Begreppet influencer blir mer och mer välkänt för varje dag. Begreppet syftar till ett yrke som vuxit fram i takt med internet. Även om det finns mycket information att tillgå kring fenomenet finns det många aspekter som fortfarande icke blivit belysta. Den information som finns att tillgå kring ämnet är inte heller i vetenskaplig tappning. Syftet med studien är att analysera och redogöra för hur influencer marketing kan påverka tillväxten för ett företag. Härtill studeras influencers inverkan på varumärkesbyggandet i relation till tillväxt. Följande kommer en fallstudie i samarbete med klädföretaget NA-KD presenteras. NA-KDs snabba tillväxt kommer förklaras med lämpligt teoretiska underlag och inte minst av medgrundaren själv. Det moderna sättet att marknadsföra via sociala medier med influencers kommer vidare att undersökas i ljuset av olika aspekter. Hur ett samarbete med en eller flera influencers ser ut kommer att undersökas med koppling till hur strategin har hjälpt NA-KD att växa under kort tid. Varumärkesutveckling och teorier kring ett företags tillväxt är två andra viktiga områden som kommer att studeras för att uppsatsen ska få en relevant och genomtänkt slutsats. Alla presenterade teorier kommer att kopplas till NA-KDs egna tillväxt. Metoden vald för följande uppsats är av den kvalitativa typen. Empiriinsamlingen kommer att bestå av en intervju med en medgrundare i fallföretaget, NA-KD. Vidare kommer företagets hemsida och Instagramkonton observeras, likaså kommer fyra utvalda influencers konton observeras. Även sekundär data så som NA-KDs årsredovisning samt en överskådlig presentation av ett par konkurrenter läggs fram. Efter analys av empirin trädde tydliga slutsatser fram. Kopplingar mellan influencer marketing och tillväxt blev ett klart faktum. Likaså blev samarbetet mellan företaget och person förtydligat. Det stod även klart att NA-KD ligger rätt i tiden och grundades när influencers redan vuxit fram och fått en stor inverkan. / The term influencer is becoming more and more known for each day. The term aims at a profession that has emerged in line with the internet. Although there is much information available about the phenomenon, there are many aspects that have not yet been illuminated. The information available on the subject is also not of scientific sort. The purpose of the study is to analyze and explain how influencer marketing can affect the growth of a company. In addition, influencers affect the brand building. Following thesis will consist of a case study in collaboration with the clothing company NA- KD. The rapid growth of NA-KD will be explained by appropriate theoretical evidence, and not least by the co-founder himself. The modern way of marketing through social media with influencers will be investigated in light of various aspects. How cooperation with one or more influencers looks will be investigated in conjunction with how the strategy has helped NA-KD grow in a short period of time. Brand development and theories about a company's growth are two other important areas that will be studied in order for the thesis to have a relevant and well-reasoned conclusion. All theories presented will be linked to NA-KD’s own growth. The method chosen for the following thesis is of the qualitative type. The empirical collection will consist of an interview with a co-founder of the chosen company, NA-KD. Furthermore, the company's website and Instagram accounts will be observed, as well as four selected influencer's accounts that will also be observed. As well as secondary data such as the NA-KD annual report and a review of a few competitors will be presented. After analysis of the empiric data, clear conclusions emerged. Linkages between influencer marketing and growth became a clear fact. Likewise, cooperation between the companies and individuals was clarified. It was also clear that NA-KD was founded when influencers had already grown and had a major impact. Following thesis will be in Swedish.

Corporate Social Responsibility or CSR has, in step with societal development and awareness, driven companies to take several aspects into account. Issues relating to climate, sustainability, social and financial issues are some of the meanings of social responsibility and to which companies are taking into account. The knowledge about the textile industry has broadened throughout society which has led to a certain awareness about what we buy. This makes CSR communication important. Recently, several companies in the fashion industry have chosen to introduce various recycling programs of clothing in an attempt to reduce its climate footprint and position themselves as more sustainable in the market. One example is the fast-fashion company NA-KD and their sustainable initiative NA-KD Circle. Previous research has demonstrated how the inclusion of CSR can be important for the brand's credibility and loyalty. Based on methods that have been linked to the theoretical framework studied, the study has applied rhetorical and semiotic analysis as well as Kim and Ferguson’s six dimensions of effective CSR. In addition to these, Stuart Hall's model of encoding and decoding has also been used to illuminate the reception of the respondents. With the help of semi-structured interviews, the study's second and third questions have been attempted to be answered. These have touched on the topics of whether NA-KD Circle can be perceived as effective CSR and how this affects young women's attitude towards NA-KD as a brand. The interviews were further analyzed with qualitative content analysis where two themes were identified. The women's attitude and influence towards NA-KD as a brand resulted in its image being more skeptical than unchanged. It can also be read that the recipients did not decode the material of NA-KD Circle in the way that the sender was striving for. The recipients partly received the message but applied their personal perspectives and interpretations to the material.

