Exploring the Use of Nordicness in Sustainability Messages: The Case of Nordic Fashion Brands

Abstract: Being on everyone’s lips for years, the concept of sustainability has become an almost unavoidable phenomenon within contemporary business discourses and practice. In particular, has the Nordic fashion industry increasingly been infused by sustainability with a continuous growing public interest in buying sustainable products from companies that have embarked on a sustainable path. Despite a broad interest in sustainability within academia, as well as business management, no extant academic work has yet been done to investigate how national identity or country-of-origin is interrelated with how brands communicate sustainability. This study aims to analyze the various aspects of Nordicness in sustainability messages in the Nordic fashion industry by answering the following question: How is the concept of Nordicness incorporated into Nordic fashion brands’ sustainability messages? Using empirical data from a selection of fashion brand actors in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland, a qualitative content analysis is used to examine how ideological and socio-cultural considerations of sustainability are embedded in the concept of Nordicness and shown through the brands’ sustainability messages. Based on our analysis, we have discovered five key themes that intricately relate to the concept of Nordicness. These themes are characterized by numerous distinctive Nordic identity cues, incorporating both implicit and explicit references. Our findings highlight how fashion brands effectively integrate Nordicness into their sustainability messaging, thereby further enhancing and capitalizing on the already prominent global recognition of Nordic sustainability identity. Keywords: Sustainability, Nordicness, Fashion, Nordic Branding, Sustainability Marketing, Nordic Identity, Case Study