Green Millennials? : A Qualitative Study on the Impact of Green Marketing on European Female Millennials Purchase Behavior in the Fashion Industry

Abstract: Background:  Distinguishing from competitors nowadays turns out to be more difficult as mass communication is a topical issue. Not only, but also in the fashion industry, sustainability is an upcoming topic, especially since this industry is deemed to be the second most polluting worldwide and strives for a change in consumerism. Particularly, millennials are perceived to be the generation being most aware of sustainable alternatives and aspire to protect the environment. Green Marketing is applied to thus promote green processes, products and the like to several customer segments.  Purpose:        The purpose of this thesis is to qualitatively explore the impact of green marketing on the purchase behavior of European female millennials in the fashion industry. Method:         The method chosen for this study were online focus groups with female informants from several European countries. Five online focus groups with a total of 31 informants were conducted. The qualitative study is based on an inductive and interpretivist approach. Due to the existence of known models, individual deductive elements were included for data collection. Finally, a theoretical framework was created. Conclusion:        The results show that green marketing is perceived in a diversified way. Positively, green marketing is creating awareness towards considering sustainable fashion and a possible future change in the purchasing behavior. Negatively it is said, that green marketing is often associated with greenwashing and dishonest pursuits of the companies. Due to sustainability becoming more important and popular, green marketing is also related to a trend in marketing to keep up with competitors. However, green marketing in this study was found out to have no significant impact on the purchase behavior. Overall, the impact of green marketing depends strongly on the knowledge level of the informants in this study. It is noteworthy, that informants with basic knowledge are most likely to be influenced by GM