SAB)
The average Like-ratio for sustainably aware brands was 4.1% with a maximum Like-ratio of
30.7% of Likes for a single post. While average response rate for SAB is comparable to SFB,
the maximum response rate is significantly lower. SFB’s maximum Like-ratio was 40%
higher than SABs.
Frequent themes. The highest frequency of posts was in the Fashion and General
Branding with 163 and 71 posts respectively. Posts were typically consolidated around five
themes including: Fashion, General Branding, Lifestyle, Social Sustainability and
Promotion/Sale.
Engaging themes. The highest engagement in SAB came from the most common themes of
Fashion and General Branding with response rates (L) of 95.1% and 65.8% respectively.
Lifestyle was also a very engaging theme with a Like-ratio of 18.1%.
Single post engagement. The post with the most Likes overall was a video post from H&M
themed Fashion and General Branding. It received 454,590 Likes which was a 5.4% Like-ratio
for the brand. The post with the highest response (L) for SAB brands was a photo post from
Rachel Comey themed Fashion, General Branding and Celebrity and included a photo of
Michelle Obama. It received a Like-ratio of 30.7% for the brand which equated to 7,724 Likes.
The post with the most Comments was a photo from H&M themed General Branding and
Fashion which received 723 Comments, a 5.6% Comment-ratio. The highest Comment-ratio
came from a Re/Done post regarding Fashion and Lifestyle which obtained 3,016 Comments
equaling a 13.2% Comment-ratio for the brand.
Brand-level results. At the brand level within SAB, there was diversity across themes.
Examining SAB Likes as a portion of brand followers to identify which brands were able to
most engage their consumers, Alo Yoga and Re/Done had the highest rates of engagement as
a percent of their followers.
Alo Yoga’s had an average 1.0% follower response (L) with a maximum of 1.9% follower
response (L) to a single post. Followers were highly engaged in posts regarding Fashion,
Lifestyle and Social Sustainability. Follower response ranged from 1.4% to 1.9% per post. Re/
Done had an average of 0.9% follower response (L) with a maximum of 3.1% follower
response (L) for a single post. All Re/Done posts were primarily themed Fashion.
Group 3: Traditional fashion brands (TFB)
The average Like-ratio for TFB was 1.8% with a maximum Like-ratio of 16.3% for a single
post. Average and maximum Like-ratio for TFB was significantly lower than that of SFB or
SAB. However, the quantity of Likes from TFB are higher with 16,380,251 total Likes verse
9,809,721 SAB Likes and 2,431,60 total SFB Likes.
Frequent themes. Fashion was the most posted theme with 241 posts followed by Lifestyle
with 60 posts. All eight sustainability themes were posted least frequently with only
Philanthropy (6 posts) and Social Awareness (3 posts) having three or more posts.
Engaging themes. TFBs had an overall average Like-ratio of 1.8% which was lower than
the average response rate of SFB and SAB. The most engaging themes coincided with the
most frequently posted themes and included Fashion, and Lifestyle with response rates (L)of
68.2% and 19.5% respectively. The next most frequently posted themes, such as General
Branding and Meme received consistent engagement through Like-ratio (Table 3).
Consumers with
sustainable
fashion on
Instagram
Single post engagement. The maximum Like-ratio for a single TFB post was 16.3% which
was lower than posts from SFB and SAB. This maximum brand engagement came from a
Teva photo post themed Lifestyle. It received 9,660 Likes. The highest quantity of Likes came
from a Forever 21 text-embedded video post themed Meme which received 610,158 Likes.
This was a video clip from the pop culture movie, Mean Girls. The same two brands received
the maximum response rates (C). The maximum Comment-ratio for a single TFB post was
74.6% for a Teva photo post themed Fashion which received 4,590 Comments. This was a
post with a “Comment for a chance to win”tagline. The highest quantity of Comments was for
a Forever 21 post themed Lifestyle, Meme and Celebrity which received 127,038 Comments.
This Forever 21 post was also a pop culture movie reference, Sex and the City.
Brand-level results. The TFBs with the highest follower engagement were Converse and
Alexander McQueen. On average, Converse received a 1.1% follower response (L) to posts
with a maximum of 2.5% follower response (L) for a single post. Most posts for the brand
regarded Fashion. The brand had minimal posts regarding sustainability, but performance of
these posts was strong with an average 1.4% follower response (L).
