Have you ever seen images of an elegant woman dressed in period clothes, threatening to stab another woman through the neck; a model facing a leopard behind a mannequin hand; or a lady using a hook to fish a purse out of a pool, while a seemingly dead man is floating in the water? The descriptions of these scenes might sound dark and absurd, and provoke disgust or displeasure; but the fact is, these images have been used in real advertisements for prestigious fashion brands such as Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana, and were featured heavily in various fashion magazines. Recently, advertisers have sought to differentiate their products by using grotesque imagery in their ads as a strategy to get consumers’ attention and stimulate their curiosity. Although growing attention is being paid to ads that are not conventionally ‘pretty’, very little research has tried to empirically document the effect of grotesque imagery on the persuasiveness of luxury brand advertising, or unveil the psychological mechanism underlying the effect. The purpose of this research is to investigate how grotesque imagery used for luxury products appeal to consumers, and why the ads affect the consumers’ behavior. We empirically demonstrated that the grotesque imagery used to promote luxury products enhances consumers’ purchase intention because it facilitates consumers to better experience the brand by transporting them to the narratives that are portrayed in the ads. This process occurs because a correspondence between grotesque imagery and luxury branding generates the fit effect, which leads to fluent processing and feel right experience, and in turn induces engagement to the ad. Grotesque Advertisement Grotesque was the word indicating the style of ancient decoration that depicted fantastic combinations of human and animal forms, interwoven with strange fruits and flowers. The Cambridge Dictionary of English now defines grotesque as a general adjective that describes anything “very strange and unpleasant, especially in a ridiculous or slightly frightening way.” Evolutionary psychology provides us a hint for the reason why emotionally provocative and fear-evoking grotesque imagery captures consumers’ attention. The faster attention to negative stimuli than to positive stimuli is an automatic tendency developed as means of evolutionary adaptedness for survival because negative stimuli signal danger and cause alert to prompt defensive reaction (Ohman, Flykt and Esteves, 2001; Schoemaker 1996; Tan 2008). Another explanation for grotesque imagery’s attention grabbing power arises from our complex emotional system—i.e. human enjoys fearful horror or heartbreakingly sad films, because such negative emotions often stem from a challenging situation filled with risks, threats, and tension and generate an active interest in it (Bartsch, Apple and Stroach 2010; Oliver 1993; Tan 2008). Frightening, disgusting, or tragic emotions are mixed with a relief that comes after a perception of reality. Because human has an ability to distinguish their real life and the situation in the film or drama, we feel interests while being frightened or disgusted or heart-broken with pleasurable enjoyment (Tan 2008). Prior research by Phillips and McQuarrie (2010) brought to light the concept of grotesque in the context of fashion marketing. They described grotesque imagery using words with common etymological meanings—bizarre, surreal, deviant, absurd, discrepant, peculiar, and odd—and suggested that it could lead viewers to engage in the ad through transportation or immersion to the story world of the ad. Through the narrative transportation, grotesque imagery persuades consumers to better experience the brand featured in the ad. Based on their conceptualization of grotesque and its persuasive power, we empirically test whether grotesque imagery used in an ad might work as a strong trigger of fantasy, stimulating viewers to be transported into the narrative depicted in the ad image. Transportation Transportation is defined as ‘a convergent process where all mental systems and capacities become focused on events occurring in the narrative’ (Green and Block 2000, p. 701); it represents the extent of absorption into the narrative flow of the story as it unfolds. Transportation occurs whenever the consumer experiences a feeling of entering a world brought to mind by the story, because of their empathy for the story characters and imagination of the story narratives (Van Laer et al. 2014). Previous research suggests that transportation induces favorable attitudes toward the related product (Escalas 2004), and enhances the persuasiveness of advertising messages through the connection between the self and the ad content (Escalas 2004). Fit Between Grotesque Imagery and Luxury Branding The effect of fit, which means a relevant and logical connection between ad contents, has been widely studied in advertising and marketing literature. Fit messages are readily accessible, and processed through simple cognitive information processes. Macinnis and Park (1991) argue that the fit effect is caused by consumers’ perception of the stimuli in ads as a whole, rather than distinct individual elements. The processing of fit (vs nonfat) messages is easier, so more fluent (Lee and Aaker 2004; Labroo and Lee 2006), and fluent processing of fit messages offer a feel right experience (Camacho, Higgins, and Luger 2003; Lee, Keller, and Sternthal 2009). This subjective experience of feeling right increases engagement (Lee, Keller, and Sternthal 2009), willingness to pay, favorability of brand attitudes, and brand choice (Lee and Higgins 2009). In this research, we posit that persuasive effect of grotesque ads is more likely to occur when grotesque imagery is used for advertising luxury brands. Previous research explained the motivations to purchase luxury brands as scarcity, uniqueness, distance, high price (Dion and Arnould 2011; Dubois and Duquensne, 1993), and signaling of social status (Belk 1988; Zhou and Belk 2004; Han, Nunes, and Drèze 2010), which intersect with the characteristics of grotesque. People purchase luxury goods because they are relatively exclusive and limited, providing the consumer with more emotional distance from mass produced products (Hansen and Wänke 2011). In addition, positioning a brand using mythical and abstract concepts is known to be more effective in building strong prestigious brands (Arsel and Craig 2011). Because grotesque is perceived to be distant from reality, incongruent, and discrepant, these characteristics of luxury branding could overlap with that of grotesque. Furthermore, support for our prediction of a fit between grotesque imagery and luxury branding can be found in some other common features of both. Dion and Arnould (2011) argue that luxury brands possess hedonic appeals based on multisensorial pleasure, artistic aura, and charismatic stories which transport consumers into the magical world of the luxury brand. In support, Kim, Lloyd and Cervellon (2015) found that luxury brand advertising stimulates fantasy, and this is one of the dominant themes through which consumers were engaged with the brand. They showed that being part of the narratives in the ads, participants experienced escaping from their everyday lives, traveling around the fantasy world, and feeling that their myth, fantasies or dreams become real. As luxury brand advertising has a power to transport consumers into fantasy, grotesque