Circular Fashion: Cluster Analysis to Define Advertising Strategies
Departamento de Gestión de Empresas, Universidad Pública de Navarra, 31006 Pamplona, Spain
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Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sustainability 2022, 14(20), 13365; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142013365
Submission received: 11 September 2022
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Revised: 11 October 2022
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Accepted: 13 October 2022
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Published: 17 October 2022
(This article belongs to the Collection Advertising and Sustainable Development)
Abstract
:The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015 provides a catalogue of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). In this context, Circular fashion stands out as one of the sectors where commitment to the SDGs is most needed, given its global nature and its significant growth in terms of consumption. Moreover, it is not possible to assert that society, in general, is aware of the importance of the principles that guide circularity, both in terms of awareness and attitudes. In this study, through cluster analysis, five different segments have been identified with divergent characteristics in terms of level of maturity regarding principles of circular fashion and/or benefits and/or enablers of related communication tools. Social and personal characteristics make it possible to contrast the differences in consumer behavior, as well as relevant aspects, such as willingness to pay more for circular fashion. The present study will help to fill the gap in research between the awareness and attitudes of consumers in circular fashion and propose different strategies for the industry and institutions to develop the concept of sustainability regarding circular fashion.
1. Introduction
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a catalogue of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). In this context, circular fashion stands out as one of the sectors where the commitment to the SDGs is most needed, given its global nature and its significant growth in terms of consumption. The role of marketing scholarship might help to promote understanding of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), above all, SDG 3 (good health and wellbeing) and SDG 12 (responsible consumption and production) [1].
Circular fashion (CF) can be defined as “clothing, footwear, or accessories that are designed, sourced, produced and supplied with the intention that they will be used and circulated responsibly and efficiently in society for as long as possible in their most valuable form, and thereafter safely returned to the biosphere when they are no longer in human use” [2]. It is a terminology derived from the application of the circular economy in the fashion sector.
Linear or traditional fashion, which is based on take-make-use-dispose business models, is shifting to circular fashion that counteracts the take-make-use-dispose system [3]. By shifting the mindset from quantity to quality, “slow fashion” has gained prominence as opposed to “fast fashion” [4]. Not only is sustainable fashion consumption beginning, the fashion industry itself is starting to explore the option of recycling its products to implement a closed-loop system [4,5,6].
The aim of this work is to identify the strategies that marketers can adopt to favor the knowledge of circularity principles that should guide awareness and attitudes in the circular fashion sector. Additionally, the contribution of this work is related to the identification of consumer groups based on their level of knowledge and action, which allows for the design of different business strategies and their relationship with the concept of sustainability.
Circular fashion practices are based on two fundamental pillars: one is businesses and how they address this evolution and the second is consumers and how they react to sustainable fashion products. To better understand and prevent circular fashion being misunderstood, Akehurst et al. [7] remarked on the need of developing research within a more detailed characterization of green consumer profiling to address better advertising campaigns.
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation [8] insisted on the importance of reusing and recycling as key elements in the circular economy in the fashion industry to minimize value destruction to the environment. Furthermore, there are more principles apart from reuse or recycle that might affect consumer awareness of circular fashion. In this line, Shrivastava et al. [9] recently emphasized that further research may include other aspects of circular fashion, such as refurbishing, among others. This study tries to extend the knowledge of consumers about circular fashion principles. The lack of knowledge about the sources and quality of the materials frequently prevents consumers from making optimal decisions.
The benefits and enablers of circular fashion provide a holistic understanding to move from linear to circular fashion [10]. Thus, benefits affect consumers and their environment fostering the feeling that this shift is necessary and enablers allow consumers to improve their knowledge.
This study is novel in terms of identifying consumer segments in circular fashion, paying attention to principles of circular fashion, and connecting benefits and enablers. The remaining paper is organized as follows. It begins with a literature review of principles, benefits, and enablers of circular fashion, with a focus on gender, age, and budget. Then, the methodology and results are highlighted. Finally, the paper concludes with a discussion of managerial implications, limitations, and future research directions.
2. Literature Review
2.1. Principles of Circular Fashion–Awareness and Attitudes
The circular economy is defined by Kirchherr et al. [11] (p. 224), after analyzing 114 definitions, as “an economic system that is based on business models that replace the “end-of-life” concept with reduction, alternative reuse, recycling and recovery of materials in production, distribution and consumption processes, thus operating at a micro (products, companies, consumers), meso (eco-industrial parks) and macro (city, region, nation and beyond) levels, to achieve sustainable development, which implies creating environmental quality, economic prosperity and social equity, for the benefit of current and future generations”. This updated conceptualization suggests the transformation derived from linear economy into circular economy.
In this transition, Kirchherr et al. [11] proposed 9R framework strategies, adapted from Potting et al. [12]. In this study, this framework is adapted to circular fashion and further literature is updated [13,14,15] and therefore, the circular fashion 9R (Recover, Recycle, Redesign, Reduce, Refurbish, Repair, Restore, Rethink, Reuse) principles are proposed. Kirchherr et al. [11] proposed a classification of these principles and we adapt this transition from traditional to circular fashion. Figure 1 summarizes different stages in the evolution to circular fashion. Consumer behavior can help firms to identify different advertising strategies to introduce circular fashion as a key attribute to determine buying habits.
These transformative principles of circular fashion are not only part of the changing fashion industry, but consumers should also be able to know them and thus be able to apply them in order to improve social well-being. Awareness is the first step to advancing in circular fashion [16] and increasing the level of consumer awareness boosts the real meaning of sustainability [17]. Thus, consumer awareness is considered the major driver to guide circularity in the fashion industry [18].
