The article “Fashion, Luxury and Design: Store Brand Management and Global Cities Identity” examines how fashion and design companies influence immaterial consumption and brand enhancement policy, management of events and the points of sale. The research focuses on such successful companies known worldwide as Gucci, Artemide, Kartell, and Hermes. Elisa Arrigo investigates how these brands create the identity of global cities which have become capitals of fashion where the most luxurious stores are located and which host the most exiting fashion events. The top cities where the best designers and fashion houses compete to be located include New York, Milan, Paris, and London being joined recently by Seoul, Helsinki and Turin.
Fashion and design industries have been defined as “cultural sectors” which have a great impact of national economies of the countries in which they dominate by advertising the image of these countries around the world. These firms don’t focus on distribution of their products only but selling such intangible factors as luxury and design as well. This is what differentiates them from their competitors of lower class available for mass market. Elisa underlines that: “The fashion industry is traditionally broken down into: haute couture, ready-to-wear, diffusion, bridge, and finally, the mass market”. Behind the idea of luxury and design such components as cultural values, the name of the brand, aesthetics and symbolism should be understood. This means that the customers pay for exclusiveness of the product and its strong intrinsic value. The price also depends on the degree of accessibility of the items as they can be inaccessible, of intermediary luxury and of accessible luxury.
The article reveals the history of the four brands mentioned above and analyzes the statistics of location of their stores in various countries. It describes the main product lines of Gucci: “ready-to –wear, footwear, jewellery, watches and leather goods”. Additionally, we can get the information about “the Hermes 7 product lines: “women’s fashion, leather goods, jewellery, perfume, menswear, leisure time and the home”. Furthermore, the article complements the research by presenting the basic data about Kartell, which specializes in the field of polycarbonate plastics, and distribution of its commodities to 120 flagship stores, multi-brand lines and 158 shop-in-shop areas. Finally, the author includes the achievements of the world’s best known lightning brand Artemide, which operates the “top-of-the-range residential and professional lightning”.
In the next part of the article Elisa Arrigo zooms in the image of brand enhancement policy in fashion, design and luxury to let the reader look at it in details. She listed several factors upon which the whole industry depends. They include marketing communication and advertising, the quality of the product, organization of events aimed at maintaining the cooperation with the clients and brand awareness. In reality establishing the relationships with the buyers is the most important purpose of functioning of all brands as satisfaction of purchasers’ needs brings the profit. That is why many firms invest in the loyalty programs to uphold the dynamic contact with the consumers and to create special opportunities for them. The events organized by the companies working in fashion industry present a wide scope of activities including fashion shows, fairs, cultural sponsorship, “hub events”, fashion weeks, etc. The most important and famous ones are the Milan Design Weekend, Vogue Fashion Night, the Furniture Fair with the Design week, etc. All this events have limited time duration and are set up with a specific goal. Except for the advertisement for potential buyers and entertaining them during their leisure time these events attract stakeholders and sponsors. Moreover, these fashionable shows encourage the increase of tourist flow and consumption of goods and services in the surrounding area, such as in restaurants, beauty salons, etc.
The article contains an assessment of the point of sale of the products in the industry of fashion, design and luxury presented in the form of a flagship store aimed at distribution and strengthening of brand awareness among the various countries where it is located. The author listed several characteristics of fashionable flagship stores: “they are single-brand stores, they are managed directly by the firm; they offer a wide assortment of products and a high standard of service to customers; they are of a considerable size; and have a strong visual impact; they are located in the world’s major cities”. Such characteristics emphasizes the expensiveness and the highest caliber of these brands as they visually stand out above other less exclusive brands, letting the customers flow freely from one pavilion to another and feel themselves comme en beau monde. Obviously, such luxury is affordable for the richest people on the planet only.
Now we are sure that the prestigious and strategically chosen location on the fashionable street of the capital of fashion is essential and of vital importance for any luxurious first class company because it creates its identity, makes the brand far more expensive and fuels the interest in customers and strong belief that they will seem less successful without luxurious items sold on this street. Sometimes female clients don’t pay much attention to what exactly they buy but to where they buy it. It can be a plain scarf but it has to be made by Armani from Italian fabric and sold on Fifth Avenue in New York. We should keep in mind that locating the stores on the most expensive streets of the world obliges the company to pay the highest rent, so it should develop the strongest marketing strategies to persuade the potential clients to buy its products. So, many fashion icons establish one flagship store per each capital of fashion and create some “exceptional features” in each of them to make each store of the same company look different and unique. According to Elisa Arrigo “This policy has numerous advantages for the firm, allowing it: to consolidate a sense of luxury and uniqueness without diluting the essence of the brand; and, obviously, to trigger customers’ curiosity, persuading them to visit the store. One example of this is the Gucci concept stores designed in 2008 by creative director Frida Giannini”.
Works Cited
Arrigo, Elisa. " Fashion, Luxury and Design: Store Brand Management and Global Cities Identity." 1 Nov. 2011. 1 Mar. 2014. < www.unimib.it/symphonya>.