Alexander McQueen had an average of 0.9% follower response (L) with a maximum of
2.6% follower response (L) for a single post. Most frequent posts themes were Fashion with
occasional Art/Creative content. No posts referenced sustainability. The strongest
performing posts were in video format, averaging a 1.2% follower response (L).
Free People had successful engagement with posts referencing general sustainability
and social sustainability, particularly in reference to craft makers of their product. These
posts had strong follower response averaging 0.7% (L) which was consistent with the
0.7% brand average. The posts had increased engagement through Comments with an
average of 0.009% follower response (C) versus the brand average of 0.003% follower
response (C).
Phase 3: Aggregate results
Consumer engagement. SFB had the highest average follower response (L) with an average of
4.2% and the highest maximum follower response (L) of 52.2% for a single post. Across the
three groups, the average follower response (L) was 3.1% with a maximum follower rate (L)of
52.2% for a single post. The follower response (C) was also highest in SFB with an average of
4.2% and a maximum follower response (C) of 75.5% for a single post.
Sustainability. Following individual brand and group-level analysis, engagement in
sustainable themed posts across the three brand groups were compared. It was found that
General Sustainability posts engaged followers with TFB (average 1.0% follower response
(L)) but not through SFB and SAB. SFB and SAB had some of their lowest overall
engagement through General Sustainability posts (averaging 0.6% follower response (L)
each) but where highly engaged with Environmental Sustainability (3.0% and 0.8% follower
Like-ratio) and Social Sustainability (2.0% and 0.9% follower response (L)) posts. Follower
response (L) comparison by group can be viewed graphically in Figure 1.
Environmental sustainability was the most engaging sustainability topic for SFB with
high frequency and engagement (Table 3). SFBs posted 31 total posts regarding
environmental sustainability in contrast to 20 posts regarding other sustainability topics.
Further, the group had consistent follower engagement averaging 3.0% follower response (L)
with a maximum of 23.9% for a single post. While consumers across groups responded (L)to
photos of “cute”animals, photos posted by SFBs of animals related to sustainability (garment
production, wool, anti-animal cruelty) had low response rates (L)(C). Followers were more
engaged (L) with sustainability messages in video and text-embedded video formats than in
photo format, however, they were more likely to share sustainable photos with friends
through Comments than they were videos.
JFMM
Social sustainability was the most engaging sustainability topic for SAB with high frequency
and engagement. SAB posted 24 total posts regarding social sustainability in contrast to 16
posts regarding other sustainability topics. Further, the group had consistent follower
engagement averaging 0.9% follower response (L) with a maximum of 2.4% for a single post.
Across SAB, followers responded to sustainable messages most when they were combined
with fashion or lifestyle content or had a personal element.
Format. Six formats were presented during the analysis of brand’s Instagram posts
including photo, multiple photo, video, text, text-embedded photo and text-embedded video.
Multiple photo referred to a single post that has more than one photo, text-embedded photos
referred to photos with text written over the image and text-embedded videos refer to videos
that have written text within the video content. In all groups, photo and video had the highest
average Like-ratio (Table 4). The maximum Like-ratio posts were also typically videos.
Overall, videos had a 2.4% follower response (L). Followers were more likely to Comment on
photos, text and text-embedded photos. Variation in format engagement was minimal across
SFB, SAB and TFB.
0.000%
1.000%
2.000%
3.000%
4.000%
5.000%
6.000%
SFB SAB TFB
Format
Likes Comments
SFB
(%)
SAB
(%)
TFB
(%)
Total
(%)
SFB
(%)
SAB
(%)
TFB
(%)
Total
(%)
Photo 56.5 50.8 58.8 56.3 80.1 82.6 68.4 71.7
Photo
multiple
6.6 3.4 1.9 2.8 9.3 3.7 2.9 3.8
Video 33.9 45.2 26.5 32.5 8.4 11.6 9.4 9.6
Photo/text 0.4 0.3 5.5 3.6 0.3 1.6 11.4 8.8
Video/text 1.9 0.4 4.2 2.9 0.3 0.4 0.8 0.7
Text 0.8 0.0 3.1 2.0 1.6 0.1 7.0 5.4
Note(s): Measured in Like-ratio, each column equals approximately 100% of total Likes (any deviation from
100% is due to rounding)
Figure 1.
