In my master’s thesis, I explored the phenomenon of fair trade clothing, which is an extremely broad concept, so I decided to firstly explain the notion of consumption in connection to the fair trade consumption. I connected consumption with advertising, since the ads influence consumer decisions and at the same time, ads help to create a market for certain goods, or help to strengthen it. I wanted to show that consumers are not just passive puppets, ready to be manipulated by ads, but that the ads nonetheless still have some influence over them. In addition to the factors that influence consumer decisions for and against fair trade, which were obtained through survey questionnaires, I dedicated myself to exploring fair trade from a different perspective – from the fair trade clothing manufacturers. By doing so, I gained an insight into their perceptions of fair trade, including the answers to what principles they most rely on and how they advertise their brands.
I obtained my key findings by analysing the literature and through the results of the survey questionnaires, as well as with the three semi-structured interviews I conducted with owners of Slovenian fashion brands committed to fair trade. With the results attained, I found out what influences consumer decisions for or against fair trade. I decided to research this particular topic because the fair trade phenomenon must be understood from the point of view of both consumers and producers: we must thus interpret fair consumption and, of course, fair production of clothing.
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