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This paper investigates if food ^ retailing mobile applications from Germany, Austria, USA and the United Kingdom are meant to stay a marginal topic in grocery shopping, or if they have the potential to significantly shape the future of grocery retailing by serving as competitive advantages that can fulfil customer requirements and satisfaction. It has filtered out success factors in form of functions of grocery apps and it has extracted key competencies that can be used to create customer value. The Kano model can help selecting the right app functions. But, there are other prerequisites, like customers’ general attitude towards technology and their acceptance towards any kind of apps, that play an important role looking at the big picture of apps in grocery retailing. However, this paper has contributed one vital part of giving more importance to apps in grocery retailing in form of app functions that clearly deliver customer value. In short, apps that fit customers’ needs and that provide usability and convenience clearly have the potential to shape the future of grocery retailing - if key barriers towards app use are eliminated and if incentives are given that overcome scepticism.
A case study with four German fashion retail brands was conducted in order to measure the performance of their Omnichannel services. In detail, their Click & Collect service was analyzed. Click & Collect is one of the first introduced Omnichannel services in fashion retailing. Omnichannel services integrate different sales and communication channels providing a seamless customer journey experience. Offline, online, and mobile app customer experiences should provide a seamless customer experience. Omnichannel performance of the four retailers Decathlon, Hunkemöller, Massimo Dutti and Galeria Kaufhof was measured via mystery shopping. A seamless customer journey experience is not yet a standard in German fashion retailing. The four companies differ in many process details. The biggest market potential and the recommendation for further research emerges in deficits of the offline store Omnichannel customer experience. Here, all four case companies have room to improve. Best overall results regarding the integration of offline, online and mobile shops were found with Hunkemöller, followed by Decathlon, Massimo Dutti, and Galeria Kaufhof.
Using the damage area as a quantification method for the Martindale test is a promising method to compare textile finishes without the need to test to full destruction. In addition, it could be shown that the results of Martindale tests performed with different pressure loads can be scaled to identical functional shape. If these results can be verified, this method would be a simplification of abrasive testing for different application areas.
Im Zuge von REACH wurden gängige hocheffektive halogenierte Flammschutzmittel verboten, da diese unter dem Verdach stehen, kanzerogen, mutagen und teratogen zu sein. Zur Zeit fehlen entsprechende Alternativen. Daher werden am DTNW neue umweltfreundliche und halogenfreie Flammschutzmittel auf der Basis von Phosphor- und Stickstoffverbindungen entwickelt, um einen entsprechenden Flammschutz zu gewährleisten. Neue Möglichkeiten werden im Rahmen dieses Artikels vorgestellt.
Es wird eine Möglichkeit zur Quantifizierung der Schädigung von Geweben bei der Martindale-Flachscheuerung vorgestellt, die eine interessante Möglichkeit darstellt, vergleichende Untersuchungen durchzuführen, auch wenn die Gewebe nicht bis zu einem Fadenbruch gescheuert werden. Die Untersuchungen deuten außerdem eine Skalierbarkeit der Scheuerversuche bei unterschiedlichen Anpressdrücken an. Sollte sich diese Beobachtung in weiteren Untersuchungen bestätigen, würde dies eine grundlegende Vereinfachung der Scheuerprüfung für verschiedene Anwendungen bedeuten.
As the market penetration of alternative fuel vehicles is still uncertain, defining green design cues for their design is of specific relevance to target environmentally conscious customers. This paper is a review of the existing literature aiming at summarizing the market penetration scenarios of alternative fuel vehicles over the next years, consumer demand for sustainable materials, and present methodologies to represent characteristics of eco-friendly mobility in the interior of alternative fuel vehicles. In particular, present attempts to correlate materials with green design cues are explored. Finally, projections for the future of the field are suggested, posing enchanting research questions to further unify the field of environmentally conscious design with the domain of product personality.
Das vorliegende Buch ist als eine zusammenfassende Bearbeitung der über viele Jahre gesammelten Erkenntnisse im Bereich der Schussfadenzugkraftmessung entstanden. Für die Schusseintragstechniken mit Greifern, Projektilen und Luftstrahl ist es gelungen, Formeln zur Berechnung der Schussfadenzugkräfte zu erarbeiten, die es auch dem Weberei-Praktiker ermöglichen, die maximalen Schussfadenzugkräfte mit guter Genauigkeit voraus zu berechnen. Ausgehend von diesen Ergebnissen kann über einen Vergleich mit dem Schwachstellenniveau des Schussgarns die Entscheidung über die Einsatzfähigkeit des Schussgarns auf der vorgesehenen Webmaschine oder über die Einsatzfähigkeit der vorgesehenen Webmaschine selbst bei der gewünschten Drehzahl herbeigeführt werden.
Das vorliegende Taschenbuch fasst die bekannten Berechnungsformeln und Erkenntnisse aus der betrieblichen Praxis und aus wissenschaftlichen Untersuchungen im Bereich des Weberei-Vorwerks und der Weberei zusammen. Die bei der Gewebeherstellung notwendigen Entscheidungsprozesse sollen damit erleichtert werden.
Mit dieser Formelsammlung lassen sich jedoch nicht nur die optimalen Fertigungsvorschriften für Gewebe praxisgerecht erstellen, sondern auch die wichtigsten technischen und physikalischen Grundlagen des Fabrikbetriebs werden in der gebotenen Kürze dargestellt.
Im Rahmen des Forschungsprojektes sollten die Möglichkeiten und Grenzen des Einsatzes von Sol-Gel-Ausrüstung für die Verbesserung der Scheuer-/Abrasionsbeständigkeit für Gewebe aus unterschiedlichen Fasermaterialien untersucht werden. Dabei lag der Schwerpunkt auf Textilien für die Bereiche Bekleidung- /Berufsbekleidung sowie Bezugsstoffe (Möbel, Automotive, Personentransport).
Kleider machen Drummer
(2018)
Nicht nur Songs machen Musiker bekannt, sondern auch ihr Look: David Bowie, Kurt Cobain, Madonna, Elvis Presley haben durch ihre Musik und ihren Kleidungsstil ganze Generationen geprägt. Viele Drummer legen sehr viel Wert auf Technik - doch wenn man in der Musikbranche erfolgreich sein will, sollte man sich auch seiner Wirkungsweis bewusst sein.
The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of sustainability communication in the fashion industry on the customers’ behavior with a focus on consumers’ perception regarding websites with sustainability-specific content. Based on a profound literature review, a projective method in form of two dummy websites is developed. Both websites illustrate sustainability communication with comprehensive and transparent information demonstrating a credible, trustful and serious commitment. Additionally, both sites have the same structure and an appealing, visualized website design as well as a customer oriented communication. While each website consists of almost the same aspects such as Vision & Mission, Value chain, Corporate Commitment, Working Conditions, Environment, Social Commitment and documents such as a Sustainability Report and Code of Conduct, they differ enormously in the sustainability-specific content. For instance, website 1 represents a sustainable and responsible company communicating sustainable issues about eco-friendly materials, fair working conditions, ecological production and their social commitment. It further includes eco-friendly wash and care advices as seen by reformation to remember consumers to take care of the environment, e.g. to wash cold or by using ecological detergents. In contrast, website 2 does not represent a sustainable and responsible fashion brand. It also does not communicate sustainable efforts or a sustainable engagement. Rather it is about offering trendy, low-priced fast- fashion products, produced under unfair working conditions with wages and working hours as usual terms in production countries with a focus on style and design. Regarding website 2, all raw materials have been produced conventionally in developing countries and are therefore not eco-friendly, resulting in a pollution of the environment due to long transport routes. Additionally, the website voices the wish to improve the chances for developing animal protection only minimally, showing that the company is not socially committed. Although website 2 focuses on transparency and a customer-oriented communication, it is not sustainable. Both websites are tested via an online survey. A total of 90 fashion students participated in the sample.
The wet chemical deposition of solution processed transparent conducting oxides (TCO) provides an alternative low cost and economical deposition technique to realize large-areas of conducting films. Since the price for the most common TCO Indium Tin Oxide rises enormously, Aluminum Zinc Oxide (AZO) as alternative TCO reaches more and more interest. The optoelectronical properties of nanoparticle coatings strongly depend beneath the porosity of the coating on the shape and size of the used particles. By using bigger or rod-shaped particles it is possible to minimize the amount of grain boundaries resulting in an improvement of the electrical properties, whereas particles bigger than 100 nm should not be used if highly transparent coatings are necessary as these big particles scatter the visible light and lower the transmittance of the coatings. In this work we present a simple method to synthesize AZO particles with different shape and size, but comparable electronical properties. We use a simple, well reproducible polyol method for synthesis and influence the shape and size of the particles by adding different amounts of water to the precursor solution. We can show that the addition of aluminum as dopant strongly hinders the crystal growth but the addition of water counteracts this, so that both, spherical and rod-shaped particles can be obtained.