Average follower
response (L) per theme
across groups
Table 4.
Engagement by post
format
Consumers with
sustainable
fashion on
Instagram
Likes versus comments
Engagement through Likes were highest with photos, accounting for 56.3% of all Likes, and
videos, accounting for 32.5% of Likes. Multiple photo format and text-embedded options had
the lowest engagement via Likes. Comments engagement was much lower for video formats
(9.6% of Comments) with followers engaging most with photo formats (Table 4). Single-photo
posts accounted for the majority of Comments, with 71.7% of all Comments, but text-
embedded photos had much higher rates of Comments (8.8% of Comments) than of
Likes (3.6%).
Implications
In the following section, the research questions are addressed through posts made on
Instagram, owned media, as a part of the POEM framework. Implications address consumer
engagement with sustainability across various brand types. Additionally, insights for
boosting social media engagement across message types are outline.
Engaging consumers with sustainability
Sustainable fashion brands with the highest follower engagement did not directly claim
“sustainability”within their posts. This finding built upon the research of Amel et al. (2009),
who found only partial support between “acting and awareness”regarding sustainability. In
the present study, separation existed between sustainable aware individuals and sustainable
post engagement. Therefore, when comparing across fashion and sustainability, our results
are in contrast to those of Jin and Rye (2019a), who found significant interactions between
social identification and fashion involvement, presenting an opportunity for further research.
It is possible that followers of sustainable brands are consciously aware of sustainability
issues and by supporting such brands are demonstrating their activism, therefore
eliminating the need for a persistent sustainability message via social media. In contrast,
although there were significantly fewer posts regarding sustainability among the
sustainably aware and traditional fashion brands, the responses to sustainability-themed
posts were typically higher than the average response rate. It may be inferred that these
consumers were less familiar with sustainability and/or were not expecting to see it from the
brands; thereby finding the message more engaging.
Best practices. (1) Be unpredictable. Focus content according to brand type, engage
consumers with content that is new, exciting and outside of their zone of familiarity. Include
sustainable messaging if it is not within the brands normal messaging; if is within the brands
normal messaging find a way to make it new and unique.
Align platform structure with consumer mentality
Followers were highly engaged with Fashion and Lifestyle themed posts from all groups.
While extant research was not found that explored such themes, these findings align with
those of Kim et al. (2020), who found that content types and brand intentions impacted
follower e-WOM intentions. These findings consistently portray brand communication
strategies impacting follower engagement. Furthermore, the present study found that
followers engaged with General Branding messages when the message was consistent with
the founding principles of the brand (i.e. SFB). Therefore, it may be interpreted that the
response to General Branding messages on social media is specific to the brand–follower
relationship, inherent in its authenticity.
Best practices. (1) Feel the consumers vibe, speak their language. On Instagram, keep posts
aesthetically engaging and/or entertaining even when communicating a sustainable
message. (2) Display authenticity. Branding messages should simulate an authentic
conversation.
JFMM
Boosting engagement
Across brand types, consumers were most engaged with single photo posts. Differences in
engagement were also identified between Likes and Comments. The study found that
Comments were low for video posts while Likes were high. Comparably, Likes were low for
multiple photo posts, while Comments were comparably high. These were unique findings as
extant literature has explored the role of Likes and Comments in boosting engagement (e.g.
Jang et al., 2015;Li et al., 2018), as well image curation for increased responses (e.g. Bakhshi
et al., 2014;Lindell, 2019), but no past studies were found that explored the post format in
comparison to engagement.
The difference in engagement may be explained by followers’intentions. Likes tended to
reach existing consumers while Comments extended to new consumers (through @). While
Likes are a positive and brief affirmation of approval, Comments engage for a longer period of
time by creating a continued conversation, either positively or negatively. Therefore, brands
may choose to evaluate the goals of a social media campaign to optimize engagement
outcomes.
