Desde a tenra idade, meninas aprendem o quanto é importante “estar na moda” em nossa sociedade. Cada vez mais, está em evidência a prática e a necessidade do embelezamento feminino. Mulheres ditas “comuns”, em busca de um lugar nas passarelas, frente aos novos “holofotes contemporâneos”, espetacularizam seus corpos, tentando imitar, seguir os segredos de beleza de uma diva famosa, modelo ou artista de cinema. Com o objetivo de encontrar a mais nova top model brasileira, através de um concurso de beleza, o reality show – Menina Fantástica – exibido no ano de 2012 pelo programa de televisão Fantástico – transmitido aos domingos pela TV Globo, mostrou como uma menina deve se fazer “fantástica” para realizar o seu grande sonho de tornar-se uma manequim de sucesso. Entre maquiagens e produtos de beleza, as meninas aprenderam a ser princesas e bonecas da moda. Para tornar o corpo um acessório de charme e muita graça, era mostrada uma beleza que se faz contemporânea e que pode estar ao alcance de qualquer mulher, ou seja, qualquer menina pode ter a chance de fazer-se “fantástica” e conquistar o brilho e o glamour do universo fashion. Mas para isso, ela precisava construir um estilo de viver a sua feminilidade, que deveria ser top. Essa busca pelo brilho, esse encantamento por ser uma manequim de luxo, inquietou-me. Essa cultura do “belo sexo” me fez pensar em corpos mutantes, corpos voláteis, que a qualquer preço desejam alcançar a fama e a felicidade de um corpo esbelto e perfeito. Foram esses questionamentos que me levaram a analisar as estratégias implicadas na produção dessas meninas, cujo maior sonho é ser fantástica, estampar a capa da revista Vogue e desfilar no Fashion Week. Vale tudo para ser uma top model? Como o sonho de ser uma modelo se constitui? A beleza se faz conquistada com muito trabalho e dedicação, qualquer jovem pode sonhar em ser uma Garota Verão ou uma Menina Fantástica ao cuidar da alimentação e praticar exercícios físicos. Esse jeito de ser feminina é promovido constantemente pelos cânones midiáticos contemporâneos. Uma estética de passagem para uma metamorfose, uma superprodução do feminino. O site das Meninas Fantásticas foi o material empírico de análise, visto que, ali, as candidatas a futuras manequins falam de si e narram seus sonhos, além de mostrarem sua trajetória neste concurso de beleza. Inspirada no aporte teórico dos Estudos Culturais em Educação e em suas perspectivas pós-estruturalistas, discuto essas novas feminilidades contemporâneas que recomendam esse cuidar de si, para embelezar-se e fotografar-se. Para compreender tal sonho, faço uma análise das narrativas das quatro finalistas do ano de 2012, que foram selecionadas entre tantas outras garotas para participar deste reality show. Confinadas numa mansão, as meninas eram preparadas para seguir a futura carreira de modelo/manequim. Especialistas da saúde, estilistas de moda e top models internacionais e consagradas na mídia, davam dicas às jovens meninas. Estas, por sua vez, aprenderam a modelar seus corpos, a ter equilíbrio e postura na passarela e a fazer de sua beleza uma vitrine de luxo. Camaleoas, fazem de seus corpos uma performatividade teatral, cujo corpo, visto como uma mercadoria, coloca-se em desfile, num verdadeiro show do feminino. / Since they were little girls, they have learnt how important is ‘being in fashion’ in our society. Female practice and urge to be beautiful is more and more in evidence. The so-called ‘ordinary’ women, in search of a space in the catwalk or under ‘contemporary spotlights’, spectacularise their bodies, trying to mimic or find out beauty secrets of a famous model or star. Aiming to find the Brazil’s latest top model in a beauty pageant, the reality show Menina Fantastica, presented in Fantastico on 2012 Globo Network on Sundays, showed what a girl should do to become fantastic for her big dream of becoming a luxurious model to come true. Between makeup and beauty products, girls learnt to be mode princesses. For the body to become a piece of charming and cute accoutrements, beauty is shown as modern and within the every woman’s grasp. In other words, any girl can become fantastic and win the glamour of the fashion universe. But for that, she must build her own way of living her femininity. This search for the gleam, this enchantment for being a luxurious model, has disturbed me. This culture of ‘fair sex’ makes me think about changing volatile bodies wishing fame and happiness for a thin perfect body at any cost. These issues led me to analyse strategies to shape these girls whose major dream is being fantastic, a centrefold in Vogue and model at Fashion Week. Is anything worth doing to be a top model in contemporary times? How does the dream to be a model come true? Beauty is won, and with hard work and dedication any girl may dream to be a Garota Verao or Menina Fantastica, by looking for healthy feeding and doing physical exercises. Contemporary media canons constantly promote this female way. It was an aesthetic that is on the way to metamorphosis, a female blockbuster. The empirical material for analysis was Meninas Fantásticas website, where candidates for future model careers talk about themselves, speak of their dreams and display their path in this beauty pageant. Drawn on the Cultural Studies in Education in their poststructuralist perspective, I discuss these new contemporary femininities, which recommend this self-care to embellish and to be shot. To understand this dream, I have analysed four contestants’ narratives in 2012, who were selected among so many girls to take part in this reality show. Confined in a large imposing house, girls were prepared to follow a future model career. Experts in health, wardrobe stylists and internationally famous top models gave tips for the young girls. These in turn learn to model their bodies, improve their posture and balance on the catwalk, and turn their beauty into luxurious display case. Chameleons make their bodies a drama performance, as the body is seen as a good in a pageant, a genuine female show.