Once the level of awareness is achieved, consumers have a better knowledge of the principles of circular fashion and hence they might be better motivated to act positively and change their behavior. In this line, Colucci and Vecchi [19] emphasized the need of researching consumers’ attitudes toward sustainable clothing as attitudes are led by awareness. These attitudes are drivers to influence purchase intention [20], which at a later stage is conducive to growing business profit.
2.2. Benefits of Circular Fashion to the Fashion Industry and Society
The most well-known benefit in the fashion industry affects the environment. Circular fashion seeks to decrease waste and expand the use of ecological and sustainable raw materials in the production and consumption cycle [21]. Reducing waste that causes damage to the environment (such as pesticides and dyes), leads to reduced global warming with lower greenhouse gas emissions [22].
Innovation is achieved by developing a pattern language for innovation management [23]. This innovation management creates high-quality products and efficient phases of the apparel design process. Circular fashion needs to increase the lifetime of resources by creating shared value for the whole society [24]. In addition, researchers have focused on proposing new models for the fashion industry; in this field, Bocken et al. [3] proposed a complete business model innovation based on primary (close-loop), secondary (downgrading or downcycling), tertiary (feedstock), and quaternary (energy recovery) recycling.
The fashion industry is still lagging in its acceptance of a truly circular fashion process, as they are not aware of the benefits to be gained. One of them is competitiveness. Competitiveness is increased in companies when a longer circulation is created by extending the product life cycle and reducing the cost [25,26]. The sustainable approach in companies by rethinking, reusing and upcycling waste leads to improved competitiveness, both for small and medium-sized companies [27].
Circularity in fashion incorporates the entire value chain in changing production [24,28]. This improvement becomes a competitive advantage and leads to better results, such as reduced energy consumption and the development of a cost structure less exposed to the risk of price volatility [27].
Another benefit is the impact on employment, creating new development and employment opportunities by fostering creativity, product and process innovation, and promoting the training of new skills [29,30]. This effect is beneficial for everybody, promoting the local economy by creating local employment and utilizing the local supply chain, which leads to new business opportunities [31].
2.3. Enablers of Circular Fashion for Consumption
The point of sale and the skills of salespeople are elements that influence consumer behavior and have an impact on increasing the purchase of sustainable fashion products [10]. The placement of sustainable products in the store satisfies consumers’ needs and promotes sustainable fashion consumption [32]. Companies focus to a large extent on creating the sustainable attributes of a specific product but do not go further in the second phase, which is selling the product in the right setting [4]. The acceptance of circular fashion products derives from the product itself, the sales process and communication (before, during, and after purchase).
Companies should enhance the communication skills of sales staff. Moreover, having sales staff inform the clientele about closed-loop operations would be a useful approach to spreading knowledge about circular fashion [4] and even act as mediators of corporate identity [33]. Indeed, fashion customers are more aware of the presence of in-store staff and their communication skills [34].
Marketing campaigns should include a clear message, consistent values, visually appealing and compelling products, and feedback loops [35]. Companies are supposed to provide sustainable reporting [36], thus benefiting from transparency and clear communication. Green communication aims to improve consumer awareness of environmental issues and environmentally friendly products [37].
Advertising strategies must be present for companies that want to engage potential customers in circular fashion. However, misleading advertising, such as the use of inaccurate eco-labels and logos or greenwashing leads the customer to distrust companies and the real benefits that circular fashion could bring to society and people’s well-being [38]. Nath et al. [39] highlight the power of green advertisements as a determining factor in shaping consumers’ environmental knowledge and influencing them to buy green products.
Consumer fashion behavior has changed significantly due to information and communication technologies and the widespread use of mobile devices, which have played an important role in the way people interact and use social media. Social media is a means to influence consumers to change their attitudes toward circular fashion [9,40]. They propose the use of Instagram micro-celebrities to better understand circular fashion and sustainability practices, such as online clothing rentals. Peer influence is decisive in pushing a group of followers into environmental behaviors [39].
2.4. Gender, Age, and Budget in Circular Fashion Attitudes and Awareness
The role of gender will eventually become important in circular fashion and will be relevant to understanding its impact on attitudes and awareness. Previous studies have shown that women are more informed about the concept of green [41]. In addition, Gazzola et al. [42] found that, in particular, young women and those with higher education or high-skilled occupations are more willing to participate in circular fashion.
Women tend to have a higher level of socialization and thus tend to be oriented towards social responsibility versus environmentalism [43]. The ecological attitude in purchasing reaches a deeper level among women compared to men [44]; above all, female personal values are more in line with sustainable consumption and caring for society. This psychological relationship is analyzed by Brough et al. [45], whose findings in their study reveal that males avoid ecological attitudes because they consider them to be feminine behavior.
Previous studies on environmental issues found that youngsters are more concerned than older people [46,47] and therefore age could be a determining factor in perceiving and behaving in a circular environment. When age and gender are combined at the same time, women, regardless of age, are more concerned about environmental issues and act more in favor of the environment [43].
Regarding age, some authors claim that young people are more aware and tend to buy more green fashion [43,48,49]. Lu et al. [48] found that Millennials are more willing to buy recyclable and reusable products. In contrast, Morgan and Birtwistle [50] revealed that young female consumers are not aware of the need to recycle clothing.
Age and gender will be a variable to take into account when finding differences between groups. As Morgan and Birtwistle [50] stated, surveys and studies that include age and gender will be determined in future research.
Finally, Chang and Watchravesringkan [51] discovered a relationship between expenditure budget and the desire to purchase eco-friendly items. Consumption of green products thus depends on how those products are seen, as they are globally perceived to be more expensive.