Best practices. (1) Brands should identify their engagement intentions (i.e. immediacy or
extended conversation) and utilize formats that will engage consumers accordingly (i.e. Likes
or Comments). (2) For maximum engagement with sustainable content, post a single photo or
video. (3) Utilize video format to increase excitement regarding sustainable messages and
when attempting to increase longevity of consumer engagement. (4) Regardless of brand
type, photos should be presented as individual images, rather than numerous photos in a
single post for maximum engagement.
Conclusion
The purpose of this study was to explore consumer engagement with sustainability and
sustainable fashion brands on Instagram. This study identified emergent, engaging themes
of sustainable fashion brands as well as specific formats for general and sustainable
messages to engage followers. In short, while it was found that different strategies may be
taken regarding social media strategy for SFB, SAB or TFB, followers on Instagram are
looking for exciting and aesthetically pleasing posts. Specifically, all followers were engaged
with posts about Fashion and Lifestyle, and unfamiliar or atypical content. Sustainability
was highly engaging to a consumer unfamiliar with the topic or how it applied to the brand,
while consumers familiar with a brands sustainable message engaged through new exciting
information or when it was presented in a unique manner.
The findings of this study may be useful to academicians, industry professionals,
sustainable fashion brands and brands interested in sustainable initiatives. This study may
benefit sustainable fashion brands by showcasing consumer engagement “best practices”
and provide academicians with a baseline for measuring fashion sustainability social media
engagement on a broader scale. This study provides further insights on how follower
engagement with sustainable fashion brands varies from traditional fashion brands.
Future research opportunities exist to continue exploring best practices regarding
sustainability. In this study, most of the analysis focused on Likes due to potential skewed
responses by Comments, such as “Comment for a chance to win!”; therefore, differences
between engagement through Likes and Comments may be explored in future studies. Best
practices across other social media channels may also be identified for comparison. Of
particular interest is the comparison of Instagram, a visual social media platform, with a
verbally engaging platform such as Twitter.
This was a general fashion study, considering any retailer within apparel, footwear or
fashion accessories, therefore the opportunity exists to explore specific sectors of the fashion
industry. Further, as technology continues to advance, and consumer preferences continue to
Consumers with
sustainable
fashion on
Instagram
evolve, it will be necessary for researchers and business professionals to continually revisit
engagement preferences of consumers and adjust practices accordingly.
Originality
This study analyzed a cross-section of global fashion brands and identified “best practices”
for follower engagement with sustainable messages through Instagram. The findings of this
study provide original value, specifically in the area of sustainable fashion marketing via
social media.
References
Amed, I., Berg, A., Kappelmark, S., Hedrick, S., Andersson, J., Drageset, M. and Young, R. (2017), “The
state of fashion 2018”,Business of Fashion and McKinsey & Company, available at: https://
www.mckinsey.com/industries/retail/our-insights/the-state-of-fashion.
Amel, E.L., Manning, C.M. and Scott, B.A. (2009), “Mindfulness and sustainable behavior: pondering
attention and awareness as means for increasing green behavior”,Ecopsychology, Vol. 1 No. 1,
pp. 14-25.
Bakhshi, S., Shamma, D.A. and Gilbert, E. (2014), “Faces engage us: photos with faces attract more
likes and comments on Instagram”,Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors
in Computing Systems, pp. 965-974.
Braun, V. and Clarke, V. (2006), “Using thematic analysis in psychology”,Qualitative Research in
Psychology, Vol. 3, pp. 77-101.
Briggs, T. (2010), “Social media’s second act: toward sustainable brand engagement”,Design
Management Review, Vol. 21 No. 1, pp. 46-53.
Carter, N., Bryant-Lukosius, D., DiCenso, A., Blythe, J. and Neville, A.J. (2014), “The use of
triangulation in qualitative research”,Oncology Nursing Forum, Vol. 41 No. 5, pp. 545-547.
Chery, D. (2020), “Rapidly changing behaviours in 2020 are accelerating consumer embrace of digital,
health, and sustainability trends, says PwC”,PWC, available at: https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/
news-room/press-releases/2020/global-consumer-insights-survey-2020.html.
