An emerging literature stream posits that drawing on users rather than internal designers in new product creation may benefit firms because the resulting products effectively satisfy consumer needs. Four studies conducted in the context of the luxury fashion industry uncover an important conceptual boundary condition of this positive user-design effect. Contrary to extant research, the results show that being "close" to users does not help but rather harms luxury fashion brands. Specifically, the authors find that user design backfires because consumer demand for a given luxury fashion brand collection is reduced if the collection is labeled as user (vs. company) designed. The results further reveal the underlying rationale for this reversal: user-designed luxury products are perceived to be lower in quality and fail to signal high status, which results in a loss of agentic feelings for the consumer. The authors explore several strategies luxury brands can pursue to overcome this negative user-design effect. Finally, they find that negative outcomes of user design are attenuated for luxury fashion products that are not used for status signaling - that is, product categories of a luxury brand that are characterized by lower status relevance for the consumer. (authors' abstract)

AbstractBackground: Countries can be seen as brands (nation brands) with brand values that transmitto the country’s products. Country-of-origin (COO), the brands nationality, links the productto an associative network of cultural shared national stereotypes. Through associating thebrand with a country or a region, the credibility of the brand can increase and strengthen thebrand. Therefore COO is used in marketing to position a brand.Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine how luxury fashion brands communicatetheir national identity through analyzing their advertising. The brands examined in the studyare the French brand Chanel and the British brand Burberry. To be able to answer the researchquestion, the brands’ advertising campaigns were analyzed to see whether they contain abrand personality built on a national stereotype or if there is a clear national theme or storieslinking to the national identity.Methodology:The national stereotypes of the two countries were examined through a pilotstudy. The advertising campaigns were analyzed by using an analyze model that wasdeveloped from image analyzing theories. It was then connected to the theory and the nationalstereotypes that evolved from the pilot study.Results: The results revealed in this study shows that the two different brands use theirnational identity in different ways. While Burberry has a clear British theme in theirmarketing, Chanel uses stories to link their brand personality with that of the founder CocoChanel, whom is associated with the stereotype of France. / <p>Sammanfattning</p><p>Bakgrund: Länder kan ses som varumärken (nation brands) som har varumärkesvärden som</p><p>överförs till ländernas produkter. Country-of-origin (COO), varumärkets nationalitet, länkar</p><p>produkten till ett associativt nätverk av kulturellt delade nationella stereotyper. Genom att</p><p>associera ett varumärke med ett land eller en region, kan trovärdigheten för varumärket öka</p><p>vilket förstärker varumärket. COO kommuniceras därför i reklam för positionering.</p><p>Syfte: Huvudsyftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur lyxvarumärken inom mode</p><p>kommunicerar sin nationella identitet genom att analysera deras reklamkampanjer. De</p><p>varumärken som studerades var franska Chanel och brittiska Burberry. För att svara på syftet</p><p>prövades om varumärkenas personlighet bygger på den nationella stereotypen.</p><p>Reklambilderna analyserades även för att se om det finns ett tydligt nationellt tema eller</p><p>berättelser som länkar till den nationella identiteten.</p><p>Metod: Genom en förstudie undersöktes de olika ländernas nationella stereotyper.</p><p>Reklambilderna analyserades med hjälp av en analysmodell som utvecklades från</p><p>bildanalysteorier. Analysen kopplades till teorin samt de nationella stereotyper som</p><p>framkommit genom förstudien.</p><p>Resultat: Resultatet och det som framkom i studien var att de olika varumärkena använder sig</p><p>av sin nationella identitet på olika sätt. Medan Burberry har ett tydligt brittiskt tema i sin</p><p>marknadsföring, använder Chanel berättelser som länkar varumärkespersonligheten till</p><p>grundaren Coco Chanel, som kan sammankopplas med den franska stereotypen.</p><p>Program: Textilekonomutbildningen magister</p>