imagery also carries consumers away into magical world through narrative transportation (Phillips and McQuarrie 2010). Hypotheses In light of the prior research, we posit that when grotesque imagery is used in ads for luxury brands, the fit generates feel right experience and easy and fluent processing of messages, because grotesque imagery and luxury brand advertising commonly have a power to transport viewers to fantasy world distant from reality. In addition, previous research has suggested positive downstream effects for transportation to enhanced brand experience. As the level of experience is enhanced, familiarity and satisfaction with the brand are heightened as well (Ha and Perks 2005). A deeper level of brand experience generates brand trust and accelerates loyalty to brands (Lglesias, Singh, and Batista-Goguet 2011). Thus, we propose the following hypotheses: H1: Luxury brand advertising with grotesque imagery will facilitate transportation, which will in turn enrich brand experience and increase purchase intention of the featured product. H2: There will be a perceived fit between grotesque imagery and luxury branding. H3: The fit between grotesque imagery and luxury branding will enrich brand experience which in turn enhance purchase intention. Study 1 The goal of Study 1 was to show that a grotesque ad is perceived to be better-matched with brands described as prestigious. Stimuli. We designed two versions of a print advertisement for a fictitious fashion brand to manipulate grotesque (vs. non-grotesque) ad style. We created the ad by modifying the content from an existing Jimmy Choo advertisement. The print ad featured a man, a girl, a car, and a handbag placed in the middle of a desert. In the grotesque imagery condition, the girl is placed in the truck of a car, appearing dead since the man sitting next to her is holding a shovel that he seemingly used to dig a hole in the ground to bury her. In the non-grotesque imagery condition, we replaced the shovel to a cane. In the prestige condition, we introduced the brand as one with a prestigious image similar to those of Louis Vuitton and Hermes. In the non-prestige condition, the brand was described as having a brand image similar to Zara and H&M. Procedure. 171 undergraduates (average age = 22.8 years; 171 females) participated in the study for a course credit. Participants were informed that they would be asked to complete an ad evaluation study, and were randomly assigned to be presented with one of the four print ads featuring a handbag. Participants were asked to indicate how likely they would be to purchase the handbag product (1 = very unlikely; 7 = very likely), and how well-matched the ad is to the product and the brand image on two items (‘the ad goes nicely together with the handbag’ ‘the ad looks well-matched with the image of the brand’; 1 = not at all ~ 7 = very much). Then, they completed two item transportation measures (‘While I was looking at the ad, I could easily picture the events in it taking place,’ ‘I had a vivid image of the man sitting next to the woman’; 1 = strongly disagree ~ 5 = strongly agree) adapted from Green and Brock (2000). Next, participants responded to twelve items of brand experience measure from Jos ̆ko Brakus, Schmitt, and Zarantonello (2009) (e.g. ‘This brand results in bodily experiences’, ‘This brand stimulates my curiosity and problem solving’; 1 = strongly disagree ~ 7 = strongly agree). They also rated how grotesque the ad was on seven items (‘bizarre,’ ‘surreal,’ ‘deviant,’ ‘absurd,’ ‘peculiar,’ ‘odd’, ‘discrepant’; 1 = not at all ~ 7 = very much). To rule out an affective account for participants’ evaluation, we assessed participants’ mood (1 = negative mood, bad mood, sad, irritated ~ 7 = positive mood, good mood, happy, relaxed) and their arousal (1 = not at all aroused ~ 7 = very aroused). Results: Perceived fit. The two perceived fit items were averaged to form a fit index. A two (ad style: grotesque vs. non-grotesque) by two (brand reputation: prestige vs. non-prestige) between-subjects ANOVA revealed a significant ad style by brand reputation interaction effect (F(1, 167) = 5.69, p = .018). Planned contrasts indicated that, in the grotesque imagery condition, participants rated the ad as more well-matched when the product was described as a prestigious brand (M = 4.14) than when it was a non-prestigious brand (M = 3.53; F(1, 167) = 4.15, p = .043). In contrast, in the non-grotesque imagery condition, participants rated the ad as less well-matched when it was described as a prestigious brand (M = 3.60) rather than non-prestigious brand (M = 4.00), but the effect was not significant (F(1, 167) = 1.79, p = .183). Because the perceived fit results confirmed that participants rated the ad as more well-matched when the product was described as a prestigious brand, we created an imagery fit variable coding the well-matched conditions (grotesque imagery for prestige brand and non-grotesque imagery for non-prestige brand) to be 1, and the less well-matched conditions (grotesque imagery for non-prestige brand and non-grotesque imagery for prestige brand) to be 0. As predicted, an ANOVA revealed that the well-matched conditions showed higher perceived fit (F(1, 169) = 5.79, p = .017), such that those in the matched condition (M = 4.07) rated higher on perceived fit than those in the mismatched condition (M = 3.57). Transportation. Participants’ ratings on the two transportation items were averaged to form transportation scores. A two way ANOVA revealed a significant ad style (grotesque vs. control) by brand reputation (prestige vs. non-prestige) interaction effect on transportation (F(1, 167) = 4.35, p = .039). Planned contrasts indicated that, in the grotesque condition, participants reported higher transportation scores when the product was described as a prestigious brand (M = 3.22) than a non-prestigious brand (M = 2.78; F(1, 167) = 4.28, p = .040). In contrast, in the non-grotesque condition, participants reported lower transportation scores when it was described as a prestigious brand (M = 2.62) rather than a non-prestigious brand (M = 2.81), but the effect was not significant (F(1, 167) = .78, p = .378). Mediation Effect of Transportation on Brand Experience. Participants’ ratings on the brand experience scale were averaged to form brand experience scores. A series of regressions showed that the ad style by brand reputation interaction activated transportation (β = .632, p = .034), which then yielded greater brand experience (β = .360, p <.001). The bootstrap procedure for a conditional mediation model (PROCESS Model 7; Hayes 2013) using 5,000 samples revealed a significant conditional indirect effect of grotesque imagery on brand experience through activation of transportation when the product was described as a prestigious brand (95% CI [.067, .390]). This conditional indirect effect was not significant when the product was described as a non-prestigious brand (95% CI [–.189, .138]). Multiple Mediation Effect. Our prediction was that grotesque imagery used in luxury brand advertising would lead to higher perceived fit, which facilitates narrative transportation and in turn enhances brand experience leading to greater purchase intention. Multiple mediation analyses using PROCESS Model 6 (Hayes 2013) with 5,000 resamples confirmed that the perceived fit → transportation → brand experience path mediated the effect of imagery fit on purchase intention. The imagery fit variable