This study examines the extent to which Fair Trade reputation and fit between this reputation and the communicated Fair Trade message influences consumer skepticism and positive electronic word-of-mouth. The results of two experiments show that previous Fair Trade reputation has a direct and indirect effect, via consumer brand identification, on consumer skepticism. Moreover, the fit between a reputation and the communicated message only seems to affect skepticism when the communicated message is perceived as realistic. In industries with bad Fair Trade reputations (Study 1) fit does not seem to have an effect on skepticism, while fit does influence skepticism in industries with a certain reputation history on Fair Trade (Study 2). Skepticism and consumer brand identification play an important mediating role in the relationship between reputation, fit and consumers’ electronic word-of-mouth intentions. We therefore conclude that communicating Fair Trade initiatives can be a rewarding effort but also seems to be a delicate matter.

In this research, we are going to explore the effect of processing fluency and different types of appeal on consumer’s prosocial intention. There are contradictory findings regarding the effects of processing fluency whether easy to process fluency (EPF) or difficult to process fluency (DPF) is more efficient to lead prosocial behavior (Reber, Schwarz, & Winkielman, 2004). However, we predict that different appeals based on egoistic or altruistic motives may influence people’s perceptions of processing fluency. In particular, if a primed appeal concerns egoistic motives, effort to reach the selfish appeal could not be reflected as honorable for themselves (Zhang, Xu, Jiang, & Huang, 2010). As a result, we predict that such perceived disgraceful efforts will increase unpleasant emotional states such as guilt, which arises when experiencing possible objections to their actions or intentions (Peloza, White, & Shang, 2013). Thus, we hypothesized and found that in study 1, people primed with self-benefiting appeals considered a difficult to process campaign to be less favorable than an easy to process campaign. Self-benefiting appeals increased a sense of guilt when people are in a DPF condition compared to an EPF condition. Finally, in study 2, the demonstrated effect from study 1 was explained with underlying mechanism as a sense of guilt. In conclusion, this study has theoretical implications in discovering the relationship between processing fluency and different types of appeal. When the appeal is considered disgraceful from egoistic motives, putting extra efforts into DPF campaigns is considered unjustifiable through increasing guilty feelings. This effect causes unfavorable attitudes toward DPF campaigns and decreases prosocial behavior. As a result, our findings provide insights for marketers by suggesting effective strategies for designing prosocial campaigns.

Co-branding is defined as a marketing strategy in which “two brands are deliberately paired with one another in a marketing context such as in ads, products, products placements, and distribution outlets” (Grossman 1997, p. 191). Prior research suggests that the crucial key to the success of co-branding is perceived fit including both product category fit and brand image fit. The product category fit is the relevancy of product category between partner brands about co-branding product or brand. For example, “Apple” collaborated with “Nike” to make a smart watch for sports activates. The brand image fit is about how the images (such as luxury image, young and fun image) fit between the partner brands. Prior co-branding research shed light on the effects of perceived fit between co-branding partner brands. Nevertheless, the findings of prior research have been limited to the two types of perceived fit. This research introduced the new-type of perceived fit called “sensory fit” In the current study, the sensory fit is defined as the perceptual congruency between partner brands’ sensory factors such as color, shape, size, and so on. Still, the sensory fit in context of co-branding are yet to be fully investigated by academic research. To fill the gap in the literature, we designed two experimental studies to better understand how the sensory fit affects the evaluations of co-branding. In study 1, we manipulated the partner brands’ sensory attributes (i.e., pronunciation of brand name and shape of brand logo). The results showed that the sensory fit significantly influences consumers’ response to co-branding. That is, a significant interaction (sensory fit × product involvement) was observed, suggesting that participants showed more positive attitudes on the evaluation of co-branding in the low-involvement product (i.e., mug) condition. However, the same pattern was not observed in the high involvement product condition (i.e., laptop). In Study 2, we replicated the findings of Study 1 and used letter style of brand name to manipulated the sensory fit. Findings showed a significant main effect of sensory fit again. Interestingly, the sensory fit was found in the high-involvement and hedonic products condition only. In sum, our findings suggest that the sensory fit should be considered as it predicts the success of co-branding strategy.

The present study contributes to the recent debate on luxury brands and sustainability practices. By combining Implicit Association Test (IAT) with two online experiments, the research aims at reconciling previous results on this topic. Particularly, in the first study, millennials’ unconscious associations to sustainable luxury are investigated. In the second study, the effect of sustainability on millennials intentions to buy toward luxury and fast-fashion products are assessed. Finally, the third study considers the role of different product appeals involved in the sustainability practices in determining consumers’ responses. Expected results of study 1 and 2 confirm the idea supported by a part of previous studies that sustainability is not automatically and positively associated to luxury brands. Study 3 provides with an explanation of discording results, by focusing on sustainability appeals and their centrality on the evaluation of luxury products. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

This paper explores how luxury brands can utilize Weibo in order to create an effective marketing strategy that appeals to millenials. China accounts for 47% of global online retail sales (eMarketer, 2016) and it is predicted that millenials (born 1980-1995) and Generation Z will make up two-fifths of luxury spending by 2025 (eMarketer, 2017). However, due to political constraints, popular western social media sites cannot be used to target this vast market of online Chinese consumers. Weibo is one of the most popular social media sites in China, with 97.2% using the site (Yu et al., 2017). In order to target them effectively brands need to gain an indepth understanding of Chinese consumers and what would appeal to them on Weibo. The majority of social media research uses quantitative methodologies on popular social media, such as Facebook and Twitter. There are limited qualitative studies exploring consumers’ feelings and attitudes towards brands’ social media activities on Weibo. Due to different cultural backgrounds Chinese consumer behavior is likely to show a different trend to Western countries. Semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of 12 participants were conducted. Findings showed that convenience, immediacy, social standing/status and entertainment were key drivers for using Weibo. Fashion information, latest product releases and videos were the most popular type of posts. Consumers read comments and tagged their friends, emphasising the importance of e-word-of-mouth (e-wom) and the influence that it can have on purchasing behaviour. This also facilitated the creation and feeling of a brand community. Consumers were very receptive to celebrity collaborations which influenced purchasing behavior. The main criticism of luxury brand’s Weibo was that it was not updated enough and Weibo did not have an influence on trust. This study provides a clear insight into what Chinese millenials want from luxury brands’ Weibo and how it can influence their purchasing behaviors and e-wom. The findings are novel, contributing to the academic literature through the conduction of a qualitative study exploring an under-researched area. This research has practical implications for luxury brands, as they should provide regular, up-to-date content consisting of videos and celebrity collaborations. A limitation could be the limited number of participants, yet, findings provide an interesting insight into consumers’ perceptions of Weibo and how it influences their attitudes and behaviors towards luxury brands.

