Ekologi som kommersiell vara
Organic cottonEcologyCompetitive advantageCommercial goodsTrendEkologisk bomullEkologiKonkurrensfördelKommersiell vara
Organic cotton has been in the medias field of vision for quite some time. This interestalso reflects in a growing awareness in the textile industry where more and morecompanies today offer organic cotton in their product range. With this in mind wequestion whether organic cotton has become a viable commercial product. We alsoacknowledge there is a lacking of understanding the complex problems that organiccotton manufacture involves, for example the huge effort and cost required for a transitionfrom conventional to organic cotton farming.The purpose of this paper was to study how textile, ecology and competition today arebeing combined by companies. We wanted with our investigation to find out whethercompanies in the textile industry use ecology as a competitive advantage. Moreover thepurpose of this paper was to reproduce a comprehensive image of organic cotton whichenabled us to determine if the medias positive image is correct. We choose to examine ourwork on the basis of a company perspective which resulted in delimitation from theconsumer?s perspective.The scientific approach of the study has been qualitative with the goal to produce adeeper understanding of our problems. The empirical material mainly consists ofinterviews done with our three case companies, Dunderdon, Dem Collective andKappahl. The companies are differing in both size and characteristics which was adeliberate choice. We think this selection made it possible for us to examine variousperspectives of the textile industry despite our meagre resources.In the theoretical frame of reference we have chosen to use Porter?s Five Forces, Kotler& Armstrong?s communication model and Holm?s model which explains the relationshipbetween a company?s identity, profile and image. The interviews have been interpretedand analysed in relation to given theories and models.Our interpretation and analysis showed that all case companies had a strongenvironmental policy and a genuine interest to work for a sustainable development,which they all expressed through their organic product range. The study showed thatnone of the companies deliberately or directly uses organic products in a marketingpurpose. We have hence come to the conclusion that textile companies do not useecology in order to obtain competitive advantages. Our study also enabled us to establishthat the medias positive portrayal of organic cotton is incorrect, which we indirectlybelieve has had an impact on the low demand in organic cotton products.