Background: Corporate Social Responsibility has been studied since the 1970s, but was originally controversial and met opposition from e.g. Milton Friedman who viewed a company’s responsibility as being strictly economic. Since then, CSR has grown in scope and importance, especially within the fast fashion industry, and is now a central part of academia and business operations. However, the debate whether companies’ responsibilities are only economic or also include responsibilities such as social, environmental, and transparency- related is still ongoing, and it is therefore interesting to study how companies view their own responsibilities. Purpose: Our research aims to fill the existing research gap regarding how companies view their responsibilities by providing an overview of how the CSR work has changed over time in fast fashion companies. Research Question: How has the focus of the CSR work changed over time in large, international, fast-fashion companies? Methods: A qualitative content analysis inspired by grounded theory was used to answer the research question. The data material consisted of H&M’s sustainability reports from 2002, 2005, 2008, 2011, 2014, 2017 and 2019. The material was categorized into social, environmental or transparency dimensions, along with several under-categories. A simpler analysis of news articles regarding sustainability during the period 2002-2019 was also performed. Results: The results suggest that the fast fashion industry has increased their sense of responsibility as the expectations of stakeholders in the area has grown, and that CSR work increasingly is seen as a possible competitive advantage. The results also show that the most difficult parts to fulfill is the ethical level of the CSR pyramid, due to the difficulty of comprehending and fulfilling the stakeholders’ different expectations and demands, and the social dimension, because of its profound complexity, especially within fast-fashion.

Background: The phenomenon of CSR has become an increasingly adopted strategy among companies, as a result of the frequent discussion on climate change. At the same time, consumers have attained further awareness regarding sustainability and how consumption impacts the environment. Further, the fast fashion industry has been highlighted as one of the most harmful and unethical industries that negatively impacts the environment and lives of all. Thus, it is interesting to explore which factors influence consumers’ purchase decisions, and determine whether sustainability and CSR are taken into consideration. Purpose: This thesis aims to explore millennial consumers’ attitudes toward Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), as well as which factors consumers take into consideration when they are making purchase decisions. Method: In order to meet the research objectives, data has been collected with exploratory and qualitative methods. The research philosophy follows interpretivism, and adopts an abductive approach. Furthermore, 13 semi- structured interviews were conducted, which aim to explore and provide and understanding for consumers’ attitudes and perception. Interview participants were selected based on a purposive sampling method, with two identified criteria. Additionally, a coding system was constructed based on the literature review, which was used to analyse the data collected from the interviews. Conclusion: The results, extracted from the empirical data and analysis, suggest that there are two categories with factors influencing millennial consumers’ purchase decisions. The first category includes product related factors, whereas the other category includes a number of consumer related factors. The empirical results further conclude that the participants generally experience positive attitudes toward sustainability and CSR, while product related factors are more influential in the decision-making process.

Background: With apparel and clothing being one of the most highly consumed products for everyday life, businesses within the fashion industry have much demand. In order to gain leverage in a competitive market, many retailers have different strategies and loyalty programmes have been an attractive way for customer relationship management.    Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to provide additional understanding of fast-fashion retailers’ consumer behaviour, while focusing on their perceptions towards loyalty programmes as an influencing purchasing factor. This study can be beneficial for fast-fashion retailer businesses seeking to improve their loyalty programmes for the development of customer retention.  Method: The study is conducted with a qualitative research design through conducting 16 interviews, with deductive reasonings to understand the phenomenon. The theoretical framework is interpretivism, which allows exploratory type of research to explore the paper’s purpose. For findings and analysis, thematic analysis was adopted to allow flexibility in the modification of data collection and research design.  Conclusion: This study’s findings and analysis identified three main themes linked to customer’s perception towards loyalty programmes: shopping criteria, benefit perception, and behavioural impulse. This suggests that customers do not regard loyalty programmes as an influential factor in their purchasing decision, but rather a second thought. By doing so, the purpose of loyalty programmes is hindered, resulting in repetitive purchasing behaviour being affected as well.

