Introduction Why should we study marketing management processes in social network platforms? Today’s rapidly growing creative companies must adopt social network platforms. Indeed, the “twenty-first century’s wealth comes from platforms” Thus “those who possess platforms dominate the wealth of the future” (Hirano & Hagiu, 2010). After the Lehman Brothers-initiated financial crisis, companies began developing platform strategies as a cutting-edge management method for assuring consistent and stable growth. Platform strategies call for gathering relevant groups of people together in a network that then creates new business. (Hirano & Hagiu, 2010) In this study, we study a social network platform to show how marketing management processes can be applied to social network platforms. Literature Review Social Network Platforms In recent years, social network platform sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and KakaoTalk have evolved to bring people together online. Social network services (SNS) are rapidly infiltrating daily lives and facilitating communications among people by means of computers (Correa et al., 2010; Powell, 2009). Users reside at the center of social platforms where they can socialize and express a wide range of behaviors. As a force for change, social platforms are influencing marketing strategies as well. Advertising has been traditionally one-way communication from company to customers through public media and portal sites. Recently, the paradigm has changed (Yeo, 2014): companies establish relationship with customers through social platforms that allow them to talk with customers directly, exchange opinions, and share ideas. As a result, large-scale corporations, mid-sized/small companies, and one-owner companies have turned their attention to social platforms (Jhun, 2013). Moreover, the revolutionary wave has affected such diverse areas as politics, economics, society, culture, and environmental causes. Researchers have responded to social platform developments with studies that deal with concept, construction, policy, development, spatial information, social platforms, and governmental roles (Choi et al., 2012), and that deal with social platform’s social influences and future directions (Lee & Jung, 2011). Researchers have studied functions and utilization of social platform using web services and policies to support collaborative research (Pignotti & Edwards, 2012), sharing shopping information (Der Ho et al., 2010), customer engagement (Cheung, Lee, & Jin, 2011), and senior social platforms (Farkas, 2010). Social platforms emerged so recently that academic studies have failed to keep up with the urgent need to study the phenomena realistically (Yeo, 2013). Method In this study, we analyze phase 1 secretary platform by Cybermoon Co., Ltd., which has four main functions: Product name: On-Secretary PlatformCore Services ● Phase 1. Assistant Service ● Phase 2. Vision Maker Service ● Phase 3. Collaboration and Sharing Service ● Phase 4. Social Sales Service ● Phase 5 Assistant Call Center Service Objective On-Secretary Platform aims to yield optimized productivity by offering secretary functions to experts working for one person-companies, small-scale companies, or small traders. - Next generation SNS-based social secretary management service uses Twitter and Facebook. - Online and offline secretary management service grows with users and assists them with every aspect of their lives. - Service dispatches 90,000 online secretaries and 10,000 offline secretaries to assist clients. Target Market - General customers: individuals who want to establish businesses. - Businesspersons: presidents of one-person or small companies, and the self-employed - Experts: consultants, coaching specialists, lawyers, and professors - Public organizations such as job-search organizations, business creation support organizations, infrastructure-expansion organizations, education centers for the unemployed, social education centers, education for retired people, and lifelong learning centers. Customer Value Proposition - Survey and analysis on the services needed by single entrepreneurs. - Survey and analysis of services needed by potential entrepreneurs. - Survey and analysis of services needed by experts. - Survey and analysis of services needed by public organizations. Assets and competition - 20-years of developing IT business services and operational systems - Patents for core techniques and experts with development abilities Functional strategies and programs - Secretary function: selection of AI (artificial intelligence)-type character and growth by consistent learning - Chatting function: task reporting via letters, voices, and holograms - Program: cloud-based social platform service - Service method: online service and offline call-center service. Marketing Mix(Richard & Colin, 1992) Figure 1. Managing Marketing Strategies and the Marketing Mix SWOT Analysis Figure 2. SWOT Analysis Contribution of this research ● Academic contributions This study could contribute to understanding diverse applications and developing theory regarding platforms to help to consolidate theoretical fundamentals regarding marketing management processes for using platforms. Finding various marketing methods and studying their relationship would contribute to future platform-based management strategy. ● Practical contribution This study could help companies, governments, society, and individuals efficiently utilize marketing management processes when using platforms for continuous growth and progress.

In a period of crisis and uncertainty as the current, heritage marketing is a suitable strategic opportunity because it associates values and meanings to products and services by using corporate heritage or brand heritage in order to communicate identity, continuity and stability. Heritage marketing seems particularly appropriate for high symbolic fashion brand that require the ability to transmit identity and to generate symbolic meanings. In relation to high symbolic fashion brand, an opportunity for heritage marketing strategies is to narrate the myths associated with the brand. In fact, literature has highlighted that fashion brand can be associate to the concept of myth thanks to the presence of symbolic values and meanings. Heritage and myth are concepts linked to time and progression. Therefore, they should continually innovate and evolve in relation to the community of reference in order to find a balance between continuity and renewal. However, a risk of heritage marketing strategies is to merely celebrating the past thus losing the ability to generate and regenerate myths and symbolic values. This paper aims to provide a critical contribution to heritage marketing literature highlighting the risk of obsessive fixation in the celebration of the past. In order to avoid this risk, the paper proposes that a possible solution might be the integration of mythopoesis which is the ability to generate and regenerate myths in order to create and perpetuate sense and meaning through narrative.