This study seeks to examine the effects of customer’s power motivation in the social media context, driven primarily by to extend the theory of how powerlessness induces compensatory consumption (Rucker and Galinsky, 2008). Power motivation refers to a chronic desire to strive and retain power (Maner, Gailliot, Butz, & Peruche, 2007). Given that positions of power are often associated with enjoyment of social and material rewards, naturally some individuals strive to achieve and retain positions of power as a satisfying goal in itself (Cassidy and Lynn, 1989). These ‘power-strivers’ are motivated to achieve status and superiority, and prone towards negative emotional states when confronted with situations that induce a state of powerlessness. The sense of inferiority have been shown to lead to greater desire for status-enhancing goods, such as luxury items with more prominently displayed brand names to restore their sense of wellbeing (Rucker and Galinsky, 2009). In the context of social media, research suggests that longterm exposure to upward social comparisons on social media resulted in lower levels of self-esteem (Vogel, Rose, Roberts, & Eckles, 2014). We argue that observing other people’s ‘highlight reel’ on social media may also negatively influence the consumers’ sense of power. Thus, these type of consumers are likely to be more receptive towards communications that advertise status-enhancing goods. However, this effect should be particularly pronounced in consumers who have high power motivation in the first place. Subsequently, our first proposition is that when exposed to negative social comparisons, power motivation would moderate the consumers’ sense of inferiority and lead to more positive attitude towards advertisements of luxury goods. Our second proposition points to mindfulness as a palliative to mitigate this sense of inferiority, since exercising mindfulness enables better self-regulation that contributes to behaviors and decisions that positive contribute towards one’s wellbeing (Brown and Ryan, 2003). Two experimental studies confirm our hypotheses that when exposed to upward social comparisons on social media, power-strivers exhibit more positive attitude towards advertisements of luxury goods, mediated by a sense of inferiority. In the second study we found that implicitly inducing mindfulness mitigates the effects of power motivation. This paper thus enriches the understanding of the role of consumers’ sense of power in the context of social media. Furthermore, we offer a balanced view that (1) unpacks how marketers could exploit social media features to induce desire for luxury goods but also (2) suggests ethical solutions that contributes to positive psychology literature in the context of social media usage.