Academic perspectives on the meanings of luxury often link luxury to status or conspicuous consumption, assuming that luxury derives its meaning primarily from a traditional viewpoint, in which it is narrowly associated with generic economic and social displays of superiority, as attained through the rhetoric of wealth (Vickers and Renand, 2003; Vigneron and Johnson, 2004). However, this traditional view of luxury fails to appreciate the cultural and emotional complexity of luxury consumption: this rather limited interpretation therefore risks rendering consumers as passive and primarily homogeneous entities. This thesis argues that the term ‘luxury’ has little meaning unless it is integrated within the current ‘practices’ of consumer culture. Thus, the study conceptualises luxury from a consumer perspective, wherein meanings are understood as resulting from luxury consumption practices adopted by diverse sets of consumers across cultures. Sixteen UK and Sixteen Thai undergraduate and postgraduate students were selected to participate in two stages of data collection, involving collage construction, in-depth interviews and further fieldwork. The findings extends the existing research on luxury by developing four practices of luxury consumption: caretaker, escapist, self-transformation, and status-based. Accordingly, the study proposes an alternation view of luxury as ‘everyday luxury’, a view in which consumers can transfer and incorporate self-defined luxuries into everyday contexts. The notion of everyday luxury fundamentally allows us to move beyond a purely materialistic understanding of luxury in order to reach a metaphysical account of luxury as a subjective, moral, ephemeral and immaterial concept present in our everyday living. Moreover, this idea considerably fulfils our understanding of contemporary luxury so that traditional luxury (Veblen, 1902) and everyday luxury can co-exist within the concept of luxury. Overall, the subjective truth of the meaning of luxury in a cross-cultural context is regarded as combining the construct and outcome of a reciprocal interaction between both traditional and everyday luxury, the understanding of the self and morality within different cultures and societies, and different reflections on individuals’ lived experiences.

