A RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Abstract
The proposed research utilises the concept of luxury value proposition (LVP) in fashion management to study consumer purchasing behaviour amongst London’s high-end fashion products. The proposed research seeks to examine the concepts of brand creativity, individuality, originality and ostentatious display to examine how marketing communication is done in high-end fashion management. This will be studied by using content analysis to critique the main marketing messages and visual analysis to identify how LVP is used to get consumers to purchase specific products.
The study will lead to the observation of consumer purchase habits in a sample of high end shops in major streets in London in order to draw conclusions on how consumers respond to these LVP processes. The research will use these three methods – content analysis of luxury fashion magazines, visual analysis of display and product positioning methods in shops and an observation of shopping habits and patterns in London’s luxury fashion shops. This will lead to the formulation of a conclusion on the main trends through which LVP induces consumer purchasing behaviours in London.
Introduction
There are many features that influences the decision and choice to purchase luxury fashion. The main factors that induces the purchase of high-end fashion is viewed as luxury value proposition (LVP). “The luxury value proposition is defined by the brand's creativity, individuality, originality, and ostentatious display”. This helps the seller of a given luxury fashion brand to connect with the client and sell a product to the consumer.
The aim of the proposed research is to answer the research question what is the impact of luxury value proposition (LVP) on luxury fashion consumer purchase decisions in London?
The motivation for this research is to identify some of the fundamental consumer thoughts and psychology in fashion management. This will show how consumers react to the luxury fashion positioning in relation to the information that attracts these consumers. This will provide the background for an understanding of the way consumers react to this information and how they eventually take decisions on buying luxury fashion. This can help to understand the industry and provide a framework for the provision of better services to consumers.
Literature Review
This literature review will involve a critical review of the concept of Luxury Value Proposition and its components. This will help to design the parameters of the research and create a research process. The literature review will examine the sub-elements of luxury value proposition and link it to the research question.
Brand Creativity
Consumers seek emotional, social and functional benefits from products they buy. Therefore, they try to buy from brands and entities that help them to achieve these goals in terms of purchasing and acquiring the products. An authority in fashion branding identifies that luxury brands projects three main things - social elevation, timelessness, and self-distinction. Therefore, consumers are positioned to build an attitude whereby the purchase by looking out for brands that project their feelings and expectations.
Usually, in a household setting, wives’ attitudes to luxury products determine the purchase trends. Brand creativity is therefore instituted to target these household structures and ensure that houses purchase luxury fashion products according to their own arrangements and dominant trends.
Individuality
There are various reasons why people are willing to buy luxury fashion and luxury products and this includes conspicuousness and status. This means that people will want to identify their individuality on the basis of what a given fashion product presents to his or her status. Thus, everyone wants to create a uniqueness based on price-quality perceptions of luxury fashion products they purchase
In other cases, individuality in fashion management and luxury fashion have to do with the presentation of physical achievement and the projection of a person’s ability and competency through fashion.
Originality
Culture defines the parameters of what is appropriate and what is not and this helps to identify social systems. There are classes and the high class often comes up with important processes to define themselves and distinguish themselves from others in the class. Therefore, the need for originality is necessary to separate a person from the masses and from the wider community and the society.
People prefer customized goods and goods that reflect the original thoughts of a popular and established designer. Therefore, there are many different processes and procedures that are used to help to promote a distinction from the rest of people in society.
Another angle of originality is based on the fact that social systems reproduce themselves but individuals want to remain differentiated through luxury fashion. Therefore, people are going to luxury fashion as a system through which they can define their status at any point in time as a unique part of the society.
Ostentatious Display
“Luxury fashion focuses on intrinsic satisfaction”. This means it is about trying to get consumers to achieve certain ends and goals which is different from other forms of fashion which are based on basic clothing needs. Rather, the focus is on trying to beyond just getting fashion products but satisfying a feeling and sentiment that is internal.
Most people prefer to purchase luxury fashion because it is viewed for its worth, not really for what it actually achieves and brings to consumers. Therefore, the idea of trying to get products on the basis of the value or worth is an important part of the positioning and offering of products. Ostentation is often about what people believe to be the value and people are willing to pay more based on what they perceive to be the extra worth based on what people think and not what actually exists
People are often willing to pay extra for what they perceive to be extra value or ostentation. Therefore, ostentation and the sentiment it induces is an important part of luxury value positioning.