Das Knie ist das am häufigsten von Verletzungen betroffene Gelenk beim Skifahren. Durch die Messung bestimmter Einflussfaktoren, wie Kniewinkel und Muskelaktivität, kann eine Aussage über die Wahrscheinlichkeit einer drohenden Verletzung getroffen werden. Diese Daten können als Basis genutzt werden, um eine entsprechende Reaktion des Bindungssystems des Skis hervorzurufen. Durch die automatische Auslösung der Skibindung bei der Überschreitung der Grenzwerte wird das Knie entlastet, um möglichen Verletzungen vorzubeugen. Im Rahmen eines Forschungsprojekts der TU München wurde von einem Team der TU München und der Hochschule Reutlingen eine Skiunterhose entwickelt, mit der in Echtzeit der Kniewinkel erfasst und drahtlos an eine Auswerteeinheit gesendet werden kann.
The fashion industry is well documented for causing significant environmental impact. Product-service systems (PSS) present a promising way to solve this challenge. PSS shift the focus toward complementary service offers, which decouples customer satisfaction from material consumption and entails dematerialization. However, PSS are not ecoefficient by nature but need to be accompanied by corporate environmental management (CEM) practices. The objective of this article is to examine the potential of PSS to contribute to the environmental sustainability of today's fashion industry by investigating if fashion firms with a positive attitude toward PSS implementation also pursue goals related to the ecological environment. For this purpose, analysis of variance (ANOVA) is conducted to analyze data of 102 fashion firms. Results reveal that the diffusion of PSS in today's fashion industry is low and few firms consider implementing PSS. Results, furthermore, demonstrate that PSS implementation is positively related to CEM. This indicates that existing structures of CEM favor PSS implementation and unlock the eco-efficient potential of implemented PSS in the fashion industry.
Case study: Marillion
(2018)
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the use of crowdfunding,
demonstrated by a case study about the rock band Marillion. The research
methodology applied is a literature review examining academic references. On this basis, a case study by exemplary illustrating the rock band Marillion and how they invented crowdfunding has been drafted. Findings suggest that the crowdfunding concept is no new phenomenon, since the rock band Marillion has investigated the business model. Recently, the funding method is applied to the fashion industry; hence it is efficient and engaging to finance projects by that specific business model. A limitation of this paper is that the topic of crowdfunding is new to the fashion business and needs further research and tests until they are practicable to interpret. Results show that there is a high potential for using crowdfunding in fashion by reaching a long-term change in this industry.
The purpose of this paper is to identify key success factors of Crowdfunding in the Music Business in order to discuss their applicability to the Fashion Industry. The research methodology applied is a literature review examining academic and non-academic references. Key research findings include four main success factors. First explains the innovative and adaptive nature of the music industry caused by historical evolution. Second strong commitment and connection to the fan base is identified as success factor. Third manageable effort for the realisation on a large scale reduces the risk of a failure. And, last success factor describes the successful implementation of campaign specific aspects. The discussion finally shows that three of four success factors can be adapted to the Fashion Business. Due to little scientific research in the field of Crowdfunding in the Music Business, the success factors are worked out independently, based on general literature. Accordingly, quantitative testing and further analysis is recommended.
This article aims to point out main changes of the music industry since the advent of the Internet and how the fashion industry can learn from it. Different factors are researched with a birds-eye perspective by conducting a literature review. The results are limited by the availability of sources and the implications are based on a theoretical foundation. For further research the conclusions drawn for the fashion industry have to be proven empirically. After reading the paper, the reader has rather an overview of the changed circumstances and how the music industry reacted than deep knowledge in each field. More specifically, this paper gives an overview of the changed circumstances due to digitalisation and how the music industry reacted within. As both the fashion and music industry have their similarities, they are limited in their comparability, since fashion products cannot be fully digitalized like a music record. The fact that the music industry had to reinvent itself rapidly to adopt new possibilities and chances results from the article. To make use of the sustainability trend and to build communities in order to include them in the creation process are the major suggestions for the fashion industry.
Case study: EMP
(2018)
The purpose of this research paper is to investigate the business model of the retailer EMP. The in-depth literature review develops the relevance of merchandising for the rock and heavy metal scene and the relevance of EMP within that market. Literature about existing approaches of multi-channelling has been reviewed. Based on this theoretical framework, a case study of EMP has been drafted. Findings are discussed, focusing on the performance of EMP as a multi-channel and lifestyle retailer and additionally provide valuable managerial implications for fashion retailers. Implications for further research address lifestyle retailers to contribute to the findings or validate them with different examples. The research is clearly limited by the amount of scholar literature concerning EMP in particular. Hence, magazines, journals and information provided by the company serve as reference. Even though EMP provided some information, gathering any information about how EMP manages multi channelling operationally was not possible.
The purpose of this research paper is to find out to which extent rap music merchandise is influencing the fashion world of today. The research design is mainly created through analysing Internet sources. The key findings of this paper describe the way rap merchandise is created and distributed nowadays. Furthermore, is explained how an idea becomes trend and how rap artists influence trend creation, especially through social media channels. The topic around rap merchandising products and strategies is a very new one, thus there is barely any literature to find. Nevertheless, trend leading online music platforms and blogs offer a lot of grey literature about the research topic. In this paper, the analysis of rap merchandise and fashion is focused on clothing items to create a better understanding in which dimension the influence of rap merchandise on the fashion world is given.
The purpose of this paper is to find out how musicians are able to differentiate themselves from their competitors by using their style. Casting shows and the evolution of the contestants’ style during and after the show serve as a paradigm for creating differentiation by style. The method of research was diverse but largely drawn from research papers as well as online magazines and newspapers. Within the scope of the research, it was feasible to draw on a varied range of sources to answer the research question. In the course of this research paper, it was possible to define key factors for a musician to create differentiation by style in modern times. By examining the style of casting show contestants, it was explored to which extent they transform from rather normal people to pop stars. In reducing the detailed analysis of casting shows to three shows and contestants, only a broad overview was provided. The paper is of interest to those working for casting shows in order to develop those.
Co-design and endorsement
(2018)
The purpose of this paper is to determine the success factors regarding celebrities of the music business involved in fashion advertising. That famous people have the power to help brands and products to stand out among others is proven and popular. This paper is concentrating on successful musicians and their endorsements of fashion brands and examines the benefits for both, the brand and the artist. It investigates how consumer perceives brand and artist collaboration and what factors enhance the purchase intention and increase sales. This paper is structured in the following manner: The introduction presents the research question and sets the aim for the paper, followed by the analysis of the existing literature. The paper ends with conclusions, limitations and suggestions for further research.
Music is omnipresent and an important factor for cultural and social development. Thus, the connection between music and fashion has rarely been contemplated yet. In particular, this research paper is concerned with the connection between music and fashion communication, with special interest to its emotional background in the context of neuromarketing. The research question of how music affects the perception of a fashion brand, when regarded as emotional stimulus in the context of neuromarketing, has been investigated by researching existing literature. Without attempting to explain neurological processes to their core, this paper tries to give an overview of how music generates emotion and how this can be used for branding activities. This led to the result that music causes positive emotional response of the consumer, when used in marketing actions. Through emotional response, the perception, identity, and recall of a brand are strongly influenced.
The purpose of this paper is to identify the role of in-store music in the fashion retail environment and to describe music as an atmospheric building tool in order to influence customer behaviour with emotions created by musical compositions. As offline retailer try to differentiate their stores through shopping experiences, atmospherics like visuals, scent and sound are appropriate tools to reinforce brand image and therefore customers’ willingness to enter, explore and purchase. Music can be a powerful primary element in creating or enhancing sensory experiences of shoppers and serves as a powerful connection to emotions. Focus of the literature review lies on the emotions which are triggered though different musical characteristics and then affect the customer behaviour. The paper offers a concisely presented review and highlights crucial aspects on what role in-store music has on customers’ perception of atmosphere, emotions and behaviour.
This paper is purposed to examine the impact of grunge music on fashion and to explain how grunge music is reflected in grunge style. The research methodology applied is a case study on grunge music and grunge style. Key findings suggest that different elements of grunge music had a great impact on the evolution of grunge style: Mentality and philosophy of the movement, musical style and sound as well as lyrical concerns are incorporated by grunge style. Commercial exploitation of grunge partly led to its downfall. Moreover, the original spirit of the movement is not commonly shared by all sub-genres’ respective contemporary styles. Musicians had great impact on the evolution of grunge style and unintentional rose to style icons. The research is limited by the amount of academic literature concerning the connection between grunge music and grunge style. Therefore, journal entries and blogs are used as reference as well.
