Impact of promotion and marketing to the growth of the Sri Lankan heritage craft fashion sector

Abstract

"Promotion and Marketing has become an essential measureing tool to engage consumers by creating awareness and knowledge. Many fashion brands and retail use content promotion and markeitng as their prominent strategy for growth. This research aimed to identify the impact of promotion and marketing to the growth of Sri Lankan Heritage craft while contributing to the limited literature. Through literature review 4 dimensions that enable successful Promotion and marketing were identified: Personal selling, sales promotion, Direct marketing and Content marketing. Theoretical frameworks like AIDA model, Howard and Sheth Model, Interactive Model, Consumer decision making model and Eco-system craft model was used to determine the relationship between factors affecting the growth of SL Heritage craft fashion. Research onion and Design method and methodology was used in the research methodology as an interpretivism philosophy with an inductive approach and a case-study-based strategy.

Thematic analysis and data coding were done through 20 semi-structured interviews. The data analysis reflected that Content Marketing was effectively used in to the growth of heritage craft by creating consumer engagement and product awareness, and Sales Promotion was identified as the second most important dimension for the growth of SL heritage craft fashion, third dimension was personal selling. While Direct Marketing was less effective however product awareness through direct marketing was identified. Further, it was identified that content marketing for heritage craft fashion had impacted the consumers' behavior, and emotions. The researcher thus provided recommendations for upcoming SME brands in Heritage craft fashion industry to adhere to when using the right promotion method and platforms in the future. Thus, it was identified that established heritage craft brands in Sri Lanka, Table(5) used content marketing effectively to engage consumers to create awareness and persuade consumers to act on impulsive buying "