LVP and the Market Reaction
Luxury consumer behaviour is often steeped in values that induces brand responsiveness. For an efficient marketing process to be achieved, a supply chain system must be instituted in luxury fashion to get consumers to acquire products conveniently and return to purchase similar products in future. This will ensure that a regular system is used to promote the brand and get consumers to act in a predictable pattern in order to gain brand equity through the achievement of financial benefits form the brand engineering system for a fashion product.
It is about branding the product or corporate image of a company to ensure that consumers build an emotional connection to the brand based on luxury – this creates a long term system. Corporate branding leads to a connection that causes a person to repeat purchases of fashion goods including luxury fashion.
Marketing is done to target the following four pointers utilitarian, hedonic, symbolic and economic values. Thus, brands are presented to get consumers to build these connections to their minds and emotions and then use that to remember the products and services that are being offered by a luxury fashion company or entity.
Methodology
The research question is how does luxury value proposition or LVP (brand creativity, individuality, originality and ostentatious display) causes London consumers to purchase luxury fashion? In order to investigate this, there is the need to identify methods and approaches that will be employed to conduct a data collection exercise, analyse the data and interpret the data in order to draw a conclusion. Thus, this section will show the pattern through which there will be a logical presentation of information and an analysis of the different elements of the information. This will include the definition of the methods, sample and other practical elements necessary for the definition of the parameters for the research.
Methods
There will be three main methods that will be employed in the research. They are:
Visual Analysis
Observation.
The visual analysis will include an examination of the elements of luxury value proposition in marketing communication of luxury fashion products. The content analysis will examine the features of the most notable luxury fashion and haute couture magazines and periodicals in London. This will show how LVP is presented to the consumers and what the intention of presenting them is. Finally, the observation will include a study of the main trends in shopping amongst high-end fashion shops and how LVP influences consumer purchase decisions and processes.
Sampling
When a researcher cannot examine 100% of the target population, it is necessary to define a logical sample of the population in order to study it and draw generalisations that is representative of the entire population. Since it is not possible to study all of London’s high-end fashion purchases in a given period, there will be the need to define a representative sample.
The content analysis will include a review of 5 regular magazines that advertise high-end fashion products. This will include haute couture and other expensive luxury products that are offered through these magazines.
The visual analysis will include the study of how luxury fashion is presented to consumers in five high-end streets of London – Oxford Street, Regent Street, Jermyn Street, Bond Street and Mayfair. The layout of shops and the presentation of products including clothes and jewellery will be analysed and reviewed. This will include a sample of one shop in each of the five shops.
After the visual analysis, the same sample of one shop will be studied for the observation of how consumers shop. The main attitudes and the main activities of the consumers will be observed. This will include observation of the household characteristics, behavioural trends and how consumers respond to the main features and processes of the LVP techniques used by the shops.
Data Analysis
The content analysis will culminate in a rhetorical analysis. This will include the identification of what the high-end magazines and Haute Couture magazines of London sought to bring to the consumers. This will be synthesised by being connected to the elements of luxury value proposition and how it is used to induce consumer to make purchases by appealing to their intrinsic desires and expectations.
The visual analysis will provide an examination of the way the content analysis findings are used to position products to consumers. This will include the identification of the main processes and procedures through which luxury fashion products are presented and how the perceptions and intrinsic feelings of consumers are targeted through the positioning and presentation of luxury fashion products in the major streets of London.
Finally, the observation of shopping trends and shopping processes will show how London consumers respond to the offers and the positioning of fashion products that is done in London’s luxury shops. This will show the way consumers are moved and how they select and make choices. In other words, the observation findings will be summarised to show how consumers are moved by the content presented to them and the display and positioning of products to their minds through LVP processes. This will show what consumers are willing to respond to and what they are less likely to respond to in terms of offerings.
Theorisation
The fundamental end of this study is to show how luxury value proposition occurs in London. This will include the formation of a theory on how this occurs and this will be done by creating a systematic and interlinked submission of information that will be used as the basis for the explanation of the research question. This will show how consumers are given products and offered these products in advertising and marketing communication. This will establish the main methods and approaches used to achieve luxury value proposition through the various forms of communication in the media for luxury fashion.
The visual analysis of luxury fashion products including clothing and jewellery will provide a theory on how products are displayed and presented to consumers. This will provide the basis for the identification of how LVP is used in fashion to get consumers in London’s high-end streets to respond to them.
Finally, the observation of shopping behaviours and trends will show the way that consumers get to respond to these forms of luxury value proposition and which methods are more effective in luxury fashion. This will show major trends and processes that are used and utilised to get consumers to buy luxury fashion.
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