Coker, K., Howie, K., Syrdal, H., Vanmeter, R. and Woodroof, P. (2017), “The truth about transparency
and authenticity on social media: how brands communicate and how customers respond: an
abstract”,inAcademy of Marketing Science Annual Conference, May, pp. 659-660.
Deloitte (2020), “The Deloitte global millennial survey”, available at: https://www2.deloitte.com/global/
en/pages/about-deloitte/articles/millennialsurvey.html.
Deloitte and Stores Magazine (2017), “2017 global 250 chart”, March 1, National Retail Federation,
available at: https://nrf.com/2017-global-250-chart.
Dovleac, L. (2015), “The role of new communication technologies in companies’sustainability”,
Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Brasov, Economic Sciences, Vol. 8 No. 1, pp. 33-40.
Escobar-Rodr
ıguez, T. and Bons
on-Fern
andez, R. (2017), “Facebook practices for business
communication among fashion retailers”,Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management,
Vol. 21 No. 1, pp. 33-50.
Filo, K., Lock, D. and Karg, A. (2015), “Sport and social media research: a review”,Sport Management
Review, Vol. 18 No. 2, pp. 166-181.
Gandomi, A. and Haider, M. (2015), “Beyond the hype: big data concepts, methods, and analytics”,
International Journal of Information Management, Vol. 35 No. 2, pp. 137-144.
Instagram Business (2020), “Stand out with Instagram. New to Instagram? See how to set up a free
business profile, create content and use Instagram to grow your business”, available at: https://
business.instagram.com/getting-started/#why-instagram.
Jackson, T. and Deckers, E. (2013), The Owned Media Doctrine, Archway Publishing, Bloomington, IN.
JFMM
Jang, J.Y., Han, K., Shih, P.C. and Lee, D. (2015), “Generation like: comparative characteristics in
Instagram”,Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing
Systems, pp. 4039-4042.
Jick, T.D. (1979), “Mixing qualitative and quantitative methods: triangulation in action”,
Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 24 No. 4, pp. 602-61.
Jin, S.V. and Ryu, E. (2019a), “Celebrity fashion brand endorsement in Facebook viral marketing and
social commerce: interactive effects of social identification, materialism, fashion involvement, and
opinion leadership”,Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, Vol. 23 No. 1, pp. 104-123.
Jin, S.V. and Ryu, E. (2019b), “Instagram fashionistas, luxury visual image strategies and vanity”,The
Journal of Product and Brand Management, Vol. 29 No. 3, pp. 355-368.
Johnstone, L. and Lindh, C. (2017), “The sustainability-age dilemma: a theory of (un)planned behaviour
via influencers”,Journal of Consumer Behaviour, Vol. 17 No. 1, pp. 127-139.
Kemp, S. (2020a), “Digital 2020: 3.8 billion people use social media”, January, We Are Social, available
at: https://wearesocial.com/blog/2020/01/digital-2020-3-8-billion-people-use-social-media.
Kemp, S. (2020b), “Social media users pass the 4 billion mark as global adoption soars”, October, We
Are Social, available at: https://wearesocial.com/blog/2020/10/social-media-users-pass-the-4-
billion-mark-as-global-adoption-soars.
Kim, J., Melton, R. and Min, J.E. (2020), “Who says what? Exploring the impacts of content type and
blog type on brand credibility, brand similarity and eWOM intention”,Journal of Fashion
Marketing and Management, Vol. 24 No. 4, pp. 611-630.
Li, Q. and Dou, W. (2017), “Like ad, like content: the use of content-based advertising in China’s social
media: a content analytic study”,inAmerican Academy of Advertising Conference Proceedings,
pp. 179-192.
Li, P., Chang, L., Chua, T.H.H. and Loh, R.S.M. (2018), ““Likes”as KPI: an examination of teenage girls’
perspective on peer feedback on Instagram and its influence on coping response”,Telematics
and Informatics, Vol. 35 No. 7, pp. 1994-2005.
Lindell, A.K. (2019), “Left cheek poses garner more likes: the effect of pose orientation on Instagram
engagement”,Laterality: Asymmetries of Body, Brain and Cognition, Vol. 24 No. 5, pp. 600-613.