Introduction This research will investigate the advancement of cognitive computing and how it can be applied through „Dynamic Marketing Capabilities‟ (Bruni and Verona, 2009) to raise the bar of personalizing services and amenities provided to the luxury watch market loyal customer. Through intuitive digital applications, new levels of interactive systems can focus on explicitly the next generation of hyper-connected luxury customers. Theoretical Development The purpose of this research is to investigate how to personalize the communication process in the luxury market segment through cognitive computing and address the high expectation of the new affluent consumer of the digital age. The next generation of affluent luxury consumers is accustomed to interactive systems and personalized interfaces that enable computers to get more intuitive of the customer(s) to enable them to personal the individual‟s needs. This level of personalization undoubtedly raises the bar on the luxury customer‟s journey from the tactile in-person luxury shopping experience currently found in brick-and-mortar locations, to a decidedly more interactive and increasingly immersive online customer experience. Abbott (1955) and Alderson (1957) focused on the notion that “what people desire are not products but satisfying experiences” (Abbot 1955, p. 40). The fundamentals of cognitive computing are to recognizing trends and behaviors that enable companies to utilize Artificial Intelligence to make proper predictions and give insight to intuitively give consumers what they need before they have to request it. The idea behind this research is to take the traditional luxury market sector of Swiss watches and combine it with the intuitive software provided by cognitive computing. Research Design According to the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry (FHS) in 2017, Switzerland occupies only 3% of the global market regarding the quantity of watches. As for value, Switzerland represents 54% of global sales that is 21 billion USD. Thus, about 95% of luxury watches with price starting from 1,000 USD are stamped "Swiss Made.” Thus, the Swiss watch industry has become an integral part of the luxury universe. However, it‟s not an easy task to get a place in this luxury market of reference. According to the estimation made by the Institute of Watch Marketing, there are approximately 200 active Swiss independent watch brands on the market today. Under conditions of the highly competitive market, the challenge concerns not only market share, but also competitive advantage as well as customer relationships or brand equity. We situate this research within the context of the Swiss luxury watchmaking industry and focus on the power of the website to increase customer loyalty. We suggest ways to utilize a brand‟s electronic (desk, mobile, tablet) touch points to aggregate data to gain a deeper understanding of their loyalist. Armed with knowledge, luxury watch brands can connect to their customers through the power of artificial intelligence. Affluent “digital native” consumers have “hyper-connected” instincts, and increasingly expect more from their chosen brands through next-level personalization. The continued evolution of consumers‟ online behavior, attitude, and expectations from brands currently exceeds what is possible for a single human to process. It is, therefore, becoming increasingly necessary to incorporate both the power of cognitive computing and the information gleaned from large data sets (big data) to produce more intuitive and personalized experiences. This information enhances the brand‟s ability to uncover behavioral patterns and begin to incorporate “machine learning,” (a subset of AI) a calculated algorithm that can facilitate the process of personalization. The speed at which data can now be processed, analyzed, clustered and contextualized has increased the value of machine learning in the world of the consumer experience. Personalization of luxury branded communication that utilize artificial intelligence (AI) to help them connect intuitively with their audience are more apt to meet the needs of the next generation of affluent consumers on a more personalized level. By focusing on the shift in adaptive interactive systems, we highlight the power of cognitive computing to help offer more intuitive luxury personalization for their loyal customers (owners of the brand‟s watches). Achieving this stage of customization requires computers to mimic human intelligence using logic and insight. This research will explore new opportunities to help identify the independent luxury watch industry to capture the attention of the next generation of customers in cyber-space. The customer‟s journey no longer ends at the front door of the traditional brick-andmortar location – it continues into the digital space and even starts from it. Offline Swiss luxury watch brands have mastered the role of personalization through “white glove” in-person customer service and installations exhibiting their expert craftsmanship. This level of customer service is still best accomplished through cultivating and curating the boutique shopping experience, although AI is rapidly changing this dynamic. Currently, the online experiences of luxury watch brands have proven to be less than satisfying for their discriminating clientele because most still shy away from creating a fully-realized digital landscape including an e-commerce presence. Independent watch brands need to push beyond the generic expectations and curate rich aesthetic experiences that set a crucial dimension of the luxury sector (Berthon et al. 2009). This research begins to address how Swiss luxury watch brands can fully embrace the digital evolution and strategically utilize the valued subset of AI including cognitive computing, machine learning, and adaptive interactive systems. AI machine learning will ensure the level of personalization to which the discerning luxury customer has grown accustomed. The next section details how watchmakers can accomplish this integration. Conceptual Framework Over the past years, researchers have increased conceptual understanding of the role of marketing in enabling firms to create and sustain competitive advantage and superior value (Ramaswami et al., 2009). By potential to improve business performance, some studies (Bruni and Verona, 2009), have introduced the term „Dynamic Marketing Capabilities‟ (DMCs hereafter). In fact, DMCs are focused explicitly on releasing and integrating the market knowledge that helps firms evolve. The strategic position of marketing to absorb market knowledge allows Swiss luxury watch brands to provide accurate insight into brand equity and distinctive experience. DMCs are capabilities that use market knowledge to adapt firms‟ resources and capabilities (Day, 1994; Slater and Naver, 1998). In this research will explore the characteristics and uses of market-based resources, such as building brands, relationships, and knowledge and apply to digital solutions through interactive systems and personalized interfaces. This market-based perspective suggests that marketing research increasingly focuses on intangible, complementary resources, whose effects on the firm‟s sustained competitive advantage (SCA) and performance may be greater than the impact of tangible resources (Srivastava et al.1998). As much as 70% of a firm‟s market value may come from its intangible resources (Capraro and Srivastava 1997), and organizational performance increasingly seems tied to intangible resources, such as customer relationships or brand equity (Lusch and Harvey 1994). The abundance of active users globally on the internet, smartphones, laptops, tablets, and desktops creates a wealth of data, up to 80 percent of which is untapped and unstructured and not contextualized for use (Alexander, 2016). This unused data often referred to as “dark data,” includes web images, social media networks, emails, blogs, and videos (Alexander, 2016). An analysis of the online behavior of a brand‟s current customers contributes to the formation of stronger, more meaningful clusters based on current customer personas to reveal patterns of similar interests between groups of customers. This majority of available data can be analyzed by machine learning, and “the more data an algorithm can train on, the more accurate it will be” (Deep Learning, n/a). The sub-domain of machine learning, deep learning, which is itself a sub-domain of AI, breaks down tasks to make machine assistance possible (Copeland, 2016). Thus, deep learning provides insights, which can then be used to help curate a personalized experience through predictive analytics. Gathering customer attributes through insight for this research requires that we take a closer look at similar customer gathering registering their watches online (serial number required) making sure to capture necessary demographic and psychographic information, and through using clientele retail locations, which would then was mined for insights and more branded content. The reactive software would utilize deep learning algorithms to recognize moments, behavior and geo-location to offer realtime personalized mobile engagement. The increasingly common practice of merging of marketing teams enhances marketing deliverables through the User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX). The interface, coupled with the experience, need to work synergistically to drive curiosity and encourage the user to explore and discover what will eventually become more personally-targeted curated content on the website. To further explain how these technologies can be employed for the luxury watchmaking companies, we examine several Swiss luxury watch brands. Describing how actionable data derived from cognitive computing can create a more intuitive customer experience, Vishal Katelia, Senior Manager, Global CRM at the luxury ecommerce website Mr. Porter provides an analogy from the luxury hotel world. He says that luxury hotels excel in many ways, “especially around the „surprise and delight‟ aspect of keeping track of small but important details that personalize their clientele‟s experience from the type of pillow they prefer to sleep on. Paying attention to these details can ensure future expertise, are as perfect as the hotel can offer (Miller, 2016). While machine learning focuses on building machines that replicate the human brain‟s cognitive capabilities to apply this knowledge from cognitive science to react in a intuitive way (Jones, 2017). Artificial intelligence refers to "a broad set of methods, algorithms and technologies that make software 'smart' in a way that may seem human-like to an outside observer," according to Lynne Parker, director of the division of Information and Intelligent Systems for the National Science Foundation (Noyes, K., 2016). Cognitive technologies are themselves products of artificial intelligence that perform human-like tasks such as speech recognition, natural language process, machine learning, computer vision (Schatsky D., Muraskin, Ragu Gurumurthy, R. 2015). Furthermore, it is important to look beyond AI to the most efficient way to personalize the customer‟s experience. By using cognitive technologies marketers can create intuitive experiences for customers offering services and experiences based on behavioral profiling through data clusters and affinity analysis. Result The actionable insight that can be gained through this research was presented in a two-pronged process. First, connecting data that would typically be collected from a brand‟ e-commerce customers‟ journey now would be used to produce more curated content. The ability to apply cognitive computing through tools such as Qubit (data science company) that was used for this study that offers gives us the opportunity to apply an affinity analysis to form insights, patterns, behaviors that previously were undiscovered. Insights gathered would help to identify and reward loyal customers beyond the standard loyalty programs with notifications, private activations on geolocation services. Second, understanding the UX and UI on the websites of the three pre-selected independent luxury watch brands enabled us to follow and eventually understand the user‟s journey both on mobile and desktop. The personalization of the interface allows for in-depth learning to better understand an individual‟s needs and create an intuitive experience for the user. This research is limited to the personalization of loyal users, not to the interested parties of the independent luxury watch brands. While for marketing purposes, most insight collected from a brand‟s website typically is obtained from e-commerce, the independent luxury watch brands are currently limited to UX to measure the movement and interests of the users. The practical application of utilizing untapped „dark data‟ through the process of deep learning personalizes the interface and further utilizing AI technology to offer unique immersive experiences raises the innovation of personalization. The behavioral insights provided by deep learning can contextualize actionable information, which can then be applied by the brand‟s marketing management, retail managers, digital marketing, and public relations (PR) teams. Collection Process & Insight 1. Discovery of Audience Clusters based on Interests 2. Selection Process of Interest-Sets 3. Profiling / Persona of Audience 4. Discovery patterns from AI‟s Subset of Deep Learning 5. Select Deliverables That Align with Brand Through Mobile Applications Further investigation and re-evaluation of changing audience should be measured through the new applied data collected from discovering of new AI subset of deep learning from the luxury consumer. The AI movement will continue to change the next generation of affluent consumer‟s expectations, and with a continued reliance on smartphone technology it is inevitable that the future of personalization will require further investigation. While we have specifically focused on these three independent luxury watchmakers and the four clusters of interests currently available on their websites, future research will need to more deeply examine how the continued evolution of deep learning measurements can be best utilized to match the organic interests of the next generation of loyal customers. The behavioral insights provided by deep learning can contextualize actionable information, which can then be applied throughout the luxury brand communication; marketing management, retail managers, digital marketing, and public relations (PR) teams. Conclusion In this paper, we aimed to revisit luxury customer‟s expectation in the digital age and discuss how the industry is in the midst of a revolution that is changing the level of expectations of personalization. There is no doubt that the new technology is shifting the levels of customization through interactive systems and personalized interface will continue to advance. The next generation of affluent consumers have a high demand for interactive visual content, and dynamic marketing capabilities concept helps to integrate data for creating the new value and competitive advantage for the company. Cognitive computing insight will continue to enable luxury Swiss watches makers to understand how to personalize for the next generation of affluent consumers; more research is required to continue to explore more actionable insight.