was created as a binary variable (1 = grotesque imagery for prestige brand or non-grotesque imagery for non-prestige brand; 0 = otherwise). First, the path from imagery fit to perceived fit was significant and positive ( = .504, p = .017), as was the path from perceived fit to transportation ( = .149, p = .007), the path from transportation to brand experience ( = .326, p < .001), and the path from brand experience to purchase intention ( = .344, p = .014). The 95% CI of the bootstrap procedure ([.001, .030]) confirmed that the indirect effect of imagery fit on purchase intention through the three mediators—perceived fit, transportation and brand experience—was significant. Study 2 The objective of Study 2 was to test the robustness of the mediating role of transportation for the effect of grotesque imagery fit with luxury brand. In addition, we checked whether the grotesque manipulation affected the extent to which participants perceived the brand as luxurious. Stimuli. Two versions of print advertisement were created to manipulate grotesque (vs. non-grotesque) ad style by modifying an existing Dolce & Gabbana ad campaign. The print ad featured two women, a man, and handbags placed on the floor of a classically decorated room. In the grotesque imagery condition, one of the girls wearing a ball gown is holding a knife and seemingly about to stab another girl. In the non-grotesque imagery condition, we replaced the knife with a bottle of perfume. All participants were provided with the print ad that contained a cover story about the ad evaluation task, describing the brand as either a prestigious brand that is similar to Louis Vuitton and Hermes or a brand with an image that is similar to Zara and H&M. Procedure. 165 undergraduate students (average age = 23.8; 66 females) were randomly assigned to one of the four experimental conditions. Participants were first asked to indicate how likely they would be to purchase the featured handbags (1 = very unlikely; 7 = very likely). Then, they responded to two transportation items (‘I wanted to learn how the story in the ad ended’, ‘The story in the ad affected me emotionally’, ‘I found myself thinking of ways the story in the ad could have turned out differently’; 1 = not at all ~ 5 = very much). Next, participants responded to the same twelve-item brand experience scale, seven item grotesque measure, four mood items, and an arousal item used in Study 1. In study 2, they were also asked to rate their impression of the product as luxurious, prestigious, and high class (1 = not at all; 7 = very much). Results. The grotesque manipulation did not affect the extent to which participants perceived the brand as luxurious, and when the product was described as a prestigious brand, participants in the grotesque condition reported higher transportation scores than those in the non-grotesque condition. Multiple mediation analyses reconfirmed that the transportation → brand experience path mediated the effect of imagery fit on purchase intention. General Discussion Through two studies, we demonstrated that grotesque ads can be effective in persuading consumers to purchase luxury fashion items. We found that grotesque ads trigger transportation when the brand is described as prestigious, enriching brand experience, and in turn heightening consumers’ purchase intention.

There has been an emerging interest in the effective luxury advertising, which has been conducted within and across national borders. Unlike earlier studies on luxury brands that focused on the behavior and opinions of luxury consumers (e.g., luxury motivations, value perceptions, etc.), this nascent stream of research queries an important role that advertising exerts on luxury consumers (Freire, 2014). Informed by these developments, our study examines how luxury brand marketers can design effective social media messages for their consumers. In particular, we draw on recent research in consumer psychology to shed new light on (1) how consumer feelings about the psychological distance of luxury consumption may influence their evaluation of different types of message appeals on social media and their intention to share these messages with others; and (2) we address how this process varies depending on (a) the perceived tie strength between consumers on social media, the functional attitudes of luxury brands, and across different cultural milieus.

This conceptual paper discusses the influence of brand knowledge through various components of personal luxury products’ towards the purchase intention. Rapid shifts in luxury consumers’ behaviours is one of the predominant drivers contributing to the growth of the modern luxury market. In response to this, luxury consumers’ characteristics and profiles need to be reexamined. In recent years, there has been a rapid increase in global luxury consumption with the rise in number of luxury consumers from 140 million to 350 million globally (Bain & Company, 2015). Such a phenomenal growth in the luxury market leads to a widely increased interests among researchers across all disciplines (Truong et al., 2008; 2009, Tynan et al., 2010; Kapferer & Valette-Florence, 2016). In particular, personal luxury goods market is forecast to continue to grow between 2-3 percent through 2020 (Bain & Company, 2016). Despite the fact that personal luxury goods is a major driver of the entire market, there is a limited research in this product category. Two factors of this fast-growing trend stimulate the need for additional research into consumers’ behaviours. First, there has been a shift in luxury consumers’ profile (Hanna, 2004; Fionda & Moore, 2009) and purchasing patterns (Bain & Company, 2015; 2016) where social influences (Dubois et al., 2001; Berthon et al., 2009; Cheah et al., 2015; Yang and Mattila, 2014; Kapferer & Valette-Florence, 2016) and people’s needs for materialism, appearances to enhance their ego and self-concept (Phau & Prendergast, 2000; Kapferer, 2006) are having greater impact on how consumers make their luxury purchase decisions. Second, it appears that the characteristics of the traditional luxury consumers as well as old marketing models from many decades ago need to be redefined (Bain & Company, 2015). Danziger (2005) indicates that the changes in luxury consumers’ purchase decision has created a dramatic shift in the purchase behaviour as a whole, making it difficult for luxury marketers to recognise the trend. To date, existing literature on luxury purchase intention focuses mainly from the cultural, economic, psychological perspectives (Leibenstein, 1950; Veblen, 1899; Bian & Forsythe, 2012; Liu et al., 2012; Wong & Ahuvia, 1998; Vigneron & Johnson, 2004; Shukla, 2012; Cheah et al., 2015) but remains limited on investigating luxury consumers’ behaviours through the integration of brand knowledge domain. Major works from marketing scholars on luxury value perceptions (Wiedmann et al., 2007 and 2009; Vigneron & Johnson, 2004; Shukla, 2012; Shukla & Purani, 2013; De Barnier et al., 2006; Hennigs et al., 2012 and 2013) suggest that they are important in explaining the whole picture of luxury consumption but insufficient in explaining purchase intentions (Shukla, 2012). Kapferer (2006) discusses that it is typical for consumers to identify which brand belongs to the luxury category, however, it could be more complex for the precise definition of luxury to be identified and understood. Therefore, this study seeks to incorporate the branding aspects