Sustainable Branding in Global Fast-Fashion: Consumers’ and Distant Supply Chain Stakeholders’ Solidarity via Social Media

Abstract

This chapter presented a unique example of different distant stakeholders of a global fast-fashion brand (Zara) coming together to collectively tackle an accountability challenge that the parent brand (Inditex) encountered in its sustainable branding efforts due to a failing supplier (Bravo Tekstil). The unpaid workers of Bravo launched an awareness campaign demanding consumers support for pressuring global brands (Inditex, Mango, and Next) to keep up with their announced code of conduct for manufacturers and suppliers. The campaign took place by workers attaching tags that read “I made this item you’re going to buy, but I didn’t get paid for it!” to the displayed merchandise at the retail stores to demand the consumers’ solidarity, street protests to raise awareness, the petition calls to collect signatures, and other multi-language content released on social media. As a result, workers eventually got their partial rights from the global fast-fashion brands. The presented case unpacked the true dynamics of underlying dynamics of sustainable branding with regard to the critical approach for the integration of social, economic, and environmental issues. The case also exemplified consumers’ empowerment by their collective action in buycotting or boycotting choices in demanding better practice that is in line with the United Nation’s (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Finally, the chapter informed the reader on an integrated perspective that combined UN’s SDGs (SDG 8: decent work and economic growth, SDG 12: responsible consumption and production, and SDG 17: partnership for the goals). How consumers and distant stakeholders in a supply chain can form solidarity via social media in demanding a global fast-fashion company to realize its promises toward sustainable branding?