When purchasing products or services, consumers tend to purchase multiple value attributes through the acquisition of a product rather than physical characteristics. This study empirically analyzed the relations between consumption value, brand attitude, and purchase intention of customers purchasing fair-trade coffee, by dividing consumption values that would have significant effects on consumers’ actual purchase behavior into five levels. Among the consumption value factors of customers purchasing fair-trade coffee, the functional value, social value, emotional value, and rare value all had significant effects on brand attitude and purchase intention while the influence of situational value on brand attitude and purchase intention was not verified. These finding are partially concordant with those of preceding studies, and the consumption value of consumers purchasing fair-trade coffee has positive effects on purchase behavior; therefore, it would be necessary for companies selling fair-trade products to understand consumers’ specific values. Moreover, analysis of the influence of brand attitude on purchase intention of customers purchasing fair-trade coffee revealed that purchase intention increased when brand attitude was higher. These finding indicate that it is necessary to identify measures to increase purchase intention by targeting consumer groups with high brand attitude with intensive promotions.

Authenticity is an important topic in business activities and society at large. Sustainability management and marketing activities are required as consumers become more interested in society. The consumer evaluation of brand authenticity is a crucial factor in a brand’s reputation and long-term growth, which affects brand loyalty, electronic word of mouth (eWOM) and purchase behavior. With this latest trend, luxury brands are paying attention to sustainability activities, but consumer confidence in the sustainability of luxury brands is still low. Experts emphasize that building trust with customers by promising authenticity is a key challenge. Meanwhile, luxury brands are actively communicating with consumers through SNS, such as Instagram. Social media marketing directly and indirectly influences brand authenticity, as well as purchase intentions and eWOM. Nevertheless, there is little exposure to sustainability activities in the social media accounts of luxury brands. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the sustainability activities on the social media of luxury brands and brand authenticity, as well as the effects of brand authenticity on eWOM and purchase intention. For this study, we conducted an online survey targeting individuals with ages of 20–30 years and who are highly interested in society while actively using social media. The collected data were analyzed using the SPSS 21.0 software package. The main finding of this study reveals that consumers are more aware of brand authenticity when they see an Instagram post that includes messages about sustainability rather than a post without any such messages. In addition, brand authenticity has positive effects on eWOM and purchase intention. These findings suggest that sustainability marketing by luxury brands leads to positive consumer response, and the broadcasting of messages about sustainability via social media is effective for the marketing strategy of luxury brands.

While there is broad agreement on the importance of an identity-oriented brand understanding and management, there is a high degree of disagreement as regards the definition of the brand identity construct. In the scientific discussion, a definition seems to prevail, in which the brand image that exists among the customers is contrasted with the brand identity which is either only associated with the within the brand company existing picture of the brand (self-image) or at least additionally with the brand’s meaning and goal. Falling back on very different research traditions in the field of the development of an identity theory, it is shown that the construct of brand identity should be understood in a much more comprehensive sense in order to fully unleash its heuristic power. In addition, it seems imperative to take into account that strong brands can become a kind of "personality sui generis", the further development of which cannot only be determined by the company which once brought the brand onto the market. The specific brand identity is much more subject to many social influences involving a huge variety of social actors. Against this background the idea of brand management needs reform, and should be re-conceptualized more in the sense of an attempt to channel all relevant social influences in a targeted manner. In this contribution, a corresponding approach of identity-oriented brand management is presented and illustrated by examples from the fashion sector. This is mainly due to the fact that the identity development of fashion marks depends to a great extent on numerous social influences and influencers.