This study investigates (1) how promotion activities in intra-firm and inter-firm levels influence customers’ total spending amount (revenue) and (2) how customer- and firm-generated online information influences revenue directly and indirectly in luxury hotel industry.

Today’s consumers experience the brands within numerous in-store and out-of-store contexts, and tend to focus on their holistic experience with the brands across various retail scenarios. Companies, especially in the luxury industry where multiple retail settings contribute to the formation of the brand image, invest considerable funds to create entertaining, exciting, and emotionally engaging experiences. However, researchers have not yet examined how traditional luxury brand factors interplay with experiential factors across multiple retail settings of the brand. In marketing literature, researchers have devoted considerable attention to the effect of store environments on consumer behavior (e.g. Baker et al., 2002; Donovan & Rossitier, 1982; Kotler, 1973). At the same time, academic research has also been conscious of the central role of brand image in the consumer-buying process (e.g. Keller, 1993; Kwon & Lennon, 2009). More recently, these two streams are coming together. Practitioners and academics have argued that creating compelling shopping experiences across multiple environments, and along, and beyond, the entire path-to-purchase is a key challenge for maintaining a certain brand image (Interbrand, 2014; Verhoef et al., 2009). In a luxury brand context, whereas brand managers design most of the strategic implementations of the brand, retailers can increasingly craft value to the brand via the creation of multisensory retail experiences (Spence et al., 2014). Luxury brands, such as Chanel, are continuously growing their retail presence, and identifying ways to cultivate the tradition of the brand and create distinctive and unique brand experiences. However, the academic perspective of investigating luxury brand images in contemporary business contexts has been underdeveloped (Berthon et al., 2009; Miller & Mills, 2012). While this call for more comprehensive and holistic approaches to luxury brand experiences has been raised (Atwal & Williams, 2009), current research predominantly focuses on single aspects of the luxury brand experience, such as in-store multisensory factors (Möller & Herm, 2013), brand owner cues (Tynan et al., 2010), in-store environment cues (Baker et al., 2002), or luxury brand specific factors (Beverland, 2005). The evolving business world needs to implement more holistic and contemporary approaches. By employing the approach of three dimensions store atmospherics (Baker et al., 2002) to luxury brand experiences, this study investigates how consumers integrate traditional brand factors with new factors of consumption. The objective of this article is to understand how various retail settings affect emotional states, which, in turn, affect behavior toward luxury brands. This study addresses the relationship of luxury brand experiences in tight and less controlled retail scenarios, and the ways in which luxury experiences trigger effective successful brand experiences. Utilizing two qualitative studies, the authors consider the interaction between luxury brand experiences and store atmospherics. The paper concludes with relevant implications for academics and practitioners to enable new perspectives on luxury brand strategies, and consumer response to the luxury brand image in the challenging retail landscape.

Nowadays, Korean culture affects fashion cultural industry. Furthermore, art and fashion collaborate considerably more now than in the past. Korean fashion experts and fashion cultural industry have mainly focused on global tourists. Fashion cultural products that promote the image of Korea synthesize both traditional and contemporary traits of the Korean culture (Cho, 2007), which reflects cultural and economic values. Hallyu, which means ‘Korean Wave’, has been a popular trend of Korean cultural contents on the global market. The target market of the contemporary Korean fashion clothing has mostly targeted global tourists. However, traditional products dominate over a few contemporary products on the Korean cultural product market. This study focuses on the contemporary Korean fashion clothing that are designed and reinterpreted in our times. When these designs become available on the market, they can excite more interest both in the fashion industry and among the consumers. This will help highlight the importance and potential of the present-day Korean cultural products. The purpose of the study is to figure out effects of contemporary Korean fashion clothing attributes on consumer response and consumer behavior. Contemporary Korean fashion clothing attributes are divided to Korean culture, fashion/practicality, creativity/uniqueness and design/aesthetic traits. Consumer response is to see the affective and cognitive response. Also, consumer behavior is to see preference and purchase intention. In the study, the data was used to conduct exploratory factor analysis and reliability analysis with SPSS, 21.0 and Amos 18.0 was used to conduct confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling for testing the hypotheses. The results revealed fashion/practicality, creativity/unique attributes had positive effect on affective response and creativity/unique, design/aesthetic attributes had positive effect on the cognitive response. In addition, affective and cognitive response had positive effect on preference but only affective response had positive effect on purchase intention. Lastly, preference had positive effect on the purchase intention. The implications of this study would stimulate the expansion and further development of the Korean contemporary design market. However, as a limitation of research, limited category of product was used so more various kinds of fashion category can be used for the future research.

In a period of crisis and uncertainty as the current, heritage marketing is a suitable strategic opportunity because it associates values and meanings to products and services by using corporate heritage or brand heritage in order to communicate identity, continuity and stability. Heritage marketing seems particularly appropriate for high symbolic fashion brand that require the ability to transmit identity and to generate symbolic meanings. In relation to high symbolic fashion brand, an opportunity for heritage marketing strategies is to narrate the myths associated with the brand. In fact, literature has highlighted that fashion brand can be associate to the concept of myth thanks to the presence of symbolic values and meanings. Heritage and myth are concepts linked to time and progression. Therefore, they should continually innovate and evolve in relation to the community of reference in order to find a balance between continuity and renewal. However, a risk of heritage marketing strategies is to merely celebrating the past thus losing the ability to generate and regenerate myths and symbolic values. This paper aims to provide a critical contribution to heritage marketing literature highlighting the risk of obsessive fixation in the celebration of the past. In order to avoid this risk, the paper proposes that a possible solution might be the integration of mythopoesis which is the ability to generate and regenerate myths in order to create and perpetuate sense and meaning through narrative.

