Since the beginning of this year I've been becoming more and more aware of headlines in fashion business press about H&M and their successful achievement in the industry. A significant amount of my analysis up to this point has been quite negatively critical; I found faults in Coach's strategic marketing plan in order to suggest potential improvements in-line with its competitors and I have been monitoring M&S and their continuous struggles in sales performance throughout the year. However, H&M stands out to me as a brand that is making really positive progress - more so than any other high-street retailer, in my opinion.
In November I discussed my 'collaboration fixation' with H&M, who are miles ahead of the game in terms of designer/celebrity collaborations. Unsurprisingly, the brand announced this month that it has lined up another collaboration to be released at the end of this year with Zara Larsson. Admittedly, I was much more excited for the release of last year's Kenzo x HM collection as I really did find myself completely buying into the idea of purchasing something with an aspirational designer logo. I'm skeptical about the success of this latest collaboration because I'm unsure that Zara Larsson's status as a pop-star is aspirational enough for a wider range of people to be interested in the collection. Dedicated fans of Larsson's will naturally be inclined to purchase something, but overall, it doesn't seem like much of a momentum will be built up around it. Despite my skepticism, it remains to be seen that H&M's longstanding performance as a provider of designer collaborations is unbeatable among high-street brands.
H&M's ethical and moral standing is another aspect of the brand's personality which, again in my opinion, remains unbeaten on the high-street. Last week, on the 13th March, the H&M Group was named as one of the world's most ethical companies. Karl-Johan Persson, CEO of H&M said "it's a great honour for H&M to be named one of the world's most ethical companies. Our commitment to be ethical throughout our operations is firmly rooted in our values and key for our work to lead the change towards a sustainable fashion future." I believe that commitment to ethics and green consciousness are what will drive the brand from strength to strength in the coming years. While consumers are becoming more conscious of the origins of their clothing and the detrimental effects it can have on the lives of workers in developing countries, in addition to growing concerns over the damage of fast fashion and its unsustainable pace, I expect that it will be commonplace for high-street brands to offer a more sustainable solution. H&M seem to be the closest high-street retailer so far to find a balance between fast fashion and environmentally friendly production, given their Conscious collection and active participation in charity and climate talks. The brand are clearly very proud of their adopted responsibility to the earth and the climate; given that it has built up this aspect of its values over such an extensive period of time, it certainly increases consumer's reliance in the brand as trustworthy.
- http://about.hm.com/en/media/news/general-2017/h-m-group-named-as-one-of-the-worlds-most-ethical-companies.html
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