While the luxury goods market has shown a slow growth, brands are becoming devoted when developing strategies optimized for customer’s needs in order to survive in a competitive environment. Face-to-Face (FtF) service is one of the differing strategies that luxury brands pursue in their offline in-store environment. With the advance of digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, this service is expanding also to online. Chatbot is an emerging online communication tool that offers to customers a new, unique and personalized digital service. The traditional way of measuring communication between a luxury brand and the luxury customer has been through face-to-face (FtF) interactions that customers can experience directly at the store. However, there is a lack of researches on chatbot, a new conversational agent. The aim of the present study is to identify the effects of conversational agents marketing efforts on communication outcomes. Second, within this context, the study clarifies how the service provided in-store (FtF) differs from the service provided through online store (chatbot). Last, it verifies how communication outcomes differ according to the customer’s personal traits. Online questionnaires were distributed among individuals aged 20-30 residing in Korea; thereafter, SPSS 21.0 and AMOS 18.0 were used to verify the proposed model and research hypotheses. Results show that luxury brand’s conversational agents marketing efforts have a positive effect on communication outcomes. In addition, communication outcomes that customers experience have difference for both FtF and Chatbot, as well as according to customer’s personal traits. The findings of the study provide meaningful implications for marketers, thus the conversational agents marketing efforts that customers experience in the brick-and-mortar store is also of some value in the digital context.

In response to growing instability and a perceived over-commercialization also of luxury brands, there is a trend among consumers to search for meaning and for experiences that feel genuine. The “humanization” of brands may feed the consumers growing desire for authenticity. This paper combines the brand personality concept and brand anthropomorphization and introduces the notion of personality-driven brand management especially for luxury brands and high-end cultural and creative businesses. After an introduction into the concept of brand personality, and with reference to identitydriven brand management, we explain what personality-driven brand management actually means. When the focal point of brand management shifts to the enlivened brand, the brand personality becomes the main source of inspiration for brand-building and influences all branding decisions. With personality-driven branding, managers may leverage the full potential of brand anthropomorphization. For instance, it can help to turn the brand into a strong character, which can spark the employee’s enthusiasm and thus also the customer’s passion for the brand. As a prerequisite of (internal) brand anthropomorphization, managers need to decide what kind of person they would like their brand to represent. For this purpose, they can consult a framework of brand personality dimensions for some guidance. A central part of this paper is a study about the major dimensions of luxury brand personality. Results suggest that there exist five distinct luxury personality dimensions including tradition, modesty, elitism, eccentricity, and sensuality. They help brand managers to develop distinct brand personalities by encouraging them to decide between contrasting traits. After presenting the major strategies to bring a luxury brand personality alive, the paper discusses the benefits of personality-based brand management and concludes with some major lessons learned.

Recently, marketing researchers have started to explore the impact of Social Media Brand Communities in digital marketing strategies. However, in spite of this interest, scant attention has been paid to the micro-mechanisms stimulating electronic word of mouth (E-WOM) within social media brand community. In this sense, this exploratory research aims to explore how consumers‟ engagement is related with positive E-WOM.

Sports Sponsorship is considered to provide a highly valuable communication environment for companies to leverage brand equity. However, effectiveness evaluations of sponsorship activities mainly focus on explicit self-reports or focus interviews. Such communication evaluations do not take into account research from psychology demonstrating that associations and judgments are often activated and strongly influenced by implicit (automatic) processes, with no (or only little) conscious awareness of such information processing. Against that background, the goal of the current work is to shed further light on the impact of in-game advertising as innovative sponsor-linked marketing tactic on the dual brand knowledge–incorporating both implicit and explicit information processing–as key success indicator of sport sponsorship.

This study aims at identifying a novel framework that further explains the relationship between brands and customers in the online context at different touchpoints (e.g. social media, website) of the customer journey. In pursuing this goal, authors expect online brand experience as the main trigger in determining specific customer brand engagement (CBE) behaviours.