This study aims to demonstrate the effectiveness of social media marketing as a tool in communicating a “populist” (Scott, 2015) luxury fashion brand’s good intentions toward ordinary people; it also seeks to identify whether luxury fashion brands frequently perceived as exclusive and “envied” could become approachable and “admired” brands, simply by expressing “warm” intentions on their social media sites. Ultimately, we aim to investigate whether positive relational outcomes can be derived from the brand repositioning process, from envy to admiration. This study builds on the brands as intentional agents framework (Kervyn, Fiske, & Malone, 2012), which categorizes brands in terms of their “intentions” and “ability”: “able/ill-intentioned” luxury brands are categorized as “envied brands,” while “able/well-intentioned” brands elicit the general public’s admiration. Our pre-test results confirmed that consumers can sense a brand’s good intentions and ability via its social media site. We then conducted an online selfreported survey among 488 US women aged 18–49 years who were following or “liking” at least one luxury fashion brand’s official social media site. Using structural equation modeling, we found that intentions have a negative impact on consumer envy, and that they have a positive impact on consumer admiration. Ability was found to have a positive impact on consumer admiration of the brands, while it has a negative impact on consumer envy. Although we confirmed negative directions, consumer envy of the brands had nonsignificant impacts on both emotional brand attachment and brand forgiveness. However, consumer admiration of the brands had a positive impact on both kinds of brand responses. In conclusion, while most luxury fashion brands have stuck to exclusivity, the findings of this study imply that by continually showing good intentions towards ordinary people, luxury fashion brands could reposition themselves as admired brands, which would in turn enhance emotional brand attachment. In this way, these brands could cultivate affectionate and passionate consumer–brand relationships making consumers feel more connected to them. In doing so, luxury fashion brands can acquire through social media powerful consumer allies (Phan, Thomas, & Heine, 2011), who are willing to forgive their failures.

This paper examines the effects of the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) announcement through social media on the consumer perception of the luxury brand consumption. A M&A is becoming more wide spread in the luxury market. Yet, the academic research examining the M&A in the luxury brand context has been sparse albeit the growing interests. Moreover, previous research has not paid attention to the effect of social media as a vehicle to communicate the M&A deal with consumers although social media is increasingly used by luxury brands in their brand communication these days. We aim to fill the gap in the luxury brand literature by examining how a horizontal M&A announcement delivered through social media would affect the brand loyalty derived from the luxury consumption values. Specifically, our research focuses on the four distinctive luxury brand values, which are symbolic, experiential, economic and quality values as well as the perceived sustainability of the M&A deal. We examine how a M&A announcement would affect these five values which in turn influence the brand loyalty, as well as examining the differential effect of social media and non-social media as a brand communication vehicle. In addition, we examine how the vertically differentiated luxury brand perceptions (i.e. different luxury tiers) between acquiring and acquired brands influence the consumption values and brand loyalty. Using a scenario-based online survey, our results reveal several interesting insights on the luxury brand M&A. First, our results show that use of social media as a communication vehicle has differential effects on how the M&A announcement influences consumption values and brand loyalty, comparing with the non-social media communication vehicle. Second, we find that a M&A announcement via social media has a positive impact on the consumer values. Third, the symbolic and experiential values have a positive influence on the brand loyalty, regardless of the luxury tier difference between brands. Fourth, our results show that the perceived sustainability has a positive impact on the brand loyalty as long as the M&A was completed between brands at different tiers. Fourth, the perceived quality has a positive impact on the brand loyalty only if the brand is acquired by a less prestigious brand. Lastly, economic value has a positive impact on the brand loyalty only if the acquiring brand is of more luxurious. In sum, our paper provides useful insights to both academics as well as practitioners in the luxury brand M&A context.