In the process that leads to the purchase of a product, the consumer, guided by the reasons for which he or she has decided to make the purchase (motivation), seeks information that will be useful in making the best choice, minimising the associated risks (Erdem &Swait, 1998). The literature (Kotler 2003) refers mainly to consumer behaviours founded on rational principles. Indeed, the product is understood as the sum of a number of attributes that enable it to meet the needs that prompted the purchase in the first place. Depending on the weight attributed to each attribute (Fishbein 1967), different market segments are generated, reflecting different consumer behaviours. It therefore becomes indispensable for companies to understand how each potential consumer evaluates a product’s attributes and what role is played in this regard by the brand. Although the behaviour of consumers cannot easily be schematised, given the specific characteristics of each individual, it can be argued that the process of choosing a product depends on the consumer’s preference for either branded or unbranded goods (Hasan et al. 2012, Mohtar & Abbas 2014). The expectations that have developed in the consumer with respect to a brand, with the awareness of the characteristics that it is able to provide, can modify the perception of the attributes and thus the preferences that arise from the evaluation process. The literature confirms the existence of a positive relationship between the brand and the perception of quality that can increase trust in it (Krishnan et al., 1989; Ubilava et al. 2011). For this reason, the objective of the study is to assess the perception of a product’s attributes by two categories of consumers: brand-oriented and non-brand-oriented. The work thus concerns the choice of positioning strategies, which vary precisely in relation to the existence or otherwise of a brand. This was conducted with reference to the Jeans sector, given both its intrinsic characteristics (variety of production, orientation to differentiation, growth in consumption) and the frequent and specific attention paid to it by the managerial literature dealing with consumer purchasing processes (among others, see: Lee, 1990; Park & Lee, 1999; Delong et al.,2002; Vrontis & Vrontis, 2004; Wu, 2005; Wu & Delong, 2006; Jin et al., 2010). The above-mentioned objectives were pursued in accordance with a mixed-method research approach, divided into the following steps: a) an on-desk survey of the managerial literature on the sector in question and an in-depth qualitative investigation (by means of the so-called “laddering” interview technique), both aimed at identifying the purchase attributes of the jeans product; b) compilation of a questionnaire (with a pilot test conducted on 20 consumers) by 600 consumers (non-probabilistic sample) who regularly buy jeans. The data was processed by descriptive and multivariate statistical techniques (using SPSS software) in order to assess the role of the various purchase attributes with reference to the two types of consumer identified. As previously mentioned, the first on-field method of analysis used was of the in-depth, qualitative type (Russell et al. 2004; Philips & Reynolds 2009; Orsingher et al., 2011). It entailed 80 interviews (40 for each of the two categories of consumer, brand-devoted and non-brand-devoted, the number being useful for the goals to pursue as indicated by Reynolds et al., 2001), with the objective of highlighting and analysing the terminal values to which the individual aspires. To this end, we used the so-called “laddering” interview technique, which makes it possible to identify both the content of the three variables being analysed and the causal relations between them. The variables are (Reynolds & Gutman, 1988): the attributes (tangible and intangible), the consequences (functional and psychological benefits) and the values (instrumental and terminal). Specifically the “hard laddering” technique (Botschen & Hemetsberger, 1998) was used, which guides the respondent towards increasingly higher levels of abstraction. The “paper-and-pencil” method was applied, which made it possible to minimise the respondents’ conditioning, allowing them to follow their own cognitive route (Grunert, 1995). The interpretation of the information acquired by these methods made it possible to observe and understand the deep and personal motives that determine the choice of jeans product (see, among others, Orsingher et al. 2011; Fu & Wu, 2013), and thus to gain a more direct and effective understanding of the consumer’s behaviour. Once the attributes that determine the purchase of a pair jeans had been identified, the next step was the creation of the questionnaire with which to perform the sample-based investigation, conducted on 600 consumers1 who regularly purchase jeans. 55% of the sample interviewed were Italian, purchasing 1 to 4 pairs of jeans a year. Specifically, 31% of the sample purchased the product once every three months, while a further 32% purchased it twice a year. 78% were between 18 and 35 years old, while 2 out of 3 were women. With regard to the objectives of the present work, 33% purchased unbranded jeans while 67% were brand-devoted consumers. For measurement of the analysis variables, a normal assessment scale (1 = lowest value; 5 = highest value) was used. Specifically, the SPSS software was used to process the data so as to identify (by means of regression analysis) any correlation between the choice variables. For each of the two categories of consumer a factorial analysis was performed in order to identify factors that were shared by the measured determinants of choice, followed by a cluster analysis. This made it possible to: (a) identify the different role in the consumer choice process of the attributes and the other dimensions of analysis (benefits and values); (b) verify the presence of any differences in the role that the choice variables play in the purchase process among the two different categories of consumer being analysed; and (c) identify any clusters of consumers within each profile (brand-devoted and non-brand-devoted). The main objective was to verify the perception of the product choice variables by the two categories of consumer observed. This consideration is highly important to the choice of communication strategy, for both companies interested in the growth of their Brand Identity and unbranded companies. For the latter, it is the store, particularly the sales personnel, that plays the key role in the purchaser’s choices. It is in this context that non-brand-devoted consumers, verifying the characteristics of the product and its potential benefits, make their choice in consideration of the “desired final state” (values) that that they seek to obtain. In addition, the identification of clusters may enable, for the sector in question, a greater knowledge of the consumer and thus the activation of segmentation strategies and relative competitive positioning.

