Different types of consumers and the use of social influence techniques to increase their willingness to buy sustainable fashion

Abstract

Fast fashion is polluting our earth, however it is still popular to buy it in our current society. Consuming sustainable fashion helps to decrease pollution and gives employees a better working environment. Even though sustainable fashion has many pros, most people do not buy it. This research examines if and how three types of consumers (‘self consumers’, ‘social consumers’ and ‘sacrifice consumers’) differ in their willingness to buy sustainable fashion. Moreover, it is examined if three social influence techniques (‘liking’, ‘social proof’, ‘consistency’) differ in their effect on willingness, and if there is a social influence technique that works better for one type of consumer than for another. A pre-test is done to develop a survey to measure the types of consumer. Thereafter, an experimental study is done, using a survey as the method. The data is gathered amongst individuals between 18 and 30 years old. The data is analyzed by executing ANOVA and ANCOVA. Results show that a ‘sacrifice consumer’ has a higher willingness than both a ‘self consumer’ and ‘social consumer’. The social influence techniques do not differ in their effectiveness, and it is found that no social influence technique is more effective for a specific kind of consumer than another. Possibly no difference is found between ‘self consumer’ and ‘social consumer’, since those types of consumer might not differ in consumer behavior. However, it could also be that the way of measuring the types of consumer is not yet fully reliable, since these types were never measured before. Moreover, the exposure to the social influence techniques might have been too short. Other ways of applying these techniques could possibly change this.