The recent rise in the pace of climate change has defined the further focus on environmentalism and the integration of sustainable strategies into the present-day business setting. Burberry, as one of the leading companies in the apparel industry, has shown a particularly strong need for the introduction of sustainable marketing tools (White, Nielsen and Valentini, 2017). By introducing the idea of green marketing as the promotion of clothes made with the help of environmentally safe techniques, Burberry will be able to contribute to the management of the sustainability crisis.
Implying that the marketing framework should incorporate the themes associated with sustainability and responsible attitude toward resource consumption, the specified change has affected Burberry’s performance to an extent (Jia et al., 2020; Valaei and Nikhashemi, 2017). The excessive use of resources, for which the fashion industry and, by extension, the apparel industry have been infamous for appears to be one of the key problems in the current marketing approach (Gupta, Gwozdz and Gentry, 2019). The environmental scanning of Burberry has shown that the company’s marketing framework revolves around the concept of consumerism and excessive luxury (Tey, Brindal and Dibba, 2018). Therefore, the existing marketing approach encourages customers to purchase a greater variety of items without considering their environmental value (Desore and Narula, 2018). For this reason, the principles of sustainability, including the call for using the clothes made with the help of sustainable practices, must be incorporated into Burberry’s current marketing approach (Ahmad et al., 2020).
Therefore, the environmental scanning of Burberry does indicate the need for sustainable marketing, given the range of messages regarding overconsumption that Burberry’s current marketing framework sends. The brief assessment of the company’s marketing approach has shown that, similarly to other companies in the apparel industry, Burberry has not been addressing the issue of green economy and the need to be responsible and thoughtful in the sue of the existing resources (Ma, Gam and Banning, 2017). For this reason, a change must be introduced to the marketing frameworks deployed by Burberry and similar organizations promoting themselves as luxury brands. Specifically, rebranding the clothes made with the help of green strategies as fashionable must be seen as the essential prerogative for the companies in the apparel industry.
Reference List
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Desore, A. and Narula, S. A. (2018) ‘An overview on corporate response towards sustainability issues in textile industry’, Environment, Development and Sustainability, 20(4), pp. 1439-1459.
Gupta, S., Gwozdz, W. and Gentry, J. (2019) ‘The role of style versus fashion orientation on sustainable apparel consumption’, Journal of Macromarketing, 39(2), pp. 188-207.
Jia, F. et al. (2020) ‘The circular economy in the textile and apparel industry: A systematic literature review’, Journal of Cleaner Production, 259.
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