This thesis is about how high level brands communicate their brands to the audience. The thesis consists of analyses of the identity and images of two luxury brands, Gucci and Burberry and two premium brands, Lacoste and Morris. The purpose is to clarify the identity of the brands, by carrying out analysis as well as interviews with key personnel. Furthermore there is an analysis of the advertisement images for the respective brands in order to clarify the brands images. Finally there is an analysis of the alleged conformity between identity and image and also a section about the luxury and premium brand differs, or rather not differ from each other in the identity-image connection. The methods used are Aakers identity system, to establish the respective brands identity. An image analysis with inspiration from Panfosky and leading semoticians are also used to scrutinize the advertising images from the Spring/Summer 2010 campaigns. The results show that there is indeed a good conformation among the brands when it comes to the identity-image connection. The brands identities are thorough and well articulated and the advertisement images are well executed with the identity well in mind which makes for that the campaigns are contributing in building a good brand image among the target audience. There are several areas where the premium brand advertising images congregate with the ones of the luxury brand. / Program: Magisterutbildning i fashion management med inriktning modemarknadsföring

Purchasing counterfeited luxury products and downloading pirated items have becomemore common nowadays. Fashion and IT industries are affected negatively by consumers’supportive attitude towards piracy and counterfeits. Many luxury branded companies havetheir exclusive brand names stolen by counterfeits producers. Likewise producers ofcomputer software, music, and movies are affected by individuals who download/streamtheir items for free. Consumers’ attitudes towards counterfeiting and piracy are importantto examine as to understand their acceptance and rejection towards counterfeits and piracy.The purpose of this thesis is to examine consumers’ attitudes towards counterfeits andpiracy. What is accepted and rejected by consumers? To answer the research questions, aqualitative method is used. The data is collected through semi-structured interviews with12 consumers of both/either counterfeits and piracy. The study is performed in Skåne(Scania), Sweden, mainly in Malmö, Perstorp and Kristianstad.We implemented the Theory of Reasoned Action, Theory of Moral Reasoning, ConsumerTheory and different attitudes for analysing the empirical presentation. The result of thestudy showed that the interviewees had a more accepting attitude towards piracy while themajority of them had a rejecting attitude towards counterfeits. Due to the fact thatcomputer and IT have become a part of the everyday life for many individuals. However,the interviewees who buy counterfeits consume the items while they are on vacationabroad since the supply of counterfeits in the Swedish market is not very big. When itcame to piracy and counterfeited products, the age of the interviewees did matter to someextent. Also, price was one important element why consumers are interested in counterfeitsor download piracy.This study contributes to fill the gap in the lack of studies of consumers’ attitudes towardsboth piracy and counterfeits. The conclusions can be used as a guideline and tool forcompanies to be aware of consumers’ attitudes towards illicit products. Keywords: Counterfeit products, Piracy, Consumer attitude, Physical products, Digitalproducts, Luxury brands, Genuine luxury brand, Illicit forged products

As a result of three decades of rapid economic development, China has become the world’s second largest economy and the second biggest market for luxury consumer products (Chevalier & Lu, 2009; Degen, 2009). The most populous nation in the world is also a leading sports power with strong yet mythical potentials in its sports business market (Chadwick, 2008). This thesis studies the area where luxury consumption and sports business intersect in the market by examining the phenomenon of sports celebrity endorsement of luxury brands and how such endorsements lead to the intentions and decisions by Chinese consumers to purchase the endorsed brands. Employing a mixed-method approach by using qualitative interviews and quantitative surveys, this study adopts a methodological triangulation research design, which involves semi-structured interviews with brand managers and professionals to explore their knowledge and experiences, questionnaire surveys of consumers to understand their demographic characteristics and luxury consumption motives and considerations, and confirmative structured interviews with consumers to ensure the reliability of the research and expand the findings. Research data analysis generated three major findings. Firstly, the purchasing intentions and decisions of the consumers are the result of the synchronised functioning of a triad of social, personal, and commercial factors that define both the endorsers and the consumers. Secondly, the characteristics of the sports celebrity endorsers in terms of their attractiveness, trustworthiness and expertise have positive relationships with the represented brand equity, which in turn has a positive relationship with the consumers’ intentions and decisions to purchase the endorsed products. Thirdly, Chinese consumers demonstrate a weak and conditional preference for local sports celebrities to endorse international luxury brands. These research findings explain why it is more difficult for luxury brand owners to sell to the consumers than to impress or interest them, particularly in the context of the Chinese market. This is a pioneering academic study, intended to provide insights into how consumers in China respond to sports celebrity endorsement of luxury brands. It 2 provides an academic understanding of a knowledge gap between the studies of luxury business and sports marketing. It may benefit the strategists and practitioners of luxury brands by providing an empirical understanding of Chinese consumers and their decision-making processes under the influences of sports celebrity endorsements, so they can develop marketing communication strategies more effectively in the emerging market.