In the years 2010–2012 in Italy, the 3F sectors, fashion, food and furniture, marked a +5% (FinanciaLounge, 2014). To some extent, this rise may rely on the strong Made in Italy label that is historically “perceived by consumers as being associated with “true” luxury goods” (Hoffmann & Coste-Manière, 2014) and, in order to create nostalgia and credibility for their brands, many firms try to correlate their offer to the heritage of the Country of Origin (Fionda & Moore, 2009). In the academic literature, Country of Origin is one of the most analyzed method to enhance a firm’s competitive advantage, mainly thanks to its ability to increase positive perceptions about firms’ products in the customers’ mind (Agrawal & Kamakura, 1999; Aiello et al., 2009). Moreover, Country of Origin is defined as “the effect rooted in consumers’ images of the quality of specific products marketed by firms associated with a country of origin” (Verlegh, Steenkamp, & Meulenberg, 2005, p. 127). COO works as an information cue that covers the attitudes toward the products evaluation. In particular, COO influences customers’ brand awareness, perceived quality and brand associations depending on the country image, and, as a consequence, the overall brand equity (Agrawal & Kamakura, 1999; Chao, 1998; Magnusson, Westjohn, & Zdravkovic, 2011). For instance, some authors showed a positive bias (i.e. increased willingness to pay a higher price) toward products from some countries relative to others (Drozdenko & Jensen, 2009). For this reason, just few countries can benefit from their image and awareness in order to take advantage from the Country of Origin effect, such as Italy. Furthermore, besides the Country image, scholars found that the COO effect can vary depending on the product category “For a given category, country-of-origin credibility is high when consumers have a favorable image of the country’s products in that category, and low when the product–country image is unfavorable” (Verlegh et al., 2005, p. 129). In this perspective, firms should identify solutions to convey positive associations about their supply to customers (Phau & Leng, 2008). The relevance of this issue is confirmed by a lot of studies, where some communication tools related to COO effect are already investigated, like brand identification system, packaging, advertising copy and celebrity endorsement (Agrawal & Kamakura, 1999; Usunier, 2011). Actually, a lot of Italian firms use product placement exploiting the “Made in Italy” effect, where placement is here intended as the paid inclusion of branded products within mass media programming (Karrh, 1998). Just few examples are Piaggio with Vespa in Roman Holiday, Bacardi with Martini in James Bond and Ocean’s series, Riva Yacht with Aquarama in James Bond series and The Great Beauty, and Prada in The devil wears Prada. Many reasons are explaining such a great use of product placement. On one hand, in the last decade we have assisted to the fragmentation of media and their audience, and on the other one, consumers are more and more skeptical towards traditional benefit advertising and they use technology to avoid commercials (Hackley & Tiwsakul, 2006; Lehu & Bressoud, 2009). Integrating brands casually but notably in a media content appears to be an interesting alternative to traditional marketing communication tools (D’Astous & Chartier, 2000). Furthermore, product placement’s acceptance and its possibly effectiveness, as well as country of origin effect, is likely to vary across product category (Gupta & Gould, 1997; Russell, 1998). Moreover, we can assume that product placement impact on the overall brand equity in a positive way (Aaker, 1997; Miniero, Chizzoli, & Pate, 2013) as it is an effective tool that can increase brand awareness and develop favorable relations with customers (Chan, 2012). In particular, studies on product placement confirm an increased top-of-mind-awareness and unaided awareness of placed brands (Cholinski, 2012). Finally, even if studies on product integration effect on attitude toward placed brands are not univocal, a lot of publications present positive or at the very least neutral product placement influence on brand attitude (Russell, 2002). For instance, according to Miniero et al. (2013), product placement is a nice way to achieve communication objectives and it can be used to influence consumers’ attitude and intention to buy a specific brand (Miniero et al., 2013). To our knowledge, despite a huge employment of product placement in practice and a lot of contributions in the academic theory about these two topics, there is a gap in the literature about the relationship between the COO effect and the use of this communication tool from a practitioners’ perspective. On the contrary, from a consumers’ perspective, Tsai and Lu’s research find out a positive correlation between the use of product placement and the country image (Tsai & Lu, 2012). Moreover, due to the several studies concerning the positive impact of product placement and country of origin on brand equity, we are allowed to suppose that professionals can synergistically take advantage from both. Starting from Karrh’s studies on the practitioners’ perspective about product placement, our research aspires to draw any analogy and difference between Karrh’s findings and the Italian firm’s perceptions (Karrh, McKee, & Pardun, 2003; Karrh, 1995, 1998). Particularly, we aim to interview companies that belong to sectors where Made in Italy represents a key competitive component. In addition, our study attempts to explore if and how independent Italian firms exploit country of origin effect in their product placement in order to increase their brand equity. To answer our research questions, we could properly use the case study method (Yin, 2009). This qualitative methodology is very useful to explore unanticipated empirical discoveries (Eisenhardt, 1989). Our case study protocol will provide the analysis of three different data sources. In the first stage of our research, we will examine audio-visual materials, such as film, videotapes, websites and social media, to collect data in an unobtrusive method. In the second stage, we will go through public documents, newspapers and recent academic literature to understand trend topics on product placement and COO and to arrange guidelines suitable for the interviews. In the third ones, we will conduct in-depth face-to-face and semi-structured interviews with key figures of Made in Italy firms that integrated product placement in their communication mix at least once. More in details, interviews will be recorded and transcribed to ensure the completeness of the information gathered. Through the triangulation of these methods and sources we will achieve a richer and deeper data collection and we will also make the case study more detailed (Creswell, 2009). Although our research is still in progress, we expect to extend Karrh’s findings about product placement. More in details, we would like to focus our attention upon the integration between COO and product placement and we try to highlight any key element that can explain how to manage this relationship in order to increase brand equity.

