Problem:
The offer comes after a new survey by YouGov, commissioned
by M&S, revealed that fast fashion has fuelled a nation of ‘one-wear
wonders'. The survey talked to 2,200 UK consumers between 16-18 April 2012, and
found that one in five Britons admitted to having binned an item of clothing
after just one wear. At an average cost of £22.73 per discarded item, this
equates to over £91 million of good condition clothes ending up in landfill
every year.
Campaign:
The M&S Shwopping campaign aims to revolutionise clothes
shopping by asking consumers to adopt a ‘buy one, give one' mentality and
encourage greater sustainability on the high street and reduce the amount of
clothing going into land fill.
Outcome:
In the first six weeks of its ‘Shwopping’ campaign, over
500,000 items of clothing were brought into Marks and Spencer’s stores for
donation to Oxfam. Shwopping was launched almost a year ago and since then
customers and employees have helped divert over 3 million items of clothing
from landfill.
Joanna Lumley praised the success of the campaign, saying:
“I'm thrilled that UK shoppers have become UK shwoppers. We set out to change
the way people shop and put an end to clothes going into landfill. We're determined
to give every item of clothing a future and help some of the world's poorest
people in the process.”
Conclusion:
In this instance the collaboration between high street brand
and charity has been successful. Marks and Spencer’s have given their customers
an easy and rewarding way to recycle their clothes. By joining forces with a
well-known charity it assures their customers and staff that the unwanted
clothing is being used to aid a good and reliable cause. It also produces
exposure and publicity for both the brand and the charity. With the unanimous
result from our initial survey being that none of the interviewees had heard of
the charity Traid, perhaps collaboration with a brand could work in its favour
and also create a buzz around the charity allowing it to demonstrate its
importance in helping the UK recycle unwanted clothing.
AMY LAURA BURT
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