Background: Consumers are today valuing sustaible brands and products, and green advertising has become an important part of marketing. Sometimes brand do not live up to their green claims and perform what is known as greenwashing. Prior research has concluded that the act of greenwashing hurts consumers' attitude towards brands and this research further explores the effect of greenwashing on attitude formation. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore how greenwashing affects consumers' attitude formation towards brands.  Methodology: For this research, a qualitative research approach with an exploratory nature was used. When gathering the empirical data, semi-structured interviews were conducted. The questions were designed to be open-ended in order to gain in-depth information. Before conducting the interviews, a pilot test through two semi-structured interviews was conducted in order to identify if there were any questions that could be improved. For the main study, seven semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants within generation Z, both men and women.  Findings: The key findings is that greenwashing only has a short-term effect on attitude formation which resulted in consumers avoiding the accused brand. The participants' attitude formation changed from the experiential hierarchy to the standard learning hierarchy when greenwashing was discovered.  Conclusion: Cognition had the largest impact on attitude formation as greenwashing was discovered, since it created negative feelings towards the brand. However, the acccusations were seen to be easily forgotten and consumers would go back to old behaviour (experiential hierarchy) in the long-term.

Kunder har blivit allt mer miljövänliga, vilket påverkar handeln. Fast fashion företag har tidigare enbart fokuserat på att tillfredsställa kunder med kläder som följer korta trender och har ett lågt pris. I takt med att kundernas kunskap har ökat kring hållbarhet, ställer kunderna också högre krav på fast fashion företag. Detta har lett till att ett ökat antal fast fashion företag inkorporerar hållbarhet i sitt varumärke. Fast fashion företagen står nu inför en utmaning. Företagen ska få kunderna till att uppmärksamma, och övertygas av den hållbara förändringen som varumärket genomgått.  Studien riktar sig till millenniegenerationen eftersom de är en viktig målgrupp för fast fashion företagen. Vidare fokuserar studien på kvinnor, eftersom modeföretag traditionellt riktar sig mest till kvinnor. Tidigare forskning menar att det finns ett behov av att undersöka hållbara varumärken samt relationen mellan hållbara beteenden, attityder och värderingar inom området för förändring mot hållbarhet inom klädindustrin. På bakgrund av detta har ett forskningsgap identifierats. Gapet innefattar kundernas upplevelse kopplat till varumärken, bland de företag som väljer att frångå sitt etablerade varumärke, mot ett mer hållbart varumärke. Forskningsgapet utmynnar i studiens forskningsfråga “Hur uppfattar kvinnor inom millenniegenerationen att fast fashion företag inom den svenska klädindustrin har rebrandat sig mot miljömässig hållbarhet?” För att svara på studiens forskningsfråga har sju stycken kvalitativa intervjuer genomförts. Studiens resultat visar att kvinnor inom millenniegenerationen har kunskap och intresse för miljön. Kunskapen och intresset är en bidragande faktor kring hur de upplever varumärken, och varumärkenas förändring mot hållbarhet. Målgruppen och samhällets medvetenhet om hållbarhet har genererat en bidragande faktor till att fast fashion-företag väljer att rebranda varumärket mot hållbarhet. Studiens slutsats påvisar att kvinnor inom millenniegenerationen har låg tilltro till att fast fashion-företagen som rebrantat varumärket mot hållbarhet, utför vad företagen utlovat i praktiken. För att kvinnor inom millenniegenerationen ska kunna känna tillit till ett rebrandat fast fashion-varumärke krävs det transparens från varumärket. Vidare har kvinnor inom millenniegenerationen större tilltro till lokala företags rebranding mot hållbarhet, i jämförelse med globala företags rebranding. Det är svårare för målgruppen att förstå en förändrad positioneringen hos globala varumärken, när företag verkar på flera marknader samtidigt. Vidare tycker kvinnor inom millenniegenerationen att de globala företagen borde ta ett större ansvar för hållbarhet. Slutligen prioriterar kvinnor inom millenniegenerationen förändringar som innebär att deras plagg får högre kvalitet och längre hållbarhet, över rebranding som fokuserar på återvinning och återanvändning.