Aim of this paper is to provide an understanding to which extent music and fashion interdepend and interact referring to the music and fashion trend development, focusing the period from 1950 till today. It further helps the reader to gain an insight if the technology provided influences the development and the access of music and fashion in future. The research for this paper required the use of secondary sources including library and online research. The goal was to gather information about the former and current development of music and fashion. These methods were the best alternatives of secondary sources as they provided trusted results thus enhancing the accuracy of the data being collected. But however they were also limited since mainly data for the fashion and music development of the noughties were limited. This is explainable by the key finding that the development of this time is not as distinct as the one of the former times, when a fashion trend came along with a new music genre or hit, which implies that fashion and music correlate to a certain extent, but characterized by a reactivation of the music and fashion trends of previous times without any new inventions.
Purpose of the present research paper is to examine the current state of research, define dimensions of research and reveal gaps in research on the topic of ‘Fashion and music’. To do so, the methodology of a scientific literature review was applied. The literature review revealed that music and its business mainly serve the fashion industry as influencer on trends, image building marketing tool, support of fashion processes and contributor to the development of innovative fashion products. Both industries provide identify-forming features, unify their mutual target groups in a certain lifestyle and thus enlarge their own target market. This results in increased brand awareness, image and credibility, emotionalized brand experience, differentiation and sophisticated brand identity. The present paper can serve as the basis for further research. It is limited by the time, depth and availability of data collection, the predominance of grey literature and its focus on the modern relationship of fashion and music.
The purpose of this paper is to give an overview about the links between the fashion and music industry. It focuses on the idea that digitalization has broken the rules of the traditional music industry value chain. This touches both the production and the consumption side of music. This change finally also has an intense impact on the fashion industry, as the music industry has been big supplier of fashion trends itself. The absence of this supplier plus the changes within the fashion industry itself by the fast-fashion development are considered as a reason for more competition and therefore price pressure. An in-depth future research about the fashion and music system is therefore required to develop answers for the current situation. This article should be interpreted more as a personal viewpoint of the author to this topic rather than a research paper based on the usual methodological criteria.
Fashion & music
(2018)
This book will broaden readers’ understanding of the links between the music and fashion industries. It highlights the challenges currently facing the fashion industry in terms of hyper-competition, definition of ever faster trends, changing consumer demands etc. In fact, the fashion industry is heavily influenced by the digital revolution in the music industry, which has changed the face of individual music consumption and social reference, and therefore, also has impacts on fashion consumption and social reference. This understanding is crucial in order to realign any fashion company’s strategies to the demands of modern fashion consumers. In terms of content, the book first discusses the social perspective of fashion and music. This includes an analysis of music as a key influencer of fashion trends, both theoretically and on the basis of a case study on grunge music. Then the role of music in the fashion business is addressed, and covers in-store music and the role of music in fashion communication. Following up, the role of fashion in the music business is analyzed. This includes the trend of co-design of fashion collections, music artists’ role of differentiation by style, and the market for music fashion merchandise articles (both theoretically and drawing on a case study). In closing, potential lessons learned from the music industry are developed for the fashion industry. This includes an analysis of the digital revolution and the advent of the crowdfunding idea (both theoretically and in a case study).
Indium tin oxide (ITO) particle coatings are known for high transparency in the visible, good conductive properties and near-infrared absorption. These properties depend on ITO particle's stiochiometric composition, defects and size. Here we present a method to gradually change ITO particle's optical properties by a simple and controlled laser irradiation process. The defined irradiation process and controlled energy dose input allows one to engineer the absorption and transsmission of coatings made from these particles. We investigate the role of the surrounding solvent, influence of laser fluence and the specific energy dose targeting modification of the ITO particle's morphology and chemistry by stepwise laser irradiation in a free liquid jet. TEM, SEM, EDX, XPS, XRD and Raman are used to elucidate the structural, morphological and chemical changes of the laser-induced ITO particles. On the basis of these results the observed modification of the optical properties is tentatively attributed to chemical changes, e.g. laser-induced defects or partial reduction.
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the service of the new business model Curated Shopping in the fashion industry as well as to analyze if the service provides a higher costumer added value in comparison to traditional services in retail stores and e-commerce platforms. It gives implications to curated shop operators how to optimize the service in each stage of the customer buying process.
Design/methodology/approach: The research methodology applied is an empirical study that uses the principal of mystery shopping in order to investigate the provided services during the selling process.
Findings: The study showed that information about the customer should be collected carefully and as holistic as possible in order to assort a suitable outfit. The consumer is able to benefit from the service by saving time and enjoying a stress-free way of shopping. Nevertheless there are limitations in the personal service to give individual and inspiring advice by the curator caused by the physical distance to the customer.
Research limitations: The survey was conducted under 10 mystery shoppers and 4 curated shop operators in Germany, limiting findings to these mystery shoppers and operators.
Practical implications: One implication for the shop operators is to collect consumer information carefully and expand the assortment and brand portfolio in order to provide fashion goods to inspire the consumer. The shop operators are on the right track still there is huge potential to provide a more shopper-oriented service.
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the value of the web representation of certain fashion hot spots and how these results can be shown on fashion maps in an illustrated way.
Design/methodology/approach: A new ranking was created, which was evaluated with a self-instructed index, to gain solid results. Numbers were collected from Google, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and web.alert.io. Additionally, fashion maps were created for an illustrative visualization of the results.
Findings: Compared with the ranking of a trend forecasting agency, called Global Language Monitor, which concepted a ranking of non-virtual fashion cities, the web representation and therefore the ranking of the research project, differs mainly in the situation of the cities among the first 10, viz. the rank on which a city occurs, but fewer in the actual cities mentioned.
Research limitations: The research was limited to subjective analysis of data, leading to partly subjective results, as well as the selected number of social media platforms, that had been used.
Originality/value: This is the first study to explore the web representation value of fashion metropolises in comparison to their non-virtual ranking. The results are partly based on results that already existed, concerning transformations of fashion cities or in general which cities own the status of a fashion city.
This case study describes the emerging customized omnichannel loyalty solution of Marc O’Polo from a customer’s perspective. After the introduction of Marc O’Polo and their general omnichannel strategy, the loyalty program is described in detail, like Marc O’Polo for members and the mobile app, social media, direct mail and in-store capabilities. A discussion chapter closes the case study with research implications and open questions for Marc O’Polo.
Loyalty programs become more important in an omnichannel environment of fashion retail business. After the definition of customer loyalty and loyalty programs the main characteristics of omnichannel loyalty programs are described. As touchpoints of omnichannel loyalty programs mobile, social media, direct mail and in-store capabilities are detailed. A discussion chapter closes with recommendations for fashion retailers.
This case study of Breuninger aims to analyze how Breuninger adapts to the emerging omnichannel environment in fashion business. From a consumer’s perspective Breuninger and the general omnichannel strategy of Breuninger is explained, before the loyalty program of Breuninger is analyzed in detail. Key factors as the mobile app and the mobile Breuninger card, social media, direct mail and in-store capabilities are described. A discussion chapter finalizes the case.
There is no doubt that the amplification of channel integration towards an omni-channel structure is a powerful idea whose time has finally come. The digitally cross-linked world postulates all-encompassing, ubiquitous, and unobtrusive future services. In the concomitant, increasingly competitive market, retailers are starting to lay the foundation for omnichannel, meeting the expectations of a digitally cunning audience wanting their shopping experience to be as seamless and uncomplicated as possible. Nevertheless, recent researches show that there are still enough avenues for further research on omnichannel. Until now, the performance of companies was solely considered by experts from a suppliers’ point of view. It would be rather interesting to find out whether the desire to meet the increased cus-tomer expectations is also recognized by the customers themselves. This paper seeks to answering how the purchasing behavior has changed and what customers demand. In addition, it elaborates the opportunities that are promoted by omni-channel. Searching out all the effects, the paper will get to a final step, where it can be attested how the omnichannel performance of fashion and lifestyle retailers can be measured from a consumers’ perspective by developing an exclusive index. The study is confined to four fashion and lifestyle retailers: Hugo Boss AG, Levi Strauss & Co, Pull and Bear as well as COS. Using the scientific method of mystery shopping and a multi-item checklist including 54 key performance indicators, the paper aims to examine to which extend the four selected retailers provide a seamless customer journey, according to the five decision-making phases.