Social media have altered the communication landscape and significantly impacted brand communications in the luxury fashion industry. Research suggests that with the rise of social media, brand communication has been democratised, and the power has shifted from those in marketing to the individuals and communities that create and consume content, redistributing it across a variety of channels (Kozinets, Valck, Wojnicki, & Wilner, 2010; Kumar & Sundaram, 2012). Yet the implications of social media are still largely unknown among practitioners and managers. Moreover, there is a lack of effective frameworks for developing, analysing and comparing social-media strategies (Effing & Spil, 2016). Scholars have just started giving their attention to the subject of ‘social-media strategy’ as such, highlighting a gap in our knowledge, which this study seeks to address. The aim of this research is to understand the role of social media as a strategic brand-communications tool in the luxury fashion industry. Firstly, the main theoretical contribution is the development of a conceptual framework that enables an understanding, explanation and description of the process of building a social-media strategy. There has been a call for this type of research from a managerial perspective, across multiple platforms and objectives, and this work provides much-needed insights. Secondly, the findings provide valuable managerial insights. The conceptual framework emerging from this research is a managerial tool that can be used to tackle the process of building a social-media strategy and to identify its key elements. In particular, the framework can be deployed to guide and evaluate the process of creating a social-media strategy. With the help of the framework, managers can harness their resources successfully and identify the factors that need to be considered. Moreover, the framework aims to guide managerial action towards a sustainable social-media approach that helps to build competitive advantage for global luxury fashion brands in the longer term.

This study aims to assess the effectiveness of backstage storytelling in luxury brands’ social media communication and examine a psychological mechanism that elucidates how luxury brands’ backstage storytelling influences consumers’ attitudinal and relational outcomes. The theory of narrative transportation (Escalas, 2004) was employed as a theoretical lens. Focusing on the effects of visual storytelling in a social media platform, this study proposed that photos of a luxury brand’s backstage images offer a greater level of narrativity than staged images of products and models. Additionally, this study proposed VIP emotions and perceived intimacy as mediators between transportation to photo narrative and attitudes toward the brand, brand evaluation and self-brand connection. In addition, the effectiveness of social media for luxury brands’ visual storytelling was tested by testing the role of telepresence in viewers’ information processing. This study selects Instagram, a visual-oriented social media platform, as the study context; Chanel, a luxury fashion brand, was selected to develop the study stimuli. Two Instagram accounts for Chanel were created as study stimuli through a pre-test: one account with frontstage brand photos and one account with backstage brand photos. Students from two universities in the Southeast and Midwest were recruited and randomly assigned to one of the two experimental conditions, frontstage (n=118) or backstage (n=134) Chanel Instagram account. Manipulation checks confirmed that respondents perceived the experimental conditions as intended. Our results revealed that viewers in the backstage condition experienced higher levels of transportation than those in the frontstage condition; VIP emotions and perceived intimacy mediate the relationship between transportation and attitudes towards a brand’s Instagram, brand evaluations, and self-brand connection. Additionally, ANCOVA results confirmed the interaction effects of telepresence on transportation is significant only in the backstage condition. Findings from this study shed light on the effectiveness of luxury fashion brands’ visual storytelling in social media communication.

The present study contributes to the international literature on brand personality and congruence. There is still a general lack of clarity regarding the measurement of the self-brand congruity construct. Moreover, in the light of international branding research cross-national validation of this measurement is needed. Previous empirical evidence also suggests a positive relationship between brand-self congruity and consumer-brand relationships (i.e. brand attachment) across nations and cultures, but the strength of these relationships requires deeper investigation. The present study therefore aims to test and validate a personality congruence scale at an international level and to measure the effect of congruence on brand attachment with specific reference to the luxury sector. A survey of nearly 1,500 international luxury customers has been conducted. Results confirm that personality congruence is based upon five dimensions (Prestige/Emotion/Trust/Anxiety/Order). In addition, the results highlight the existence and relative importance of the link between “personality congruence” and “brand attachment”. Finally, findings suggest similarities and differences across countries regarding specific dimensions of congruence scale and the personality congruence and attachment relationship. Both theoretical and managerial implications are provided.

This research addresses an important, yet under-researched, issue concerning the management of loyalty programs (LPs) in the era of globalization: how to effectively motivate LP members from different cultures to continue the reward pursuit process. Drawing on cross-cultural research and regulatory fit theory, we identify feedback framing as a low-cost, easy-to-implement strategy for building program loyalty across cultures. Two cross-cultural studies confirm all the hypotheses about the effects of feedback framing. Overall, this research advances theoretical understanding of reward pursuit behavior across cultures and offers practical advice for managing LPs in different cultural contexts.

Despite its undoubted academic relevance, country-of-origin (COO) research continuous to be criticized for its lack of practical relevance (Usunier 2006). However, extant research has mainly focused on consumers as potential users of COO information, whereas relatively little is known with respect to whether and when companies actively use COO as part of their marketing mix. This study looks at the usage of COO information in advertising by conducting a content analysis of all print ads published in three major magazines in France over the period of one year. A set of hypotheses is subsequently developed and tested that looks at differences with respect to a) COO usage versus non-usage, b) frequency of COO cues used, and c) product- or brand type differences in the usage of COO information. Results shows that roughly one third of all ads analyzed feature COO information in it. In contrast to some scholars (e.g., Samiee 2010; Usunier 2006), our results provide further evidence on the relevance of COO cues from a supply side perspective. An in-depth analysis of the frequency and usage of COO information in advertising largely confirms extant literature with respect to the importance of the construct for domestic brands, and products with a high ethnicity (Usunier and Cestre 2007), low involvement (Bloemer, Brijs, and Kasper 2009), and hedonic nature. At the same time, we do not find evidence that COO only matters in these situations, as was highlighted by some scholars in the field. Finally, with respect to the debate on which type of country is actually associated with COO, we confirm extant propositions that the majority of products on the market associate themselves with the country-of-brand (Magnusson, Westjohn, and Zdravkovic 2011). Overall, more than 80% of all brands emphasized the country of brand, sometimes in combination with a different country-ofmanufacture.