Cette thèse analyse les relations entre consommateurs et marques de luxe, etcomment cette relation évolue au 21ème siècle. Face au défi de la désacralisation face aux mutations de la société, liées à l’hypermodernité, à la démocratisation du luxe, à Internet et aux médias sociaux, les marques de luxe traditionnelles recherchent desmoyens de rester pertinentes et sacrées. Nous décrivons comment le sacré évolue etcomment les marques utilisent les propriétés du sacré pour rester des marques de luxe.Notre hypothèse principale est que le concept de sacré dans la société évolue etnous proposons donc un cadre théorique qui décrit un nouveau sacré potentiel pour que les marques de luxe restent souhaitables pour les consommateurs du 21ème siècle.Nous avons mené des entretiens approfondis avec les consommateurs de marquesde luxe, analysé les données Instagram et effectué des analyses ethnographiques etnethnographiques sur les ensembles de données, ce qui nous a permis de donner unpremier aperçu et de découvrir le rôle et l’importance du caractère sacré des marques de luxe.Nos résultats montrent trois tendances dans les relations des consommateurs avecles marques de luxe, qui sous-tendent différentes visions du sacré. Celles-ci vont du (1) sacré traditionnel, à savoir l'exclusivité, au (2) nouveau sacré, à l'inclusivité, et (3) à la fusion de l'exclusivité et de l'inclusivité. / This thesis analyzes the relationship between consumers and luxury brands, and how this relation is changing in the 21st century. Facing the challenge of being desacralized by the changes in society, stemming from hypermodernity, the democratization of luxury, the Internet, and social media, traditional luxury brands are looking for ways to remain relevant and sacred. We describe how sacredness is evolving and how brands are using the properties of sacredness to stay luxury brands.Our main assumption is that the concept of sacredness in society is evolving, and we therefore propose a theoretical framework that describes a potential new sacredness for luxury brands to remain desirable for consumers in the 21st century.We conducted in-depth interviews with luxury brand consumers, analyzed Instagramdata, and performed ethnography and nethnography analyses on the data sets, allowing us to provide first insights and findings on the role and importance of sacredness for luxury brands.Our findings show three patterns in the relationship of consumers to luxury brands,underlying different visions of sacredness. These range from (1) traditional sacredness, i.e. exclusivity, (2) new sacredness, i.e. inclusivity, and (3) a fusion of exclusivity and inclusivity.