In a globalized world the importance of a proper segmentation method for identifying target consumers has been increasing. Vast majority of the research in this area focuses on the usage or development of different techniques. Lifestyle is a good criterion for dividing people into groups which then can be better targeted. This article addresses the research question, which classical methods exist to segment markets with the aid of lifestyle. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate several instruments, such as A.I.O., Roper Consumer Styles, VALS-Method, the Sinus-Milieus, Sigma-Milieus, RISC-Method and Semiometrie but also Discriminant and Conjoint Analysis which proved of value in the past. Furthermore it deals with the benefits of this methods but weaknesses are also considered. Therefore several existing literature is examined, and information is collected by institutes providing the typologies. Obvious is, that new methods e.g. predictive analytics already play a major role in marketing, because it can be found much literature about it. In the literature research also appear research implications, because besides the provided information from institutes and journals, there is hardly no data to find if and how companies use the instruments. Furthermore, some important databases cannot be scanned because they are not accessible without paying.
The following paper is dealing with the issue on which actual consumer lifestyle segmentation methods there are for particular European countries and accordingly for Europe as a whole. This is important for corporations to be able to place their products accurately by a consumer orientated marketing concerning the constant change of values and minds. Researching current literature, internet sources and documents, the state of the science is presented by a detailed description of the most popular lifestyle segmentation methods used in European countries. In addition to that, these instruments are discussed individually and then compared to each other. All instruments, the Sinus-Milieus, Euro-Socio-Styles, Roper-Consumer-Styles, RISC and Mosaic, are serving the same purpose even so they differ pretty much from each other. Each market research company has its own method to generate their model just as different segments and definitions for them. Furthermore every segmentation method is illustrated in a different way. This paper demonstrates all these instruments in detail and shows its advantages and disadvantages. Summing up literature research concerning the main research question, there are several models segmenting consumers in different lifestyle groups for e.g. in Germany, France or Great Britain, but still less models referring to the entire European market.
Knowing your customer, i.e. your target market, is critical for the success of a company and its’ products. The current socio-demographic changes in the United States issue new challenges to marketers and practitioners. Actual fashion consumer seg-mentation approaches within the United States have received little attention in media and scholarly literature. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to present the existing academic literature addressing fashion consumer style preferences, particularly highlighting the most promising consumer groups within the United States: Hispanics and African-Americans. For this, a literature review was chosen with a subsequent critical discussion and comparison of both segments including findings of academic researches as well as market research agencies and actual lifestyle clustering approaches regarding these consumer groups. The findings show, whilst the published literature on consumer segmentation in the apparel industry provides only a surficial understanding of the fashion buying behaviors of Hispanics and Black Americans, it could be found that both ethnic groups are highly interested in fashion, price sensitive, and they are over indexed in apparel spending habits. Especially within the Hispanic population factors such as age and level of acculturation play a vital role in the purchasing choice of apparel, footwear and accessories and require further research.
This research is about Omnichannel Retailing and addresses the question how the omnichanneling of retailers in the fashion market can be measured. Our sources will include books, interviews, newspapers and scientific databases.
Omnichanneling is a current topic in the fashion market, retailers all over the world face the question on how to adapt to the challenges Omnichannel Retailing sets. We are going to define what Omnichanneling is by explaining the differences between Multiple-, Multi-, Cross- and Omnichannel Retailing. After we defined omnichanneling itself, we took a set of 26 retailers to evaluate regarding their Omnichannel capabilities. Then we create an index with criteria that can measure the Omnichannel capability of each retailer.
The Omnichannel Score is based on 31 criteria, which analyze the retailers in offline, online, mobile and social aspects enables to see differences between retailers. Our findings were that retailers in the US fashion market are more advanced in Omnichannel Retailing than retailers in the German fashion market. Our top three Omnichannel retailers were Sears with an Omnichannel Score of 91, followed by KOHL’S and Marks&Spencer, both with a Omnichannel Score of 88. The best Omnichannel Retailer from Germany was Adidas with the fourth place and an Omnichannel Score of 81.
Purpose of this research paper is to assess the state of the art concerning the relevance of consumer segmentation models in the fashion industry with regards to current changes in technology, market structure and consumer behavior.
The paper is composed of a qualitative literature review and an empirical study in form of a survey. They are contrasted in order to identify both similarities and differences.
Findings reveal that consumer segmentation is still relevant. Notwithstanding, an adaptation of classification models is necessary according to occurring changes. External models, segmenting consumers by means of lifestyle or fashion typologies, are used. However, it is striking that most companies of the empirical study already apply internal segmentation models with tendency to rise. Moreover, research has shown that consumer classification models in the USA make use of different criteria than in Europe.
Language barriers within the literature review and a low sample size in the empirical study give research limitations. Future management implications can be directed to the identification of procedures for the efficient application of internal segmentation models.
The purpose of this paper is to determine the relevance of social media for luxury brand management. It employs both a multi-methodological approach: After analyzing the online performance of the three luxury brands Burberry, Louis Vuitton and Gucci, the empirical research includes a survey as well as an eye tracking test executed with Tobii Studio. The findings reveal that online and social media have given luxury fashion businesses the opportunity to establish a sustainable interaction with their customers and distinguish themselves from the competition. Still, the online business holds many challenges for luxury companies to overcome. This paper gives instructions as to how social media can be effectively incorporated into a luxury company.
In times of e-commerce and digitalization, new markets are opening, young companies have the possibility to grow and new perspectives arise in terms of customer relationship. Customers require more possibilities of personalization. In the same time, companies have access to new and especially more information about the customer. Seems like it was a correlation that could evolve greatly if there weren't privacy issues. Vast amount of data about consumers are collected in Big Data warehouses. These shall be analyzed via predictive analytics and customers shall be classified by algorithms like clustering models, propensity models or collaborative filtering. All these subjects are growing in importance, as they are shaping the global marketing landscape. Marketers develop together with IT scientists new ways of analyzing customer databases and benefit from more accurate segmentation methods as that have been used until now. The following paper shall provide a literature review on new methods of consumer segmentation regarding the high inflow of new information via e-commerce. It will introduce readers in the subject of predictive analytics and will discuss several predictive models. The writing of the paper is not based on own empirical researches, but shall serve as a reference text for further researches. A conclusion will complete the paper.
Like many others, fashion companies have to deal with a global and very competitive environment. Thus companies rely on accurate sales forecasts - as key success factor of an efficient supply chain management. However, forecasters have to take into account some specificities of the fashion industry. To respond to these constraints, a variety of different forecasting methods exists, including new, computer-based predictive analytics. After the evaluation of different methods, their application to the fashion industry is investigated through semi structured expert interviews. Despite several benefits predictive analytics is not yet frequently used in practice. This research does not only reflect an industry profile, but also gives important insights about the future potential and obstacles of predictive analytics.
Sesam öffne Dich
(2017)
Aus ähnlichen Beweggründen, die Ferdinand von Steinbeis im Großen verfolgte, ist es den Bemühungen des Textilfachlehrers Reichelt und dem damaligen Prof. Stängle zu verdanken, dass gegen Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts an der in der Zwischenzeit zum Technikum für Textilindustrie avancierten Reutlinger Textilanstalt eine reichhaltige Sammlung von Modellen und Gewebemustern eingerichtet und aufgebaut wurde. Den Schwerpunkt der aus über 500000 Mustern und Gewebefragmenten bestehenden Kollektion bilden europäische Jacquard-Gewebe und engliche Anzugsstoffe aus dem 19. Jahrhundert. Das Glanzstück der Reutlinger Gewebesammlung bilden ... etwa 900 altjapanische Gewebefragmente aus der Zeit von 1530 bis 1880 ...
Social sustainable supply chain management in the textile and apparel industry : a literature review
(2017)
So far, a vast amount of studies on sustainability in supply chain management have been conducted by academics over the last decade. Nevertheless, socially related aspects are still neglected in the related discussion. The primary motivation of the present literature review has arisen from this shortcoming, thus the key purpose of this study is to enrich the discussion by providing a state of-the-art, focusing exclusively on social issues in sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) by considering the textile/apparel sector as the field of application. The authors conduct a literature review, including content analysis which covers 45 articles published in English peer-reviewed journals, and proposes a comprehensive map which integrates the latest findings on socially related practices in the textile/apparel industry with the dominant conceptualization in order to reveal potential research areas in the field. The results show an ongoing lack of investigation regarding the social dimension of the triple bottom line in SSCM. Findings indicate that a company’s internal orientation is the main assisting factor in sustainable supply chain management practices. Further, supplier collaboration and assessment can be interpreted as an offer for suppliers deriving from stakeholders and a focal company’s management of social risk. Nevertheless, suppliers do also face or even create huge barriers in improving their social performance. This calls for more empirical research and qualitative or quantitative survey methods, especially at the supplier level located in developing countries.