Advancements in communication, manufacturing, economic environments and consumer preferences have created new opportunities for small firm internationalisation on a global scale. Within the creative industries, fashion design entrepreneurs operate within the small and medium enterprise sector on an international level developing extraordinarily influential connections with fabric and materials suppliers, manufacturers, sales and PR agent, trade fairs and retailers throughout the globe (Centre for Fashion Enterprise 2008). Entrepreneurial design firms are increasingly identified as key sectors for economic growth regardless of their need for promotion and support to achieve sustainability, amplifying the focus on generating emerging talent within the fashion industry (British Fashion Council 2012; Centre for Fashion Enterprise 2008). Highlighted within the media through the development of support programs such as the Council of Fashion Designers of America Vogue Fashion Fund and the British Fashion Council’s Vogue Designer Fashion Fund, among others, independent fashion apparel design firms often operate within the luxury, contemporary and bridge designer product categories, producing conceptual pieces for editorial placement as well as commercially desirable and wearable garments. In the earliest stages of development these companies experience considerable marketing expenses and higher manufacturing costs out of proportion to initial turnover, requiring the designer to seek out support initiatives, high street licensing partnerships and freelance design collaboration opportunities that are usually outgrown within a few seasons, illustrating the need for these firms to quickly establish self-sufficient viability as a brand within the marketplace (Centre for Fashion Enterprise 2008). While these companies can be described as ‘born global’ (Knight & Cavusgil 2004), few studies have attempted to illustrate the strategies by which fashion design firms achieve international success in spite of their limited resources. Within marketing literature, brand development is increasingly identified as imperative for the long-term economic sustainability of the firm. While previously thought only to operate within the realm of marketing, the creation of brand values are now understood to be built through communication activities only to a limited degree. Indeed, communication efforts act only as a supportive activity; understanding of brand development now encompasses its significance to overall firm culture, structure and essence through the action and interaction of product development, management and communications strategies that permeate the entirety of the firm internally and radiate externally (de Chernatony 2001). Recent literature recognises the brand’s co-creation within the marketplace and the influence of consumers of brand identity (Salzer-Mörling & Strannegård 2004; Power & Hauge 2008). Despite this, entrepreneurial fashion designers may not even 'brand' their firms according to established methods delineated via the marketing industry. This research examines the practice of entrepreneurial womenswear design firms based in London and New York to identify and understand the branding and internationalisation strategies adopted and created by these firms. Using an exploratory and qualitative approach to the research phenomenon, this investigation uses grounded theory as the methodological framework to examine the contemporary context in which design firms operate within the currently existing globally competitive marketplace. Using theoretical sampling to direct data gathering, this research incorporates the use of semi-structured in-depth interviews with womenswear designer fashion enterprises and their support network of PR agents, showroom managers, sales agents and photographers to examine the strategic growth and development of SME design brands. Additionally observation at New York, London & Paris fashion weeks and discourse analysis of websites, social media and press is used for the triangulation and verification of emerging concepts within the data. This paper presents the collective emerging strategies that London and New York based womenswear SME fashion design firms employ to develop product, integrate into the fashion industry and connect with consumers globally. Within the context of grounded theory's constant comparative analysis, this paper will present the evolution of understanding gained during the research investigation. This analysis is the collection and comparison of codes and categories that creates the foundational conceptual framework for the emerging theoretical model of how entrepreneurial fashion designers define and create their brand identity throughout processes of development, growth and internationalisation. The purpose of this paper is to present and examine the strategies of London and New York’s independent entrepreneurial womenswear design firms revealed through the concepts, categories and insights examined during data gathering and analysis. The research aims is to provide insight regarding the current brand and management methods implemented by entrepreneurial designers, enhancing and informing marketing and design literature. Researching international fashion branding of emerging designers creates understanding of these entrepreneurs who operate as born global fashion firms. By exploring how fashion designers define success for their company, create and translate their brand essence into messaging, and utilise communication activities in growth efforts, this research creates understanding of these entrepreneurs who operate within the gap between new talent and economically sustainable and established businesses.