3. Material and Methodology
This study applies cluster analysis through a questionnaire survey to analyze the awareness and attitudes of respondents toward the principles of circular fashion and to consider the benefits and enablers that promote circularity in fashion. Cluster analysis is a statistical classification technique used mainly in marketing for market segmentation to identify homogeneous groups of consumers [52].
The questionnaire consists of two main parts and is mainly based on the study by Carvalho et al. [53], with the support of the previous literature review. Thus, the first part of the study uses a 5-point Likert scale to analyze questions related to principles, benefits, enablers, awareness of circular fashion, and the purchase intention of traditional and circular fashion. The second part is intended to collect demographic information (gender and age) and general information about the respondents (fashion budget per season, willingness to pay more for circular fashion products, initial knowledge of circular fashion and increased knowledge after completing the questionnaire). A copy of the questionnaire is included in Appendix A.
3.1. Sample
Data were collected between September and October 2021 from a total of 233 respondents. Table 1 presents the descriptive data of the convenience sample. Regarding the profile of the respondents by gender, almost 60% are female with just over 40% being male. In terms of age, three quarters of the respondents are in the 1995–2010 range (Generation Z), 5.58% are Millennials, 11.59% belong to Generation X, and 6.44% are Baby Boomers.
As for the average fashion budget per season, 73.96% of respondents spend between 50 and 200 euros, 22.75% between 200–400 euros, and the rest between 400–700 euros. However, none of the sample members spend more than 700 euros in a season. When considering whether they would increase the money spent on circular fashion products, almost 75% of respondents are willing to pay more to purchase such products.
Finally, at the beginning of the questionnaire 65.67% of respondents stated that they were aware of the concept of circular fashion, and after completing the questionnaire, 94.2% of respondents indicated that they had increased their knowledge of the importance of circular fashion.
Concerning variables related to circular fashion, all of them have a minimum value of 1 and a maximum of 5. Table 2 summarized the mean and standard deviation of these variables.
It is worth noticing that interviewees, in general, have mostly positive attitudes toward circular fashion compared to traditional fashion. Thus, on average, the purchase intention of circular fashion products is greater than the purchase intention of traditional fashion products (3.747 > 3.043).
In relation to the level of knowledge of the principles of circular fashion, on average, the interviewees have a higher level of knowledge of one of the principles of the first stage, the one related to the useful applications of materials or components, that is, recycling. They are also familiar with four of the principles of the second stage, those related to extending the useful life of products (reuse, repair, refurbish, and restore). The lowest level of knowledge of the principles, although with an average value above 3 in all cases, concerns the third stage principles related to creating smarter products, as well as recover, from the first stage, and redesign from the second stage.
Similar values are found in the application of the principles. The most applied principles are those related to extending the useful life of products and their parts. Specifically, within this group, the most applied principles are those of reuse, repair and refurbish. As regards the other principles, the principles of recycle and reduce also have similar values of applicability. The remaining principles have an average application level of less than 3.
In relation to the benefits of circular fashion, the most valuable among respondents with a mean higher than 4, is the benefit it has on the environment. The rest of the benefits are also highly valued by respondents as all of them have a mean value higher than 3.
Finally, with respect to enablers, it is worth noting that all of them promote circular fashion, with values on average close to or higher than 4. Thus, among those surveyed, the main enablers are social media, marketing, and advertising.
3.2. Empirical Analysis
SPAD is a mature data mining software suite that provides powerful exploratory analyses and data mining tools, including PCA, MCA, clustering, and interactive decision trees. SPAD statistical software version 5.6, elaborated by CISIA-CERESTA was used to analyze the data [54,55]. The following method was applied: the first step, principal component analysis to identify the latent structure of the variables; and the second step, a factor-based cluster analysis [54,56]. Thus, the relationship between initial variables and factors is specified in each group [57].
To validate the initial statistical method, the Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin test measure for sampling adequacy was found to be of a very high value (KMO = 0.899), exceeding the recommended value of 0.6 [58]. Moreover, Bartlett’s test of sphericity also reached statistical significance (χ2(43) = 3730.179, p-value < 0.001) [59]. KMO and Bartlett’s test support the factorability of the correlation matrix. A five-component solution explained a total of 60% of the variance, which possessed an eigenvalue greater than 1.
4. Results
Cluster analysis determines five different groups, which are shown in Table 3. Three of the groups express positive attitudes towards circular fashion, representing 75.11% of the total sample, while the rest are more focused on traditional fashion.
4.1. Cluster 1. Circular Fashion Lovers
The first cluster is composed of 21.03% of the respondents, who are highly aware of circular fashion as well as of the principles of circular fashion, given that the members of this cluster present average values higher than 4 in the level of awareness of all the principles of circular fashion (except for the principle of recovery, whose average value is close to 4). Furthermore, not only are they aware of the principles, it also is a cluster that is characterized by a high degree of applicability of the principles, presenting mean values of attitudes toward principles higher than 4 except for recovery, with a value of 3.5. Likewise, the individuals in this cluster are very aware of the benefits of circular fashion, highlighting the benefits for both the environment and innovation. This cluster considers enablers to be very relevant, attaching great importance to the publicity given to circular fashion products on social media, advertising and marketing, as well as their placement at the point of sale. In line with all the above comments, this group is characterized as a group with a strong interest in circular fashion. The results are presented in Table 4, which shows the characteristics of Circular Fashion Lovers.
