Profit
The profit pillar focuses on the economic side of the fashion industry, specifically on achieving economic growth responsibly. (Coolset, 2023). It looks at how we can increase our economy in way which is sustainability to not only other industries but the smaller sectors of the fashion industry.
The fashion industry, specifically, the apparel and textile industry are the 4th biggest industry globally. It’s estimated that around 3,000 billion textile and garment companies are entering the market daily, a large degree of these are unknown to the majority of consumers but still thrive in their own circles and communities. (Vilaça, J. 2022). These companies continue to grow and contribute to the economy.
When considering the performance of the individual sectors in the fashion industry, the luxury fashion sector is likely to excel and certainly outperform the rest of the sectors, due to having wealthier shoppers, who are expected to continue to travel and spend, as their desired market. Therefore, the luxury fashion sector ‘[will] remain more insulated from the effects of hyperinflation.’ However, the fashion market excluding the luxury sector is expected to struggle to grow significantly throughout the duration of 2023. (Mckinsey and co, 2022)
Brands are being encouraged to employ different tactics in order to remain competitive in uncertain economic times. For example, utilising the power of social media, specifically vlogging/blogging. According to Mitterfellner (2019) Blogging follows the two-step process, the two-step flow of communication, created by Lazarsfeld in 1944. It suggests that it is possible to achieve a certain reaction of a large group of people by first influencing the opinion leader and pre-calculating how they will re-distribute the information. This can be applied to blogging in which the opinion leader is the blogger, and the large group of people are the people that follow that specific blogger. This tactic is likely to help brands stay competitive in an unpredictable and uncertain economic market.
Brands should also consider how they’re bridging the gap between creativity and commerce. This includes considering the consumer and their desires as well as still designing creative and new items of clothing that clearly display and accentuate fashion as an art form and stick to the brands ideals about the apparel they produce. Therefore brands need to think about the marketing they’re producing and making sure it fits their desired market including the pricing they are setting their items at.
References
Vilaça, J. (February 18th 2022) Fashion industry statistics:The 4th biggest sector is way more than just about clothing.Fashinnovation. https://fashinnovation.nyc/fashion-industry-statistics/ Retrieved 22nd October 2023.
Mckinsey and Co (November 29th 2022) The state of fashion 2023: Holding onto growth as global clouds gather. https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/retail/our-insights/state-of-fashion . Retrieved 22nd October 2023.
Mitterfellner, O (2019) Fashion marketing and communication: Theory and practice across the fashion industry. Chapter 5: Social media, blogs and opinion-leaders. Taylor & Francis Group, Milton. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ual/detail.action?docID=5981798.
Coolset (August 7th 2023) The three pillars of sustainability: people, planet and profit. https://www.coolset.com/academy/three-pillars-of-sustainability Retrieved 22nd October 2023