Orientador: José Alcides Gobbo Junior / Resumo: Com as novas formas de interação e de consumo surgidas com o advento da internet e das redes sociais digitais tem sido importante identificar os atores mais influentes e centrais da rede, dentre estes, os de maior destaque são os influenciadores digitais. Esse profissional fortaleceu a aplicação do marketing de influência, que está atrelado à estratégia de marketing das marcas e à gestão delas nas redes sociais digitais. As marcas de luxo, descobriram o impacto de longo alcance e o potencial de viralização da informação que a aproximação com influenciadores pode promover para seus produtos e assim começaram a investir em ações de marketing e campanhas direcionadas exclusivamente para o Instagram, o grande desafio é mensurar a eficácia e a popularidade das postagens. Tendo em vista o cenário apresentado, busca-se estudar empiricamente se as propriedades estruturais da rede das marcas de luxo e a interação de atores com alto índice de centralidade impactam a popularidade dos posts das marcas de luxo brasileiras no Instagram. Para atingir o objetivo de pesquisa foram analisados os perfis oficiais do Instagram de vinte e seis marcas nacionais desse segmento, com dados coletados por web scraping. Os influenciadores da rede foram identificados com o uso da análise de redes e os dados foram analisados por meio da regressão linear múltipla. A teoria de influência social e a teoria de redes serviram de base para o estudo. Como resultado foi identificado que a presença do influenciador... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: With the new forms of interaction and consumption that emerged with the advent of the internet and digital social networks, it has been important to identify the most influential and central actors in the network, among which the most prominent are the digital influencers. This professional strengthened the application of influence marketing, which is linked to the brands' marketing strategy and their management in digital social networks. Luxury brands have discovered the far-reaching impact and potential for viralization of information that the approach to influencers can promote for their products and thus began to invest in marketing actions and campaigns aimed exclusively at Instagram, the big challenge is how to measure the effectiveness and popularity of posts. Given the scenario presented, we seek to empirically study whether the structural properties of the luxury brand network and the interaction of actors with a high centrality index impact the popularity of Brazilian luxury brand posts on Instagram. To reach the research objective, the official Instagram profiles of twenty-six Brazilian luxury brands were analyzed, with data collected through web scraping. Network influencers were identified using network analysis and the data were analyzed using multiple linear regression. The theory of social influence and the theory of networks served as the basis for the study. As a result, it was identified that the presence of the influencer with the highest centrality index... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor

The purpose of this thesis was to study how the modern luxury consumer, Generation Z, experiences luxury brands in a social media environment. The theoretical framework presents previous research that has been on the topics of luxury brands, Gen Z, social media and consumer experience. Since the consumer's perspective was of main interest for this study, this thesis was implemented through a qualitative study which was carried through by ten qualitative interviews with Generation Z respondents with the interview based on findings from chosen literature. Previous research stated that the relationship between social media and luxury brands can be beneficial yet very complicated if not done properly and with the right measures. A thematic analysis was chosen as a tool for analyzing the collection of qualitative data along with the previous theoretical framework. The presented theory together with the empirical findings resulted in presenting a relationship between the three topics: Luxury Brands, Gen Z and Social media. A relationship that based on composition affects which type of Consumer Experience consumers will have in today's prevailing online environment. The study led to the conclusion that there is indeed a paradox in terms of the expected experience versus the actual experience for luxury brands online and that Gen Z does experience the relationship between the brand and social media to be contradictory. / Syftet med detta examensarbete var att studera hur den moderna lyxkonsumenten, Generation Z, upplever lyxvarumärken i en sociala medier miljö. Det teoretiska ramverket presenterar tidigare forskning som har behandlat ämnena lyxvarumärken, Gen Z, sociala medier och konsumentupplevelse. Eftersom konsumentens perspektiv var av huvudintresse, genomfördes denna undersökning genom en kvalitativ studie. Denna implementerades genom tio kvalitativa intervjuer med Generation Z respondenter där intervjuguiden var baserad på resultat från vald litteratur. Tidigare forskning har konstaterat att förhållandet mellan sociala medier och lyxmärken kan vara fördelaktigt men ändå mycket komplicerat om det inte görs på rätt sätt och med rätt åtgärder. En tematisk analys valdes som ett verktyg för att analysera insamlingen av kvalitativ data tillsammans med det tidigare teoretiska ramverket. Den presenterade teorin tillsammans med de empiriska resultaten resulterade i att presentera en relation mellan de tre ämnena: Lyxvarumärken, Gen Z och Sociala medier. En relation som beroende på sammansättningen av de olika komponenterna påverkar vilken typ av konsumentupplevelse konsumenter kommer att ha i dagens rådande onlinemiljö. Studien mynnade ut i slutsatsen att det verkligen finns en motsägelse när det gäller den förväntade upplevelsen kontra den faktiska upplevelsen för lyxmärken online och att Gen Z upplever förhållandet mellan varumärket och sociala medier som motsägelsefullt.