Brand prominence has emerged in the last years as a promising research area in luxury marketing. The present research looks at extending our current understanding of the role played by the conspicuousness of a brand’s trademark or logo on consumers’ purchase intentions. Drawing from qualitative (semi-structured interviews) and quantitative (online questionnaire) research methods, we explore the impact of logo size (small vs. large) and nature of products (high street vs. luxury) on consumers’ attitudes towards products, intention to buy and willingness to pay. The explorative qualitative part features semi-structure interviews to understand luxury consumers’ opinions on brand prominence. The quantitative part features a 2 (prominence: low vs high) x2 (luxuriousness: high street vs luxury) mixed factorial design. Participants are first presented with images of t-shirts with varying logo sizes (small vs large; prominence: low vs high) and varying brands (luxuriousness: high street vs luxury) before answering a series of questions in relation to their products and brand preferences. This research carries both theoretical and managerial implications. In terms of theoretical implications, it contributes to a better understanding of brand prominence, and the difference between high street vs luxury brands in terms of consumer perception. In terms of managerial implications, it can help marketers to optimise the size of a logo and brand name depending on the nature of the brand they work with.

The personal luxury goods market in the Middle-East is the 10th largest in the world, right before Hong-Kong and Russia, which are both well-established markets for luxury products (D’Arpizio, Levato, Zito & Montgolfier, 2015). However, luxury consumer behavior consumption in the Middle-East and its influencing factors have largely been left unexplored. This paper builds on previous research among German luxury consumers and investigates the formation of brand love and its impact on willingness-to-pay among Arab luxury consumers. Compared with the German study, it is found that Arab luxury consumers show weaker brand love tendencies. In addition, materialistic characteristics and tendencies for conspicuous consumption among Arab consumers strongly influence brand love in the context of luxury fashion and accessories, which confirms previous findings. Results further document that for Arab luxury consumers neither conspicuous consumption tendencies nor brand love can be interpreted as a predictor for an increase in willingness to pay. Hence, for those consumers, long-lasting emotional consumer-brand relationships are not responsible for generating additional profits and do not explain why the willingness to pay for luxury goods was significantly higher among Arab consumers. Finally, results indicate that though some elements of luxury consumption are shared among German and Arab luxury consumers (e.g. fashion involvement, the evaluation of particular brands, gender and brand love tendencies) there are significant differences in terms of e.g. brand preferences, general willingness to pay for luxury fashion and accessories and willingness to pay for conspicuous luxury goods. This research provides insights into the formation of brand love among Arab luxury consumers and how it informs luxury consumption. Moreover, it sheds light on similarities and differences across the two samples and increases the understanding of luxury consumption in a broader geographic context.

“Cobranded endorsement”, i.e. the interactive partnership between a brand and a celebrity, seems to be the last frontier for endorsing a brand and increasing brand popularity. Indeed, the collaborations between a celebrity and a brand are increasing in number and growing in importance. Many new products or capsule collections are created and launched after these partnerships. The paper wants to investigate whether this cobranded endorsement has positive effects on brand equity. Findings from an experimental study carried out in the fashion segment reveal that cobranded endorsements foster a better attitude towards the brand and a higher purchase intention.

The main objective of this study is to compare the difference of consumers’ perception on brand context. The focal factors are brand equity, brand personality and perceived customer value. This would enhance the knowledge of cross-cultural brand equity and brand personality, especially in Fast-Fashion industry. In addition, the findings of this study show that, for a brand in different marketing context, how customers perceive the brand and contribute it to their value. The sample size of 800 consumers is applied (400 Japanese consumers and 400 Thai consumers. The focal brand is randomly selected by the researcher. The Structural Equation Modelling with multiple group analysis would be conducted for examining the differences of consumer perception on a Fast-Fashion brand. All major model fits indicator would be evaluated. Finally, the results of the study would be discussed.

