Through fashion marketing, we discussed the issues of brand building, consumer psychology, and credibility with Mónika Szilágyi-Csüllög.
In the world of marketing, we rarely encounter professionals who are equally at home in corporate practice and scientific research. Yet it is precisely this dual perspective that can help us understand why some brands succeed in the long term while others lose consumer trust despite spectacular campaigns.
Mónika Szilágyi-Csüllög worked for years on international magazine brands such as ELLE and Marie Claire, and is currently researching consumer acceptance of sustainable fashion at the ELTE Doctoral School of Psychology, and METU the head of the Sustainable Fashion Brand Management program. In our interview, we discuss greenwashing, the marketing logic of luxury brands, the psychology of consumer decisions, and why authenticity is becoming an increasingly important competitive advantage in a world where artificial intelligence will soon be able to produce professional marketing content for anyone.
You are both a practical marketing professional (ELLE, Marie Claire, Interieur brand management) and a researcher (ELTE Doctoral School of Psychology, in the field of consumer acceptance). Which role shapes your decisions more when you have to give an opinion on a fashion brand's communication?
Mónika Szilágyi-Csüllög: I can no longer separate the two roles today, nor would I want to. My marketing self sees how consistent, well-positioned, recognizable, and commercially viable a brand's communication is. However, the researcher immediately asks the question: does this communication really evoke the effect in the consumer that the brand assumes it does?.
When I decided to start doctoral research, I also applied for a marketing doctoral program with a fantastic supervisor, whom I still think of with great affection and gratitude. In the end, I chose ELTE PPK because I felt that I needed to expand my existing multinational, practical marketing knowledge from a completely different perspective, that of consumer psychology.
Marketing often starts from the premise that it knows the consumer. However, psychology teaches us that people's decisions are much more complex. We do not choose solely based on information, but based on emotions, identity, social norms, habits, and cognitive biases.
Perhaps that is why today I am primarily interested in whether a campaign is authentic. I not only examine what a brand says but also what psychological mechanisms it triggers in the consumer, and whether these are in harmony with the brand's actual operations.
In the world of magazine brands, a brand is built according to a completely different logic than in the case of a fashion brand. What is the perspective that you still carry with you from the world of ELLE or Marie Claire when thinking about the marketing of fashion brands?
Szilágyi-Csüllög Mónika: At magazines, I quickly learned that readers do not buy a product, but a worldview. ELLE or Marie Claire was not just a lifestyle magazine, but a value system. The reader may feel that they belong to a community.
The same is true for the strongest fashion brands. Successful brands do not sell clothes, but build identity, cultural meaning, and emotional attachment. Thus, in their case, the product is the manifestation of everything.
This perspective may be even more important today. In the age of social media, anyone can take good photos or buy advertising. It is much harder to create a brand identity that remains consistent in the long term.
Beyond that, a personal line: the perspective of French women's lifestyle magazines, my studies in France, and generally the Francophone values have left such a deep mark on me that it has indelibly shaped my aesthetic sense, my creative, problem-solving thinking. Thanks to this, I always see an opportunity in a given situation instead of problems, and I strive to think about marketing communication in high quality as well.
As a marketing professional, don't you think that the biggest enemy of sustainable fashion communication today is marketing itself?
Szilágyi-Csüllög Mónika: I don't think marketing is the problem, but how some companies use it.
Marketing is, in itself, a tool. The same toolkit can support authentic social change, but it can also build misleading or even manipulative (see greenwashing) communication.
In the case of sustainability, many companies first create the communication and only then try to find some real content to go with it. However, this should work exactly the other way around.
First, there should be a real strategy, measurable goals, transparent operations, and consistent corporate decisions. Communication can only follow after this, and it is important that it operates hand in hand with the corporate strategy. Marketing becomes an ally of sustainability when it does not seek to cover up problems but makes them understandable to the consumer.
In your previous interview about discounts, you said that luxury brands consciously do not use price reductions because it damages their image. Is this fundamentally a marketing decision against or in favor of sustainability? Where do brand value protection and genuine sustainability intentions intersect here?
Szilágyi-Csüllög Mónika: This is a very interesting question because the same decision can serve both business and sustainability goals at the same time.
The primary goal of luxury brands is, of course, not sustainability, but the preservation of exclusivity. Rarity, high price, and limited access are part of brand value.
At the same time, this has a positive side effect. If a product is not constantly on sale, there is less incentive for overconsumption – at least from a marketing perspective. The consumer does not buy because it is „cheap now,” but because they genuinely want that item, whether for its quality or prestige.