Traditionally, trademarks were considered as convenient tools for source identification, and were granted legal recognition on this premise. However, more recently, trademarks have evolved in a new yet challenging medium as an effective tool for both corporate and social communication. The changing nature of trademarks and the subsequent emergence of modern trademark functions have prompted legal change within the European Union. Whilst this result is not in itself surprising, the approach adopted within the EU for the integration of the modern functions into the European trademark system has raised justifiable concerns on whether the balance of the trademark system has been disrupted. Given the dilemma, this thesis aimed to evaluate and critique the current system for modern trademark protection in Europe, and to propose change accordingly. To achieve this objective, the thesis used the luxury fashion industry as an analytical tool capable of reflecting accurately the various dimensions of the modern functions, particularly those aspects which are often overlooked within the legal spectrum. Only when the modern functions were fully comprehended, a proposal for a sound, balanced system for protection which takes into account the interests of all players in the market became plausible. Using an interdisciplinary approach, the thesis showed that the significance of trademarks lies within its communicative value which in turn has three dimensions; brand-consumer communication, consumer-consumer communication, and consumer-public communication. The effective protection of the modern functions necessitates the recognition of all these three facets. The thesis argued that theoretically, the protection of the brand-consumer communication dimension can be normatively justified based on a misappropriation ground through a limited, well-articulated anti-freeriding provision. In practice, Article 5(2) if interpreted in the light of the free-riding rationale suggested, can provide sufficient safeguards for the protection of brand-consumer communication. While such approach may simultaneously advance the communicative interest of some consumers (consumers of the particular brand), it falls short from protecting the broader public interest in communicating through trademarks. To fully preserve the other dimensions of trademark communicative, an effective expressive use defence which preserves the right of the public to transform, act on, criticise, resist, or challenge traditional brand meanings is crucial. Conclusively, disregarding any of these dimensions, which is regrettably the case now, will necessarily disrupt the balance of the trademark system and will simultaneously empower brand owners to manipulate consumer demand.

This thesis explores the role of curation in the design and development of brand experience in the luxury retail environment. Three research objectives seek firstly, to gain an understanding of the meaning of curation in luxury retailing and identify the role, purpose and value to luxury retailers; secondly, to explore the different ways in which curation manifests itself in the luxury retail environment by examining sole brand and multi brand luxury retailers, and lastly, to identify how curation is brought to life through the curatorial roles within luxury retailers. In light of increasing global competitive pressures and fast-paced technology advances associated with mobile devices, the rise of omnichannel retailing has led luxury brands to be ubiquitous, with the resulting challenge for luxury retailers to develop seamless and experiential omnichannel brand experiences in order to continue to differentiate and grow. However, there is a paucity of literature regarding the design and development of luxury brand experiences, suggesting a gap in the literature. In addition, ‘curation’, a term traditionally associated with museology, is being increasingly used in the business environment in terms of creating differentiated experiences or collection of products both online and in-store. Little attention has been paid to curation in the literature, with the result of limited understanding of the role of curation in the design and development of brand experience, suggesting a second gap to be addressed in the research. The research was an investigative, qualitative and thematic analysis-based study. The data collection focused on face-to-face semi-structured interviews with 17 senior professionals from the luxury retail and cultural environments in the UK. Braun and Clarke’s (2006) Six Stages of Thematic Analysis and NVivo software were utilised to analyse the data, resulting in 9 key themes. My original contribution to the literature is this research is one of the first empirical studies to explore the role of curation in the design and development of brand experience in the luxury retail environment, resulting in three key contributions. Firstly, the role of curation is an influential one in the design and development of brand experience in the luxury retail environment and is manifested in four forms of curation across sole brand and multi brand luxury retailers. Secondly, curation in luxury retail has evolved from the traditional art-historian discipline of curation and is emerging as a new discipline and modus operandi in its own right, creating strategic, organisational, financial and experiential value. Thirdly, a strategic curation management toolkit consisting of three strategic frameworks was developed that contributes to both the brand literature and management practice. The toolkit provides managers with a common vernacular to develop their curatorial capabilities and identify strategic opportunities where they can harness curation as a strategy to design and develop omnichannel luxury brand experiences as a route to competitive advantage and build a platform for future growth.

