Organic cotton has been in the medias field of vision for quite some time. This interest
also reflects in a growing awareness in the textile industry where more and more
companies today offer organic cotton in their product range. With this in mind we
question whether organic cotton has become a viable commercial product. We also
acknowledge there is a lacking of understanding the complex problems that organic
cotton manufacture involves, for example the huge effort and cost required for a transition
from conventional to organic cotton farming.
The purpose of this paper was to study how textile, ecology and competition today are
being combined by companies. We wanted with our investigation to find out whether
companies in the textile industry use ecology as a competitive advantage. Moreover the
purpose of this paper was to reproduce a comprehensive image of organic cotton which
enabled us to determine if the medias positive image is correct. We choose to examine our
work on the basis of a company perspective which resulted in delimitation from the
consumer’s perspective.
The scientific approach of the study has been qualitative with the goal to produce a
deeper understanding of our problems. The empirical material mainly consists of
interviews done with our three case companies, Dunderdon, Dem Collective and
Kappahl. The companies are differing in both size and characteristics which was a
deliberate choice. We think this selection made it possible for us to examine various
perspectives 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 relationship
between a company’s identity, profile and image. The interviews have been interpreted
and analysed in relation to given theories and models.
Our interpretation and analysis showed that all case companies had a strong
environmental policy and a genuine interest to work for a sustainable development,
which they all expressed through their organic product range. The study showed that
none of the companies deliberately or directly uses organic products in a marketing
purpose. We have hence come to the conclusion that textile companies do not...
