Sustainability Communication of Fashion Brands on Social Media: Language Abstraction and Digital Customer Engagement

Abstract

The aims of the study are threefold: (1) to examine the linguistic content of sustainability messages of the most valuable fashion brands on social media, (2) to investigate the language abstraction differences across sustainability dimensions, and (3) to explore the effects of language abstraction on digital customer engagement. First, Brand Finance Global 500 2021 list was examined to identify the most valuable apparel brands, providing 19 brands. After that, 458 sustainable messages shared by these brands on Instagram were analyzed according to the Linguistic Category Model. The results showed that the most valuable fashion brands share environmental and social sustainability messages on social media communications, whereas do not address economic dimension. It was also found that fashion brands use an abstract language in sustainability communications. Furthermore, a more abstract language was used in social sustainability messages compared to environmental themed communications. Finally, findings revealed that language abstraction does not affect customer responses to sustainability communications of fashion brands. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2024.