4.2. Cluster 2. Circular Fashion Followers
The next cluster is the most numerous and accounts for 27.9% of respondents. As with the previous, this cluster is characterized by a high awareness of circular fashion, as well as a high level of awareness of the principles of circular fashion. Although this cluster is aware of the principles, their degree of application is rather low. Thus, this group is characterized by a low level of application of the two first stage principles related to the useful application of materials or components, recover and recycle, and by two of the second stage principles, connected to extending the useful life of products and parts, restore and redesign. As regards the benefits of circular fashion, this cluster is characterized by its knowledge of the benefits for the environment, innovation and competitiveness, but not for employment. The main characteristics of this cluster, called Circular Fashion Followers, are presented in Table 5.
4.3. Cluster 3. Circular Fashion Laggards
The third cluster, comprising 26.18%, is the so-called Circular Fashion Laggards. This group is characterized by having on average a lower level of awareness of circular fashion (one point below the previous). Thus, this group is characterized by a moderate level of awareness of six of the nine principles of circular fashion: two of the first stage related to the useful application of materials or components, four of the second stage, namely those regarding the extension of the useful life of products and their parts and only one of the last stages, the one having to do with creating smarter products. In line with this, another characteristic of this group is a medium level of application of four principles of circular fashion, recycle and recover from the first stage and restore and redesign from the second stage. This group, whose main characteristics are presented in Table 6, is characterized by a medium level of knowledge of three of the four benefits of circular fashion. The results suggest that this group consider two forms of advertising as enablers: marketing and the position of the products at the points of sale.
4.4. Cluster 4. Starters to Leave Traditional Fashion
The members of this fourth cluster account for 15.88% of the sample and are characterized by a low level of awareness of only three principles of circular fashion: recycle, reduce and rethink, which is reflected in the low level of application of the principles of circular fashion at the time of purchase. Thus, a characteristic of this group is that they have a very low level of application of the nine principles of circular fashion. In addition, for them, the communication skills of the sales staff are very important when buying circular fashion products. Table 7 shows the characteristics of this group, called Starters to Leave Traditional Fashion.
4.5. Cluster 5. True Believers in Traditional Fashion
The last group, comprising 9.01% of the sample, is characterized by a low level of awareness of circular fashion, as well as a low intention to purchase circular fashion. Thus, although they are aware of all the principles of circular fashion, the average level of awareness of none of the nine principles exceeds a value of 2. True Believers only apply five of the nine principles, and their level of application is very low, applying one of the first stage principles related to the useful application of materials, two of the second stage principles, those connected with extending the useful life of products and their parts and two of the last stage principles concerning creation of smarter products. In relation to the benefits, it can be seen that they do not consider circular fashion to be very beneficial, given that they present very low average values in the four benefits. The main characteristics of this group, called True Believers in Traditional Fashion, are presented in Table 8.
4.6. Demographic and Personal Variables of Each Cluster
The clusters not only differ in the characteristics of each one of them but also in the demographic and personal characteristics of the individuals that make them up, as presented in Appendix B. Thus, while in the group of Circular Fashion Lovers almost 80% are women, in the group of Circular Fashion Followers and in the group of Starters to Leave Traditional Fashion, approximately 50% are women, and in the cluster of the True Believers in Traditional Fashion, the percentage of women does not reach 40%.
Concerning age, the Circular Fashion Lovers cluster has a significant percentage of the sample from each of the age groups represented. Thus, almost 50% of this cluster belongs to people of Generation Z, 10% to Millennials, 22% to people of Generation X, and just over 18% to Baby Boomers. In the Circular Fashion Followers and Laggards clusters, approximately 80% of each group belongs to Generation Z, representing approximately 92% and 95% of the individuals in the Starters to Leave Traditional Fashion and True Believers in Traditional Fashion clusters, respectively. Moreover, it is worth remarking that in the Starters to Leave Traditional Fashion cluster there are no Generation X or Baby Boomers, while in the cluster of True Believers in Traditional Fashion, there are no Millennials or Baby Boomers.
As regards the questions related to the amount of budget allocated to clothing and willingness to pay more for circular fashion products, there is no significant difference in either of them among individuals belonging to the different clusters.
Concerning knowledge of circular fashion, there is some difference. Thus, True Believers in Traditional Fashion admit to having a lack of knowledge at the beginning of the questionnaire. However, despite the initial level of knowledge about circular fashion, individuals from all clusters report having increased their knowledge after completing the questionnaire.
5. Discussion and Conclusions
Circular fashion is not a concept that can be considered established in the market. The study of the level of consumer awareness of its principles, as well as engagement actions with the sector, is still at an early stage. Therefore, companies need to know the real market situation to identify different awareness and action strategies based on consumer groups. Focusing on specific advertising campaigns for the needs of each group would achieve better performance than globally addressing the concept of circular fashion. Businesses in the fashion sector are run by global fashion brands and global marketing strategies [60]. This issue assumes that all consumers are global per nature and they would understand the meaning of circularity in the same way. Conversely, this research reveals that there are various dissimilarities among consumers and their understanding of circular fashion.
This study identifies the consumer groups based on their level of awareness of and attitudes to circular fashion, which in many cases present negative t-test values, making them appear as far removed from these concepts. Moreover, this research allows advances in the SDG3 and SDG12 as it emphasizes the need of promoting responsible consumption, which also leads to improve well-being.
Based on cluster analysis, five groups of consumers have been identified according to the level of maturity of their awareness and attitudes in the circular fashion sector. More specifically, Clusters 1, 2, and 3 represent consumers with a positive level of awareness of the concept. However, when identifying the actions or attitudes of these consumers, four of the identified groups position their attitudes at a low level (negative t-test) and only Cluster 1, Circular Fashion Lovers, present consistent and higher information and attitudes concerning the circular fashion sector. For this group of consumers, it may be worth developing strategies that encourage an increase in the purchase of products based on circularity. They are consumers who are more willing to pay for these products, have a tighter budget, and are present in all age groups. It is necessary to establish that the principles that validate the action of buying circular fashion are based on rethink and reduce.
