Will influencer marketing be the key success for sustainable fashion?

With the rise of social media, new varieties of marketing have been established over the past decades, with one of them being influencer marketing. It is expected that the popularity of this marketing strategy will only continue to grow in the coming years. Additionally, one of the most considered branches of influencer marketing is fashion, and thus this study will focus on influencer marketing related to fashion content. Within the fashion industry, consumers are becoming more aware of the consequences of fast fashion, the use of sweatshops and environmental consequences of clothing production. Sustainability is a concept that keeps evolving and the sustainable fashion industry is expected to grow tremendously in the coming years. Based on theoretical findings, this research expands on the concepts of influencer marketing and sustainable fashion, and aims to answer the question whether influencer marketing on sustainable fashion is (positively or negatively) associated with intention to buy sustainable. This study uses both cultivation theory and the theory of planned behaviour to find out whether the relationship between exposure to influencer marketing on sustainable fashion and intention to buy sustainable fashion was mediated by the three factors of TPB (attitude, subjective norms and PBC). The data was collected through an online survey and the parallel multiple mediation model was tested though Hayes’ Process Macro. Findings of this study conclude that exposure to influencer marketing on sustainable fashion was positively associated with intention to buy sustainable fashion. Additionally, it was observed that exposure was not positively associates with attitude, but that attitude was positively associated with buying intention. However, it was found that the association between exposure and buying intention was not mediated by attitude. Moreover, it was found that subjective norm did mediate this relationship, and that exposure was positively associated with subjective norm and that subjective norm was positively associated with buying intention. Lastly, PBC was found to not mediate the relationship between exposure to influencer marketing of sustainable fashion and intention to buy sustainable fashion. Exposure and PBC were found to be not positively associated, but PBC was in fact positively associated with buying intention.