Nelson, D.W., Moore, M.M. and Swanson, K.K. (2019), “Fashion and social networking: a motivations
framework”,Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, Vol. 23 No. 4, pp. 608-627.
Neuendorf, K.A. (2002), The Content Analysis Guidebook, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA.
Onete, C.B., Dina, R. and Vlad, D.E. (2013), “Social media in the development of sustainable business”,
Amfiteatru Economic Journal, Vol. 15 No. 7, pp. 659-670.
O’Connor, T. (2018), “5 ways brands can stand out on social media”, April 12, Business of Fashion,
available at: https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/fashion-tech/5-ways-brands-can-stand-
out-on-social-media.
Ramanathan, U., Subramanian, N. and Parrott, G. (2017), “Role of social media in retail network
operations and marketing to enhance customer satisfaction”,International Journal of
Operations and Production Management, Vol. 37 No. 1, pp. 105-123.
Reilly, A.H. and Hynan, K.A. (2014), “Corporate communication, sustainability, and social media: it’s
not easy (really) being green”,Business Horizons, Vol. 57 No. 6, p. 747.
Rettie, R., Burchell, K. and Barnham, C. (2013), “Social normalisation: using marketing to make green
normal”,Journal of Consumer Behaviour, Vol. 13 No. 1, pp. 9-17.
Rosmarin, R. (2020), “Sustainability sells: why consumers and clothing brands alike are turning to
sustainability as a guiding light”, January 14, Business Insider, available at: https://www.
businessinsider.com/sustainability-as-a-value-is-changing-how-consumers-shop.
Shekhar, P., Prince, M., Finelli, C., Demonbrun, M. and Waters, C. (2019), “Integrating quantitative and
qualitative research methods to examine student resistance to active learning”,European
Journal of Engineering Education, Vol. 44 Nos 1–2, pp. 6-18.
Consumers with
sustainable
fashion on
Instagram
Shen, D., Richards, J. and Liu, F. (2013), “Consumers’awareness of sustainable fashion”,Marketing
Management Journal, Vol. 23 No. 2, pp. 134-147.
Stieglitz, S., Mirbabaie, M., Ross, B. and Neuberger, C. (2018), “Social media analytics –challenges in
topic discovery, data collection, and data preparation”,International Journal of Information
Management, Vol. 39, pp. 156-168.
Vogt, W.P. (1999), Dictionary of Statistics and Methodology, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA.
Further reading
Gupta, S. (2018), Digital Marketing, McGraw Hill Publishing, Chennai.
Southern, M. (2018), “Instagram has 1 billion monthly users, now the fastest growing social network”,
June 21, Search Engine Journal, available at: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/instagram-1-
billion-monthly-users-now-fastest-growing-social-network/258127/#close.
About the authors
Danielle Sponder Testa, M.A. is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Apparel, Events and
Hospitality Management at Iowa State University. Her areas of research expertise are international
retailing, brand management and cross-functional sustainability. Alongside her academic work,
Danielle has industry-specific expertise built through an industry career within leading, global retail
brands and as an industry consultant. Danielle received her degrees from the London College of Fashion
and Iowa State University. Danielle Sponder Testa is the corresponding author and can be contacted at:
dstesta@iastate.edu
Sonia Bakhshian, M.S. is a doctoral student in Consumer and Design Sciences Department, at
Auburn University. Her research area is mainly focused on fashion and technology and consumer
behavior. She is expertise in conducting qualitative and qualitative research approaches. Sonia received
her Master of Sciences degree in Apparel Design and Merchandising major from California State
University, Northridge (CSUN).
Rachel Eike, Ph.D. is an assistant professor in the Department of Apparel, Events, and Hospitality
Management at Iowa State University. Her research and expertise involve sustainability in the fiber,
textiles and clothing disciplines and functional apparel design, including wearable technologies. Dr.
Eike serves as a creative scholarship and manuscript reviewer for numerous publications. She is
currently serving in the role of acting Textile and Design committee chair for the International
Federation of Home Economics (IFHE). Dr. Eike’s degrees hail from Iowa State University and
Oklahoma State University.
For instructions on how to order reprints of this article, please visit our website:
www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/licensing/reprints.htm
Or contact us for further details: permissions@emeraldinsight.com
JFMM
