Millennials, Fashion, Sustainability and Silk

The Millennials, one of the largest generations in history, is about to move into its prime spending years. Born between 1980 and 2000, this generation is poised to reshape the economy and their unique experiences will change the ways of commerce, forcing companies to examine how they do business for decades to come.

THE RESEARCH

Aiming to get some information about aspects related to sustainability, fashion and silk in the view of Millennials, ISU ordered a marketing research to SSI – Survey Sampling International, the premier global provider of survey research with staffs in over 20 countries. In April/2018, SSI interviewed 2,500 women born between 1980 and 2000, attending college or with college education, belonging to upper middle class income families in China, France, Germany, Italy and USA.

Having focus on silk fiber, results of this survey aim to assist companies on every level of fashion industry on their approach to Millennials, particularly in Europe where silk is responsible for more than 20,000 direct jobs on about 200 small and medium size enterprises in Italy and France. About 3,000 tons of silk yarn are imported every year by EU, generating € 1.6 billion of silk articles, of which 40% are exported outside of Europe.

Do Millennials care about carbon footprint mitigation? Do they link silk with sustainability and responsible consumption? Are they aware of the positive aspects of silk towards fashion sustainability? ISU survey gives clues to answer these questions and points out some aspects that would contribute to attend Millennials desire for more sustainable fashion.

The Report Layout

Report is made on a format that allows its reading on a cellphone aiming to reach Millennials while circulating on social media. The use of info-graphics made it possible the understanding of key facts analyzed and key results collected. At a glance it is possible to see the results on each one of the countries for each of the 13 questions. Age and income tiers of each country are also available on a single image.

Draft of report subjected to ISU approval was sent to INTERSOIE France and Italian Silk Office so that it could be possible to check if approach and observations are in accordance to policy of each organization on respective country. Observations and modifications were requested so that it could be possible to have the report’s final version available in Chinese, English, French and Italian on ISU web site.

ISU - Silk and Sustainability Report (Draft)

ISU - Silk and Sustainability Report puts silk under a good light and it is worthy to be spread. For the moment, draft of the report can be downloaded at:

http://www.worldsilk.com.cn/cn/zlpl/201811/t20181105_157764.htm (for Chinese version)

http://www.worldsilk.com.cn/en/Sustainable/201811/t20181105_157766.htm  (for English version)

http://www.worldsilk.com.cn/en/EuropeSection/201811/t20181105_157765.htm  (for Italian version)

We are open to contributions that would give the ISU - Silk and Sustainability Report a final shape and point out the most effective way to spread it in order to contribute with companies working on the worldwide silk chain.

The Questionnaire

Questionnaire has 13 questions. Questions 1 to 5 are general questions related to fashion, sustainability and responsible consumption:

Questions 6 and 7 are related to silk and sustainability:

Questions 8 to 12 are related to the image of silk in the mind of Millennials:

And finally question 13 is related with knowledge of Millennials about the necessity of mulberry trees cultivation to have silk produced:

The Survey Results

Showing 86% of respondents agreeing with “In fashion, price and convenience trump brand” ISU survey confirmed the existence of a challenge to fashion brands that want to be desirable by the Millennials.

Survey pointed out that 65% of Millennials listened agree with the statement that “Before purchasing from a fashion brand I search for information if it is sustainable and ethical”. Brand identification with values such as ethics and sustainability, that are keen to Millennials, is one of the approaches that are increasingly been used with great responsibility as Millennials are the most educated and connected demographic so far.

About two thirds of Millennials listened take into consideration the decreasing of carbon footprint on purchase decision and consider that silk contributes with fashion sustainability as it is highly identified with slow fashion and responsible consumption.  This percentage is about the double of the 35% of them that are aware of the fact that silkworm eats only fresh and pesticide free mulberry leaves.  On the mind of Millennials silk is expensive (92%) and exclusive (83%) placing it far away from the idea of disposable fast fashion and close to the idea of responsible consumption.  The image of silk in the mind of Millennials is quite positive as in addition to expensive, rare, exclusive and sustainable; silk is comfortable and sexy for 87% of Millennials listened.

In order to enhance the sustainable image of silk in the mind of Millennials ISU - International Silk Union will endeavor its best efforts to spread the knowledge that wherever silk cocoon is produced the CO2 mitigation made by the mulberry gardens, absolutely necessary for silk production, is 30 times bigger than the amount of carbon footprint generated by silk products, offering an answer to Millennials desire for fashion sustainability with benefits to fashion industry towards a more sustainable society.

THE RELEASE OF RESEARCH

In order to put the results of survey in the hands of Millennials it would be interesting to have it available via social media. In order to test the feasibility of distributing the report the ISU - Silk and Sustainability Report among Millennials through social media Vale da Seda made some tests to check cost and return of advertising on Facebook and Instagram in Berlin, Milan, Paris, and Los Angeles. 

Silk and Sustainability on Facebook

A post was made to check the interest of Millennial women on fashion, sustainability and silk from July 30th to August 06th, 2018. Let’s take as example the ad boosted on Facebook in Italian to women living in the city of Milan, Italy. The ad had a short video about the carbon footprint mitigation related to silk production with an invitation to check the Carbon Mitigation Calculator. Bellow pictures show the ads in English and Italian.

   Calculator: www.bit.ly/silkco2                         Calcolatrice: www.bit.ly/silko2it

Vídeo: www.bit.ly/silko2usa                             Vídeo: www.bit.ly/silko2italia

During seven days this ad was seen by 4,223 women with college education and interest in silk, sustainability and responsible consumption in Milan. The link that offered the possibility to access a calculator to check how many days of carbon footprint generated by cellphone use was clicked by 385 people, representing 9.11% of the viewers. Additionally, according to Facebook data the ad was shared spontaneously by 17 Italians, or 4.4% of those who saw the calculator.

The total cost to reach 4,223 women in the city of Milan and interact with 385 of them was US$27.36, representing a cost of US$ 0.07/interaction. Facebook offers demographic data showing the age of those who interact with the ad. It shows that 1,670 ladies reached have an age between 55 and 64 years and 143 of them clicked to see the calculator.

Similar ad was made in Paris, Los Angeles and Berlin and it seems the use of social media is an affordable and efficient way to publicize ISU - Silk and Sustainability Report and opinion of INTERSOIE France and Italian Silk Office about this strategy would be highly appreciated.

Silk and Sustainability on Google Adwords

Another way to put report in the hand of Millennials is the use the Google Adwords, taking into consideration that “If it isn't on Google, it doesn't exist”. Vale da Seda “rented” the expression “impronta di carbonio” that means “carbon footprint” in Italian. During one hour whenever a user searched for “impronta carbonio” on Google in Italy the result of the research put our ad in evidence. In just one hour, we got 4,560 views and 33 Italians clicked on the calculator link at a cost Euro 0.07 per access.

Teaser video proposal

ISU - Silk and Sustainability Report puts silk under a good light and it is worthy to be spread, and considering test results on social media, Vale da Seda proposed a teaser video that introduces some report results and invite viewer to download the full report that so far is available in Chinese, English and Italian at ISU website.

Vídeo: www.bit.ly/chinese-teaser     Vídeo: www.bit.ly/english-teaser      Vídeo: www.bit.ly/italian-teaser