The marketing practice in several industries, including fashion and luxury goods, increasingly relies on the utilization of shared product platforms across different brands (Halman, Hofer, & Van Vuuren, 2003; Krishnan & Gupta, 2003; Luo, 2011; Sawnhey, 1998). For instance, manufacturers of products ranging from automobiles (di Benedetto 2012) to wines (Beverland, 2004) offer consumers several products under different brand names, but partly based on the same product components or architecture. However, while such platform branding practices have been increasingly adopted by companies and studied by marketing research, less is known about the consumer behavior implications of such branding. In particular, the few extant studies on the consumer behavior implications (e.g., Sullivan, 1998; Strach and Everett, 2006; Olson, 2008) do not take into account consumer heterogeneity, i.e., the potentially different behavior towards platform brands by different consumers. This issue is, in essence, the focus of the present study. Specifically, as the focal consumer trait, we concentrate on the role that consumers’ general cognitive ability, i.e. intelligence, may play in their choices of platform vs. independent brands. While intelligence has been shown to affect consumers’ financial decisions in the stock market (Grinblatt, Keloharju, & Linnainmaa, 2011, 2012), we are unaware of studies that would have directly examined the link between intelligence and brand choices in the product market. Our contribution is to report such an investigation with over 200,000 consumers’ purchase choices of cars in Finland. As the car brands studied differ in price points, higher-income individuals can, on the baseline, better afford the higher-premium platform brands (and, possibly, independent brands). Intelligence, in turn, correlates with income, possibly giving rise to a spurious, overall correlation between intelligence and higher-premium platform brands through income. Therefore, to study the ceteris paribus association between intelligence and brand choice, independent of income, we estimated an ANCOVA of the mean intelligence of individuals possessing cars of different brands, controlling for income and the other control variables. As to results, the least squares mean intelligence of individuals possessing higher-premium platform brands was lower (M = 5.55, s.e. = 0.01) than individuals possessing lower-premium platform brands (M = 5.64, s.e. = 0.01; pairwise comparison significant at p < .0001 level). Furthermore, the mean intelligence of independent, non-platform brand owners resulted even higher (M = 5.76, s.e. = 0.02) than that of the low-premium platform brand owners (M = 5.64, s.e. = 0.01; comparison significant at p < .0001 level). Ordered probit regression analysis of purchased brands, provided consistent results. In summary, the results support our hypotheses that controlling for income, greater intelligence is associated with the preference for lower-premium platform brands over higher-premium platform brands and, further, with the preference for independent platform brands over platform brands. Managerially, the results demonstrate that smarter consumers may have suspicions towards higher-priced platform brands. Correspondingly, such consumers may be more predisposed either to seek lower-priced brands of equal quality, or to pursue brands of independent posture. To attract these consumers to higher-premium platform brands, marketers may need to provide convincing information on which tangible quality aspects are distinctive in the products of the higher-premium platform brand, as opposed to the lower-premium brand that is based on the same platform. At the same time, the independent brands may face a harder marketing task among less smart consumers, who seem to have more trust in the larger platform constellations of brands.

Network analysis of keywords relevant to three fashion trading areas, Garosu-gil, Dongdaemun, and Itaewon in Seoul, Korea, revealed that ‘associated industry’ is an important factor along with ‘design’ and ‘brand’. Additionally, distinct attributes of each commercial district can serve as differentials to attract consumers; thus, they are necessary factors in order to develop as fashion trading areas.

Nearly 70% of the Swiss luxury watch market is represented by major groups, bringing together worldwide well-known brands. In order to stand out from concurrence and to get a place in this highly competitive market of reference, independent (often unknown) companies have to find other vectors of marketing differentiation.

This paper seeks to conceptualize the phenomenon known as the “Fear of Missing Out” by developing and validating a measurement scale – “Fear of Missing Out” (FOMO-SCALE) to be used in a marketing context. It will also further explore various antecedents that may impact on FOMO. The study suggests an alternative approach towards the conceptualization of FOMO by defining it as a personality trait as opposed to an outcome of a behavior.

The aim of this paper is to assess the mediating effect of self-congruity on the relationship between susceptibility to interpersonal influence and status consumption. The findings of this paper are based on 222 sample. The paper utilises Baron and Kenny procedure and Sobel test to examine the mediation effects of self-congruity on the relationship between susceptibility to interpersonal influence and status consumption. Results indicate that self-congruity played a mediating role in the effect of susceptibility to interpersonal influence on status consumption. A partial type of mediation was established. Possible areas for further research are indicated at the end of the paper.