In recent years, there has been a notable shift in the conventional strategies employed by luxury automotive brands towards a more digitalized customer journey. This shift reflects the changing landscape of consumer behavior and the growing influence of technology in shaping customer experiences. Customers are increasingly seeking convenience, personalization, and seamless interactions throughout their purchase process, and expect businesses to provide them with engaging and immersive experiences, both online and offline. As a result, luxury automotive brands have recognized the need to establish a strong digital presence and leverage various touchpoints to meet these evolving customer expectations. Consequently, the purpose of this thesis has been to examine and understand how luxury automotive brands create luxury hedonic experiences online, as well as identify the key touchpoints through which hedonic value is created in a digital context. To achieve these objectives, a qualitative multiple-case study was conducted involving seven businesses operating in the luxury automotive sector. The research methodology employed a combination of semi-structured interviews and a structured questionnaire, and the empirical findings were thoroughly analyzed in conjunction with existing literature to discern similarities and disparities among the cases studied. The conclusion of this thesis reveals that luxury brands employ a multi-faceted approach, utilizing high-quality digital content, exclusivity, collaborations, innovation, personalization, customer-centricity, and top-quality customer service to create hedonic experiences. Key digital touchpoints include aesthetically pleasing websites, interactive features, social media platforms for community building, and corporate touchpoints that align digital experiences with offline luxury experiences. Moreover, this thesis can serve as a guide for future endeavors in this field, and researchers can utilize its findings as a foundation to further explore the implications for luxury automotive brands.

Intresset för lyxprodukter har ökat runt om i världen vilket också blivit allt mer framträdande i Sverige. Marknaden för lyxprodukter har de senaste åren förändrats och banat väg för en ny kategori av lyx tillgänglig för en globalt växande medelklass. Den nya kategorin benämns ofta som new luxury vilket innebär en åtkomlig kategori av statusgivande produkter som är lägre i pris än de traditionella lyxprodukterna. Allt fler lyxföretag väljer att expandera för att kunna nå en bredare kundbas och tillämpar därför produktlinjeutvidgning eller varumärkesutvidgning. En alltför omfattande expandering kan dock innebära risker eftersom den uppfattade exklusiviteten hos ett lyxföretag kan gå förlorad. Många underlinjer riktar sig mot en yngre kundbas och Generation Y har visat sig vara en fördelaktig målgrupp att rikta sig mot på lyxmarknaden.Denna studie har som syfte att bidra med teoretisk kunskap kring vilka lyxprodukter svenska kvinnor av Generation Y konsumerar och vilka attityder och värderingar de har kring lyxkonsumtion och lyxvarumärken inom kategorierna traditionell lyx och new luxury. Det tycks finnas en brist på forskning i Sverige som behandlar kopplingen mellan Generation Y och lyxkonsumtion, varvid denna studie fyller en viktig kunskapslucka. Åtta semi-strukturerade intervjuer utfördes med kvinnor i åldrarna 20-26 som är konsumenter av lyxprodukter. Resultaten visar att svenska kvinnor av Generation Y främst konsumerar lyxprodukter i form av accessoarer och framförallt handväskor. Det framgår även att överexponering av ett lyxvarumärke frammanar negativa attityder och att de lätt tröttnar på det om de ser det för ofta och om det används av personer utanför deras referensgrupp. Utifrån kategoriseringen av traditionell lyx och new luxury kan vi se att svenska kvinnor av Generation Y är medvetna om skillnaderna mellan kategorierna. Dock gjorde de inte någon medveten skillnad mellan underlinjer och modervarumärken vilket innebär att dessa delar samma image och kvalitetsuppfattning hos svenska kvinnor av Generation Y.