Inspired by the success of the Dove real beauty campaign, companies such as Amazon Fashion, Nike and Walmart have started to adopt authentic branding strategies, i.e., strategies based on the use of ordinary looking models to reflect real consumers in brand communications (e.g., Zombeck, 2015). Authentic branding is an alternative to the strategy of aspirational branding, where companies use “attractive” models to communicate that consuming their brands will bring consumers closer to an idealized view of themselves (e.g., being an attractive person like the models in the ads; D'Alessandro and Chitty, 2011). However, the body of evidence on their superiority over aspirational strategies is inconclusive. We expand knowledge on aspirational vs. authentic branding strategies by focusing on a new context of major economic importance for brand marketers, China, as well as by testing the moderating effect of a to date not considered contingency: local vs. foreign brand origin perceptions (i.e., low vs. high perceived brand foreignness). Data was gathered through an online survey of non-student consumers based in China recruited through Qualtrics online survey panels (n=623). Tests of reliability, convergent and discriminant validity of the measurement models deliver overall satisfactory results. R2 and Q2 values demonstrate that the tested models show good explanatory power and predictive relevance of emotional brand attachment (R2 = 0.699 to 0.759; Q2 = 0.527 to 0.696). Results support H1, as authentic branding has a positive effect on emotional brand attachment (β = 0. 293, p < 0.001), thus adding support to the efficacy of authentic branding strategies across West and East. Results also support H2, as aspirational branding has a positive effect on emotional brand attachment (β =0.598, p < 0.001). These findings support recent evidence from the UK and USA (e.g., Japutra et al., 2017) yet are out of line with recent studies in Switzerland and India, which fail to support this link (e.g., Malär et al., 2011). Results support H3, as aspirational branding has as stronger effect on EBA than authentic branding (t = 4.603, p < 0.001). Our findings question recent evidence suggesting a generic superiority of authentic over aspirational branding (e.g., Japutra et al., 2017). Results support H4, as for brands perceived as local, the effect of aspirational branding on EBA is significantly stronger than that of authentic branding (t= 4.125, p < 0.001). Thus, results support the notion that brands low on social signalling value, i.e., those perceived as local, can develop stronger attachment with consumers when they employ aspirational strategies. Finally, results do not support H5, as the data shows that for brands perceived as foreign, aspirational branding (β = 0.536, p < 0.001) still has a significantly stronger effect (t= 2.123, p < 0.05) on EBA than authentic branding (β =0.339, p < 0.001). In other words, brands perceived as foreign can still benefit from conveying aspiration over authenticity.

Consumer arrogance is conceptualized and defined by Ruvio & Shoham (2016) as people's proclivity for demonstrating their social superiority through the acquisition, utilization, or display of consumer goods. This new notion rooted from the symbolic meaning of consumption that suggesting consumers use products as symbols to create self-identity, to maintain their self-concept, to express their self, to convey personal and social achievements and to reflect their social status to others (Holman, 1981; Belk, 1988; Hirschman & LaBarbera, 1990). This research examines the cross-cultural validity of the Ruvio & Shoham‘s (2016) consumer arrogance scale in Turkey and Romania. Data were collected from 192 Turkish and 176 Romanian students. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the four-factor solution. The scale demonstrates internal consistency and validity within the two countries and across countries. The cross-cultural validation tested via configural, metric and covariance methods. The results indicated that the consumer arrogance scale is consistent across countries and it can be established as a second order construct. The nomological validity with structural equation modelling results support that consumer arrogance is predicted by materialism in both countries. This cross-national study extended consumer arrogance scale in a collectivist cultural setting and contributes to enriching cross-cultural validation research as well as consumer behavior understanding.

Research in the consumption of counterfeit products has examined market size, consumer perceptions, and buyer characteristics (Nia & Zaichkowsky, 2010; Wee, Tan, & Cheok, 1995). However, little is known about how different kinds of counterfeits are evaluated because the term counterfeit tends to be used as a catch all for “fakes”. By taking a more nuanced approach to defining counterfeits we investigate how consumer’s perceptions of counterfeit products can vary based on the details of the item and its production. Moreover, we demonstrate that perceptions and consumption of counterfeits is not universal across cultures. Drawing from cultural psychology research, we propose that differences in dialectical thinking styles can influence the evaluation of counterfeit products. Prior literature has demonstrated that East Asians are relatively more dialectical. While Caucasians (with European cultural background) adopt a relatively more polarized, less polarized, less dialectical belief system (Peng & Nisbett, 1999). This difference has important implications for our understanding of cultural differences in considering counterfeits. Consider, for example, a “ghost shift” Rolex watch (i.e. an unlicensed copy made in a licensed facility with authentic materials but on an unofficial third shift (Parloff, 2006); compare that with a replica made using slightly different materials in a different facility altogether. Both are classified as counterfeits but may be evaluated differently with respect to authenticity and, as a result, may differ in perceived value as well (e.g. likelihood to purchase). We investigate these issues through three experiments conducted with 406 American undergraduate students by asking them to evaluate a variety of counterfeit and ghost shift counterfeit products. The first study relies on culture (non-Asian vs. East Asian ethnicity) as a proxy for thinking style and investigates perceptions of counterfeit sunglasses and shoes. Our second study provides converging evidence for the role of thinking styles on evaluations of different types of counterfeit shoes and extends our research by moving beyond reductionist cultural explanations through a wholly non- Asian sample by measuring individual differences in dialectical reasoning (Dialectical Self Scale; Spencer-Rodgers, Boucher, Mori, Wang, & Peng, 2009). Our last study investigates counterfeit Rolex watches and, more importantly, manipulates participants’ tolerance for change and contradiction through an established priming task (Peng & Nisbett, 1999). All three experiments revealed consistent results: lower dialectical thinking (more representative of Europeans) resulted in a greater likelihood to purchase the third shift version over the replica version, while higher dialectical thinking (e.g. East-Asian) resulted in equivalent responses between the two types. In studies 2 and 3 perceived authenticity also differed for low dialectical thinkers, but not high dialectical thinkers.

