Increasing Effectiveness of Green Demarketing Campaigns for Sustainable Fashion Brands Using the SHIFT Framework

Yoon, Hye Jin, Yoon-Joo Lee, and Ja Kyung Seo (Ph.D. Student), “Increasing Effectiveness of Green Demarketing Campaigns for Sustainable Fashion Brands Using the SHIFT Framework.” Paper presented at the Global Fashion Management Conference in Milan, Italy, July 2024.

Abstract: The U.S. population has grown by 60% since 1970, but consumer spending has increased by 400%. Fast fashion has helped feed the consumption frenzy by mass-producing clothing that follows the latest trends with quick turn-overs and low cost. Some sustainable clothing brands have asked consumers to buy selectively and less, which the academic field has recognized as “green demarketing.” To support such fashion brands and their demarketing campaigns, we tap into the SHIFT (Social influence, Habit formation, Individual self, Feelings and cognition, and Tangibility) framework that discusses five psychological factors leading to sustainable consumer behavior. An experimental study tested the five conditions in demarketing messages and compared them with a control condition to see which condition best emerged as helping to create positive perceptions of the brand. In addition, corporate social responsibility orientation (CSRO), a measure of an individual’s beliefs that corporations should practice CSR, was tested to see the differential impact of SHIFT messaging for demarketing fashion brands. With belief congruence theory as the main theoretical guide, lower CSRO individuals were more prone to messaging effects. Specifically, they rated “Individual self (self-interest)” (vs. control) as more persuasive. With the fashion brand signaling its sustainability, higher CSRO individuals rated the sustainable brand as positive, no matter what SHIFT messaging is incorporated in the demarketing campaign. This signals that different SHIFT messages should be employed for different consumer segments for demarketing to be effective. From a fashion sustainability viewpoint, demarketing’s co-evolution with consumers and joint discovery of alternatives to traditional consumerism could help build an ongoing and lasting relationship between the company and the consumer. 

INVITED PRESENTATION OR PANELIST