Title: “Let’s do good”? – a qualitative study of fast fashions sustainability communication and generation z’s critical view. In recent years, the fast fashion industry has received an abundance criticism for their negative climate impact. The purpose of this study is to compare the companies NA-KD and Gina Tricot and their sustainability communication, and how consumers in generation Z perceive their communication and if they can influence the industry to be more sustainable with participatory culture in social media. To get answers on how generation Z experiences the fashion companies' communication, focus group interviews were conducted with participants aged 18–26. The authors have also studied material from the companies’ websites through a multimodal critical discourse analysis. Theories that have been applied to the study are critical discourse theory, convergence- and participatory culture, and greenwashing. The result from the study shows that both companies are using colors and environment which are associated with the environmental movements when it comes do their sustainability communication, but also greenwashing. As both companies apply greenwashing one can assume that it can lead to more customer having a critical view of sustainability communication from fast fashion firms. The participants perceived the companies' sustainability communication as visual appealing, but the content did not meet expectations. Furthermore, social media was considered important for the industry's change as important, but that it requires a person with a big platform to reach out to many people.

What are the power relations between the fashion company Na-kd, influencers, and the general public? This study problematizes and concretizes the events surrounding the fashion company Na-kd that took place at the end of 2020 and is further discussed as an example of so-called cancel culture. The study explores the cancel culture phenomenon through the theoretical framework of Michel Foucault; including power, punishment, and discipline. By way of a Foucauldian discourse analysis, we have identified three main discourses: the boycott discourse, the violation discourse, and the discourse regarding subject positions. The analysis also identified the following subject positions as active partakers in the discourse: followers, company, influencer, woman, and boycotter which are discussed and analyzed in terms of how they relate to one another. The study’s key findings include the problematic use of boycott culture as a concept and whether it can be applied to companies or not, the shift of responsibility from company to influencers (i.e. individuals), and how great the power of the followers actually is. / Hur ser maktförhållandena ut mellan Na-kd, influerare och allmänheten? Studien problematiserar och konkretiserar händelserna kring modeföretaget Na-kd som ägde rum i slutet på 2020, och diskuteras vidare som ett exempel på bojkottskultur. Vidare i studien så utforskas bojkottskultur som fenomen utifrån det teoretiska ramverket Michel Foucault innefattande makt, straff och disciplin. För skapandet av en enhetlig undersökning så används Michel Foucaults diskursanalys, där tre huvuddiskurser identifieras: bojkottsdiskursen, diskursen om överträdelser inom fallet och subjektspositioner. Avslutningsvis diskuteras de identifierade subjektspositionerna; följare, företag, influerare, kvinna och bojkottare och hur dessa i förlängningen relaterar till varandra. Studiens huvudsakliga resultat  utmynnar i huruvida bojkott som begrepp går att applicera på ett företag eller inte, hur förflyttningen av ansvar från företaget till influerare sker och hur stor följarnas makt faktiskt är.

The purpose of this study was to increase the understanding of how the Swedish fast fashion company NA-KD expressed its profile and how it could be linked to sustainability. The fashion industry is known for having big sustainability problems, and that is why the main focus of this study was the paradox between fast fashion and sustainability due to its conflict nature. To concretise the aim of the study, we formulated two questions: “What discourses can be found in NA-KD’s external communication?” and “What profile does the company express through their website?”. To analyse the company’s website we included relevant theories about the individualised consumer society, sustainable consumption and marketing communication. The used method for this study was Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis, which was a useful method to enable a critical perspective. Fairclough’s approach made it possible to examine how, and in what way, NA-KD expressed their external communication. The material consisted of ten texts found on the company’s website that were analysed closely and resulted in a number of findings. We found three discourses: the business discourse, the consumer discourse and the sustainability discourse. Those helped us to increase the understanding of the company’s profile, since we discovered a range of different tendencies. The main ones were that NA-KD constructed truth, encouraged more consumption, built relations with the consumer and expressed values and responsibility about sustainability. With those in mind, we concluded that it is doubtful that NA-KD’s sustainability communication is completely honest. They encouraged the consumer to buy more fast fashion clothing, which affects the environment negatively, at the same time as they communicated consciousness about the fashion industry’s impact on the environment. We also found that the communication was contradictory and misleading, hence that some information about their sustainability work does not comply with what is presented. Our main conclusion is therefore that NA-KD’s profile is ambiguous and difficult to establish.