Recent research has shown that many companies in the fashion industry are increasingly weaving close relationships with the art world, to appropriate art values and meanings to be associated with their own products and brands (Hagdtvedt & Patrick, 2008a; 2008b). Businesses related to the fashion luxury sector have been especially prone to using such strategies to transform their products into true artworks to address the issue of commodification resulting from high production volumes (Dion and Arnoult, 2011; Riot, Chameret & Rigaud, 2013). Over the past two decades, the luxury market has undergone huge structural changes through mergers and acquisitions that have transformed an industry made up of small, family businesses into major financial conglomerates and brand owners (Roux & Floch, 1996; Crane 2012). Secondly, globalization and openness to new fast-growing markets such as Asia, have led these luxury conglomerates to increase sales volumes, failing in one of the basic characteristics of such goods: rarity. But if the real rarity of luxury products is a promise that companies can no longer guarantee their own consumers, the elitism of these products can be ensured through an artificial rarity. Jean-Noël Kapferer used the neologism artification recently introduced by French sociologists Nathalie Heinich and Roberta Shapiro and applied it to the analysis of luxury goods (Kapferer, 2012; 2014; Heinich and Shapiro, 2012; Shapiro and Heinich, 2012). He stressed that a strategy based on art implemented by luxury companies is useful mainly to support the perception of rarity by the final consumer. Artification is based on the notion that art –related objects or persons are associated with positive values. Enhancing a corporate image in the consumer’s mind means building positive ties to the brand that will initiate a form of benevolence towards the brand, providing the legitimization of corporate actions and, in some cases, resulting in the purchase of goods and services produced and distributed by the company (Keller, 1993; Aaker, 1996; Aaker & Joachimsthaler, 2000; Keller, 2003). We decided to analyse the effect of Artification on brand value by focusing on the four dimensions of Awareness, Image, Quality and Loyalty by using the same CbBE ( Customer-based Brand Equity) structure previous authors tested on country of origin effect on consumers, based on the main hypotheses further explained (Pappu, Quester & Cooksey, 2006). The first hypothesis relates to the dimension of Awareness and aims to test the level of brand recognition in final consumers when the logo is modified by an artist. • H1 – Consumers’ awareness remains strong when the brand is ‘artified’. We analyze then the Image, as the second dimension of CbBE. Due to the complexity of this dimension, we posited two hypotheses connected to it: • H2a – Consumers’ free associations to the brand are connected to the artworld when the brand is ‘artified’ (e.g. consumers indicate words as art, contemporary art or the name of the artist). • H2b – Consumers’ evaluation of the brand image points to stronger positive associations when the brand is ‘artified’ The last two hypotheses we mention are connected to the dimensions of Quality and Loyalty: • H3 – Consumers’ evaluation of Quality increases when the brand is ‘artified’.  H4 – Consumers’ Loyalty to the brand increases when the brand is ‘artified’. • The analysis was conducted through a between-subjects randomized experiment and manipulated art presence (with art versus without art). Starting from the same panel, two groups were created: one including the treatment (visual arts) and one including no treatment at all. Furthermore, we limited ourselves in this experiment to images of products and pattern created by Louis Vuitton that are actually on the market, associating them randomly to the research units in order to obtain two statistically consistent groups subjected to the different treatment (with art or without art)4. The two groups were labelled ‘artified’ group and control group, the first grouping the respondents to the questionnaire containing images of Louis Vuitton Logo, pattern and product modified by art collaboration with Yayoi Kusama; and the second grouping the respondents to the questionnaire containing images of Louis Vuitton Logo, pattern and product in its standard design. The questionnaire was distributed between the months of May and June 2015 via Qualtrics survey software. It was divided into four distinct blocks: the first concerned the presentation of the survey, the declaration of authorization signed by the participants and the demographic information; the second and the third blocks of questions were identical, with the same series of questions but based on different images used. There were 880 respondents, 825 of whom correctly filled the questionnaire we submitted to them. The control group was made of 413 respondents, 73.13 % of whom were female and 26.87 % male. The ‘artified’ group was made of 71.60 % female