Western social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, etc are banned in China. In their places, Weibo, WeChat, Youku and more are the main social media channels in China and thus the main battlefields of social marketing for brands entering China Market. WeChat is the largest social network in China, with over 900 million users daily, for nearly all types of services, including booking flights, restaurant table reservation, shopping, paying bills, etc. To cater the needs of the new generation of Chinese digital natives, a mobile app eM++ was developed that creates new customer services and enables tailored fashion marketing. This new mobile app eM++ works well in China, will this be also well received in other countries? This research investigates consumers’ perception of this new fashion e-tailoring e-shopping concept in UK. Will this type of e-tailored services be welcome in UK? Will consumers welcome this type of e-shopping service in UK? Or they prefer the traditional way of tailoring and shopping? Which social media platforms should be used for promotion? The sample population of this research covers both male and females from China and UK aged 18 years old or above with experience of searching and/or buying clothing items online. Convenient sampling and snow-balling sampling methods are used. In UK, recruitment of volunteers for this project will be via emails to colleagues and previous students, as well as via posters of recruiting volunteers for this project posted on campus. Details of the project and experiment will be included in both emails and posters. Volunteered participants are asked to answer a pre-experiment online questionnaire. Based on their answers, suitable participants will be invited to participate the experimental part (which is trying a fashion app and then answer the post-experiment questionnaire). Participants successfully completed the experiment and post-experiment questionnaire will be given their own body measurements with a 3D model in user’s customised shape, as well as a discount coupon for future use when the app is officially launched. This research will have mainly quantitative data analysis, SPSS will be used to analyse the data. There will have a few open-ended questions that qualitative data analysis method will be employed. This research will explore the feasibility of this service in UK and formulate a cross-cultural comparison between China and UK.