Fast fashion, on the other hand, often keeps the customer under constant promotional pressure. The discount becomes almost a norm, which triggers a continuous urge to buy. I believe that the discount itself is not the problem, but rather the consumer behavior it establishes in the long run.
We often hear the term „greenwashing.” What are the first three signs that a marketing professional can recognize in a few minutes that there is no real strategy behind a sustainability communication?
Szilágyi-Csüllög Mónika: The first sign is the use of vague statements. If a brand uses terms like „green,” „eco-friendly,” „natural,” or „sustainable,” but there are no concrete data behind them, it is worth being cautious.
The second sign is when only a single positive attribute is highlighted while we know nothing about the overall operation. For example, they talk about recycled packaging, but they remain silent about the manufacturing process, the supply chain, or working conditions.
The third sign is the distortion of proportions. When a small sustainability step is communicated as if it has changed the entire operation of the company.
Authentic brands are not afraid to talk about their shortcomings either. In contrast, greenwashing always tries to paint an overly perfect picture.
Your research is about consumers„ acceptance of sustainable fashion. What is the realization that surprised you the most – something that contradicted what you would have thought was ”logical" as a marketer?
Szilágyi-Csüllög Mónika: Primarily that there is a much larger gap between attitude and behavior than I previously thought.
Most people sincerely believe that sustainability is important to them. However, in the purchasing situation, these values can easily take a backseat to price, trendiness, habit, convenience, or immediate gratification.
As an authentic, ethically-minded marketer, we might assume that if we provide the consumer with the right information, they will make better decisions.
However, psychological research shows that information alone is rarely sufficient. Behavior is much more shaped by the environment, social norms, routines, and emotions.
This has fundamentally changed how I think about sustainable marketing.
Is there a word or phrase that, when you see it in a campaign, makes you suspicious that there is more marketing than real performance behind it?
Szilágyi-Csüllög Mónika: It is not a single word that is suspicious, but rather when the communication is filled with catchy adjectives, but the facts are missing behind them.
If I see a brand constantly repeating that it is „sustainable,” „conscious,” „responsible,” or „ethical,” but does not show exactly in what way and how, then I question whether this is a real corporate strategy or just marketing language (I phrased that gently).
For me, authenticity begins when a brand not only talks about successes but also embraces its dilemmas. Sustainability is not a state but a continuous development process.
That’s why today I trust companies more that speak honestly about where they stand in this process than those that suggest they have already solved everything perfectly. Which is already a huge challenge in today’s linear economy.
The three levels of your training – luxury, international fast fashion, Hungarian designer brands – represent three completely different rules of the game from a marketing perspective. If you had to summarize in one sentence what the main difference is between them in consumer communication?
Szilágyi-Csüllög Mónika: Fast fashion increases the frequency of purchases, luxury builds desire, and a successful designer brand creates connection.
You often bring up the example of Hermès, who don’t even have a marketing department, yet are one of the strongest brands. What does this say to those who think about campaigns, content, and advertisements on a daily basis?
Szilágyi-Csüllög Mónika: For me, the most important message from Hermès is that the strongest marketing often lies not in communication but in business decisions and strategy. If a company consistently represents the same values for decades, then its very operation becomes marketing.
Today, many brands think that attention can be bought with advertisements. In reality, trust is much more valuable than attention.
Hermès reminds us that a brand does not become strong by talking a lot about itself, but by representing the same thing in the long term.
Luxury brands today hardly communicate the product at all, but rather a lifestyle. Where is the point where storytelling becomes more important than the product itself?
Szilágyi-Csüllög Mónika: When functional differences disappear.
Today, many companies are capable of producing a high-quality leather bag. What distinguishes them is not the quality of the material or stitching, but the added cultural meaning and symbolism that the brand builds around it.
People interpret the world through stories. A well-structured brand story helps an object become more than just a tool: it becomes a form of self-expression. At the same time, storytelling has an important condition: it must be true. If the story detaches from reality, consumers will sense it sooner or later.
Which fashion brand's marketing do you currently consider a benchmark, and which one do you think is overrated?
Szilágyi-Csüllög Mónika: I don't like to highlight a single brand as a role model or a negative example. I am much more interested in what marketing logic they apply.
I consider those brands as benchmarks that can consistently represent the same values for years, even decades, and can renew themselves while keeping their roots. They do not jump on every trend, nor do they try to please every consumer.