and 28.40 % male. We analyzed the four dimensions of Awareness, Image, Quality and Loyalty individually and in a comparative manner between the control and ‘artified’ groups. In the CbBE model, dimensions are analyzed individually since Awareness and brand Image measures are not comparable because they are collected through different measure methods, respectively through multiple choice and open-ended questions. Such dimensions as Image, Quality and Loyalty which were raised through Likert scales were then subjected to mono multivariate statistical analysis. The main results are shown in table 1. By reading the results for CbBE, Hypothesis H1 [Consumers’ awareness remain strong when the brand is ‘artified’] has been confirmed. The aided brand awareness shows no important differences between the two groups, so visual artists may modify logos or the appearance of luxury products without the fear of compromising brand awareness in the final consumers. Hypothesis H2a [Consumers’ free associations to the brand are connected to the arts when the brand is ‘artified’ (e.g. the word art, contemporary art or the name of the artist)] was not confirmed. Hypothesis H2b was partially confirmed as Generic Associations and Brand Personality were impacted by the use of the visual arts, while Organizational Associations were not. Brand loyalty and Perceived Quality were not impacted by the Visual Arts either, so Hypothesis H3 and H4 were not confirmed. As a main result for CbBE analysis, the Visual Arts have an impact on Customer-based Brand Equity, limited to Brand Image dimensions. The fact that Brand Image is one of the most complex dimensions of brand value opens the way to the development of future analysis and research in the visual arts as external source for brand equity, especially for Brand Personality. The main results of our research show that an artification effect is visible especially at the level of brand image and brand personality, two complex and valuable components of Brand Value from a consumer perspective. This opens to further in-depth analysis of these two components for future research. Large luxury groups (such as Cartier and Prada) have long used an art-based strategy to increase the value of their products, avoiding the risk of a loss of prestige perceived by the final consumer who would no longer recognize the exclusivity of a product that seems to be increasingly more industrial than handmade. Art can therefore contribute to alter and rework the image and market position of a specific brand or an entire product line, ensuring the transition from an ordinary image to a prestigious one, or strengthening the existing prestigious perception (Hetsroni & Tukachinsky, 2005; Lee et Al., 2015). We believe that a strategy based on art implemented by luxury companies is beneficial mainly to support the perception of rarity by the final consumer. Luxury goods would have to be unique or at least not produced in too high volumes precisely because of their craftsmanship and the care with which they are made. Rarity is not compatible with the increase in sales volumes required by the financial holdings that own the same luxury brands (Roux and Lipovetsky, 2003; Kapferer, 2012; 2014; 2015). The artification process we researched would have exactly the dual purpose of improving the brand image of companies that apply it, while increasing the perception of luxury in end consumers. What is more, we believe that the luxury brands from the industry sector that belong to large financial conglomerates now have the strength to simultaneously apply all the components in the artification process, by sustaining activities of sponsorship, philanthropy or generic collaboration with artists. The fact that luxury products are an integral part of the world of visual arts combined with the fact luxury brands have now the strong support base of large financial conglomerates can ensure the right economic and cultural support needed for the application of such a strategy. In the case of fashion companies, we believe artification is a process in itinere. In our experiment free associations to the brand show that only 2 consumers out of 880 remembered or knew the name of the artist (Yayoi Kusama) and 10 people indicated the substantive ‘art’ or ‘contemporary arts’ as free associations in the ‘artified group’ (only 2 in the control group). This shows that luxury brands ‘art-based strategy cannot only concentrate on temporary collaborations with artists. Luxury brands as Louis Vuitton must act as art institutions able to display arts collections to the widest public and bestow art status and global recognition to collaborating artists (Masè and Cedrola, 2017). This strategy relies on LV ability to raise consumers’ awareness of the arts. While the art-oriented public recognizes artistic collaborations, the larger public does not yet is still very much aware of new designs. Novelty is equally perceived by both, but is partially decoded by one category of consumers.

