"If a piece of cloth is sold for such prices then you have to know what material it is and is it sustainable enough”

In the times of COVID-19 where most of the educational centres, universities, companies business and factories were shut down for safety reasons. As the World Health Organisation declared the current outbreak to be the human-to-human transmission. The strict Lockdown has disrupted supply chains, marketing investments have been put on hold in many countries. Eventually booming the rise in use of the digital platform for meetings, classrooms, and advertising space. 

These uncertain times has forced the business to market their products in various digital platforms, especially over the podcast. Over the last few years, Podcasting has garnered immense popularity, there is the podcast for anything to everything. The business holders to freelancers are increasingly using a podcast as a tool for marketing their product at recent times. Podcast indeed, with its increasing popularity and freedom of its publishing platform, has gained a lot of listeners. 

“The idea behind producing a podcast is to inform people to give them facts and market my business”- Mette Møller

Mette Møller has been designing her brand of clothing in Norway for 23years. In 2003, she opened her store in Grunerløkka and successfully also opened an online shop in 2007. 

Mette Møller's clothes are simple and clean, and she constantly seeks the perfect fit and the ultimate distribution of reason and emotion in her design. The clothes are produced in Lithuania, and the material brought from all over the world. 

• Sustainable clothing

The fashion statement is constantly changing and the demands of the customers over the choice has been increasingly growing over the last years. Mette’s brand seeks to find a middle ground while amusing their customers, she adds. “If I am producing a lot of the clothes to this world that doesn’t need any of them. I am responsible to assure that the clothes don’t harm the environment and it is a good fit for the customer so they can use it for decades.”  

Mette is very considerate about the production of her clothing brand, she assures good working conditions and the workers are paid well. “People are lacking knowledge like not knowing how and where the clothes are produced, is it more friendly to the environment or does it harm anyone”. To answer such queries, Mette began the journey of informing listeners about cloth manufacturing and consumerism. 

• Podcast Journey

The podcast covers topics from wool production, to use of water spreading awareness on the source of the material. The journey began in November 2019, the black Friday where people are just out buying clothes in bulk from brands which sell it for a cheaper price. Mette says, “Before you buy a cloth for 3000 NOK, understand where it is coming from, and don’t buy a lot now. If a piece of cloth is sold for such prices then you have to know what material it is and is it sustainable enough”. 

“Low prices material comes with a cost, a T-Shirt brought from H&M or ZARA for 30 NOK definitely sounds fishy, and a product. This is one of the reasons to start the podcast on Black Friday to inform and educate people, give them facts and let them understand, Why things are the way they are which eventually helps them to take the right decision for them solely based on how things are priced” she adds. 

Running the business

Mette shares how the podcast has helped her in educating over 200 listeners per episode and also been a tool for marketing her own brand. She frames her experience as placing one foot in each bucket, adding to it, “I still make clothes and my run brand in the backyard and on the webshop, the podcast has made people buy clothes from my store, I appreciate a well-informed customer who knows what they are buying and use it for years”.  

Adding to it she says, “In the podcast, we usually talk about the material in the wardrobe and inform how they can take better care of the clothes. For example, we talk about the shrinking of wool and how to wash them, specifically what they can use as washing products. 

• Sneak peek on next episode

Mette tips what the next episode covers. She says, “it is one of the longest episodes so far as we are answering the questions from our listeners for over an hour”. She mentions one of the challenging queries were on Vegan philosophy, “specifically in facts on the environment and to know the whole truth behind how wool is produced as many are not aware of the big picture” she adds. 

Such areas are important to shed light on and right information is the key, “the most challenging is to touch into the specific area who are really nerdy about. Real discussions are welcomed, please enlighten me so we can enlighten each other without being demanding”. 

• On collaboration

Mette says, “as you see we don’t have enough space to invite guests or collaborate. As of now, we are focussing on talking of brands, shedding light on what we do to survive the business, exceptional crises never faced before, week to week what is happening. How long will it take? Will the krone continue to fall?”

“I would love to collaborate with Norwegian traditional costume makers in Oslo, they have their own podcast called Bunadspodden. Despite this, we follow different fashion trends like Mette podcast talks about designs and modern fashion.  Bunadspodden more about weaving in old ways, more traditional, and making good traditional clothing. 

Mette Møller’s collection is trendy and full of colours soothing eyes, a business which guarantees sustainable material is every customer’s dream brand. Like most of the self-employed businesses have been relying on this medium for some time now. Mette´s podcast not only sells valuable products, but it also educates many listeners to choose better for the environment and opens a platform to discuss how to reduce wastage in the fashion industry.