In contrast, overrated brands often confuse their visibility with brand value. In the short term, they generate a lot of attention, but in the process, they lose the identity that originally made them lovable.
In marketing – just like in everyday life – noise can easily be confused with real value.
A small Hungarian sustainable brand obviously cannot compete in spending with an international chain. What communication tools can it use to compete nonetheless – authenticity, community, story?
Szilágyi-Csüllög Mónika: Exactly those.
Small brands should not play the same game as multinational corporations. They cannot buy more advertising, but they can be more human. They can show the design process, the mistakes, the decisions, the creators. They can establish a real connection with their customers.
Some of today's consumers are no longer looking for perfect commercials, but for transparency. Therefore, trust is increasingly becoming a competitive advantage today.
How do you see it: When someone buys a sustainable fashion brand, are they actually buying clothing or identity?
Szilágyi-Csüllög Mónika: The two cannot be separated. Dressing has always been a means of communication.
However, in the case of sustainable fashion, a new dimension appears: the expression of ethical perspective. The buyer not only wants to show what style they represent but also what values they consider important. The question is how consciously this value system appears in everyday consumer decisions. A single sustainable t-shirt does not make anyone a conscious consumer. Consumer awareness becomes credible when it consistently appears in various life situations.
What do you think, how much does the Hungarian consumer today convince themselves that they are shopping sustainably while actually making price-based or impulsive decisions?
Szilágyi-Csüllög Mónika: This is not just a Hungarian phenomenon, but a general human behavior. We all like to create a positive image of ourselves. In psychology, this is called self-justification. Once we believe that we are environmentally conscious people, we tend to interpret decisions as sustainable that were actually born out of entirely different motivations. Several studies confirm that consumers often rationalize their decisions afterward. Therefore, it is not enough to examine what people say, that is, what their attitude is regarding a given topic. It is also necessary to see how they behave in real purchasing situations. And here the previously mentioned attitude-behavior gap phenomenon may appear.
What influences the decision more: conscience or Instagram?
Szilágyi-Csüllög Mónika: Rather the context. Very rarely does a single factor decide.
Conscience represents long-term values. Instagram, on the other hand, is based on immediate social comparison.
If someone plans their purchase in calm circumstances, their value system may play a larger role. However, if they make a quick decision, amidst continuous visual stimuli, under time pressure, or impulsively, then social media influences much more strongly.
One of the biggest challenges of sustainable consumption is precisely that a person's long-term values and short-term desires often compete with each other.
Therefore, I believe that the future of sustainable marketing should not only convey information but also create a decision-making environment that makes it easier for people to act according to their own values.
How do these insights – the perception of greenwashing, consumer psychology, the luxury vs. fast fashion logic – specifically integrate into the METU Sustainable Fashion Brand Management program? What do students learn that they would not receive in a traditional marketing or management training?
Szilágyi-Csüllög Mónika: Fashion marketing cannot be taught with the same mindset as the marketing of an FMCG brand or a service. Fashion is an economic, social, cultural, and psychological phenomenon at the same time. Therefore, in our training, we do not only teach marketing tools but also a way of thinking.
Students learn about the psychological background of consumer decisions, the dilemmas of sustainability communication, the strategic operation of luxury brands, as well as how an authentic brand identity is built. At the same time, we consider the development of a critical mindset to be at least as important. I do not want them to believe everything a brand communicates – but rather to be able to analyze, ask questions, and recognize connections.
The fashion industry changes extremely quickly. Therefore, we do not try to pass on ready-made recipes, but rather a framework of thinking that will still be usable in ten years.
The list of mentors (Acsay Judit – Burda, Csajbók Mariann – LanceCom Communication, Hornitz Bernadett- Karma Pécsi Kesztyűgyár, Tóth Aelxandra – Marie Claire) is quite a strong lineup. What is the „living knowledge” that a practicing communication professional can pass on, which an instructor cannot on their own?
Szilágyi-Csüllög Mónika: You can learn a lot from the literature, but there are decision-making situations that only someone who has lived through them can truly understand.
A practicing professional can not only tell what worked but also why something did not work. How is a strategic decision born? What compromises need to be made? What happens when a campaign does not perform as planned? These are the experiences that cannot be learned from textbooks.
That is why I consider it very important for students to meet mentors and instructors during our training who work in the international fashion industry and show how this world operates in practice through their everyday decisions.
The best education, in my opinion, is born where scientific background meets daily professional experience, which is why I only invite instructors to the Sustainable Fashion Brand Management course who have experienced in real life what they teach.