In unserer globalisierten Welt „kennen“ wir uns durch Bilder in Skype oder Fotos und kurze Kommentare auf Facebook. Kommunikation hat sich immer weiter von der schriftlichen hin zur bildlichen verschoben. Wie daraus Kunst entstehen kann, zeigt das Projekt Skypetrait: Mit einer besonderen Zeichentechnik, der Blindzeichnung, porträtierten sich jeweils sechs Studierende der Hochschule Reutlingen und des australischen Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology via Skype. Entstanden sind dabei die unterschiedlichsten künstlerischen Werke, wie Computerzeichnungen, Collagen oder ScreenShots. Ein außergewöhnliches Kunst- und Forschungsprojekt des Studienschwerpunkts Künstlerische Konzeption im Masterstudiengang Design, Fakultät Textil & Design der Hochschule Reutlingen in Kooperation mit dem Masterstudiengang Art in Public Space, School of Art der RMIT University in Melbourne, Australien.
ITMA 2015 which took place from November 12-19, 2015, in Milan/Italy showed new record results. The number of exhibitors rose in comparison to ITMA 2011 by 25% to nearly 1,700 exhibitors, and visitors and exhibition space rose by 20%. A survey by the German Textile Machinery Association (VDMA) and interviews at the fair conducted by the author showed that the exhibiting companies were highly satisfied with the quality and the number of discussions and that many new customers could be acquired. Furthermore, the VDMA survey showed that 74% of the German companies already concluded negotiations and contracts at the show. Of particular note were the transactions of the Belgian weaving machinery manufacturer Picanol, which sold hundreds of machines directly at the fair. The estimatons regarding aftersales were also expected to be good to very good. This is a very welcome development in comparison to both preceding ITMA shows.
Die Übertragung von Strukturen und Funktionen aus der Biologie in technische Produkte, Bionik, erfährt in den letzten Jahren zunehmendes Interesse. Die meisten Lebewesen sind aus faserverstärkten Strukturmaterialien aufgebaut und eignen sich daher hervorragend als Ideengeber für die Entwicklung innovativer bionischer Produkte unter Verwendung von technischen Textilien bzw. Faserverbundmaterialien. Dies wird am Beispiel verzweigter und unverzweigter Faserverbundstrukturen und von bionischen Fassadenverschattungssystemen exemplarisch gezeigt.
Die ITMA 2015 vom 12.-19. November 2015 in Mailand/Italien wartete mit neuen Rekorden auf. Die Anzahl der Aussteller stieg gegenüber der ITMA 2011 um 25% auf fast 1700 Aussteller. Besucherzahlen und Messefläche waren um 20% höher als 2011. Laut der Umfrage des VDMA sowie der Messegespräche des Autors waren die ausstellenden Firmen sehr zufrieden mit der Qualität und Anzahl der Gespräche, vor allem konnten auch viele neue Kunden gewonnen werden. Weiterhin ergab die VDMA-Umfrage, dass 74% der deutschen Firmen schon während der Messe Verträge und Verhandlungen abschlossen. Hervorzuheben ist das Messegeschäft des belgischen Webmaschinenherstellers Picanol, welcher hunderte von Webmaschinen direkt auf der Messe verkaufte. Auch die Einschätzung bzgl. des Nachmessegeschäfts wurde als gut bis sehr gut eingestuft. Dies ist eine sehr erfreuliche Entwicklung im Vergleich zu den beiden vorhergehenden ITMAs.
The focus of this work lies on teaching methods for product design to stimulate novelty within a multiple disciplinary educational context. To address this issue, the different types of multiple disciplinary approach are presented by reviewing existing literature. As the initial study involved looking at the correlation between disciplines and product features, the definition of product design and its relationship with industrial design and other adjacent domains are introduced. The structure of a newly developed interdisciplinary master in product design is presented and, within this program, an educational activity fostering creativity in heterogeneous multiple disciplinary environments is described. Inspired by the approach of industrial designers to generate creative solutions, it is conceived to help product design students to flexibly adapt the problem and the solution space together through an iterative process.
Customer needs and requirements are getting increasingly diverse and consumers more and more want to express their individuality with the products they buy. Due to the emergence of the internet and possibilities given, customers no longer only play a passive role, but are actually enabled to determine what they are purchasing. Therefore customisation or personlisation approaches like the miadidas concept from adidas, providing customised performance shoes or sneakers are more popular than ever. The prosumer concept already plays an important role trying to satisfy the demands of customers in future. As apparel for outdoor activities represents the largest and most important part of the sports good market in Germany and is yet still expected to grow, the purpose of this study is, on the one hand to identify diverse prosumer concepts existing and on the other hand to examine to what extent companies of the outdoor industry already have implemented prosumer concepts. A content analysis of homepages and online shops of 30 different European and North American outdoor brands was conducted. Results show, that companies of the outdoor industry have already implemented several prosumer concepts, but most of them are mainly concentrating on one prosumer approach and the involvement of professional users of their products.
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to find out the influences of sustainability labels on fashion buying behaviour. Despite key information about Fair Trade is provided in all stores of the sample company, customers seem not to be aware of the Fair Trade concept. Therefore this paper aims to give recommendations for a fashion retailer in terms of elucidation about Fair Trade by answering the following research questions: Which influences do sustainability labels wield on customer´s buying behaviour? Are consumers of textile products aware of the function and backgrounds of the Fair Trade label?
Design/methodology/approach: A paper-based questionnaire was administered to 128 customers of a German fashion retailer "Adler Modemärkte AG" in four city stores from which 127 were correctly completed. Additionally an adjusted self-completion questionnaire administered to 50.000 customers online from which a total of 1.712 were correctly completed. Descriptive analysis and cross tabulations were applied to abstract the main research findings and evaluate the hypotheses.
Findings: Key findings suggest that Adler should either enhance their communication strategy regarding Fair Trade or remove Fair Trade products from the assortment, as the majority of respondents are not aware of Adlers´ Fair Trade products. The Fair Trade label could neither be identified as consumer-barrier nor sales support. Further findings revealed participants have more knowledge about Fair Trade than initially assumed.
Research limitations/implications: Majorly women aged between 56 and 75 participated in the survey. Findings are limited to geography, the target group of the fashion retailer Adler, gender, age group and the research method questionnaire.
Mitte der siebziger Jahre wurde die Unternehmenskultur als wichtige Einflussgröße für den Unternehmenserfolg erkannt. Der Begriff der Kultur wird jedoch auf vielfache Weise definiert und interpretiert, so dass in der Literatur auch kein Mangel an verschiedenen Auslegungen des Begriffes herrscht. Darüber hinaus werden in Theorie und Praxis häufig weitere Ausdrücke verwandt, die inhaltlich mit dem Begriff Unternehmenskultur übereinstimmen, wie z.B. "Firmenkultur", "Organisationskultur", oder "Corporate Culture". Dadurch ist die Diskussion über Unternehmenskultur geprägt von Missverständnissen. Im Folgenden soll daher ein Überblick gegeben werden, wie Unternehmenskultur definiert werden kann, wie sie entsteht und welche Schlussfolgerungen daraus gezogen werden können.
Der Kunde von heute hat sein Verhalten gewechselt: Er bleibt nicht einem Shop treu, sondern kauft dort, wo es ihm am besten gefällt oder der Preis am günstigsten ist. Die Kundenbindung wird dadurch zu einer neuen Herausforderung, die eine individualisierte Ausrichtung des On- und Off-Site-Marketings fordert.
Bei diesem Prozess sind vor allem zwei Aspekte wichtig: Personalisierung und Dynamisierung. Wie diese anhand von Werbemitteln realisiert werden können, wird in diesem Buch besonders in fünf Teilbereichen nähergebracht:
Targeting
Cross- und Up-Sellings
Banner
Newsletter-Marketing
Pricing-Strategien
Anhand von praxisbezogenen Beiträgen, mit aktuellen Forschungsberichten, Publikationen und Erfolgsbeispielen wird veranschaulicht, worauf im E-Commerce geachtet werden sollte und wie man Online-Shops optimieren kann.
