BLACK BRANDS - Fernando Olivares

In this article, we immerse ourselves in the book Black Brands (In The Age of Transparency), to which we refer in many of our publications.

Black Brands is a book directed and written, along with a list of professionals dedicated to different fields related with brands: Commercial Law, Industrial and Intellectual Property, Economy or Graphic Design; by Fernando Olivares who is a senior lecturer of Communication and Corporate Reputation and Branding at the University of Alicante and director of the research group “Ua_Brandscience”. The main aim for Olivares was “to advocate for the fundamental right of consumers, as well as of the other stakeholders, to be informed at all times and with an absolute transparency of all the substantial and relevant matters concerning both companies and businesses, as well as their brand and trademarks”.

Although each chapter of the book deals with different issues in terms of corporate branding and transparency, in this article we will focus on the chapter dedicated to the “Black Brands” in the fashion industry, written by Andrés López Martínez. In this chapter, the author focuses on a vast variety of aspects related to the industry such as the legal and regulatory framework, the society and the revolution it is currently carrying out, fashion brands with a deficiency in terms of transparency or the future of the industry.

Throughout this chapter, the main idea remains that we find ourselves at a time when society is demanding commitment, especially in terms of sustainability and human rights, from the major brands in the sector. In order to explain this situation, López exposes different situations that have led to social revolutions, such as the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory in Bangladesh, which supposed a beginning for the current situation in which the fashion industry finds itself today. Due to this event, different associations we have talked about in previous articles as Fashion Revolution or Human Rights Watch; are in constant fight to make these companies transparent with their consumers and express who and where their products have been manufactured.

We live in a time when, through technology (social networks, Internet, etc.), we as consumers have in our hands the necessary tools to collect the information that interest us. However, brands, especially in the fashion sector, are not taking advantage of this new situation to be able to make information about their garments available to consumers. This thought is the main idea that we try to communicate through our blog and which the book “Black Brands” is based in: the consumer who, at the end of the day, is the one who keeps brands “alive”, is fully deserving of the detailed information about the garments he or she consumes. If this information was communicated, perhaps a few of the major brands in the industry would see an absolute decrease in their economic activity since, these days, the vast majority of consumers are highly aware of what they want to consume and how they should do so in favour of their own values.