The characterization of the rest of the groups allows us to identify that clusters 2 and 3 have a positive level of awareness of the principles, while their attitudes have a negative t-test, which allows us to identify a gap between awareness and action. For this consumer, it is essential to design strategies that allow moving from awareness to action. These consumers are environmentally conscious and aware of the circularity of the fashion sector. Nonetheless, when they have to make purchasing decisions, the application of the principles of circularity is located in lower values. In these cases, it is necessary to convey to consumers the commitment to action and the consideration of the principles included in stage 2 as determinants of the purchase motive.
Consumers in Clusters 4 and 5 are isolated from circular fashion, both in terms of awareness of the guiding principles and indicators of action. For these groups, which are reactive to the concept, there is a need to start conveying to them the circular fashion concept and its underlying principles. Such a precarious level of knowledge is difficult for companies to implement; hence, it may be interesting for these first stages of awareness to be carried out at an institutional level and to disseminate the concept of circularity and sustainability in the fashion world throughout society as part of their advertising strategies.
Based on the social and personal characteristics of the consumer groups, we can draw conclusions based on age. Generation Z tends to be individualist and therefore, is less interested in circular fashion. Therefore, educational campaigns to reduce consumption in fashion [61] are required, especially, campaigns in which men of this generation are presented using and encouraging the consumption of this type of product, as men and individuals of Generation Z are those who integrate the two clusters less aware of circular fashion. Consumer education is essential to boosting involvement in circular fashion initiatives since consumers lack sufficient awareness of how their clothing affects the environment. As a result, the buyer should be informed about the product’s environmental consequences and the possibility of recycling [4,62]. On the whole, education initiatives are one pillar of stakeholders policy proposals [61,63]. Moreover, advertising can be a tool to be used with educational purposes.
To this end, taking into account the main characteristics that define each cluster, advertising campaigns should be carried out not only through traditional marketing tools, but also through social networks, as they are an enabler of circular fashion, and they are one of the main means of communication among Millennials [48].
A paradigm shift would require transformation of the mentality of both consumers and producers in the fashion industry. Furthermore, external stakeholders (e.g., governments) and internal stakeholders in companies (e.g., employees, owners) are involved in the development of truly circular fashion practices.
Communication in circularity should seek to promote sustainable consumption choices to increase consumers’ awareness of environmental issues and environment-friendly products [37]. Hence, communication in circular fashion should endeavor to involve all the stakeholders to better communicate the meaning of circular fashion and to change consumers’ and producers’ mentality to reduce the amount of textile waste.
Circular Fashion Lovers might be used as an enabler to spread how to apply the principles of circular fashion and their benefits to society. Word-of-mouth might be used to share positive information about circular fashion and recommend not only attitudes but also fashion circular products, which are aligned to circular fashion.
As stated by Morgan and Birtwistle [50] (p. 196) “the lack of awareness is thought to be a result of lack of media coverage”, which reinforces the need of boosting media tools to transmit green concepts. Moreover, young consumers, as a growing consumer category, if they acquire the habit of purchasing circular fashion, will act the same way at an older age [64].
There is still an important task ahead in this sector to transfer and assimilate the concept of sustainability in circular fashion into society. It is therefore essential to combine business strategies that encourage actions and attitudes towards sustainability with institutional campaigns that promote, in the first stage, awareness of sustainability in the Fashion circular sector.
Limitations and Future Research
Cross-country studies would be a line to follow in future research, as well as ascertaining if the cultural dimension might affect attitudes to circular fashion and whether there is a specific correlation between awareness and attitudes in circular fashion. It seems, a priori, that thinking green and acting green have some differences. Above all, there is a mistrust among consumers that fashion companies present themselves to be circular when they are not [65,66]. In the end, this issue is also reflected in consumers as awareness and attitudes are different. Therefore, ethical points on both sides (consumers and companies) are perceived as hypocrisy.
Another aspect to be considered in circular fashion research is single studies in each of the principles, above all, in these principles which are not well-known by consumers, such as refurbish, among others. On the other hand, cross-country analysis might show differences or similarities among countries concerning principles of circular fashion.
Although a convenience sample was employed for this study, it is acknowledged that a larger sample or a second wave would be good to establish whether several groups have different opinions toward textile disposal methods.
Author Contributions
Conceptualization, M.E.A.-M. and K.S.-E.; methodology, M.E.A.-M. and A.O.-L.; validation M.E.A.-M. and A.O.-L.; formal analysis, M.E.A.-M. and A.O.-L.; investigation, M.E.A.-M., A.O.-L. and K.S.-E.; data curation, M.E.A.-M. and A.O.-L.; writing—original draft preparation, M.E.A.-M., A.O.-L. and K.S.-E.; writing—review and editing, M.E.A.-M., A.O.-L. and K.S.-E.; visualization, M.E.A.-M. and K.S.-E.; supervision, M.E.A.-M. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding
This research received no external funding.
Data Availability Statement
The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Appendix A
Table A1.