Since there is no denying that transparency is increasingly central to corporate sustainability, the purpose of this paper is a case study on a company’s attempt to be fully transparent, hence, picking up the existent scholarly conversation about uncompromising supply chain transparency. Literature so far was found to be fairly limited, but, following a trend, has been rising in numbers over recent years. Addressing these shortcomings in the methodology, an in-depth literature review about the multiple dimensions of supply chain transparency has been performed and links within supply networks stressed. On this basis, a case study by exemplary illustrating the fashion label Honestby has been drafted and the effort to become the world’s first 100 % transparent company further examined. Findings are discussed whether more supply chain transparency is desirable in any case, obstacles listed and an outlook for this kind of business model has been drawn. The research is clearly limited by the amount of scholarly literature concerning Honestby in particular. Out of this reason, magazines and journal entries are used as reference as well. Only with the extension of the topic itself to supply chain transparency and the literature review beforehand, the paper gained its necessary academic standard. Concerning implications, it needs to be mentioned that even though Honest by demonstrates to be fully transparent, it was not possible to find any public information about the degree of supplier relationship. In particular, concerning the applied control mechanisms used to exert influence and to balance out the power gradient between company and suppliers.
The purpose of this paper is to identify the potential of a fashion fTRACE (ffTRACE) application that gives transparent insight on the supply chain of a fashion item. The research methodology applied to this purpose is a literature review examining academic references. The key findings of this paper are that information plays a major role in the consumer decision process and is therefore beneficial to the demand for sustainable products. Given the right information content in a transparent, credible and understandable way is important. It is found that the functions of such an application would be able to satisfy this consumer demand and therefore has the potential to raise the sales of a sustainable company as well as increase the brand’s awareness and improve its image. While mainly indicating the potentials of the ffTRACE application, their relevance is not examined in this paper.
This study focuses on the different roles of social media for the promotion of a sustainable lifestyle, behaviour and consumption, especially with regard to the typically non-ethical fashion industry. Research findings include eight roles of social media influencing a sustainable consumption contrary to prior research naming one to five impacts. Results show that social media educates and engages the young and ethically interested target group besides increasing supply chain transparency and brand or theme awareness. Furthermore, social media provides a platform for organisations’ relationship management and social interaction since users get empowered to share experiences which leads to a higher level of trust.
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of sustainable closed-loop supply chain of the fashion brand Filippa K. Information on green fashion has been gathered and a case study approach on the fashion retailer
Filippa K conducted. Results show a switch in knowledge content between a fast fashion supply chain and a sustainable supply chain. Also there is an evolution in sustainability as companies, retailers, and manufactures suffer under pressure from the customers, governments, and the media. Sustainable fashion brands like Filippa K are interested in sharing precise knowledge on variety of aspects linked to the sustainable closed-loop supply chain. This research paper has been limited by less information and unexplored topics in the theme green fashion. This led to the personal critical disputation with the brand Filippa K.
The purpose of this paper is to study the recycling form of reusing second hand clothing from a conventional fashion brand’s perspective. It should clarify which measures and activities a fashion company needs to integrate in its value chain in order to offer branded second hand merchandise in a self-operated store. The research paper relies on a desk-based research and aims to illustrate the topic by means of a descriptive approach, processing the existing literature. Key findings demonstrate that fashion brands need to integrate complete lifecycle strategies, sustainability communication, and reverse logistics structures, like take-back schemes, for offering second hand clothing. The main limitations evolve from the research design. Further, empirical evidences need to be conducted for a more fundamental understanding of the new business model.
The purpose of this research is to explore current boundaries of the fashion industry’s second hand market and which solutions and approaches can be adopted from the used-car industry. The paper is based on the study of existing literature which deals with sustainability in combination with second hand markets in general and adaptable features of the used-car industry. Adaptable features are found using the business model canvas. The key finding of this study indicates that the fashion industry faces immense social and environmental challenges which can be partly solved by the development of the second hand market. Used-car industry can be seen as role model for fashion retail. In this study only aspects of used-car distribution are highlighted; therefore, characteristics of the recycling of used cars are not examined.
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate consisting consumption patterns caused by fast fashion with a new appearing form of consumption and retaining potentials as an alternative as well as sustainable form of fast fashion consumption. This research is set up on a theoretical background of scientific literature including governmental as well as press releases in order to evaluate the status quo of consumption and answering the research question. A new consumption pattern as well as an appearing economy of sharing can be stated including potential aspects of raising businesses and sustainable alternative forms of fast fashion. The framework of the research is limited to the textile and fashion industry in industrialized countries focusing on consumption in the twenty first century.
The second hand concept indicates a growing trend in clothing recently, leading to growing numbers of second hand shops and developments of new second hand retail forms. This paper concentrates on the current second hand market for fashion products and presents the different motives toward second hand consumption as well as alternative consumption channels for second hand products. The findings of the paper are founded on literature research of academic articles and case studies. Results show that there is a high potential for the second hand market due to the increasing interest of consumers in buying second hand products. The paper concentrates on the second hand market for fashion products in the western society. This means that there was no research on second hand products for disadvantaged people in poor countries. Furthermore, the paper focuses the formal second hand retail channels to see what is already on the market.
The purpose of this paper is to highlight potentials and limitations of the prosumer concept in fashion retail. The paper illustrates the evolution of prosumption and in which directions the concept is being developed. The primary research is based on a literature review containing different sources of academic and non-academic references. Findings suggest that the prosumer concept is no new phenomenon. Recently, it has moved into the focus of companies that have noted that it is efficient when engaging with customers in order to strengthen their brand loyalty. An increasing number of companies offer innovative business models that underlie the concept. However, lately smart prosuming machines are changing the objectives of the concept. Even if the prosumer concept exists since many years and scholars investigate its potentials continuously, it is the fashion industry that has been researched comparatively little up to now.
The purpose of this paper is to define what impacts sustainable manufacturing standards have for retail brands concerning the communication policy and to find possible solutions of how the companies can deal with them. Therefore, sustainable standards and the impacts on the internal and external communication are described. The enclosed discussion finds possible solutions for the negative impacts. A literature discussion has been conducted to investigate the purpose. Generally, there are many impacts fashion retails have to consider, if they want to transform their company to become more sustainable, because only the impacts on a defined part of the communication policy were huge. A limitation of this paper is that the proposals how retailers could deal with the impacts of the transformation of the company toward more sustainability need further research and tests until they are practicable.
The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact on sustainability of fashion production and consumption in order to discuss what the main lever is to reduce the negative impact. The research methodology applied is a literature review examining academic references. Key findings suggest that fashion production and consumption have a single comparable impact on sustainability. Moreover, as the fashion production follows the demand, the consumer steers the production in a certain direction. Therefore, consumers take over responsibility and need to be informed. To reach a long-term change in the fashion industry, the consumer has to be the focus of the sustainable efforts. Most results in literature were conducted by qualitative research methods, so that further quantitative testing of the results is recommended. Furthermore, most surveys were conducted with young fashion consumers in the EU or UK which does not represent the fashion consumer in general.
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the practice of closed-loop production systems (CLPS) is implemented in the fashion industry. This paper offers a critical literature review to present a thorough understanding of the actual status of literature. Subsequently, the paper reveals that CLPS are of great importance. Generally, such systems include different activities that have to be integrated. Critical points are the product acquisition, the recovering process itself and the remarketing to the customer. A lack of reliable data concerning CLPS in the specific case of fashion industry can be identified. Important research fields could be marketing strategies, controlling the acquisition process, evolvement of return technologies and strategies, adaption of recovered products to the mass market, and the development of new technologies concerning recovering processes.
The purpose of this paper is to explain the key aspects and growing relevance of sustainability in fashion retail and to evaluate the possibilities of fashion retailers to act sustainable in supply chain management as well as carving out the challenges they have to deal with. The research methodology applied for this purpose is a critical literature review examining books and articles. The findings demonstrate the rising importance of sustainability in fashion retail. In this regard, fashion retailers play a key role and responsibility for sustainability in the fashion supply chain, from the beginning up to the end. This paper mainly analyzes sustainability in the fashion supply chain. It does not analyze topics like second-hand shopping or social media sustainability.
Green fashion retail
(2017)
This book focuses on sustainability in fashion retail, which is fast becoming the pivot point of future fashion retail strategies. Chapters in the book provide theoretical and practical insight on how going green may positively influence the strategy of fashion retailers and marketers, who have to react to the changing society and customer needs. Structured in four main parts, and based on distinct research questions, readers will be able to dig deep into the individual levers for possible adaptions. It thus provides a solid understanding on how to integrate green aspects into any fashion retailers business model.
