Research on the Influencing Mechanism of the Effect of Brands’ Sustainable Behaviors on Consumer Attitudes: An Empirical Study on Clothing Brands

Abstract

Brands often link themselves with sustainable behavior in brand content marketing to obtain more consumer recognition. However, in fact, in the communication between brands and consumers, consumers cannot effectively respond to any sustainable behaviors of clothing brands other than the sustainable behavior of materials. This results in failure to stimulate the expression of deep culture, which then affects the long-term development of clothing brands. This study integrates material space benefit and spiritual space empathy as the intermediary role, aiming to explore the impact of brand sustainable behaviors on consumer brand attitude from the perspective of consumers. The data come from interviews with 12 experts, and 314 useable responses were collected (34.08% male and 65.92% female). Through in-depth interview, coding, and category analysis, we obtain dimensions of brand sustainable behaviors and a hypothetical model of relationship between brand behavior and consumer attitudes. We then use Amos software to quantify and demonstrate the mechanism of action between variables in the model. Research results show that: (1) Brand sustainable behaviors that have significant impact on brand attitude can be divided into three dimensions, which are product long-life design, cultural inheritance and reconstruction, and fashion digital empowerment. (2) Product long-life design has a significant direct effect on material space benefit; cultural inheritance and reconstruction significantly affect spiritual space empathy; fashion digital empowerment significantly affects material space benefit and spiritual space empathy. (3) Material space benefit and spiritual space empathy play a mediating role in the impact of brand sustainable behaviors on consumer attitudes, and the effect of spiritual space empathy on consumer brand attitudes has a high validity. The findings offer suggestions for sustainable strategies and content marketing of clothing brands, promotes effective communication between brands and consumers at the sustainable level, and help brands practice sustainability in normalization.