Scholars have classified guilt as, anticipatory, reactive, and existential guilt. Past studies show that specific types of guilt appeals are more effective in advertising (e.g. Lindsey, 2005). However, researchers have mostly relied on the use of unified guilt to investigate advertising effectiveness. Thus the paper highlights the inherent need to investigate a specific type of guilt, namely anticipatory guilt in a luxury branding context. The paper will fill this gap by measuring consumer’s reactions to anticipatory guilt within two luxury product categories (non-durable and durable). The research is one of the first to explore anticipatory guilt in a luxury advertising context. Considering the importance of the guilt appeals in advertising, the paper provides a comparison of anticipatory guilt under three different conditions. Thus, it provides a greater understanding of an advertising tool for practitioners and scholars.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the relationship that exists between salesperson appearance and consumer behavior in the context of in-home product demonstration parties. Researchers (Kim, Ju, & Johnson, 2009; Klassen, Clayson, & Jasper, 1996) have found that the way in which a salesperson dresses has an impact on consumers’ perceptions of the store’s image. Furthermore, consumers intend to purchase more from salespeople who are dressed formally than those dressed informally (Shao, Baker, and Wagner, 2004). Additionally, Cho (2001) suggested that consumers tend to be more satisfied with salespeople who are dressed in a manner (i.e., formal, informal) that is comparable to the way they would dress. Extrapolating from research based in bricks-and-mortar stores, it seems likely that in-home product demonstrators’ appearance would have a similar impact on both consumers’ perceptions of their companies’ image and purchase intentions. To examine these relationships, 155 U.S. female consumers completed an online survey. Participants were first asked to look at one of four randomly assigned photographs of an in-home product demonstrator who was dressed either formally or informally and respond to items designed to measure their perceptions of the business’ image and their purchase intentions (Klassen, Clayson, & Jasper, 1996). Then participants viewed all four photographs and were asked to indicate which of these outfits looked the most similar to one that they would wear if they were going to host a party at their home and attend a party at someone else’s home. A series of t-tests revealed that consumers perceive the in-home product demonstrator’s business’ image to be more positive and express greater purchase intentions when the salesperson is dressed more formally than when she is dressed less formally. Additionally, when similarity exists between the way in which the in-home product demonstrator is dressed and the way in which consumers would dress to host or attend a party, both impressions of the business and purchase intentions are greater than when dissimilarity exists. The results of this investigation may assist non-store retail salespeople. Information gleaned from this study could help these entrepreneurs achieve their goals by using appearance management techniques. By presenting an appropriate, formal, professional appearance to new customers whose individual style they do not know and/or matching their appearance to that of the host and party attendees, the salespeople could increase sales during in-home product demonstration parties.

With the sweeping popularity of Korean Wave across Asia, the number of Chinese tourists to Korea has rapidly been increasing over the last decade. Korea Tourism Organization estimates that the number of Chinese visitors exceeded 6 million in 2014, and Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade estimates that their spending in Korea surpassed KRW 7.67 trillion in 2013 alone. In particular, Chinese tourists spend most of their money in Korea on shopping. Since Chinese have become the major customers of the Korean market, it is critical to understand their consumption patterns and behavior. Previous studies looked into tourist destinations and shops that Chinese people frequently visited, and also researched on product selection criteria regarding their preference on fashion products. However, this study focuses on how Chinese tourists feel while they are shopping in Korea and how such emotions affect their evaluation on the purchased products. Planned purchase refers to the situation where the buying intention of a consumer has already been formed prior to entering the store based on the perception of purchase necessity. An unplanned purchase is not anticipated or planned before the customer enters the store, and products are bought without planning similar to impulsive buying. Oliver (1980) suggested that emotions are an important factor when consumers evaluate a product. Therefore, this study focuses mainly on the emotion created during the shopping. We conceptualized product attitudes based on the expected consumer satisfaction paradigms of Oliver and Desarbo (1988). This study also explores the product usage satisfaction of tourists as a post-purchase attitude. According to statistics, majority of Chinese tourists who buy fashion products are women. The survey is conducted on 550 women in the age group between 20 and 60 years who have visited Seoul before, using an online panel of respondents sampled by an international survey firm. 530 questionnaires are analyzed, with the remaining responses determined to be incomplete. For the demographic characteristics of the sample group, the average age is 33.5 years old, with 201 in their 20s (37.9%), 190 in their 30s (35.8%), 107 in their 40s (20.2%), and 32 in or over their 50s (6.0%). As for the average household income, RMB 10,000 to 20,000 is the most frequent (210 or 39.6%). For residential areas, Hua Dong (East China) is the most frequent (207 or 39.1%). Data are analyzed using structural equation modeling by AMOS 20.0. Respondents were asked to recall most impressive fashion product that they bought in Korea during their visit, and to answer whether it was planned or unplanned purchase.This study also attempts to measure the emotions they had during the purchase in order to understand differences in attitude toward the purchased products. Although emotions cannot persist over time, previous studies have measured emotions during consumption to evaluate the situation. The study categorizes respondents according to their purchasing power into heavy and light buyers to determine the moderating effects of purchase amount. In the literature, purchasing power is described in terms of the number of purchase and purchase amount. Based on previous studies on purchasing power, consumers can be categorized as heavy or light buyers. This study focuses on purchase amount in the context of tourism shopping. The results find that planned purchases tend to deliver positive emotions, which in turn enhances product satisfaction. Unplanned purchases, positive shopping emotions have positive impact on their attitude toward purchased products. Interestingly, unplanned purchases have negative direct impact on the product attitude without the mediating role of positive shopping emotions, showing the importance of positive emotions that consumers feel while shopping When it comes to the impact of purchasing power, the effect of unplanned purchases of light buyers on shopping emotions or product attitude was not significant. Only planned purchases trigger positive emotions, many of which induced positive impact on product satisfaction. For heavy buyers, on the other hand, even unplanned purchases have positive impact on their product satisfaction when positive shopping emotions are developed. This study is differentiated from previous studies in that it deals with how purchase types (planned vs. unplanned) affect shopping emotions and post-purchase product attitude of Chinese tourists who account for the significant share of the Korean tour industry. It is also notable that this study groups tourists by their purchasing power and identifies the impact of their purchasing power, considering the fact that tourists are increasingly influencing the domestic consumption market. The Korean government and companies may tap into the results of this study to provide better environments to trigger positive shopping emotions to tourists. However, it should be considered that the subject of this study is limited to Chinese female tourists, which should be complemented by future studies.