Pultrusion of braids
(2016)
Der Ressourcenverbrauch in unserer Industrie- und Konsumgesellschaft steigt stetig, wobei die zur Verfügung stehenden Rohstoffe gleichzeitig knapper werden. Gleichzeitig fallen jährlich in Deutschland Millionen von Tonnen an Faserverbunden und Textilprodukten als "Abfall" an. Immer mehr Firmen, aus dem Verbundwerkstoffbereich über Textilproduzenten bis hin zu großen Modeketten, propagieren ein "Recycling" ihrer Produkte unter dem Zeichen der Nachhaltigkeit. Was geschieht mit den Textilien, die wir im Altkleidercontainer "entsorgen"? Und was wird aus Produktionsabfällen und was aus Faserverbundwerkstoffen nach ihrer Nutzungsphase? Sind die Recycling- und Nachhaltigkeitskampagnen der Industrie ein sinnvoller Beitrag zur Rohstoffsicherheit oder handelt es sich um reine Marketingstrategien unter dem Motto "Greenwashing"? Wie steht es um die Wiederverwertung der Textilien und der Faserrohstoffe, welche technischen Voraussetzungen sind dafür notwendig und was ist der Begriff "Nachhaltigkeit" überhaupt wert? Eine kritische Übersicht über die Thematik.
Leuchtturm NVLA
(2015)
"Wir etablieren die Nassvliestechnik in Reutlingen", verkündete Prof. Dr. Volker Jehle, Leiter des Lehr- und Forschungszentrums für interaktive Materialien an der Hochschule Reutlingen, gegenüber avr. Und er meinte damit die jüngst installierte Nassvliespilotanlage NVLA 53 der Firma Pill Nassvliestechnik (NVT), sein "Forschungsleuchtturm", mit dem man spannende Zukunftsthemen meistern könne. Im Gespräch mit avr erklären Prof. Jehle und Helmuth Pill, was die Anlage so drauf hat, die Einzige übrigens, die europaweit an einer Hochschule/Universität läuft.
Today fiber reinforced plastics (FRP) are well established in manifold technical applications, because they provide advantages such as low weight, high stiffness, high strength and chemical resistance. The broad range of production methods starts from cost effective mass production up to the manufacturing of ultra-lightweight composite parts.
Biological materials are also usually composite materials: Higher plants or bones of higher animals are hierarchically organized and are composed of only a few materials such as lignin, cellulose, apatite and collagen. The large variety and the mechanical properties of natural tissues results primarily from an optimized fiber lay-up to adapt to the mechanical requirements of the respective “installation circumstances”.
Advanced lightweight technical solutions need strong materials and structurally optimized structures. In many industries, the structural optimization by an appropriate fiber lay-up has become an important method to save more weight. Corresponding software tools help to optimize topology/shape (e.g. Mattheck: CAO/SKO, Co. Altair: Optistruct), mainly using finite element analyzing technology.
The combination of strong lightweight materials, optimized topology and sophisticated fiber lay-up is also present in many bio-mineralized planktonic shells — for instance diatoms and radiolaria—but also in glass sponges.
Following it is shown, how the high weight-related mechanical properties of plankton are biomimetically transferred into ultra-lightweight technical structures.
Soft, mechanically compliant robots are developed to safely interact with a “human environment”. The use of textiles and fibrous (composite-) materials for the fabrication of robots opens up new possibilities for “softness/compliance” and safety in human-robot interaction. Besides external motion monitoring systems, textiles allow on-board monitoring and early prediction, or detection, of robot-human contact. The use of soft fibers and textiles for robot skins can increase the acceptance of robots in human surroundings. Novel topology optimization tools, materials, processing technologies and biomimetic engineering allow developing ultra-light-weight, multifunctional, and adaptive structures.
Processing of recycled carbon fibers by wet-laid technology has many advantages. The fibers are implemented in water - no dusk formation. Further benefits are the light density of the fabric and the implementation of other layers (multilayer). First results of recyled carbon fibers from composite parts are showing good performances.
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to assess the state of the art concerning the information demand of the sustainable consumer focusing on the characterization of the sustainable customer, the demanded information content with regard to fashion products and the expected information frame.
Findings: Key findings of this paper are that sustainable consumers share certain psychographics such as sustainable knowledge and perceived customer effectiveness. So demanded information content is about general sustainable knowledge and the concrete impact of sustainable purchase behavior. Fashion product attributes demanded are details about production, material and the after-purchase use. Concerning the information frame, consumers expect information to be credible, transparent and comprehensible. Eco-labels play an important role within the information frame.
Purpose: This paper is to show what sustainable fashion is and how it has developed in recent years. Also the paper discusses which factors are important in order to be sustainable. Above all, it's about customers who show a lot interest in sustainable fashion. Child labor, working conditions, poor quality and poisonous substances are stricty rejected by these consumers. Amazingly, fashion companies that repeatedly hit the headlines with bad properties are very successful. It's about the sustainable oxymoron, the act and want of the consumer.
Findings: It is difficult to be sustainable. The reasons for that are the consumption, not much transparency in textile chains, fast fashion and much more. It's almost impossible for a product to achieve the 100 percent sustainability. On one hand the consumers want to have sustainable products, on the other hand they purchase for newness and cheap clothes. It has become clear that they buy in a conflict.
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the importance of word-of-mouth for fashion companies and to answer the research questions if fashion companies should integrate their customers actively in their marketing communication and if so, how can they approach the conversion of their customers into promoters?
Findings: The integraton of the customer into the marketing mix is inevitable in today's marketplace. Customers are heavily influencing the fashion industry escpecially the transmission of trends. Thereof, a redefinition and proactive integration of the customer as promoter is necessary.
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyse the main elements of successful customer loyalty programs in general and emotional components of the buying process in order to determine loyalty programs for fashion retailers.
Findings: The results of this study indicate that loyalty programs in fashion retail require considerable non-monetary benefits such as sense of exclusive membership and enhanced status to distinguish from competitors customer loyalty programs.
Purpose: This research paper deals with the question how the degree of transparency of a payment method influences the buying decision in fashion business. Therefore, consumer behavior and the decision-making process in fashion business are reviewed. Furthermore, the impact different degrees of payment transparency have on consumer behavior in general are compiled and evaluated.
Findings: It is assumed that the degree of transparency of a payment method has an impact on consumption in fashion business. Transparency relates positively to the pain of paying, which functions as a self-regulation tool by sending out signals about the conceivable consequences of spending money. Hence, the less transparent a payment is, the higher the willingness to spend will be. Moreover, it is assumed that transparency not only has an impact on consumption in fashion business, but the effect is also reinforced by consumer behavior.
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to elaborate if video marketing enhance emotional involvement. Therefore a literature research is done in two parts. Firstly there is a review on the development of marketing communication and video marketing. In the second part of the review the focus is set on emotions itself, how emotional involvement is generated and how emotions influence consumption behavior.
Findings: The key finding of this paper is that videos can enhance emotions through their multi-sensory character in an efficient way. Furthermore there could be identified that especially viral videos create emotional enhancement and meet the direct marketing approach.
Purpose: This research paper provides a general assessment and analysis of social media in digital marketing context and highlights its current use, risks, but also its enormous potential for companies to extent their customer reach by using such new channels, which has not been broadly established yet.
Findings: Key findings demonstrate the importance of social media engagement for companies and present respective difficulties in designing a social media strategy. Since marketers are under constant pressure to justify social media spending, measurement methods need to be established. Expressing the return on social media spending in actual numbers has so far represented major obstacle for firms.
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze if the practice of emotional fashion advertising has ethical dimensions, which must be considered by the companies using those advertising approaches in order to adhere to their general ethical and social responsibility.
Findings: First it was shown that companies have a social and hence ethical responsibility toward the society they operate in and that this responsibility includes their marketing and advertising activities. Furthermore it was examined how emotional advertising works in order to analyze this practice from an ethical point of view. It was shown that an emotional advertising approach can have negative effects on consumers and therefore could jeopardize a company's ethical responsibility.
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze if omni-channeling is a prerequisite for physical stores to create an emotional shopping experience.
Findings: Due to the technological developments an changes in consumer behavior, the retailer needs to adapt digital tools and to offer services that link on- and offline channels ensuring an emotional shopping experience. Multi-channel retailers need to integrate their channels to satisfy the customer.
Purpose: Emotions play a central role in approach-avoidance customer conflicts in retailing. The purpose of this paper is to assess the influence of emotions in the fashion retail environment, in particular to investigate how emotions can be best defined and clustered as well as how emotions affect the costumer behavior.
Findings: The conceptual paper reveals a framework explaining diverse theories of emotional models existing in literature. Moreover, the stimulus-organism-response model is applied to costumer behaviour in the fashion retail to explain the shopping experience under the influence of cognitive and affective emotional processes. Finally, it is concluded that point of sales have to be turned to point of emotions in order retailers are able to develop sustainable relationships with their customers.