Questionnaire.
| Questions | Likert-Type Scale Response Anchors |
|---|---|
| Do you know what circular fashion means? | a–Yes b–No |
| Are you aware of circular fashion as (include definition of circular fashion [2])? | Level of Awareness 1–Not aware 5–Very aware |
Are you aware of the basic circular fashion principles? (Here, explanation of Figure 1)
| Level of Awareness 1–Not aware 5–Very aware |
Are you aware of the benefits of circular fashion?
| Level of Awareness 1–Not aware 5–Very aware |
What would be important enablers for you when you are buying products created by circular fashion processes?
| Level of Agreement 1–Totally disagree 5–Totally agree |
Are you applying any circular fashion principles? (Here, explanation of Figure 1)
| Level of Agreement 1–Totally disagree 5–Totally agree |
Are you interested in purchasing traditional fashion products (make, use, dispose) or circular fashion products (reuse, repair, recycling, ….)?
| Level of Interest 1–Not interested 5–Very interested |
| Would you consider paying more for circular fashion products? | a–Yes b–No |
| After completing this questionnaire, do you think you have increased your knowledge about circular fashion? | a–Yes b–No |
Appendix B
Table A2.
Main Characteristics of Clusters.
| Cluster | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | F | Prob > F | |
| (n = 49) | (n = 65) | (n = 61) | (n = 37) | (n = 21) | |||
| Gender | 3.63 | ** | |||||
| Female | 79.6% | 53.8% | 59.0% | 51.4% | 38.1% | ||
| Male | 20.4% | 46.2% | 41.0% | 48.6% | 61.9% | ||
| Generation | 9.32 | *** | |||||
| Generation Z (1995–2010) | 49.0% | 78.5% | 80.3% | 91.9% | 95.2% | ||
| Millennials (1980–1994) | 10.2% | 4.6% | 3.3% | 8.1% | 0.0% | ||
| Generation X (1965–1979) | 22.4% | 13.8% | 9.8% | 0.0% | 4.8% | ||
| Baby Boomers (>1964) | 18.4% | 3.1% | 6.6% | 0.0% | 0.0% | ||
| Fashion budget per season | 0.56 | ||||||
| 50–200€ | 71.4% | 67.7% | 73.8% | 83.8% | 81.0% | ||
| 200–400€ | 24.5% | 32.3% | 19.7% | 10.8% | 19.0% | ||
| 400–700€ | 4.1% | 0.0% | 6.6% | 5.4% | 0.0% | ||
| Willingness to pay more | 0.44 | ||||||
| Yes | 75.5% | 69.2% | 78.7% | 70.3% | 71.4% | ||
| No | 24.5% | 30.8% | 21.3% | 29.7% | 28.6% | ||
| Initial knowledge of CF | 24.31 | *** | |||||
| Yes | 77.6% | 92.3% | 50.8% | 64.9% | 0.0% | ||
| No | 22.4% | 7.7% | 49.2% | 35.1% | 100.0% | ||
| Increase knowledge of CF | 2.66 | * | |||||
| Yes | 95.9% | 87.7% | 98.4% | 100.0% | 90.5% | ||
| No | 4.1% | 12.3% | 1.6% | 0.0% | 9.8% | ||
* p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.001.
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Figure 1.
Classification and transition of the 9R principles of circular fashion [11,13,14,15]. Source: Own elaboration based on Potting et al. [12] and Kirchherr et al. [11].
Figure 2.
Dendrogram.
Table 1.
Summary statistics of demographic and personal variables.
| Characteristics | Percentage | |
|---|---|---|
| Gender | Female | 58.80% |
| Male | 41.20% | |
| Generation | Generation Z (1995–2010) | 76.39% |
| Millennials (1980–1994) | 5.58% | |
| Generation X (1965–1979) | 11.59% | |
| Baby Boomers (>1964) | 6.44% | |
| Fashion budget per season | 50–200€ | 73.82% |
| 200–400€ | 22.75% | |
| 400–700€ | 3.43% | |
| Willingness to pay more for CF | Yes | 73.39% |
| No | 26.61% | |
| Initial knowledge of CF | Yes | 65.67% |
| No | 34.33% | |
| Increase knowledge of CF | Yes | 94.42% |
| No | 5.58% |
Table 2.
Summary statistics of interest variables.
| Characteristic Variables | Mean | Std. Deviation | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Awareness of Circular Fashion | 3.584 | 1.158 | |
| Purchase intention of Circular Fashion | 3.747 | 1.065 | |
| Purchase intention of Traditional Fashion | 3.043 | 1.022 | |
| Awareness of principles of Circular Fashion | |||
| Creating smarter products | Rethink | 3.279 | 1.199 |
| Reduce | 3.365 | 1.168 | |
| Extend the useful life of products and their parts | Reuse | 3.747 | 1.157 |
| Repair | 3.734 | 1.075 | |
| Refurbish | 3.712 | 1.107 | |
| Restore | 3.524 | 1.139 | |
| Redesign | 3.279 | 1.110 | |
| Useful application of materials or components | Recycle | 3.760 | 1.151 |
| Recover | 3.004 | 1.213 | |
| Attitudes to principles of Circular Fashion | |||
| Creating smarter products | Rethink | 2.927 | 1.218 |
| Reduce | 3.240 | 1.078 | |
| Extend the useful life of products and their parts | Reuse | 3.455 | 1.123 |
| Repair | 3.648 | 1.005 | |
| Refurbish | 3.515 | 1.069 | |
| Restore | 2.845 | 1.271 | |
| Redesign | 2.742 | 1.264 | |
| Useful application of materials | Recycle | 3.275 | 1.257 |
| Recover | 2.524 | 1.333 | |
| Benefits | |||
| Competitiveness | 3.532 | 1.176 | |
| Innovation | 3.665 | 1.123 | |
| Environment | 4.176 | 1.048 | |
| Employment | 3.343 | 1.097 | |
| Enablers | |||
| Marketing | 4.391 | 0.801 | |
| Placement | 3.949 | 0.961 | |
| Advertising | 4.219 | 0.823 | |
| Communication | 3.970 | 0.910 | |
| Social media | 4.451 | 0.858 | |
Table 3.