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:25:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Luciana Pianaro.pdf: 2132470 bytes, checksum: 4c550c74dc6caed06610f3cde838a256 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-05-03 / This study focuses in the identification of the marketing strategies used by companies in the luxury market of clothing and accessories of international brands that are consolidated in the Brazilian market. The objectives of this research are getting to know the vision of the executives about the concepts and features of luxury goods, especially the brands that these products represent; understand the behavior of their customers; identify the practices of the marketing mix; and to know what the competition in this sector is like. The research, of a qualitative nature, utilized a nonprobabilistic sample of seven marketing executives of seven different companies in the segment. Techniques of content analysis were applied to the treatment and analysis of the data, based in the transcriptions ipsis litteris of the semi-structured interviews, which were recorded in audio format. The results point to similar views about luxury products and brands, each brand having a typical consumer. Regarding the marketing strategies, it was possible to verify a main concern in maintaining the brand intact instead of increasing its market-share. The activities of the marketing mix obey the rules established by the brand s head offices outside of the country, leaving no margin to innovate from its standard, in order not to compromise the international image of the brand. The importance and growing of accessories sales to the brands were noticed, since they allow an increase of the aspiring customer base of the brand. Amongst the relevant findings, one of them was the use of payment through installments and the good quality service of the sellers in relation to other countries. Another interesting finding was the fact that all the researched brands consider only other brands that sell similar products as competitors, not recognizing the competition of any national brand. / Esta dissertação trata da identificação das estratégias de marketing utilizadas pelas empresas do segmento de roupas e acessórios de luxo cujas marcas são internacionais e consolidadas no mercado brasileiro. Os objetivos da pesquisa que a fundamentaram foram os de conhecer a visão dos executivos sobre conceitos e atributos de produtos de luxo e em especial das marcas que representavam; entender o comportamento de consumo dos seus clientes; identificar as práticas do composto de marketing; e por fim conhecer como se configura a competição nesse setor. A pesquisa, de natureza exploratória qualitativa utilizou uma amostra não probabilística composta por sete executivos de marketing de sete empresas desse segmento. Para o tratamento e a análise dos dados foram aplicadas técnicas de análise de conteúdo, com base na transcrição ipsis litteris dos depoimentos dos entrevistados gravados em áudio, obtidos por meio de um roteiro padrão semiestruturado. Os resultados apontaram visões similares sobre produtos e marcas de luxo, sendo que cada marca possui um consumidor típico. Sobre as estratégias de marketing verificou-se uma preocupação maior em zelar pela marca do que aumentar market-share. As atividades do composto de marketing obedecem às regras estabelecidas pelas matrizes das marcas fora do país, não deixando margens para se inovar muito além do seu padrão de forma a não comprometer a imagem internacional da marca. Percebeu-se um crescimento das vendas e importância dos acessórios para as marcas, pois estes permitem aumentar a base de clientes aspirantes a consumidores da marca. Entre as constatações relevantes, uma delas foi a política do parcelamento das compras e a do bom atendimento dos vendedores em relação a práticas de outros países. Outra constatação que se ressalta foi o fato de que todas as marcas pesquisadas consideram concorrentes apenas aquelas que vendem produtos similares, não reconhecendo a concorrência de nenhuma marca nacional.

This diploma thesis deals with trade marks with reputation materia as a subgroup of trade marks connected with greater protection. First parts of this thesis are dedicated to an introduction to the trade mark law, in particular the inclusion of trade mark law in the legal system, principles governing this branch of law description and especially familiarization with the Czech trade mark law sources through an enumeration of the individual regulations, along with their significance. Parts three and four then are focused on the concept of trade mark with reputation and the specifics analysed also by comparison with the famous trade mark, because these two concepts are united in their development, which is also described. In the fifth part, the concept of luxury brands is described for the purposes of this thesis, where importance of reputation for luxury brands is covered through luxury brands characteristics analysis, and expanded in the context of individual court decisions, not only the European institutions. The final part of this thesis presents selected decisions relating to non-traditional trade marks as they constitute a higher level of protection, even though at different level, and thus they are related to the concept of reputation, especially in the context of trade mark law trends that will be...