Companies frequently use luxury or green as a brand extension strategy. The present research suggests that the success of the luxury or green brand extension depends on the parent brand’s core attribute-whether the parent brand is primarily luxury or green. In two experiments involving real brands (BMW, Prius, Chanel, Patagonia) across multiple product categories (automobile and bag), we investigated consumers’ evaluation of luxury green extension products (i.e., multi-attribute products with luxury and green attributes) whose parent brand is luxury (e.g., BMW) or green (e.g., Prius). Study 1 showed that luxury green products with luxury roots (i.e., parent brand is luxury) are evaluated more favorably than those with green roots (i.e., parent brand is green). Study 2 investigated the mechanism of perceived fit. Whereas luxury green product with luxury roots was perceived to have a high level of fit, the luxury green product with green roots was perceived to have a lower level of fit. Our findings encourage the luxury parent brand to extend green whereas discourage the green parent brand to extend luxury.

Emotional sharing of brand has a power of connecting brand and consumer brand and consumer by transcending rational reason.

The market for luxury is changing with new competitors to the market, more modest growth, and new types of customers (Kim and Ko 2012, Ko, Phau and Aiello 2016) as well as the ubiquity of digital marketing channels (Okonkwo 2009). Moreover, social media has transformed the logic of fashion marketing by providing new ways of engaging, interacting, and connecting with customers (Dhaoui 2014) as well as enabling consumers to participate in branding process (Burman 2010). As a consequence, also luxury brands need to develop experience-based marketing strategies that emphasise interactivity, connectivity and creativity (Atwal and Williams 2009). What is more, despite of growing importance of social media marketing in luxury industry, extant research on the topic still remains quite limited (Ko and Megehee 2012). While the previous studies have well documented the benefits of luxury marketing on social media (Kim and Ko 2012, Kim and Ko 2010, Brogi et al. 2013, Kontu and Vecchi 2014, Godey et al. 2016), and their implications on luxury brand management (Dhaoui 2014, Larraufie and Kourdoughli 2014), and even co-creative marketing practices (Choi, Ko and Kim 2016, Tynan, McKehnie, and Chuon 2010), no studies to this date have looked at co-creation from consumer-perspective. This article provides a novel perspective on luxury branding, by following the resource-based theory of consumer (Arnould, Price and Malshe 2006) to study the brand identity as co-created in social media. To do this, visual frame analysis (Goffman 1974, Luhtakallio 2013) is applied on consumer generated images downloaded from Instagram feed of brand exhibition staged by luxury brand Louis Vuitton. Based on the analysis, a typology of co-created brand identities is proposed. The findings indicate that in the branded exhibitions, consumers co-create brand identity by utilising resources available in the experiential brandscape by taking and posting these objectifications of brand on social media (Presi et al. 2016) and in so doing create symbolic/expressive, and experiential/hedonic value (Tynan et al. 2010). Theoretically, this article provides a novel perspective on luxury brand as co-created and in so doing, demonstrates the dynamics of firm-consumer co-creation. What is more, to extend the emerging stream of visual analysis of luxury (Kim et al. 2016, Freire 2014, Megehee and Spake 2012), an application of novel is demonstrated in the article. Managerially, this explorative study provides new insights on luxury marketing in social media by suggesting that branded experiences should be designed in a manner that engages the consumer to actively use the resources available to them. The financial implications of this shift are also significant as according to McKinsey study, three out of four luxury purchases are influenced by social media (Hope 2016)