Background: As an effect of the growth of Instagram during the past few years, more brands have started to use this platform to communicate with their consumers, and a generation that has been shown to be particularly interesting for fast fashion brands, is Generation Y. During the past few years, a term called body-positivity has increased in popularity among social media platforms like Instagram, which purpose is to encourage exposure to different body types. There are several studies that have highlighted the issues regarding the use of exclusively thin models among fast fashion companies, and that this increase body dissatisfaction among women, especially in the Western culture where the ideal is unrealistically thin. This has resulted in criticism towards marketers which have led to some brands starting to use more larger models in their advertising. However, some brands still use exclusively thin models because they believe that this is what people wants to see. Evidently, there are different opinions regarding the subject. However, what has yet not been studied thoroughly is female consumers attitudes regarding the use of body diversity in advertising on Instagram and how this influence brand attitudes and further, their purchase intentions. Purpose: As the authors of this study found a research gap regarding consumers attitudes within the subject – the purpose of this study will be to explore female Generation Y consumer’s insights regarding body diversity in Instagram advertising, resulting in judgment, feelings, and attitudes towards the advertisement and the brand, and how these attitudes influence purchase intentions. The aim is also to explore to what extent the case companies include body diversity in their Instagram advertising. Method: The research purpose was fulfilled by doing an exploratory study, using an abductive research approach and qualitative method. The authors of this study did a semiotic analysis of the advertising content, and further on collected the empirical data by doing 12 semi-structured interviews. The data was further analyzed by incorporating a thematic analysis. Conclusion: The findings of this study showed that Nelly was the only case company including some body diversity in their Instagram advertising. NA-KD and Zalando evoked mostly positive feelings among the participants while Nelly evoked mostly negative ones. Further, the majority of the participants had favorable attitudes and positive purchase intentions towards NA-KD and Zalando. None of the participants had exclusively favorable attitudes towards Nelly’s advertisement, although half of the participants had positive purchase intentions towards the brand. Generally, the majority of all attitudes that were formed towards the case companies were not influenced by the body diversity (or no body diversity) that they were exposed to, but their attitudes were influenced by other things. The results also showed that including body diversity in Instagram advertising is important, for female Generation Y consumers. However, other factors might be more important and furthermore have a greater influence on their purchase intentions, like for example ethnic diversity.

The fashion industry is one of the most environmentally damaging industries in the world and is permeated by poor working conditions. Fast-fashion companies that constantly produce new collections to be able to follow trends are a major contributing factor to the climate crisis. Consumers today put a lot of pressure on companies to take responsibility and companies must integrate CSR work into their operations in order to stay competitive on the market. Many companies therefore choose to include sustainability in their marketing communication so that consumers can consume their products with a clear conscience. The study aims to examine and compare H&M's and Gaps' marketing communication in their commercials. The companies are fast fashion companies and the purpose of the study is to contribute with knowledge about how the companies use social and environmental sustainability in their marketing communication to sell products. A qualitative method has been used in the study and by using a visual rhetorical analysis, the two commercials that make up the empirical material have been analyzed. The analysis schedule is designed with inspiration from Mral, Gelang and Bröm's proposals for analysis method. The results show that H&M and Gap convey the message that they take responsibility, both when it comes to social and environmental sustainability, although they do this in various ways and to different extents. Through the inclusion of sustainability in the commercials, it can be stated that both companies use this as a marketing strategy to market their brand and sell products. H&M focuses primarily on the recipient's common sense through the use of logos arguments, while Gap mainly focuses on emotions and credibility through the inclusion of pathos and ethos arguments. / Modeindustrin är en av de mest miljöskadliga branscherna i världen och genomsyras av dåliga arbetsförhållanden. Fast-fashionföretag som konstant producerar nya kollektioner för att följa trender är en stor bidragande faktor till klimatkrisen. Konsumenter lägger idag stor press på företag att ta ansvar och företag måste integrera CSR-arbete i sin verksamhet för att hålla sig konkurrenskraftiga på marknaden. Många företag väljer därför att inkludera hållbarhet i sin marknadskommunikation för att konsumenter ska kunna konsumera deras produkter med gott samvete. Studien syftar till att undersöka och jämföra H&Ms och Gaps marknadskommunikation i deras reklamfilmer. Företagen är två fast-fashionföretag och syftet med studien är att bidra med kunskap kring hur företagen använder social- och ekologisk hållbarhet i sin marknadskommunikation för att sälja produkter. En kvalitativ metod har använts i studien och med hjälp av en visuell retorikanalys har de två reklamfilmerna som utgör det empiriska materialet analyserats. Analysschemat är utformat med inspiration från Mral, Gelang och Bröms förslag på analysmetod. Resultatet visar att H&M och Gap förmedlar budskapet att de tar ansvar, både när det kommer till social- och ekologisk hållbarhet, dock gör företagen detta på olika sätt och i olika grad. Genom att inkludera hållbarhet i reklamfilmerna går det att konstatera att båda företagen använder detta som en marknadsföringsstrategi för att marknadsföra sitt varumärke och sälja produkter. H&M riktar sig till främst till mottagarens sunda förnuft genom användandet av logosargument medan Gap främst spelar på känslor och trovärdighet genom inkluderingav patos- och etosargument.