The aim of this thesis is to determine the marketing strategies used in the luxury industry differentiate luxury from premium and research the motivations values and beliefs of luxury consumers. Research was done on five main luxury activities: fashion and leather goods jewelry and watches and perfumes and cosmetics spirits and automobiles. The literature part has been structured in a way to present the evolution of the luxury industry and its development over the course of years. The section then goes onto clearly defining what luxury is and stating the different industries found in the luxury market. The secondary research identified the use of five different marketing strategies in the luxury industry. A survey was then conducted in order to understand consumer s motivations for purchasing luxury goods and their beliefs values and view s on luxury products. Results showed that the majority of survey participants agreed there existed a difference between premium and luxury and that quality and craftsmanship are the biggest motivators for purchasing luxury goods. The survey was carried out worldwide but there was a greater focus on consumers from North America and Europe. Survey participants were categorized into three target groups: management students managers with high disposable income and regular luxury consumers. Based on the findings the author made recommendations for new entrants into the luxury industry according to each marketing strategy.

The thesis argues that the distribution formats can be significant strategic communication and differentiation tools for luxury brand and that the intangible determinants within the space can provide balancing link between company trying to manage its brand expression and consumers search for the meaningful experiences. The dissertation uses a luxury retail setting, as the highest in distribution hierarchy to analyze these relations. This ensures a level of diversification from mass retail approach. In addition, this brings back to the store as source of value creation and experiences that one should expect from a luxury brand. The aim: To explore conceptually the nature of value creation and how the relationship gets between a retailer and customer translated and communicated by a means of store, also to identify the key determinants for the value creation within the formats while looking at which levels it brings to ability to co - create the experiential value with consumer. Method: The two primary methods used are: in-depth, semi-structured interview with professionals or key informants and field notes in ethnographic context with a sample of 52 international marketing students. The secondary data collection draws upon extensive, relevant and significant academic literature review including books, professional journals, online resources, etc. Findings: The work identified two value drivers: Symbolic Desire and Exclusive Excitement. Excitement and Desire were found to be the main emotions to trigger the consumer within the luxury setting and to translate a product into service or experience of a kind. Second, research identified the two experiential prospects of: Become and Belong. These show all the way the interaction builds and develops to immerse the customers in a branded world and experiences. As a result the thesis suggests two new approaches; Experiential Value Co-Creation and In - Store Typology. Such orientation offers an outline for adjusting the service and mapping the generic groups of luxury consumers. Moreover, in-store experiential typology offers four types of spaces and/or segments within the setting: Expertise, Exclusivize, Aspirational and Popularize.

The aim of this thesis Marketing analysis of brand Yves Saint Laurent in portfolio L'Oréal is analysis of brand Yves Saint Laurent. The theoretical part focuses mainly on marketing, brand, luxury, analysis of brand and marketing strategies. Practical part based on the findings in theoretical part analysed brand - history, indentity, value and marketing strategy and reccomend new marketing strategies.

Ce travail aborde le luxe dans les sciences de l’information et de la communication au prisme des médias dans une approche interdisciplinaire en s’appuyant sur l’esthétique, la sémiotique, l’étude des identités visuelles, la muséographie et l’analyse de discours. En utilisant le concept d’artification mis en avant par Nathalie Heinich et Roberta Shapiro en 2012 pour décrire le passage à l’art de pratiques non artistiques, nous analysons les dispositifs sociotechniques d’information et de communication mis en œuvre pour tenter de transformer l’objet de luxe en objet d’art, et sa consommation en expérience esthétique. Nous interrogeons les discours médiatiques opérant sur cette mise en exposition pour vérifier l’opérativité du dispositif et analyser le mode de fonctionnement de la convergence des signes et du sens qui produit l’artification. Ce travail est une des réponses possibles à la question « Un dispositif peut-il transformer un sac à main en œuvre d’art ? » / This work deals with luxury in the information and communication sciences to the media prism in an interdisciplinary approach based on aesthetics, semiotics, the study of visual identities, museography and analysis of speech. Using the concept of artification put forward by Nathalie Heinich and Roberta Shapiro in 2012 to describe the transition to the art of non-artistic practices, we analyze the sociotechnical information and communication devices used to try to transform the object of luxury as an object of art, and its consummation in aesthetic experience. We ask the media discourses operating on this exposure to verify the operativity of the device and analyze the mode of operation of the convergence of signs and the meaning that produces the artification. This work is one of the possible answers to the question "Can a device transform a handbag into a work of art? "

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