The Emerging Trends Of Personalisation

According to Luxury Activist (2016), luxury goods purchase in physical stores has been growing by 3% since 2013, online sales have a solid 20% growth reaching 6.7 billion pounds. Indeed, luxury sales online have reached 12.5 billion pounds in 2014, doubled it from the previous year. McKinsey forecasts all luxury brands would embrace the online market by 2025 (75% was digitally influenced until 2014), the online luxury sales may go up to 62.5 billion pounds (Remy, Catena and Durand-Servoingt, 2015). The online share of total online luxury sales was expected to double from 6% (in 2015) to 12% by

Luxury is uniqueness, attitude and ethnicity. Internet is purely a medium of communication for Luxury brands. The industry has been showing less dedication towards integrating complex technologies and its associated interactive and digital tools in marketing and overall commerce strategies. There is also a push to be present on the internet to evolve consumer needs and expectations. The initiation of internet as a universal supply channel provided an unparalleled medium by which to boost brand awareness and recover market share. This proposal provides an outline for exploratory research in sustaining the luxury brands online. The study overlaps research findings on internet marketing and consumer behavior for luxury brands.

This gain value and addresses a key decisive achievement factor in the industry (Grant,2010). As position is important to offer convenience and a deep assortment, An extra unique intangible resource would be their brand representation and customer loyalty, this is vital since it can attract or attract consumers and it could be necessary to build the brand image .

Since an increasing number of people focus on brand names instead of product, brands become important elements for customers to choose products (Carroll, 2008). When customers trust the brand, the benefits for the manufactures are generated. In the first place, brands can be used by products as the tool to identify and differentiate themselves from various products. Secondly, brands are helpful for companies to build a competitive advantage (Bick, 2009). Therefore, organisations take more attention to branding.

The intangible value of a product is largely subjective, therefore is linked to private consumers’ perception. Bearing that in mind, the marketers focus their effort on creating a desired image in the shoppers’ minds, surrounding the conventional products with extra benefits in the form of intangibles such as extended consumer service, recognizable design and social features (Thrassou & Vrontis, 2009). A combination of such features form different brands. So, brands represent the intangible “value-added” to the product. According to an empirical research, conducted amongst 472 Australian students the prior knowledge of preferred brands (brand awareness) is an important part of consumers’ decision making process when purchasing a product. Specifically, 85.5% of subjects chose the familiar brand over others available. Additionally, the study has shown that the choice is made substantially faster (9.8 seconds against 15.1 given the experiment conditions) (Macdonald & Sharp, 2000). Clearly, a product’s brand name, being a classical value of an intangible nature appeared to have played a heavy role in a perceived value of the sample group. Though brands facilitated the process of choice, the final purchase decision belonged to the end-buyers.

Bain and Company (D’Arpizio et al, 2014) state that the’ market for personal luxury goods has nearly tripled in the past 20 years’ (p. 7), with the industry reflecting healthy growth by exceeding €850 billion in 2014 (p. 3). It is evident that luxury consumption is a thriving industry. Despite the fact that prices of luxury goods has risen over 60 percent in a decade, consumers are still choosing to purchase such items (Sherman, 2014).

In the last couple of years, luxury brand management has generated much interest and discussions in both academic and business circles. Among business leaders, the debates have been related to the associated challenges that have emerged as a result of the evolution of luxury since it became a consolidated economic sector. Many

Louis Vuitton is able to “sell more while remaining fresh and retaining its cachet” in several unique ways (Kotler, Keller 296). The company first accomplished this back in 1987, when they created a category membership by comparing the brand to exemplars. That is, Louis Vuitton formed a conglomerate with the manufactures of champagne and cognac (Kotler, Keller 289). This merger placed Louis Vuitton in the prestigious and elite brand category, which helped the company to create a brand membership. This conglomerate could also be seen as a point of difference (POD) because they are creating an association with luxury goods. Moreover, the increased price strategy boosts Louis Vuitton’s image and makes the products a novelty because only the most elite consumers can afford to purchase the brand. The 60 plus hours spent on producing these items further its differentiation in the luxury handbag market. This adds quality to the product, which no other company provides. Erog, these strategies increase the company’s position within the market. Recently, the company has created POD’s by partnering with famous sports stars. In doing so, Louis Vuitton is expanding their brand image, which in turn, creates a new customer segment. Now, the brand will be associated as sporty. Whereas before, “high-fashion celebrities” endorsed the brand and the company was only known for being fashionable (Kotler & Keller). Another way the company has expanded their image and customer segments is by

In 2007, Euromonitor International reported luxury goods market sales to exceed US$130 billion, and in 2016, the report luxury goods market more than double to an exceeding sale of US$388 billion (Fionda & Moore, 2008). The significant growth rate in estimated market value demonstrate an opportunity in the luxury goods market. While flagship stores are not exclusive to the luxury sector, they manifest an important role in luxury brand recognition among consumers. It is essential to further investigate the role of flagship stores as they are an integral element of luxury brand identity (Moore, Doherty, & Doyle, 2008). Previous research explore the nature and role of flagship store functionality and brand consolidation regarding

The economic base over the past fifty years has undergone a major shift from being production centric to consumption centric as consumers have made a transition from the sphere of rationality to the realm of desire and wants. This shift has contributed significantly towards the birth of an economy driven by people, making it resoundingly lucid that customers are now in the seat of power, compelling industries to treat ‘customers as king’ by offering them their desired products at the demanded place and time. In such markets where industries are producing homogenous products and competing against each other to satisfy the needs of ever demanding customers, branding plays an imperative role (Lafferty B,2001). It is branding that provides companies the competitive advantage by contributing towards image creation, creating differentiation and customer recognition thereby highlighting that branding in present day is paramount (Shipley D; Howard P ,1993)

The meaning of “brand” has evolved over time, and different individuals have different interpretations for “brand”. This essay will firstly brief the meaning of brand and explain an idea that “brand” could be seen as a friend with an application of “Maslow 's Hierarchy of Needs”. Next, to have a better understanding of how “brand” has changed, the interviews for generation X and Y were conducted. The research has found that Gen X still find it difficult to define “brand” and they regard brand as a guarantee of product quality. Meanwhile, Gen Y have lots of ideas about “brand” and take it as normal experiences in life.

A brand serves to add dimensions to a product to differentiate it in some way from other products designed to satisfy the same needs. The strength of brands is measured by the price differential that consumers are willing to pay over other products in the same category (Keller, 2012). For many young people, it is not buying a pair of jeans, but buying GAP or Tommy Hilfiger or Levis. As per the article in Business Week (Wechsler, 1997, p. 64) this “barrages of brand names offers the irresistible promise of instant cool.”

Customers are pulled towards brands with the promise of becoming part of an exclusive community. This creates a sense of great desire to purchase luxury branded products. For example, Hermes, which specialises in leather, lifestyle accessories, fragrance, ready to wear clothing as well as other luxury goods, will not allow customers to buy their iconic handbags until they have formed a long-term relationship with the brand itself (Grigorian and

For brands to stay relevant and maintain their brand position, they need to develop new

Brands make customer esteem on the grounds that they decrease both the risk of buying things and the effort, and subsequently give suppliers a motivating force to put resources into quality and advancement. Branding can upgrade the customer ‘s experience psychologically and aesthetically (Clifton 2009).