What do you expect from a student in terms of marketing thinking when they enter the Sustainable Fashion Brand Management course – and what is it that they need to „shed” or relearn during the three semesters?
Szilágyi-Csüllög Mónika: I only ask that they think.
I do not expect any prior knowledge, as some graduate as designers or in humanities and have never studied marketing. I consider curiosity, openness, and the willingness to ask questions to be much more important.
However, what they often need to relearn is their perception of marketing.
Many arrive thinking that marketing primarily means advertising, social media, or influencers. By the end of the course, I would like them to understand that marketing is actually strategic thinking. It is about understanding people, recognizing their real needs, and creating value that remains relevant in the long term.
Fashion marketing is particularly sensitive because here we are not just selling products, but also meanings, identities, and cultural symbols.
What mistake do marketers who are working with a fashion brand for the first time most often make?
Szilágyi-Csüllög Mónika: I see that the most common mistake is that they start communicating too soon and spend less time observing.
Brand building always starts with understanding. Who is the customer? What problem are we solving for them? Why should they choose us? In what ways are we truly different from our competitors?
Many companies, instead, immediately design a logo, launch an Instagram profile, and create campaigns. However, if there is no clear strategy behind these, then the communication will just be noise without content.
Another common mistake is that fashion marketing is viewed solely as an aesthetic issue. There is no doubt that visuality is very important in this industry, but it is not enough on its own. The strongest brands are always backed by a consistent business and psychological strategy.
If you were to launch your own sustainable fashion brand today, what would be the first marketing decision you would make – and what is something you would definitely get wrong, because the market is always faster than theory?
Szilágyi-Csüllög Mónika: My first decision would definitely not be a campaign.
First, I would map out what problem I want to solve, who the brand is for, and what value it represents in the long term. Positioning is much more important than the first advertisement.
I would spend a lot of time building the community. I would talk to potential customers, test ideas, and only then would I start larger communications when I truly understand them.
And where would I go wrong? Probably in the same way that every researcher or analyst-minded marketing professional does: sometimes I would analyze too much.
The market does not always wait until all data is available. In business, there comes a point when even the best decision will not be perfect, yet it must be made. This is one of the most important lessons that marketing and research have taught me together: data helps make better decisions, but it never completely takes over the responsibility of decision-making.
How do you think a successful fashion brand's marketing will look in ten years?
Szilágyi-Csüllög Mónika: I believe that in ten years, the biggest competitive advantage will no longer be how loudly a brand communicates, but rather how consistently and transparently it operates.
Artificial intelligence will soon make professional content creation accessible to almost everyone. It will become increasingly easier to create good advertisements, eye-catching images, or personalized campaigns. This alone will no longer represent a competitive advantage.
What will be valued more is trust. Transparency. Human connection. Whether a brand truly does what it communicates.
I believe that the most successful fashion brands of the future will not necessarily be those that spend the most on marketing, but those that are able to build long-term relationships with their consumers. A relationship that is not merely about the next purchase, but about shared values and mutual trust.
For me, marketing is not about how to get people to buy more. It is about how to create brands that generate real value and to which people are happy to connect in the long term.
What is the marketing advice that everyone in the fashion industry repeats, but you think it’s finally time to forget?
Szilágyi-Csüllög Mónika: One is that „you need to be present on every platform.” This was considered good advice for a long time, but today it can cause much more harm than good. A brand does not become strong by being constantly present on every social platform, but by consistently representing the same value at every touchpoint.
Many businesses still feel that they need to post daily, register on every new platform, and adapt to every trend. The result is often that they produce a lot of content but lose their own voice in the process.
I would rather say: we need not more communication, but higher quality communication.
The other piece of advice that is also due for rethinking is that „the consumer always knows what they want.” Consumer psychology shows the opposite. People can articulate very well what they think about themselves, but this does not always align with how they actually make decisions. Therefore, successful brands not only listen to their consumers but also observe their behavior.
And there is one more piece of advice that I would gladly let go of: „the goal of marketing is to sell as much as possible.” This may be true in the short term, but in the long term, I believe the role of marketing is much more important than that. It must build brands that inspire trust, create real value, and establish a relationship with consumers that goes beyond the next purchase.
I particularly think that in the fashion industry, the future of success lies not in even louder communication, but in greater credibility. Consumers are increasingly asking not „What does this brand say about itself?”, but rather „Does it really operate as it communicates?”
I suspect this will be the most important marketing question of the next decade.