The aim of this exploratory research is to investigate whether luxury brands social media activities (Kim & Ko, 2012) – which are online activities that could potentially engage customers in digital environment (Sashi, 2012) – are capable of transmitting the sense of heritage of such brands to the customers. Moreover, the authors will observe whether the aforementioned activities are capable of transmitting the sense of exclusivity, which will be measured through the customers’ perceptions of the brand prestige (Hwang & Hyun, 2012), to the latter. In order to explore such a phenomenon, the authors have selected structural eqation modeling (SEM) as the main methodology of the research (Bagozzi & Yi, 1988). The theoretical foundations of the present research are related with three streams of marketing literature, namely (1) luxury brands social media marketing activities (Kim & Ko, 2010; Kim & Ko, 2012), (2) luxury brands heritage (Ciappei, Zollo, Boccardi, & Rialti, 2016; Hudson, 2011; Rialti, Zollo, Boccardi, & Marzi, 2016) and, finally, (3) luxury brands customer-based prestige (Napoli, Dickinson, Beverland, & Farrelly, 2014). In particular, building on the concept of social media marketing activities (Kim & Ko, 2010), we aimed at observing how the latter could influence customers’ perceptions of the brand by engaging them in online activities and conversations (Sashi, 2012; Zaglia, 2013). Specifically, we investigated if engagement in online activities or in online communities is related with a positive perception of luxury brands’ heritage and prestige. Hence, customers’ online engagement deriving from social media activities has been considered as an antecedent of customer perceived heritage and prestige (Phan, Thomas, & Heine, 2011; Hamzah, Alwi, & Othman, 2014; Riviezzo Garofano, & Napolitano, 2016). Luxury brands have been selected as the context of research since heritage and prestige have emerged as relevant strategic marketing levers for luxury brands’ brand strategist. As a proof of that, recently, luxury brands’ strategist and product managers are increasingly focusing brands’ strategies on the history of the brands in order to transmit customers a feeling of exclusivity and elitism (Hudson, 2010; Balmer, 2011). Thus, luxury brands heritage perceived by costumers emerged as a fundamental component of brand identity and, in addition, it may be considered as a form of competitive advantage increasing brand equity (Van Riel & Balmer, 1997). The main findings of the present research are related with the fact that social media marketing activities may engage customers online (Sashi, 2012). Moreover, it emerged how social media strategies are capable to engage customers and transmit them the sense of heritage and prestige. Hence, social media marketing strategies focused on developing a relationship with customers emerged as crucial in order to enhance customers’ perceptions of a brand heritage and prestige. Finally, the development of such a kind of social media marketing strategies is the principal implication for marketing managers. Due to the aforementioned results, this exploratory research contributes to online luxury brand management literature (Kim & Ko, 2010). In particular, due to our results it is possible to assess that social media activities, which are capable to engage customers online, are able to transmit the sense of heritage and of prestige. Future researches should explore better this phenomenon. In particular, on the one hand we suggest scholars to investigate through qualitative methodologies which kind of communications are capable to transmit sense of heritage and prestige. On the other hand, we suggest scholars to compare traditional form of communications with online form in order to understand which one is more capable to influence customers’ perceptions. The principal limitation of this research is related with its exploratory nature and with the traditional limitations of SEM methodology.

