Brand identity, the integration of sustainability and sustainability communication: The case of H&M

Abstract: The fashion industry is the second dirtiest industry that pollutes the planet. H&M is one of many fashion brands that strive to improve the environment by introducing sustainable products and initiatives. This research aims to study how H&M communicate sustainability in the fashion industry context during the selected period. The data is mainly collected from Instagram, the most popular communication platform in the fashion industry and supported by data from brick-and-mortar stores, the website and the semi-structured interview. To fully understand the case, this research identifies H&M brand identity and brand extension in sustainability. The fashion brand communication and sustainability communication are the main theoretical framework of the study. The methods of the study are semi-constructed interview and content analysis. The brand identity of H&M is found to be positivity, collectivity, and inclusivity and openness, trendsetter and youthful. The brand extension at H&M can be found in several levels from the establishment of the H&M Foundation to Conscious collection and Conscious Exclusive collection. H&M applies several of fashion brand communication strategic tools to communicate sustainability. The obstacles and limitations of H&M are found to be a conflict of interest between the business and sustainability, downplayed by the nature of fast fashion, an inconsistency of communication, and difficulty to access to the sustainability information. It is found that the unique characteristics of the fashion industry and the creation of brand identity can solve the normalisation paradox of sustainability communication discourse, as well as overcome five barriers from greening. At the same time, the weakness is the decreasing of potential to create reflexivity of sustainability issues which is due to the language and tone of communication. Another weakness is the decreasing potential of sustainability to be normalised in the fashion industry which is due to the number of information available from the brand.