Introduction This paper investigates the implementation possibilities of the Industry 4.0 systems within the production of fashion luxury goods by collecting the opinion of the managers and the perception of the potential customers. The results indicate that technologies 4.0 can be implemented within luxury fashion production without affecting the quality of the finished product. However customers are negatively prevented against them. Therefore, giving the present situation of the fashion industry, now more demanding than ever, it would be appropriate to implement such systems without disclosing it to customers. Theoretical development With this research we aim to demonstrate that in the world of luxury fashion production there is room, if not the need, to implement the technologies of the Industry 4.0 without affecting the quality of the final product. We believe it is crucial that the luxury environment starts to seriously consider the Industry 4.0 as the former, in recent years, has become ever more challenging. Since luxury has become more accessible to masses, customers are no longer content just by getting the product, they often want it before the general public has it or fully customized to distinguish themselves. This implies a reduction of production times together with multiple rearrangements of the entire production process. Which is why we need to start thinking about Luxury and Industry 4.0. The concept of Industry 4.0 started developing with the exponential involvement of technological means during production processes of any kind. The term describes the model of the “smart” factory of the future where computer-driven systems “monitor physical processes, create a virtual copy of the physical world and make decentralized decisions” based on self-organization mechanisms (Smith, 2016). The goal of the industry 4.0 is to reach a deeper interconnection and cooperation between the available resources and the final customer; it’s a multiple layer engagement composed by complex machines, people, products, information within the production sight and all along the value chain (Tolio, 2016). The implementation of such systems allows achieving better levels of efficiency and contributes to increase the competitive advantage; it is a revolution that involves a company at all levels from the production centers to human resources. Although luxury fashion is a quite peculiar industry, all its processes are still very much cyclical and could benefit from the help of such implementations. The main technologies that are often quoted as being at the core of the Industry 4.0 are IoT (Internet of Things), big data, additive manufacturing, 3D printing, augmented reality and new generation robots. All this may seem too futuristic for an industry such as luxury that has always been associated with craftsmanship. When defining luxury in fact, one of the qualities attributed to this kind of products is the “strong connection with the past proven by the tradition handed down over time” (Dubois, 2001); a description that can be taken quite literally as the heritage of the brand is built upon the traditions passed on by the different artisans who crafted the product. But if we fraction the production process and analyze it in depth, we will see that it is cyclical, and that some of its parts may benefit from such technologies that would make it leaner without affecting the quality of the end product. An example of this can be seen in the laser cutting machines for leather. A robot can cut the elements required to compose a bag in a few minutes, while it would take up to half an hour to do it by hand. Even if mechanically cut though, the bag will still need to be assembled by a highly skilled artisan to become the exceptional quality product that customers expect to see in stores. Many are afraid that technological implementations will lead to the disappearance of the artisanal component failing to understand that the Industry 4.0 is not about complete automation but rather about human-machine interaction. Talking about production we will refer to the process in its integrity, from the sketches to the products in the stores. Research design The research was conducted using semi-structured interviews to questiont professionals who work in different stages of luxury fashion production for different companies. All the interviewees were chosen among the industry biggest players: LVMH, Kering, Richemont, Hermès, Chanel and others. To establish the sample of interviewees we divided the production process into four main phases and then identified at least one professional to question for each one of them. The subdivision we applied was the following: ⦁ Phase 1 - Creation & Design ⦁ Phase 2 - Production & Merchandising ⦁ Phase 3 - Retail & Marketing ⦁ Phase 4 - Supply Chain & Distribution Each interviewee was asked a set of specific questions related to the complexities of their job and the problems encountered while doing it (Appendix 1). Among the sample there were two professionals that did not belong to the production process but that we deemed necessary to involve to have a more complete outcome. One is a Professor of Fashion design at the Politecnico of Milan, the other is a Strategic Planning Analyst who works for Lectra, one of the biggest companies producing technologies for fashion. In order to investigate the perception of the customers we distributed a multiple choice survey to a heterogeneous sample of 200 people. Among the questions asked one was strictly related to the use of technology while the others regarded arguments, related to its utilization, that emerged while interviewing the professionals. Despite not being directly on the use of technology, we deemed the other queries important to evaluate if the problems emerged from the interviews were relevant also from a customer point of view. The questions submitted via survey were the followings: 1) On a scale of 1 to 4, (1= low interest, 4=high interest) how interested are you in luxury goods? 2) How much worth is being able to buy a luxury good before it is on sale in stores? (1= not worth, 4= very worth) 3) Would you think of higher quality a bag completely handcrafted rather than the very same bag produced also by using industrial processes? 4) Would you attribute a higher value to a luxury product conceived to be respectful for the environment? The survey ended up highlighting that customers have a negative bias towards the exploitation of such systems within the production of luxury goods. In fact they attribute a higher value to completely handcrafted products, without considering the possibility that the latters may have more defects. The methodology used was successful in helping us understanding the opinion of the management along with the perceptions of the customers. Moreover, through the interviews we were able to highlight practical daily problems encountered by people directly involved in the production process. Results and conclusion We used the problems that arose as bases to begin thinking what could be concretely implemented, in which phase and with what goal. We started by focusing our attention on five points that currently challenge production and could be exploited as opportunities for the implementation of specific technology. Nevertheless, we also highlighted three main limits that might prevent the application of said technology. The opportunities of implementation were the following: Production times - Representing one of the biggest problems in the industry, we believe that technology could come to the rescue especially in the first two stages of the process. For example, the use of 3D printing to produce some prototypes or certain components that could be useful for reducing time and costs. Another example is Modaris 3D, a new generation software that allows you to digitize the pattern allowing you to see it in 3D. Exploiting this software would allow to predict the potential problems of the prototype before even crafting it and would help save a lot of time and resources. Not to mention that digitized patterns can be archived and easily reused later. Moreover, the exploitation of the new generation robots to pre-cut certain components would once again allow a shorter production time and reduce costs. Couterfeiting - Another implementation opportunity is represented by counterfeiting. Now that online commerce is booming, the fake industry is at its peak and people find it difficult to distinguish between what is real and what is not. IoT technologies could help immensely with this problem. One of the interviewees working in the distribution phase told us that today when the products are shipped, in order to track them down and recognize them from counterfeits, companies install into their pockets RFID chips, small chips similar to those of credit cards. Their limitation though is that they can be traced or recognized only if scanned. The use of IoT technologies on this type of device (for example, providing the same type of support with a GPS) would allow them to be interactive and serve their purpose even better when the products are shipped all over the world. Sustainability - In recent years the problem of sustainability has become increasingly relevant, to the point that some luxury empires have been built on it, as in the case of Stella McCartney. To pay more attention to the environmental cause, fashion houses could start by wasting less resources. One way to do this could be to use software to optimize pattern placements on fabrics or on leather. Human supervision would still be required, as some pieces need to be cut from specific parts of the leather but it would certainly help in making some useful proposals. Internal communication – Internal communication is a problem at all levels of the production process. It can be an issue especially when it comes to communicating the intentions of the design team to the production and controlling the stock level in real time. In the first case, to solve the problem, we could consider the implementation of a software like PLM (Product Life Management). This type of program helps to follow the transformation from sketches to prototypes to products, providing detailed information on everything that is present on the garment, specifying consumption and costs of materials. With regard to the inventory control problem, we could again use the help of the IoT. Inventory control is a problem both in terms of raw materials (for all those houses that produce prototypes internally) and finished products. In the first case a potential solution could be to label the raw materials with magnetic labels that would allow to see immediately when the components leave the stock. In the second case, as previously mentioned, supplying the finished products with IoT chips would help to locate them and know how many are in stock. Demand forecast – Another major help that industry 4.0 could bring to fashion production is the exploitation of big data to forecast the demand. Nowadays in fact, the constant and hardly predictable changes in fashion heavily affect a demand that already has few reference standards. When it comes to forecast, several factors have an impact on it: trends, social medias, consumption habits etc. The most unpredictable of these factors is probably represented by the social media as clients may cause a peek in demand after seeing a celebrity or an influencer wearing a specific product. Giving all this, it's evident how the more variables we are able to consider when doing forecasts, the better the chances of predicting a scenario close to reality and Big Data would allow to do so. As previously mentioned we also highlighted some limits that could prevent implementation: Costs - The more significant limit when talking about this kind of technology is related to costs. It is important to consider both the ones needed to purchase the technology as well as the ones to train the employees in order to make the implementation possible. As we all know technology is extremely expensive, and in a certain way a form of luxury itself, often being just for few. The size of the brand would modulate of course the amount of the investment in it. Client perception & adverse attitude – The survey pointed out that clients are negatively biased towards technology and, if informed that the product has been realized with the help of technological means, may attribute to it a lower value. What it's necessary to keep in mind though, is that, when taking a survey, you are in front of a screen and not in front of the products. I believe in fact that if a "blind" test was conducted presenting two products of which one completely handcrafted and the other realized by artisans who exploited technological means as well, no one would be able to tell the difference. Training of employees - Another big challenge in the implementation of such systems is the training of the employees. Implementing these technologies for some employees may mean learning again how to do their job with the help of a computer. Being an environment where youngsters are outscored due to the lack of experience, this may represent a problem. In conclusion our research proved that there is indeed room to implement the 4.0 systems as the issues emerged can be partially, if not completely, solved by introducing these technologies making the process leaner and more efficient. Nevertheless, giving the fact that customers are negatively biased towards their use, it would be appropriate avoiding to disclose the information with them.

Given the relevance of social media platforms into everyday life, User-Generated- Contents (UGC) have come to represent one of the richest and used source of online information (Koltringer and Dickinger, 2015). UGC include online information sources that are developed, and used by consumers who intend to communicate each other and share information about products, brands and services (Culotta and Cutler, 2016) influencing other customers’ perception and decision-making process. In this perspective, for marketers who need to manage their brands, UGC on social media provide new opportunities and new dangers. One particular kind of contents created by consumers are parodies of advertisement (parodic ads), humorous messages that parody extant advertising (Roehm and Roehm, 2014). This kind of UGC can damage or be beneficial for brands image and reputation. After the development of an overview about parody literature in management discipline, this research aims at investigating the effect of parodic ads video - created and shared by users on social media - on the image and the reputation of the parodied advertising's brand. With this aim, authors will developed a content analysis on ads videos and parodic ads videos and related comments on You Tube.