The phenomena of fashionable hijabi - headscarf-wearing women - who crowded social media has been seen in the past three years. Social media is progressively penetrating daily media using (Hinton & Hjort, 2013). Indonesian hijabis also use social media to show her creativity in styling their outfit and hijab and share it to others thus like-minded people are inspired to do the same thing too, to combine the fashion and faith. Indonesia, as the largest Muslim majority country has benefited this booming of hijab fashion in articulating the Muslim lifestyle. This trend is triggered by 30 young Muslim women who then formed Hijabers Community. One of them was Ria Miranda, who is known as one of hijab fashion movers in Indonesia, is then now a prominent Muslim fashion designer in Indonesia. Ria Miranda is actively using social media for her marketing strategy from the booming of blog, Facebook, Twitter then now Instagram and the newest one is YouTube. Her team is using many forms of social media to engange with customers. She has her own Instagram under the name @riamiranda which has more than 500.000 followers as for personal branding including her daily activities, her family story which is considered now as "family goals" and also her designer life. Her husband under the name @pandurosadi serves as her co-branding which sometimes tell a "behind-the-scene" of her designer wife's activities, his family and his romantic words to her wife. She also has an instagram as for the information about her brand named @inforiamiranda which has more than 80.000 followers. She builds a very good relationship with her customers who then claimed to be Ria Miranda Loyal Customer or RMLC. These customers are die-hard fans who always hunt her products and they also sometimes serve as word-of-mouth on their social media platform especially on Instagram. They always wear Ria Miranda’s products and post their photos under the hashtags that of Ria also uses, they also put their biodata as “Ria Miranda Loyal Customers” which becomes a pride for them. Ria Miranda uses a several hashtag to differentiate her timeline feeds and the most used ones are #riamirandastyle, #RMLC and #riamirandasale. These hashtags are also used by unofficial sellers of her products because her producst are not easy to get thus there are many people who sell their items to others. Apart from only selling her fashion products, Ria tells a story, she tells her lifestyles as her digital strategy engagement. That is what Indonesian people are looking for, a role model. Her product was once only women’s clothes but now it also ranges to accessories such as eyeglasses, necklaces, shoes and bags. It is not only designed for women but also kids and the newest one is for men. So it is a family-package brand. In 2016, she makes several activations including private preview collection show to several big cities around Indonesia that has its store branches and this program also included to invite her customers to travel together and it ended up with fashion show and bazaar. No need to explain, her products were all sold out in minutes. Other events are Ria Miranda Trend Show which is an annual event, this year is the forth time. It was held on December for two days, not only about fashion show but also talkshows about trend in fashion, beauty, e-commerce, lifestyle, music and family. Before this main event, it held several pre-events about Beauty and Make Up class and talkshows about Fashionpreneur that were also crowded by her customers. The most interesting was that it also made a challenge in Instagram called #30dailychallenges that has been used for more than 5.000 posts in Instagram. This program was about a challenge to post our photos on Instagram with several thematic topic such as about the style, hijab outfit of the day that mostly knonw as #HOTD and other daily activities related to Ria’s products and other products that are collaborated with her such as cosmetics and e-commerce. Ria can be said as a good designer in Indonesia. I have a high curiosity about how she can make her customers loyal to her and always want to buy more and more. Besides that she made a good and high quality product, her clothes are not cheap but her customers are always willing to buy and even compete to have her products. They have created many words that are only understood among them, we need a dictionary to know the meaning of them such as #PPCi, #RMLCii, #RMTSiii. I want to analyze them too. This research will employ a qualitative research method which will use more words than numbers (Stokes, 2003) with non-participants observation and visual semiotics analysis. Semiotics is the study of signs that is useful to interpreting the text (Berger, 2014; Howells, 2003; Jensen & Jankowski, 1991; Stoke, 2003). In here I will analyze the Instagram's photographs, captions and also the hashtags that contain meaning behind their usings. Globally, Instagram has reached 500 million users and Indonesia is ranked as the third countries with most users after Japan and Brazil. 89% of instagram users are between 18 – 34 years old and dominated by women with a portion of 63% (Edwin, 2016). Instagram helps designers to show their product freely and got global exposure as long as they can provide a good quality of photos. Fashion and technology are the most popular products among Indonesian Instagram users and they must have ever made a shopping experience from their Instagram’s brands they follow. Apart from that, Indonesians use instagram to find inspiration, share their travel experience and to find information about new trends. I also use in-depth interview to understand more about this brand. I have been able to interview her husband who serves as Business Development and who creates the strategy behind this brand. I want to know deeper about the digital strategy of Ria Miranda brand as it is actively using social media to engange with customers and how it creates consumer culture for fashionable hijabi. Consumer culture is simply the tendency of people who consume what is available on the market through different types of shopping platforms such as on the Internet, retail and shopping malls (Lury, 2011). This research’s goals are to examine the digital strategy of Ria Miranda and team that has been used on Instagram. I hope that this research will contribute to the way how we use social media to make a profit, share positive things and to know more about the new digital strategy. The future work will be possible to analyze about YouTube video that Ria Miranda has newly engaged with.

This paper aims to monitor brand image of two important fashion cities on social media (Instagram). Through a content analysis of pictures and texts authors attempt to identify the main associations that various actors have of London and Florence, both traditionally strictly related to the fashion system. As recent literature has argued for brands or products, even for places and cities (Gilboa et al. 2015), it is important to monitor the perceived city brand image resulting from the overall online experience (Choi et al. 2007), especially on social media. Indeed, it is demonstrated that word of mouth on social media is able to strongly affect users’ perceptions (Gretzel, Yuan, and Fosenmaier, 2000), thus contributing at the construction of the city brand image. This paper is one of the first one that applies content analysis on Instagram in city/place branding, where the core of communication is based on images. Therefore, differently from previous studies (Andéhn et al. 2014; De Moya and Jain, 2013), this work principally focuses on visual communication, as form of textual paralanguage communication (Luangrath, Peck, and Barger, 2016), for the construction of city image of London and Florence.