مقاله انگلیسی رایگان در مورد عشق به برند، نگرش و دانش سبب محیطی – MDPI 2024

Abstract

A blue jeans brand committed to the environmental cause could position itself as unique and socially responsible and attract environmentally driven consumers. This research study examines the relationship between brand love and consumers’ environmental cause knowledge and their willingness to recommend and pay a premium for sustainable blue jeans. To this end, this cross-sectional study comprises a snowball convenience sample of 978 Portuguese respondents, whose data were collected from December 2022 to January 2023. Positive associations between self-expression, brand love, loyalty, environmental cause knowledge, positive word-of-mouth, and willingness to pay a premium for sustainable blue jeans stand out. There are differences in the willingness to pay a premium among generations, education levels, and consumers who are aware of sustainable line extensions and those who are not. The results may be helpful for brands, suggesting their communication should focus on creating increased proximity to consumers by enhancing their values and seeking to link their brands to intrinsic benefits and environmental stakes. This is the first study to incorporate knowledge of the environmental cause into a model linking brand love, brand loyalty, positive word-of-mouth, and willingness to pay a premium for sustainable blue jeans.

Introduction

The environmental impacts of the fashion industry are widespread and significant, as the industry is a heavy water consumer (approximately 79 trillion liters per year), producing 8 to 10 percent of the global CO2 emissions and large amounts of textile waste, most of which ends up in landfills or is incinerated, including unsold products [1].

In addition to being globally popular, blue jeans are associated with somewhat problematic sustainability and social responsibility issues [2]. The traditional jeans production process uses excessive amounts of water, chemicals, and energy, thereby generating a negative impact regarding the carbon footprint [3]. In order to remove excess dyes and achieve the desired color, blue jeans are washed at least twice before being sold; globally, approximately 3% of the water used in agriculture goes into cotton production [4] to produce more than 2 billion units per year [5]. Another factor contributing to environmental degradation comprises the chemical products used throughout the production process (from insecticides and pesticides), even in cotton production, which accounts for 2.4% of the world’s arable land use; other chemicals are used to dye and paint the jeans, which have a significant environmental impact if not properly handled and disposed of in the environment [6].

Conclusions

The work carried out in this study allowed us to find a model that fit the data for 978 respondents to verify the results reported in the literature among Portuguese consumers of blue jeans, namely the positive associations of identification with brand love; of brand love with brand loyalty, positive word-of-mouth, and willingness to pay a premium for sustainable blue jeans; and of knowledge of the environmental cause with willingness to pay a premium for sustainable blue jeans. It was also concluded that there were no significant gender differences in terms of positive word-of-mouth and willingness to pay a premium for sustainable blue jeans. Members of generation Z and consumers with higher education levels are more willing to pay a premium for sustainable blue jeans than their counterparts.

It was also found that consumers who were aware of sustainable blue jeans alternatives from their preferred brands had significantly higher scores for all variables in the model, suggesting that this awareness may be associated with greater knowledge of the environmental cause, which is critical in explaining the greater levels of identification, brand love, and brand loyalty, and the resulting intention to spread the good word and willingness to pay a premium for sustainable blue jeans.

The positive impacts of brand love on brand loyalty, word-of-mouth, and willingness to pay a price premium was further acknowledged according to the literature findings. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to incorporate knowledge of environmental causes in a model that relates brand love to brand loyalty and the latter to positive word-of-mouth and willingness to pay a premium, as tested by Caroll and Ahuvia [27] and Albert and Merunka [24], applied here to the Portuguese market and focused on sustainable blue jeans. This approach, thus, incorporates Bagozzi et al.’s [26] suggestion to develop models in which brand love is central to other dimensions, thereby contributing to the academic literature. The findings also have practical implications for blue jeans brands as they enhance the importance of creating awareness of the existence of sustainable extension lines, as well as of conveying a true environmental concern to capture environmentally driven consumers that would be willing to pay a premium for sustainable blue jeans, namely by focusing on creating increased proximity to consumers by enhancing their values and seeking to link the brand to intrinsic benefits and environmental stakes.