Slow Fashion Brand Customer Persona : The profile and buying insights of a slowfashion brand customer

Sammanfattning: Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to expand knowledge of slow fashion brand customer by creating a persona that communicates the characteristics and aspects that influence purchase decisions of slow fashion consumers. Method: Since slow fashion consumer concept is still rather unexplored area, qualitative research strategy approach was chosen for this thesis, to get more deep data about the slow fashion consumer profile and buying insights. To address the research questions, single case study was used. The data was gathered through semi-structured interviews that were conducted with five female slow fashion consumers who had recently made a purchase from a Swedish slow fashion brand MASKA’s online store. To analyse the data, a coding approach was used. As a result of the coding process, themes that described the slow fashion consumer’s profile and buying insights emerged and were used later to create a narrative of the slow fashion buyer persona. Conclusion: In order to expand knowledge of slow fashion brand customer, a persona that communicates the characteristics and aspects that influence purchase decisions of slow fashion buyer was developed with this study. To answer the research questions and develop persona, five female slow fashion brand buyers were interviewed. Answering the research questions provided 8 different themes that emerged from the interview transcripts and made up slow fashion brandbuyer persona, which fulfilled the purpose. The emerged themes were describing who slow fashion brand buyer persona is: 1) creative mind; 2) globetrotter and explorer; 3) fond of nature, and themes that described what influences the slow fashion buyer: 4) consciousness; 5) quality over quantity; 6) shoppers of small boutiques; 7) trust; 8) esthetics. This study did not come to a firm conclusion, but rather aimed to provide more in-depth knowledge about slow fashion brand buyer and point out implications to further study the slow fashion consumer.