Cluster analysis.
| Cluster No. | Name of Cluster | No. of Cases | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Circular Fashion Lovers | 49 | 21.03 |
| 2 | Circular Fashion Followers | 65 | 27.90 |
| 3 | Circular Fashion Laggards | 61 | 26.18 |
| 4 | Starters to Leave Traditional Fashion | 37 | 15.88 |
| 5 | True Believers in Traditional Fashion | 21 | 9.01 |
Table 4.
Circular Fashion Lovers.
| Characteristic Variables | Cluster Mean | Cluster Std. Deviation | Test-Value | Probability | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Awareness of Circular Fashion | 4.347 | 0.846 | 5.18 | 0.000 | |
| Purchase intention of Circular Fashion | 4.429 | 0.700 | 5.03 | 0.000 | |
| Awareness of principles of Circular Fashion | |||||
| Creating smarter products | Rethink | 4.327 | 0.766 | 6.87 | 0.000 |
| Reduce | 4.306 | 0.676 | 6.33 | 0.000 | |
| Extend the useful life of products and their parts | Reuse | 4.673 | 0.511 | 6.29 | 0.000 |
| Repair | 4.469 | 0.703 | 5.38 | 0.000 | |
| Refurbish | 4.388 | 0.723 | 4.79 | 0.000 | |
| Restore | 4.408 | 0.636 | 6.11 | 0.000 | |
| Redesign | 4.143 | 0.833 | 6.12 | 0.000 | |
| Useful application of materials or components | Recycle | 4.612 | 0.664 | 5.82 | 0.000 |
| Recover | 3.816 | 1.024 | 5.26 | 0.000 | |
| Attitudes to principles of Circular Fashion | |||||
| Creating smarter products | Rethink | 4.122 | 0.982 | 7.71 | 0.000 |
| Reduce | 4.224 | 0.763 | 7.18 | 0.000 | |
| Extend the useful life of products and their parts | Reuse | 4.245 | 0.821 | 5.53 | 0.000 |
| Repair | 4.265 | 0.722 | 4.83 | 0.000 | |
| Refurbish | 4.388 | 0.723 | 6.42 | 0.000 | |
| Restore | 4.041 | 1.068 | 7.39 | 0.000 | |
| Redesign | 4.102 | 0.863 | 8.45 | 0.000 | |
| Useful application of materials | Recycle | 4.408 | 0.780 | 7.09 | 0.000 |
| Recover | 3.592 | 1.211 | 6.30 | 0.000 | |
| Benefits | |||||
| Competitiveness | 4.469 | 0.610 | 6.27 | 0.000 | |
| Innovation | 4.531 | 0.610 | 6.06 | 0.000 | |
| Environment | 4.796 | 0.451 | 4.65 | 0.000 | |
| Employment | 4.245 | 0.770 | 6.46 | 0.000 | |
| Enablers | |||||
| Marketing | 4.673 | 0.549 | 2.78 | 0.0030 | |
| Placement | 4.551 | 0.672 | 4.93 | 0.0000 | |
| Advertising | 4.612 | 0.565 | 3.76 | 0.0000 | |
| Communication | 4.490 | 0.759 | 4.49 | 0.0000 | |
| Social media | 4.714 | 0.606 | 2.41 | 0.0080 | |
Table 5.
Circular Fashion Followers.
| Characteristic Variables | Cluster Mean | Cluster Std. Deviation | Test-Value | Probability | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Awareness of Circular Fashion | 4.308 | 0.580 | 5.92 | 0.000 | |
| Awareness of principles of Circular Fashion | |||||
| Creating smarter products | Rethink | 3.862 | 0.801 | 4.60 | 0.000 |
| Reduce | 3.969 | 0.822 | 4.90 | 0.000 | |
| Extend the useful life of products and their parts | Reuse | 4.262 | 0.750 | 4.21 | 0.000 |
| Repair | 4.338 | 0.615 | 5.33 | 0.000 | |
| Refurbish | 4.354 | 0.711 | 5.49 | 0.000 | |
| Restore | 4.046 | 0.753 | 4.35 | 0.000 | |
| Redesign | 3.615 | 0.817 | 2.87 | 0.002 | |
| Useful application of materials or components | Recycle | 4.231 | 0.855 | 3.88 | 0.000 |
| Recover | 3.400 | 1.107 | 3.09 | 0.001 | |
| Attitudes to principles of Circular Fashion | |||||
| Extend the useful life of products and their parts | Restore | 2.492 | 0.979 | −2.63 | 0.004 |
| Redesign | 2.369 | 0.970 | −2.80 | 0.003 | |
| Useful application of materials or components | Recover | 2.123 | 1.103 | −2.85 | 0.002 |
| Recycle | 2.846 | 1.126 | −3.23 | 0.001 | |
| Benefits | |||||
| Competitiveness | 4.000 | 0.894 | 3.77 | 0.000 | |
| Innovation | 4.185 | 0.762 | 4.38 | 0.000 | |
| Environment | 4.615 | 0.600 | 3.97 | 0.000 | |
Table 6.