into the investigation on the significance of brand knowledge towards the intention to purchase personal luxury products. Literature Review The concept of luxury is first explained by Veblen (1899) that the consumption of luxury goods is primarily considered by the affluent consumers with the desire to display their wealth to the relevant significant others. Even though the concept of luxury remains obscure, the clearer definition of luxury is given by Nueno & Quelch (1998) as the “ratio of functional utility to price is low while the ratio of intangible and situational utility to price is high” and that luxury products are beyond an ordinary expensive goods but “an ephemeral status symbol”. Shukla (2010) also defines luxury as the consumption that is not for just oneself but a socially-oriented type of consumption that fulfils the consumers’ own indulgence as well as to serve the “socially directed motives”. The aforementioned definitions of luxury show it is an “elusive concept” (Kapferer, 1998) with “fuzzy frontiers” (Kapferer, 2006). The luxury concept is describes as “incredibly fluid, and changes dramatically” over time and varied among different cultures (Yeoman and McMahon-Beattie 2006). As consumers become richer (Fionda & Moore, 2009) and are able to afford more luxury brands (Nueno & Quelch, 1998), luxury is no longer reserved for the rich but also includes the rising number of aspiring middle-class consumers (Shukla, 2012) who enjoy material comfort (Yeoman & McMahon-Beattie, 2006; Yeoman, 2011: Granot et al., 2013). This change makes the term luxury even more difficult to define (Shukla, 2010) and will continue as an ongoing debate among research scholars (Kapferer & Valette-Florence, 2016). Dubois & Paternault (1995) mention that “luxury items are bought for what they mean, beyond what they are”, this statement defines the nature of luxury brands where consumers often purchase luxury products not merely because of their outstanding quality but because of the name and the symbolic identity the brand provides. Kapferer (1998) recognises the importance in exploring the perception of luxury brands from the end-users themselves because they know best. This also adds to the ongoing complexity and difficulties in giving luxury a discreet definition (Kapferer, 1997 and 1998). The work of Grotts & Johnson (2013) investigates the status consumption of millennial consumers and indicates that it is highly possible that the consumers may not express any interest on the quality of the products but are placing greater emphasis on the ability of the handbags to be recognised and generate attention from their reference groups. With regard to marketing strategy, luxury marketers react to the rapid increase in demand to maintain their position of exclusivity by increasing the price every year in order to secure their clientele (Kapferer, 2015b). Louis Vuitton, Rolex, and Christian Dior increase the price of their products every year to sustain the dream value of the consumers (Kapferer, 2015a; 2015b). It is apparent that most luxury companies are managing the dilemma of maintaining the exclusivity of its products while increasing brand awareness as well as focusing on securing more market share and revenue (Kastanakis & Balabanis, 2012; Berthon et al., 2009). Despite the recognisable shifts in luxury consumption pattern, the sector will continue to grow with the majority of affluent consumers as discussed by Steve Kraus of Ipsos (King, 2015). The most recognisable shift in luxury marketing strategy is on the increasing number of luxury companies offering lower-price products in response to the rising level of demand for luxury consumption by the enthusiastic middle class consumers (Truong et al., 2008; Kastanakis & Balabanis, 2012). Luxury was once reserved for the “happy few” (Veblen, 1899) but this notion is no longer practical for today’s luxury environment where luxury products are “consumed by a larger aspirational segment” (Granot et al., 2013). Democratisation of luxury refers to when luxury brands create a lower-priced accessory items in order to appeal to the broader market, making luxury accessible to those “who could never afford to purchase the principal items in the line” (Nueno & Quelch, 1998) or the new luxury consumers who seeks recognition from luxury purchase. Han et al. (2010) discusses that different classes of consumers can now be distinguished by the brands of purses, watches, or shoes that they own. They let the brands speak for them, whether they prefer the loud Gucci logo or displaying the consumption of a “‘no logo’ strategy” by carrying a Bottega Veneta bag (Han et al., 2010). As Husic & Cicic (2009) state, an important question on today’s luxury consumption that if it is possible for everyone to obtain luxury items, are the brands still considered luxury? This is one of the important agendas concerning luxury consumption that prompts researchers to investigate this changing behaviours and perceptions of luxury consumers. It is also significance to note that the increase in global demand in luxury market is not necessarily positive but could be negative if the demand is not being managed efficiently (Hennigs et al., 2015). Despite frequent changes in luxury consumption patterns, Kapferer & Valette-Florence (2016) argues that it is vital to understand how consumers behave in order for the brands to create and maintain trust and reputation among its consumers. Danziger (2005) argues that the notion of “past behaviour predicts future behavior” may not be applicable to the luxury market. However, the foundation remains where the marketers need to understand the basics about the past and present behaviours in order to offer the products and services at the price that luxury consumers are willing to pay. It is partly due to the minimisation of the possible risks that might occur in purchasing luxury products as stated by Kapferer & Valette-Florence (2016) that “in luxury, no one wants to buy the wrong brand”. In light of these changes in the demand and strategies, a new framework of luxury purchase intention will be presented. This framework integrates brand knowledge in order to accommodate the traditional consumer, who appreciates the brand and its exclusivity, as well as the new buyer who wants recognition. This attempt in merging the two groups of luxury consumers together will highlights how traditional and new luxury consumers make their purchase decisions based on different components of luxury product characteristics as well as different value perception, or that is to say, based on a different levels of brand knowledge. Conceptual Framework Over several decades scholars attempted to agree on a single comprehensive definition for the term ‘luxury’ but have not yet reached that goal because the concept of luxury is highly individual and the market itself is heterogeneous (Hennigs et al., 2013). The definition of luxury, therefore, is very complex to define (Vigneron & Johnson, 1999; Dubois & Duquesne, 1993) due to its “subjective character” (De Barnier et al., 2012) with many diverse facets (Phau & Prendergast, 2000). This study provides a new perspective by looking at the factors that influence luxury purchase intention. Based on the original work of Keller (1993), it is important to understand the structure and content of brand knowledge because these dictate what comes into the consumer’s mind when they think about a brand and what they know about the brand (Keller, 2003). Consumer brand knowledge is defined as the “personal meaning about a brand stored in consumer memory, that is, all descriptive and evaluative brand-related information” (Keller, 2003). Strong, unique, and favorable brand associations must be created with consumers (Kotler & Keller, 2012 and 2016). In luxury consumption, different consumers seek different emotional and functional benefits from luxury brands (Kapferer, 1998), which makes it relevant and significant to investigate the level of influences of brand knowledge and value perceptions on the intention to purchase luxury products. The proposed conceptual framework for this study is presented in Figure 1 in the Appendix section. Managerial Implications This study provides both theoretical and managerial implications. On theoretical grounds, this study provides an enhanced model in investigating the influence of luxury brand knowledge towards luxury purchase intention considering luxury brand characteristics and luxury value perceptions. On managerial perspective, this study provides an update in the modern luxury consumers consumption pattern in terms of what specific characteristics of luxury products they would consider when they intend to purchase. At the same time, this study analyses the types of luxury value perceptions acknowledge by modern luxury consumers towards their purchase decision. In addition, the proposed conceptual framework will take into account the behaviours of traditional luxury consumers, who seems to have been lost due to the increased demand among the new luxury consumers. According to Keller et al. (2012), the marketers of the brand needs to acknowledge the insights to how brand knowledge exists in consumer memory. From the model, marketers can plan and execute efficient marketing and communication strategies for modern luxury consumers given their fast-changing preference in luxury consumption. Following the suggestion from Kapferer & Valette-Florence (2016) which indicates that “luxury is made by brands” and apart from selling luxurious products, the dream is what is attached to the brand logo and name. Therefore, by investigating the relationship between luxury products characteristics along with luxury value perceptions, this study aims to provide a refreshing analysis of today’s luxury consumers and what stimulates them to buy personal luxury products. Further Research A questionnaire will be developed by the integration of the established measurements and scales from the existing luxury consumption and branding literature. A draft of the questionnaire will be reviewed against the literature and the practical insights obtained from the sales associates and experts in the luxury industry for the suitability and clarity of the questions. The final draft of the questionnaire will be pre-test on a small number of respondents from the target audience. The target population for the study is among general luxury consumers. The data collected from the survey will be analysed using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) approach to model decision process and validate the proposed conceptual framework. Cluster analysis will be used to identify segments of consumers as recommended by Aaker et al. (2013). The anticipated research findings will expand on the degree of influences of the brand knowledge towards the willingness to purchase of personal luxury goods. It is also expected that the research findings will be useful in redefining the existing types of luxury consumers to represent today’s luxury consumers.

Consumers’ perception of advertisements can affect brand attitudes, brand trust, and brand image (Meenaghan, 1995; Sheinin, Varki, & Ashley, 2011). Therefore, strategic selection of elements in advertisements becomes important, especially for luxury brands. Luxury brands tend to position themselves as artisans of a particular category or a product and highlight exclusivity (Fionda & Moore, 2008). When a luxury brand is known for a specific product, a less-known product of the brand in an advertisement would be perceived differently. The present study focused on exploring the different effects of iconic products and less-associated products of a luxury brand in the context of advertisements. Categorization theory, typicality effects, and conceptual fluency provided theoretical foundation in understanding the relationships. Typicality effects, simply put, occur when members in a category are graded, “with members ranging from very good (typical) members of a category to very poor (atypical) members of a category” (Loken, Barsalou, & Joiner, 2008, p. 153). In consumer studies, typicality had been examined in various dimensions and showed to effect consumer attitude (Goedertier, Dawar, Geuens, & Weijters, 2015; Loken & Ward, 1990; Ward & Loken, 1988). However, to our knowledge, the subject had not been covered in the luxury brand advertisement context. To test the effects of typicality, the study examined whether typical products in luxury advertising have a higher level of advertisement liking, pleasantness, and novelty than atypical products (H1), whether consumers’ advertisement attitude from luxury advertising have a positive effect on brand attitude (H2), and whether consumers’ product involvement moderated the relationship between product typicality and advertisement attitude. Before the main test, two pretests were performed; the first to select the luxury brand and products to be used in the main test; the second to ensure the brand-product association of the advertisements. A total of 123 undergraduate students participated in the experiment, a (typical vs. atypical) between-subjects design. Participants were exposed to one of the two experimental conditions and were asked to complete a questionnaire. They were provided with questions measuring advertisement liking, pleasantness, novelty, brand attitude, demographical questions, and manipulation checks. All questions, apart from the demographics and certain questions in the manipulation checks, were measured on a 5-point Likert scale. Reliability analysis, multivariate analysis of variance, and multiple regression analysis were used in hypothesis testing. Results of the study revealed that typical brand products in luxury brand advertisements have a higher level of advertisement liking, pleasantness, and novelty. Additionally, advertisement liking and novelty have a positive effect on brand attitude but pleasantness had no effect. Finally, product involvement did not moderate the effects of product typicality on advertisement attitude. The study shows significance in that it supports the typicality effect in categorization theory by showing that there are certain products that consumers link with brands, and the closer the link, the more positive advertisement attitude becomes. Based on the results, it is recommended that luxury brands take caution in product placement and include iconic products in advertisements. There should also be focus on which products are in the advertisement, not the individual consumer’s involvement in a product. For future research, experiments exploring whether presenting typical products with atypical products in advertisements would strengthen the relationships between brands and atypical products is suggested. Also, studies on how luxury brands can elevate the status of atypical products to typical products by educating consumers would provide practical strategies for luxury brand marketers.