The fashion industry is the second dirtiest industry that pollutes the planet. H&M is one of many fashion brands that strive to improve the environment by introducing sustainable products and initiatives. This research aims to study how H&M communicate sustainability in the fashion industry context during the selected period. The data is mainly collected from Instagram, the most popular communication platform in the fashion industry and supported by data from brick-and-mortar stores, the website and the semi-structured interview. To fully understand the case, this research identifies H&M brand identity and brand extension in sustainability. The fashion brand communication and sustainability communication are the main theoretical framework of the study. The methods of the study are semi-constructed interview and content analysis. The brand identity of H&M is found to be positivity, collectivity, and inclusivity and openness, trendsetter and youthful. The brand extension at H&M can be found in several levels from the establishment of the H&M Foundation to Conscious collection and Conscious Exclusive collection. H&M applies several of fashion brand communication strategic tools to communicate sustainability. The obstacles and limitations of H&M are found to be a conflict of interest between the business and sustainability, downplayed by the nature of fast fashion, an inconsistency of communication, and difficulty to access to the sustainability information. It is found that the unique characteristics of the fashion industry and the creation of brand identity can solve the normalisation paradox of sustainability communication discourse, as well as overcome five barriers from greening. At the same time, the weakness is the decreasing of potential to create reflexivity of sustainability issues which is due to the language and tone of communication. Another weakness is the decreasing potential of sustainability to be normalised in the fashion industry which is due to the number of information available from the brand.

The objective of our thesis was to conduct a pilot study to evaluate if an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for textiles in the EU could be a socioeconomically beneficial policy to complement the EU Waste Framework Directive’s amendment of separately collected textiles. The aim was to investigate if the policy could achieve increased circular design of textiles as well as if it could work as a management plan for the increased collection rates. The evaluation was made with a Cost-Benefit Analysis, using the French EPR-system for textiles as a base. It was further complemented with previously conducted research of EPR-systems for other waste streams in the EU, as well as by previously conducted investigations for other national implementations of producer responsibilities for textiles. In additional support, we used data for differences between the member states in the European Union and conducted an expert interview. The EPR was compared to a situation where the municipalities in the member states would instead be responsible for the separate collection of textiles. The result of our investigation illustrates how both alternatives generate a net-loss, the Municipal Responsibility with - €7,611,410,291 and the Extended Producer Responsibility with - €6,012,109,341 during the first year of implementation. The EPR alternative generates a lower net-loss during the first three years of implementation. The producer responsibility is however the less beneficial alternative four years after implementation, since the decreased opportunity cost of labour generated through the hiring of unemployed assumed under the producer responsibility is deducted. The producer responsibility does however generate benefits through clearly defined responsibility of the textiles placed on the European market and gives incentives for increased fibre-to-fibre recycling and for increased durability of textiles. The initiative therefore generates both higher quantifiable-and non-quantifiable, environmental benefits than the alternative. We conclude that an Extended Producer Responsibility should be further examined as a complement to the regulation of separate collection of textiles, to reach an increased circular textile industry.

Influencer marketing är en effektiv marknadsföringsmetod för att öka köpbeteendet hos konsumenter. Uppsatsens fokus är att undersöka Millenials och Generation Z:s klädkonsumtion av Fast Fashion och hur de påverkas av Influencer marketing samt förhållningssätt till miljöfrågor vid klädköp. En växande klädkonsumtion och klädtillverkning går inte ihop med behovet av att konsumera mindre och engagera sig kring miljöfrågor. En studie har genomförts i form av intervjuer med strategiskt utvalda respondenter inom generationskategorierna Millennials och Generation Z. Resultatet visar att generationerna inte reflekterar över den miljöpåverkan klädindustrin har, samt att kvinnor och yngre personer i större utsträckning än män och äldre personer påverkas av Influencer marketing. Resultatet visar även att Influencer marketing är ett mycket effektivt marknadsföringsverktyg för att öka köpbeteendet hos konsumenter.