The Chinese market has played an important role for the luxury industry in the past years, with double-digit yearly growth (except for last year). Luxury brands have tried to design strategies to meet the local requirements, be it in terms of retail formats or communication strategies. However, Chinese luxury consumers are evolving in terms of consumption habits and materialistic value: observations from the field show that there is less and less emphasis on logo display among certain consumers (Dubois & Laurent, 1994; Lin & Wang, 2010). Such changes might affect also young consumers, which already stand for a great share of luxury consumers (Source: Red Luxury,2012). Besides, past studies on Chinese consumers’ attitudes toward luxury and values behind luxury consumption have often relied on student-samples, acknowledging the potential limitation to their results due to a potential lack of representativeness of the population interviewed. Few studies have provided analyses of the causes of the values and behaviours of young Chinese customers towards luxury product consumption, focused on them as ‘young people’ (Wang et al., 2012; Xue & Wang, 2012). Besides, most of those that tried to do so relied upon student samples of Chinese students studying abroad (in the USA or Europe) (Chen & Kim, 2013). This paper attempts to investigate the contemporary young Chinese consumers’ behaviour towards luxury consumption, segmenting them into two groups : the international student group and mainland Chinese young consumer group. A quantitative survey collected data from 104 respondents within a month where the snowball sampling method was applied to broadcast both online and offline questionnaires. Qualitative data was analyzed through lexical analyzis, while quantitative data was analyzed with the help of SPSS (Levene-test and T-tests). This study mainly focuses on four features: Chinese culture, materialism, young Chinese generation culture and buying motivation. The results of the study mainly indicate that there have been some changes between generations. One such change is that Chinese youths are more individualistic than what was found in previous studies, and another change is that young Chinese consumers hold different points of view towards the values of luxury consumption. As far as differences between international students and local young people from Mainland China are concerned, we found the following differences: • Finding 1: International students purchase luxury products to fit-in with their friends & because they want others to view them as a member of the upper class & as a successful person more than their local fellows. • Finding 2: International students’ income is more able to support them purchase luxury products than for young locals, and they are more inclined to save money to buy luxury products that their local fellows. • Finding 3: Mainland Chinese young people usually go luxury shopping with their parents more than international students do and claim they will still purchase luxury products even if prices increase more than them as well. • Find 4: Purchasing luxury products make local young people happier than international students, and they care more about the style (as opposed to price) of luxury products than these lasts.  We believe such findings will help luxury companies refine their strategies for the coming generations and help researchers notice on which dimensions of luxury consumption using expatriated Chinese students might have an impact and lead towards biased results.

A survey of 570 adolescents reveal that attitudes toward luxury fashion brands rely on a balance between desires for assimilation (i.e., susceptibility to peers’ influence) and individuation (i.e., need for uniqueness); innovativeness mediates these relationships and culture plays a moderated mediation effect.

Introduction Luxury brands have been well known for its exclusivity (Daily Mail 2013). However, as more consumers own luxury brands, the idea of just owning recognizable symbol becomes insufficient. In light of this, limited edition products are produced at a relatively higher price (Arora 2013), allowing consumers to fulfill the desire for exclusivity and differentiate themselves for others (Clark, Zboja, & Goldsmith 2007). Motivation This proposal aims to provide a conceptual framework, as underpinned by the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), to determine the purchase intention of limited edition of luxury brands. Further, supported by Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), the relationship between the personality factors and subjective norms towards attitudes on limited editions of luxury brands is also investigated. This study closes various gaps as identified by the literature (i.e. Catry 2009, Amaldoss & Jain). Methodology A self-administered survey instrument is designed using established scales to collect data through the “mall intercept” in downtown shopping area where luxury brands are retailed. The stimulus focuses on a specific and non-fictitious brand to increase ecological validity. Statistical techniques, namely Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), multiple regression, and structural equation modelling, are used to analyse the data. Findings Align with TPB model, attitudes, subjective norm, and perceived behavioural control positively influence the purchase intention of limited edition of luxury brands. Supporting SCT, personality traits (personal gratification, status consumption, and consumers’ need for uniqueness) were found to positively influence the attitude towards limited edition of luxury brands. Further, these findings verified the positive relationship between subjective norm and attitude. Significance Theoretically, this study apply TPB model in limited edition of luxury brands context. Methodologically, the use of real life consumers improved the ecological validity of the study (d’Astous and Gargouri 2001). Managerially, the results contribute in segmenting the market to profile the limited edition of luxury brands consumers. Limitation This study is limited within the fashion industry. Other luxury brands or product categories should also be examined. Future studies should include other contributing variables, such as value consciousness, brand image and, emotional value.