The act of gift-giving is one of the most significant consumption rituals that individuals perform world-wide (Antón, Camarero, and Gil, 2014) and represents a substantial industry and a major source of revenue for retailers (Segev, Shoham, and Ruvio, 2013). In addition to its economic significance, gift giving is instrumental in maintaining social bonds and functions as symbolic communication in relationships (Belk, 1979; Belk and Coon, 1993). Various researchers (e.g., Belk and Coon, 1993; Fischer and Arnold 1990; Lowrey, Otnes, and Ruth 2004; Ruth, Otnes, and Brunel 1999; Sherry and McGrath 1989) explore reasons for giving and receiving gifts. Although these studies offer valuable insights into gift giving, research on luxury brands as gifts is scarce (Reyneke, Berthon, Pitt, and Parent, 2011). Similarly, research on luxury concentrates on consumer perceptions of luxury brands and motivations behind luxury consumption (Dubois and Duquesne, 1993; Zhan and He, 2012; Roux, Tafani, and Vigneron, 2017). There is a lack of research on consumer resistance to luxury brands. This paper attempts to address these gaps from a conceptual perspective. Drawing on gift giving, consumer resistance and luxury brand literature, this study will examine consumer resistance to luxury brands as gifts. Consumer resistance is “the way in which individuals or groups practise a strategy of appropriation in response to structures of domination” (Poster, 1992, p.1). Consumer resistance can be generic (toward all forms of consumption), or specific (toward a brand or product) (Nepomuceno, Rohani, and Grégoire, 2017). Moisio and Askegaard (2002) suggested three factors that trigger resistance: market conditions that are deemed unacceptable; products or brands that do not conform to the consumer’s self-image; and dominant cultural values that are rejected due to their hegemonic nature. Key motives for luxury brand consumption include impressing others or interpersonal aspects (Berry, 1994; Kastanakis and Balabanis, 2014), and personal or hedonic reasons (Dubois, Czellar, and Laurent, 2005; Wiedmann, Hennigs, & Siebels, 2009). The reasons for resistance to consumption are not merely the opposite of motives for consumption. Hence, to gain a comprehensive understanding of consumption, it is essential to examine resistance to consumption as an alternative consumption (Roux, 2007; Close and Zinkhan, 2009). This study will contribute theoretically to work on gift giving, consumer resistance and luxury brands. Managerial implications will be relevant to brand managers and how they can develop strategies to prevent consumer resistance to their brands.

The counterfeit market makes up as much as seven percent of worldwide trade and is estimated as a $650 billion industry. Due to consumer demand, this phenomenon has grown over 10,000% in the past two decades and presents a serious threat to the global economy. Many luxury brand managers assume that counterfeiting damages brand image, however some experts have indicated that luxury houses use counterfeit sales to predict demand for their own brand. In this sense, brands are reacting to the effects of counterfeit purchase and need to develop a proactive strategy for preventing it. By understanding consumers’ perception of brands and how it relates to their counterfeit consumption, brand managers can better plan their marketing strategies to build relationships with consumers for increasing loyalty and preventing possible loss in sales. The purpose of this study is to understand the effect of branding on non-deceptive counterfeit consumption of luxury brands by proposing that brand equity plays a moderating role in the relationship between attitudes toward counterfeits and purchase intentions and in the relationship between social factors and purchase intentions. Specifically, this study conceptualizes the customer-based brand equity model with the Theory of Reasoned Action to develop strategic marketing implications for luxury brands. Previous research has resulted in managerial implications for combatting the counterfeit phenomenon, but it is more effective to prevent the increase in demand for counterfeits than to react to that demand. This study examines the role of brand equity to help brand managers focus their marketing strategies on specific levels of customer-based brand equity to build stronger relationships with consumers and reduce the demand for counterfeit products. Previous studies have examined the effects of counterfeits on brands, but research on the effects of brands on counterfeit consumption is very limited. This study adds to literature on counterfeits by understanding how branding can affect counterfeit purchase. Studies have used the Theory of Reasoned Action for understanding consumers’ intention to purchase counterfeit products. Drawing on the customer-based brand equity model, this research proposes brand identity, brand response, brand meaning, and brand relations as moderating variables in addition to the basic constructs of the model to extend previous literature, as no previous research has used customer-based brand equity for understanding counterfeit consumption. Previous studies have conceptualized customer-based brand equity for building relationships with customers, but this concept has never been used in the counterfeit context. This study is the first to use brand equity for understanding consumers’ counterfeit purchase intentions. This study suggests important implications for luxury brand marketers. By understanding how consumers associate with a brand, marketers can target specific levels of brand equity as part of their marketing strategies to deter counterfeit purchase. The proposed model serves as an initial step for understanding how brand equity affects non-deceptive consumption of counterfeit luxury goods. Future studies include empirically testing this proposed model and quantifying how much each level of customer-based brand equity contributes to consumer’ perception of brands. Future studies could also test the impact of branding on specific product types to analyze differences in consumers’ brand associations based on product category, as some product categories are more favorable to counterfeit consumers than others.

