I guess now you have understood that the luxury apparel market can be very lucrative, but do you know this market is also very demanding for brands? Indeed, buying a luxury apparel is not only purchasing an expensive clothe but also possessing an object that is associated with social recognition and with a set of value. Those value are vehiculated by the brand through advertising, events or sponsoring. For instance, Louis Vuitton is promoting freedom of speech and this value is in accordance with one of the brand interests which is art. This company is a patron and even have a Foundation in Paris to promote art, such investments strengthen the brand value and therefore emphasize the message conveyed by the brand apparels. Hence, luxury apparels’ customers are paying a substantial amount of money to display luxurious brands values and enjoy social recognition. However, the relationship between brands and customers is far from being unilateral. Brands must abide by these two promises (social recognition and brand values) and therefore cope with everything that could damage it. Moreover, the shopping experience has to be unique enough to maintain the brand reputation. Let’s explore those two topics: brand value management, through brand scandal management and counterfeit, and the shopping experience of luxury apparels’ brands.
Imagine two persons, both are wearing the Gucci shirt you could not afford 2 hours ago when you were shopping at Gucci. You are staring at the first person for ten seconds analyzing his shirt and you end up being jealous of him. You plan to do the same with the second person but after 2 seconds you realize his shirt is not a Gucci shirt but a Cucci one. He is wearing a fake Gucci shirt and you immediately smile and try to take a picture of his fake Gucci shirt to make fun of him. Here is the difference of judgement a single letter can make. And here is the degree of rigor brands must have when it comes to their image. That is why brands such as Burberry undertook radical action to battle counterfeit. In an article from Guardian, released in July 2018 and written by Morwenna Ferrier (https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2018/jul/20/why-does-burberry-destroy-its-products-q-and-a ), it is told that the British luxury brand is destroying unsold clothes to prevent them from being sold cheaply and therefore damage the brand value. Burberry destroyed £27M worth of unsold product in 2017, this figure show how seriously brand are fighting counterfeit. Managing brand values is also managing brand scandals that can damage those values. I mentioned earlier that one of the value of Louis Vuitton was freedom of speech and open-mindedness[GAA1] . In June 2014, this value have been seriously challenged when the manager of the Louis Vuitton’s store in London’s Selfridge’s told is African employee “Black people are slaves who eat dirt off the floor” (Fashionista website article “Louis Vuitton sued over racists comments” https://fashionista.com/2014/07/louis-vuitton-lawsuit-racist ). This employee decided to sue the brand for racial discrimination and harassment lawsuit. Louis Vuitton quickly reacted and invoked its Ethical charter, here is the statement released by the brand to The Mirror (a British tabloid) “Louis Vuitton has a zero-tolerance policy to harassment of any kind. This reported sentiment is in total violation of the Louis Vuitton Ethical charter. This issue was investigated, and the manager in question no longer works within the company.” Despite this quick reaction some Malian people decided to boycott the brand because they no longer stick to the brand’s value. Luxury apparels’ brand also have to compose with new sensitive subjects. For instance, when Burberry destroyed it unsold product the brand had been accused of waste and John Peace (the chairman) had to precise it was not a regular operation and that they use “special incinerators that are able to harness the energy from the process”.
Luxury apparels’ brand have to keep caring of the product they propose and the value they convey, in addition these brands must adapt to new social and ethical concerns. Another shift is occurring and this one impacts the shopping habit of the customers and therefore brands need to adapt their customer experience.
When you enter a luxurious apparels’ store you often enter a microcosm with the brand as capital city. The stores are designed to stick with the brand values and offer customers a true shopping experience. Here are some pictures of Burberry and Ralph Lauren stores on which you can really appreciate the effort made to create an environment that corresponds to the brand.
The Burberry store located at the 121 Regent Street in London is more than just a luxury apparel store. Indeed, this store is a digital store. Burberry is keeping up with the digital area and decided in 2012 to create digital stores. On the website mashable.com (news website and information blog) a user highlights the unicity of Burberry’s strategy which is exactly the opposite point at an age where “many apparel retailers, particularly those that fall in the luxury category, have invested heavily in bringing elements of the in-store shopping experience to their websites.” Burberry is wants to bring the online experience to its store according to Christopher Bailey, Burberry’s chief creative officer in 2012. This Burberry digital store allows employees to check the history of customers to advise them, it has around 500 speakers and 100 screens in the store. Finally, this store has interactive radio-frequency identification chips next the clothes are connected to the screens so that it gives information about the apparel when a customer approach it. Online or in story luxury apparels’ brand understood the necessity to compose with a growing new method of purchasing which is e-commerce (strategies are so diverse that it can be the subject of an entire article, to continue …).
To put it in a nutshell, luxury apparels’ brands are facing some specific constrains in terms of authenticity of the product and of methods of purchasing. Brands are answering by adapting their model and preserving their brand value.
Antoine Gnagne Agnero
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