Circular Fashion Laggards.
| Characteristic Variables | Cluster Mean | Cluster Std. Deviation | Test-Value | Probability | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Awareness of Circular Fashion | 3.033 | 0.868 | −4.31 | 0.000 | |
| Awareness of principles of Circular Fashion | |||||
| Creating smarter products | Rethink | 2.902 | 0.804 | −2.86 | 0.002 |
| Extend the useful life of products and their parts | Reuse | 3.393 | 0.946 | −2.77 | 0.003 |
| Repair | 3.328 | 0.783 | −3.42 | 0.000 | |
| Refurbish | 3.410 | 0.755 | −2.48 | 0.007 | |
| Restore | 3.164 | 0.813 | −2.87 | 0.002 | |
| Useful application of materials | Recycle | 3.393 | 0.835 | −2.89 | 0.002 |
| Attitudes to principles of Circular Fashion | |||||
| Extend the useful life of products and their parts | Restore | 3.311 | 0.897 | 3.33 | 0.000 |
| Redesign | 3.131 | 0.932 | 2.79 | 0.003 | |
| Useful application of materials or components | Recycle | 3.033 | 1.201 | 3.46 | 0.000 |
| Recover | 3.344 | 0.866 | 3.11 | 0.001 | |
| Benefits | |||||
| Competitiveness | 3.115 | 0.812 | −3.22 | 0.001 | |
| Innovation | 3.131 | 0.858 | −4.31 | 0.000 | |
| Environment | 3.869 | 0.932 | −2.66 | 0.004 | |
| Enablers | |||||
| Marketing | 4.033 | 0.940 | −4.05 | 0.000 | |
| Placement | 3.590 | 1.014 | −3.38 | 0.000 | |
Table 7.
Starters to Leave Traditional Fashion.
| Characteristic Variables | Cluster Mean | Cluster Std. Deviation | Test-Value | Probability | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Awareness of principles of Circular Fashion | |||||
| Creating smarter products | Rethink | 2.541 | 1.029 | −4.076 | 0.000 |
| Reduce | 2.703 | 0.801 | −3.751 | 0.000 | |
| Useful application of materials | Recycle | 2.514 | 1.056 | −2.677 | 0.004 |
| Attitudes to principles of Circular Fashion | |||||
| Creating smarter products | Rethink | 1.622 | 0.748 | −7.092 | 0.000 |
| Reduce | 2.324 | 0.807 | −5.626 | 0.000 | |
| Extend the useful life of products and their parts | Reuse | 2.324 | 0.932 | −6.663 | 0.000 |
| Repair | 2.865 | 1.095 | −5.159 | 0.000 | |
| Refurbish | 2.405 | 1.026 | −6.870 | 0.000 | |
| Restore | 1.541 | 0.597 | −6.794 | 0.000 | |
| Redesign | 1.568 | 0.790 | −6.149 | 0.000 | |
| Useful application of materials or components | Recycle | 2.676 | 1.296 | −3.152 | 0.001 |
| Recover | 1.459 | 0.825 | −5.282 | 0.000 | |
| Enablers | |||||
| Communication | 3.622 | 0.911 | −2.534 | 0.006 | |
Table 8.
True Believers in Traditional Fashion.
| Characteristic Variables | Cluster Mean | Cluster Std. Deviation | Test-Value | Probability | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Awareness of Circular Fashion | 1.429 | 0.583 | −8.92 | 0.000 | |
| Purchase intention of Circular Fashion | 2.524 | 0.957 | −2.43 | 0.007 | |
| Awareness of principles of Circular Fashion | |||||
| Creating smarter products | Rethink | 1.429 | 0.660 | −7.40 | 0.000 |
| Reduce | 1.333 | 0.563 | −8.34 | 0.000 | |
| Extend the useful life of products and their parts | Reuse | 1.571 | 0.728 | −9.01 | 0.000 |
| Repair | 1.905 | 0.868 | −8.15 | 0.000 | |
| Refurbish | 1.714 | 0.881 | −8.65 | 0.000 | |
| Restore | 1.381 | 0.653 | −9.02 | 0.000 | |
| Redesign | 1.429 | 0.660 | −7.99 | 0.000 | |
| Useful application of materials | Recycle | 2.000 | 1.024 | −7.33 | 0.000 |
| Recover | 1.286 | 0.547 | −6.79 | 0.000 | |
| Attitudes to principles of Circular Fashion | |||||
| Creating smarter products | Rethink | 1.952 | 0.785 | −3.84 | 0.000 |
| Reduce | 2.476 | 0.852 | −3.40 | 0.000 | |
| Extend the useful life of products and their parts | Restore | 2.095 | 1.191 | −2.83 | 0.002 |
| Redesign | 1.667 | 0.836 | −4.08 | 0.000 | |
| Useful application of materials | Recover | 1.667 | 0.713 | −3.08 | 0.001 |
| Benefits | |||||
| Competitiveness | 1.476 | 0.663 | −8.38 | 0.000 | |
| Innovation | 1.857 | 1.082 | −7.72 | 0.000 | |
| Environment | 2.429 | 1.294 | −7.99 | 0.000 | |
| Employment | 1.667 | 0.836 | −7.33 | 0.000 | |
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Aramendia-Muneta, M.E.; Ollo-López, A.; Simón-Elorz, K. Circular Fashion: Cluster Analysis to Define Advertising Strategies. Sustainability 2022, 14, 13365. https://doi.org/10.3390/su142013365
AMA Style
Aramendia-Muneta ME, Ollo-López A, Simón-Elorz K. Circular Fashion: Cluster Analysis to Define Advertising Strategies. Sustainability. 2022; 14(20):13365. https://doi.org/10.3390/su142013365
Chicago/Turabian StyleAramendia-Muneta, Maria Elena, Andrea Ollo-López, and Katrin Simón-Elorz. 2022. "Circular Fashion: Cluster Analysis to Define Advertising Strategies" Sustainability 14, no. 20: 13365. https://doi.org/10.3390/su142013365
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