Luxury brand marketers have recently turned their attention to luxury brand consumers and their social brand communities devoted to the brands. Luxury brands appeal to customers by enhancing their images regarding heritage, quality, and artistic value. Luxury fashion brands also establish social media communities to communicate their images more effectively. This study uses the key concepts of integration and interactivity to provide theoretical foundations to investigate luxury brand communities (LBCs) in the social media context. A survey was given to 252 members of Facebook fan pages for luxury brands from South Korea. This study examines effects of interaction as a process on perceived interactivity of LBCs in social media, and consequences, attitude, purchase intentions, and brand loyalties, hence offering implications for luxury brand management academics and practitioners

Introduction Luxury is an intriguing and alluring concept. The word ‘luxury‘ is used very often in advertisement, indicating something positive, some-thing worth striving after, something worth desiring. This thesis will focus on how luxury, and particularly luxury brands, are created, represented and consumed in an online environment. The Internet has proven to be of great importance for many types of brand when it comes to communicating and providing information to consumers and potential consumers. Luxury brands, however, work on different premises than other brand categories. Thus, luxury brands on the Internet would seemingly be an oxymoron. Given the growing importance of the luxury goods industry in economic terms and the increasing scholarly interest for not only the phenomenon of luxury brands but also luxury brands online (c.f. Dall‘Olmo Riley and Lacroix, 2003), it would seem that more systematic research is warranted on how brands, and luxury brands in particular, are handled on the Internet. The consumption of luxury brands, as opposed to the consumption of physical goods, lies in the difference in ownership. A luxury brand can be ‘consumed’ without the actual owning of a physical good produced by the brand. This type of consumption is instead a sort of merging of the consumers‘ view of themselves with their image of the luxury brand. This relatively new way of viewing consumption is of central importance when viewing brands online. The virtual ownership or ‘consumption‘ of luxury brands also brings with it new forms of expressing ownership or kinship with the luxury brand, as well as with other types of consumer sharing in the affection of a brand. The problems facing luxury brands, is best summed up in the ‘luxury brand paradox‘, in which the core is a balancing act. In this balancing act, the perception of exclusivity surpasses that of actual scarcity. The perception of exclusivity has to be invoked in consumers for the luxury brand paradox to maintain equilibrium. If (or perhaps when) there was an actual scarcity to luxury goods and luxury was truly limited, the consumption of luxuries was quite different from the consumption of luxury brands today. The clicks environment The clicks environment has brought with it not only new ways for brands to communicate with consumers but also for consumers to ‘consume‘ the brands. The following aspects will be emphasized the rise of the Internet and its characteristics, the business logic that is emerging from this, consumers on the Internet and new communication patterns. New to not only luxury consumption, but also retailing and consumption is the entrance of the Internet as a means of distributing, marketing and gaining information on goods and services. The advent of the Internet brought with it a frenzy for no-name and generic brands, as well as some high-priced, status brands to not be left behind in incorporating a clicks environment, with many luxury brands jumping on the bandwagon. Many luxury brands can thus now be viewed and, to some extent, purchased online by anyone having access to a computer. Luxury brands are presenting themselves online and communicating everything from designer influences to products and prices and store listings. On the Internet, old trusted methods cannot be used to the same extent and the migration to an online environment will inevitably bring with it new problems as well as intensify some old ones: the perception of scarcity is harder to create. Maintaining the balance between maximizing profits and evoking feelings of exclusivity is one of the most important tasks for luxury brands. The creation of perception of exclusivity or social desirability in a luxury context is the basis for non-functional demand. This is a balancing act that comes into greater focus with the entrance of the Internet. This research examines the new business logic in the clicks environment from the problems that arise for luxury brands in particular. For mass-producing brands, the clicks environment does not pose the same kind of threat as it does for luxury brands. The cost of marketing could be lowered by using the means provided by the Internet and giving access to products to many new consumers, something that in the case of luxury brands can be a danger. The specific nature of luxury brands and the new business logic on the Internet generate new challenges as well as opportunities. The Internet environment brings with it the fact that luxury brands can be not only consumed but also represented and created in a widely diverse environment. This requires a specific way of viewing consumption, which will be explored in this chapter Representing, creating and consuming luxury brands online The luxury context has been changed with the entrance of the Internet, challenging luxury brand management and forcing luxury brands to act in new ways. Where the borders were previously stricter and the consumption of luxury brands was solely an act between company and consumer and luxury brand identity was communicated from company to consumer, with rather few distractions, the Internet gives rise to many other constellations. The creation of brand image is thus now intertwined and overlapping. For luxury brands to be consumed online by consumers, they have to be represented online. Although the representation can be officially either by the brand or by others, it is when ‘others‘ get involved in luxury brand representation that the preconditions change. The online representation of luxury brands is a basis for luxury brand consumption, but as will be explained later, the consumption taking place online does not have to involve purchase of actual physical goods. Brands can, to a certain degree, be ‘created‘ online as a luxury brand or status brand, all depending on the processes surrounding the brand in question. This research starts with the presumption that the luxury context is changing with the entrance of the Internet and that luxury brands are now exposed to new challenges in which the luxury brand image is more elusive than ever. The Internet has become a valuable communication tool for brands in their endeavor for a favorable and prosperous brand image. However, the belief is that as a communications and distribution channel the Internet has led to changes in the market structure as well as changes in producer and consumer roles (Peterson, et. al., 1997; Prahalad et. al., 2000). To be able to be viewed and purchased online would seem an ideal situation if not for the inherent paradoxical nature of the luxury brand. Luxury brands face several challenging problems within the online context. Online rarity The term luxury rests on certain assumed connotations, such as the ‘rarity principle‘, meaning that the rarer the good, the more desired the commodity is (Phau and Prendergast, 2000). With the Internet as a distribution channel, the ‘rarity principle‘ may be lost when the brand can be not only viewed and desired but also consumed by all. According to Dubois and Paternault (1995), the prestige of the brand may be eroded if too many people own it. The possibility of online purchase may give opportunity for the ‘masses‘ to consume these products and the company can maximise its profits and sell even larger amounts, something that would, however, be in sharp contrast with the need of luxury brands to maintain a fragile equilibrium between high exposure and awareness