Student investigation - ethical baby clothing

[ZoeGrace]

Hi :) I am a third year marketing student and I am carrying out some research for a fictional project.

I would appreciate your views and opinions on ethical baby clothing - I am just looking for general information about how aspects like price and product quality would affect your decision to buy ethical baby clothes.

If you have not bought ethical baby clothing before, it would be a great help to know what puts you off and what would make you want to buy in the future.

Thanks :)

Zoe

Can you be a bit more specific?

Ie direct questions.

You can't really expect people just to write a whole essay for you !

Also, post this in Style and Beauty, you will get more hits (though think you might have to ask mnhq if you want to do research, not sure).

I'm just looking for peoples' opinions on ethical baby clothes in general, for example:

What price they expect to pay
What quality they expect
Where they would buy ethical clothes from

Zoe

[puts on teacher hat] I think you need to finetune your questions to have any hope of useful answers.

Think about it:

If I ask you how much you expect to pay for clothes, what will you say to me? £10?500? Depends whether it's a leather jacket or a pair of tights.

It's a totally vague question.

Hello Zoe

I myself dont purchase ethical baby clothes for my children, mainly due to the lack of availability. For me price is'nt really a major factor in my buying decision, as long as the product is of a high quality, and is gentle on my childs skin.

If i was to help you with a price i would pay around £15-25 for an ethical baby t-shirt from a specific company which proved to be ethically aware through-out all its business runnings. For example i wouldnt think much of major supermarkets stocking ethical clothes, i would much rather them be from company's who processed all its business around this ethos.

I hope this information will help you in your research.

Regards becca

Er, fictional project? What do you mean "fictional"?

Hello I have bought a few organic cotton sleep, suits vests and trousers from H&m for my son. I think the price difference was probably a £1 more than non organic cotton. I didn't buy them because they were organic but because I like the bold prints and colours. The fact they were made from organic cotton was an added bonus.

Thanks very much becca, that information is really helpful :)

Ragged it's a fictitious marketing plan for an ethical baby t-shirt company, so I needed general information about what mums thought about ethical clothing and their buying behaviour.

Zoe

Thank you LittleMissBliss, the information is very helpful :)

Zoe

Surely organic does not necessarily mean ethical?

What price they expect to pay?

I would expect ethical clothes to be expensive and would not be willing to pay a premium for ethical clothes that a baby/child would grow out of in no time at all.

What quality they expect?

I would expect materials suitable for baby/children clothes, soft, washable, durable.

Where they would buy ethical clothes from?

I actually wouldn't have a clue where to buy them from,

Right, gotcha.
I have bought FairTrade and organic stuff in past.
I haven't bought a lot because I've had lots given to me (2nd hand) or I can buy the items in charity shops (also an ethical choice, and a darn sight cheaper).

I am a marketing outlier, any answers I gave you would probably be atypical of most consumers!! That said, the things that would get my attention in marketing material and actually make me look twice, are:

• Clothes for primary school age kids and older (not much available in those sizes elsewhere)
• Including school uniform
• Shirts that are cut long enough, Not everyone is pear shaped, I am fed up with organic cotton clothes that fit like crop tops
• Mix and match tops and bottoms (for things like PJ sets, eg., DD currently wears 8-9 tops and 6-7 trousers.
• A reputation for good quality, clothes that aren't paper thin
• Simple colours and patterns, items that easily mix and match
• Reinforced knees on boy's trousers especially
• Use of hemp -- hemp clothes are so hard to find
• Fair Trade status

I guess Organic cotton is more 'ethical' than non organic as chemicals aren't used in the growing of the cotton and then during the manufacturing of the garment, better for the environment. The actual production of the garment may not be as with H&M prices I doubt their employer on floor level are getting an ethical wage.

Thank you so much for your information, it's really helpful. The clothing would be ethical as fair-trade and organic certified cotton would be used and production would be environmentally friendly.

Thanks again, any other helpful comments are still welcomed :)

Zoe

Hey, Im a big fan of recycling, fair trade, organic clothing etc. I think people can do a lot for this mother earth to make it a better place for our future generations i.e. or our babies;)

I would welcome any company that would have ethical and environemntal values, i.e many big companies just recently were in news, are using unfair child labour! brrr! would anybody wish that for their own child? Also we still dont know the impact of the chemicals are used to coulour or print on the clothing we wear, specially wouldnt like to have anything pritned or couloured unetchically close to my baby's skin, because they are so fragile in this world!

I mostly shop online, as it helps also to save waste and energy, plus gives me more time for my family.

Price is a tricky one, I guess when its more expensive a designer or highly recommended brand by somebody I trust I would buy 1 or 2 things just to see how good the products really are, cause quality for baby clothes is important as they need to be durable:)

Hope it helped:)

Hi - i've been looking at ethical clothing from a marketing perspective. I found that people are likely to spend a little more on ethically sourced clothing, but actually it's more that they are niche and therefore unique and tend to get bought more for gifts?

Thanks, Jenny Gore
[http://www.jambaroo.co.uk]]