The sol-gel approach offers a new class of flame retardants with a high potential for textile applications. Pure inorganic sol-gel systems do, however, typically not provide an effect sufficient for a sel-fextinguishing behavior on its own. We therefore employed compounds with nitrogen and phosphorous containing groups. Especially the combination of compounds with both elements, using the synergism, is promising for the aim to find well-applicable, environmental friendly, halogen-free flame retardants. In our approach, the sol-gel network ensured on the one hand the link to the textile as nonflammable binder. On the other hand, the sol-gel-based networks modified with functional groups containing nitrogen groups provided flame retardancy. In this way, a flame retardant finishing for textiles could be obtained by simple finishing techniques as, e.g., padding. Besides a characterization with various flame tests (e.g., according to EN ISO 15025 e protective clothing), we used a combination of cone calorimetry, thermogravimetry coupled with infrared spectroscopy analysis and scanning electron microscopy to analyze the mechanism of flame retardancy. Thus, we could show that the main mechanism is based on the formation of a protection layer. This work provides a model system for sol-gel-based flame retardants and has the potential to show the principle feasibility of the sol-gel approach in flame retardancy of textiles. It therefore lays the groundwork for tailoring sol-gel layers from newly synthesized sol-gel precursors containing nitrogen and phosphorous groups.
Several ionic liquids are excellent solvents for cellulose. Starting from that finishing of PET fabrics with cellulose dissolved in ionic liquids like 1-ethyl 3-methyl imidazolium acetate, diethylphosphate and chloride, or the chloride of butyl-methyl imidazolium has been investigated. Finishing has been carried out from solutions of different concentrations, using microcrystalline cellulose or cotton and by employing different cross-linkers. Viscosity of solutions has been investigated for different ionic liquids,concentrations, cellulose sources, linkers and temperatures. Since ionic liquids exhibit no vapor pressure,simple pad-dry-cure processes are excluded. Before drying the ionic liquid has to be removed by a rinsing step. Accordingly rinsing with fresh ionic liquid followed by water or the direct rinsing with waterhave been tested. The amount of cellulose deposited has been investigated by gravimetry, zinc chlorideiodine test as well as reactive dyeing. Results concerning wettability, water up-take, surface resistance,wear-resistance or washing stability are presented.
Bodenbeläge aus Feinsteinzeug und Naturstein werden poliert und zur Gewährleistung ausreichender Rutschfestigkeit im Innenbereich (Bewertungsgruppe der Rutschsicherheit R9 und R10) werden durch Laserbehandlung mikroskopischen Vertiefungen erzeugt. In Laborversuchen wurden bei einigen Materialien deutliche Vorteile bzgl. des Anschmutzverhaltens und Reinigung festgestellt. Es sollte untersucht werden, inwieweit dadurch in der Praxis tatsächlich eine Reduktion des Reinigungsaufwandes und der damit verbundenen Umweltbelastung möglich ist, im Gegensatz zu anderen Oberflächenbearbeitungen, die die Bewertungsgruppe "R9" erzielen. Die Oberflächenbehandlung und die damit verbundene Reinigung sollten optimiert werden hinsichtlich minimalem Aufwand und minimalem Einsatz von Reinigungsmittel für Unterhaltsreinigung und der dazugehörigen Grundreinigungs- und Zwischenreinigungsfrequenz. Ziel war eine Reduktion um bis zum Faktor 2. Dazu sollten für verschiedene typische und weit gebräuchliche Bodenplatten aus Feinsteinzeug und Naturstein Abstand und Größe der Vertiefungen optimiert und kontrolliert werden. Die Dosierungen der Reinigungsmittel sollten, ausgehend von der derzeitigen Herstellervorgabe, reduziert werden. Die Abstände zwischen den Grundreinigungen, die mit einer starken Umweltbelastung verbunden sind, sollten vergrößert werden. Begleitend sollte eine Methode für die Vorhersage und Messung der Verschmutzung entwickelt werden. Diese wird in der Entwicklung benutzt und soll nach dem Projekt für die Optimierungen an anderen Materialien, z. B. PVC oder Polyolefinböden nutzbar sein und auch als Vorarbeit für eine Zertifizierung der Böden nach LEED dienen. Bislang gab es zwar Hinweise für die Vorteile bzgl. Reinigung, die aber weder optimiert noch belegbar waren. Deshalb hatte sich dieses Verfahren noch nicht durchgesetzt. Der Marktanteil liegt bei Naturstein < 10%, im Bereich Feinsteinzeug weit niedriger.
Über mehrere Monate porträtierten sich Masterstudierende von drei Kontinenten gegenseitig über Skype. Mittels einer besonderen Zeichentechnik, der Blindzeichnung, sind zahlreiche Porträts entstanden, deren Wirkung im öffentlichen Raum und in sozialen Netzwerken untersucht wurden. Diese Porträts sind die Basis für künstlerische Arbeiten in allen Bereichen und Medien der Bildenden Kunst. Das Forschungsprojekt SkypeLab schafft so eine Verbindung der traditionellen künstlerischen Techniken mit aktuellen digitalen Technologien.
Impact of brand and country image on the perception of sustainability in the fashion business
(2015)
The fashion and textile industry is presently confronted to participate in the sustainability movement and society demands corporate social responsibility. Today, it is crucial for fashion companies to be able to measure, monitor and improve environmental and social performance, due to the fact that there is a heightened awareness of sustainable practices by stakeholders. The purpose of this study is to investigate fashion consumers on their sustainable perception of a fashion company. More specifically, the objective of this study is to highlight the fashion consumer`s awareness in regards to the sustainable practices of a fashion company by considering the brand and country image factors. An experimental research design was utilized for the study and the researcher surveyed 120 fashion students. The basis of the surveys within the experiment is the present sustainable practice of the fashion brand H&M. This research aims to understand, if and how fashion consumers are influenced by a fashion brand image or its souring practices, when it comes to evaluate the sustainable performance of a fashion company. Results show that participants have significantly different perceptions when considering the fashion brand image of H&M on the one hand and the sourcing countries of H&M on the other. The result of this research provides useful information about the actual state of affairs in sustainable knowledge of the consumer and the related power of a brand's image and its sourcing strategies.
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between the consumers’ perception of sustainability and the application of a QR-code in stores with the focus on the information searching behavior regarding sustainable aspects. An online questionnaire was conducted with fashion students at Reutlingen University: in total, 65 students participated in the survey. Paired samples t-test and other statistical analyses were applied to test research questions. Apart from this, the research paper is based on a literature review. Furthermore, the decision was taken to use a projective method in the form of a dummy fashion fTRACE website. Key findings of the survey are that participants give sustainable aspects a higher importance with a QR-code than without one. Participants who prefer a product with detailed information experience a “positive shopping feeling” when provided with transparency via a QR-code. “Origin”, “production” and “quality” were rated of higher importance by those participants. These findings suggest that, transparency provided through the application of a QR-Code in stores influences the consumers’ perception of sustainability. Due to the small sample size of participants (65) in the study, findings of this research not generalizable to a larger population. This paper focused on the consumers’ information searching behavior regarding sustainable aspects, limiting its findings to impacts on perception of sustainability. Further research is therefore recommended.
Im dritten Jahr der Rezession drehte sich in Mailand alles um die italienische Lebensart und um das Erbe der großen Designer. Die spektakulären Inszenierungen fehlten weitgehend auf der Messe und in den Schauräumen rund um die Via Durini, dafür hatte man sich auf das Produkt konzentriert. Wiederbelebung der Erfolgsmodelle, Überarbeitung in Material und Farbe, Fokus auf große Namen, das waren die Botschaften in Mailand. Eine menschlich existentielle Antwort auf die Krise der letzten Jahre, aber auch Hoffnung und Aufbruchsstimmung waren zu spüren. Die Eurozone erholt sich, politischer Neubeginn und selbstbewusste Kommunikation italienischer Kultur in Stil und Design, das waren die Botschaften, die die Messe und auch die Aussteller des "Fuorisalone" vermittelten.
Social and environmental risk management in supply chains : a survey in the clothing industry
(2015)
Almost daily, news indicates that there are environmental and social problems in globally fragmented supply chains. Even though conceptualisations of sustainable supply chain management suggest supplier-related risk management for sustainable products and processes as substantial for companies, research on how risk management for environmental and social issues in supply chains is performed has so far been neglected. This study aims at analysing both why companies in the clothing industry are performing management of social and environmental risks in their supply chain and what kind of action they are taking. Based on the literature on sustainable supply chain management and supply chain risk management as well as 10 expert interviews, a conceptual model for risk management in sustainable supply chains was developed. This model was tested in an empirical study in the clothing industry. The data were analysed by structural equation modelling. Results of the research show high statistical significance for the respective conceptual model. The main driver to perform risk management in environmental and social affairs is pressures and incentives from stakeholders. While companies’ corporate orientation mainly drives social actions, top management drives environmental affairs for differentiating themselves from competitors.