but a controlled level of sales (Roux and Floch, 1996 in Dall‘Olmo Riley and Lacroix, 2003). It is also feared that the possibility of purchasing luxury brand goods online could give greater opportunities for counterfeiters to sell copied merchandise as ‘original‘ merchandise. Studies have shown that price and price discounts are very important factors in online purchasing and when revisiting a website. Luxury brands online thus face problems, largely because they do not compete with low price or price discounts. Consequently, online distribution pro-vides a challenge. How do you make consumers buy the much more expensive genuine product instead of a cheap counterfeit when many of the core elements of the luxury brand are lost online? Another problem is the ever-increasing product range of luxury brands. Because many luxury brands today include all sorts of products, this makes it harder to distinguish counterfeit copies from the original. This is a problem that could devalue the brand and increase the temptation for consumers to buy cheaper ‘knock-offs‘ or counterfeits‘ online. de Chernatony (2002:186) suggests that brand strategists need a new mental model to "develop integrated brands in a digital age which goes beyond the classical and which recognizes the new roles consumers are taking". New roles for consumers are an important fact for luxury brands in that consumers are more involved in creating a buzz for certain brands, engaging in reviewing, discussing and sharing opinions online. The online environment and the challenges to luxury brands that follow show a significant change in the business logic. The new business logic on the Internet, with the consumption of brands instead of actual goods, is problematic for brands in general and for luxury brands in particular. The specific problems regarding luxury brands are seen in relation to the previously described inherently difficult luxury brand paradox. The problems arising from the very scattered Internet context for luxury brands are many, as well as interrelated. Empirical contributions There are four main groupings of websites that have been examined: (1) brand websites, (2) consumer-to-consumer sites, (3) communities and (4) Replica sites and such. (1) The first type of sites is the sites that are officially connected with one brand, multiple brands or a conglomerate. In this category ‘umbrella‘ sites are also included, which can be directly owned by a luxury conglomerate (such as eluxury.com, or sites such as prêt-a-porter.com or yoox.com that sell a wide range of upper-range and luxury brands). (2) The second type of site is the online auction site where consumers sell to consumers, or in some cases, an organized firm conducts the selling. This type of site is not associated with the luxury brand. Although somewhat separate from the community website, this type shares many of the characteristics of the community websites, including being mostly consumer driven and not directly affiliated with a luxury brand. Thus, the auction websites are grouped together with the community websites. (3) The third type of site examined is the community websites. These come in different forms, ranging from sites associated with fashion magazines in which involvement only can occur on an observer or viewer basis to communities discussing all aspects of fashion and luxury to community sites dedicated to identifying the brands celebrities are wearing. The sites that are the online version of fashion magazines can be viewed only with possibilities to receive weekly (sometimes daily) fashion updates and newsletters, include chat possibilities and bulletin boards, and in some cases have limited product sales. (4) The fourth type is the website that sells replicas or counterfeits. In this category sites that rank and review sellers of counterfeit merchandise are included. Conclusions Four themes on the sense of a luxury brand have emerged throughout this research. The themes show how the sense of a luxury brand is created in an online environment. The four themes are luxury history, authenticity, community and paradox. Luxury history refers to the stories (either real or thought up as marketing campaigns) told by luxury brands, as well as the history that is thought up of and shared by consumers of the brand. Authenticity pertains to the need for luxury brands to have authenticity and genuine products in the sense of having reputable and innovative designers to repel counterfeits. Community concerns the different types of community formed online, i.e. communities formed for a particular brand or other common interest. Paradox relates to the inherent problem for luxury brands to create desire and appeal (and hence the power to sell a particular product) while simultaneously giving the perception of uniqueness. Paradox also refers to the contradictory workings online in the creation of a sense of luxury brand. As has been revealed through the empirical data, the online environment for luxury brands is an environment for communication and interaction, an environment that is both lively and active. The online context is comprised of many different elements that are interwoven, making up the platform for luxury brands online. This is seen in not only the different people involved in the online context but in some instances also the changing roles they play and the often multiple activities that they perform. This is because the luxury environment is made up of these sometimes very different yet interlocking elements. Examining the data from different perspectives and by comparing them to previous research on brands, luxury and the Internet the conclusion is that a new and exciting arena for luxury brands and their consumers emerge, an arena that will be referred to as an online fair. The online context is a highly scattered and chaotic environment that exhibits a scope of different characteristics. These characteristics resemble those pertaining to a fair. Definitions of a fair can range from describing the display of farm animals to entertainment and amusement. The common denominator is the key-concepts of display and the people there to see the display or to be amused and entertained. The online fair embodies different actors and activities that will be described together with the special environment of the online fair. The actors that are identified in the online fair are the audiences, the exhibitors and the copycats. The activities performed by these three groups are exhibition and display, sales and trade and entertainment. Finally, the online fair environment is characterized by its globality, openness, accessibility and fuzzy boundaries. As opposed to many bricks-and-mortar fairs, the online fair requires no entrance fees. Neither does it have strict admission controls based on special invitations, as is often the case with luxury fashion shows. The online fair is instead open and accessible to all. The audience in the online fair encompasses various consumer types and how ‘active‘ a consumer or potential consumer is, is not dependent on his or her status as an ‘actual consumer‘. The online audience also serves as reinforcement for consumers with regard to postpurchase feelings. Given that the online fair is open to anyone, there will inevitably be those wishing to profit from someone else. In this context these ‘tricksters‘ would be counterfeit sellers trying to profit from the luxury brand image.

Luxury consumers are highly social online, and with approximately 80 percent of luxury shoppers using social media on a monthly basis (Mckinsey & Company, 2015), the experience luxury brands provide on social networking services (SNS) becomes imperative. Interaction through social streams is about building a relationship with people who may continue to use the luxury product for the next 25 years (The Guardian, 2015). Hence, from magazines to smartphones, luxury brands are seeking new opportunities to communicate with their customers. Brands such as Burberry and Gucci are becoming increasingly active by uploading visuals, narratives, and films that represent their brand, and others are slowly following suit. Although various contents are now being posted online, when it comes to luxury brands, what separates them from others is the rich and unique brand heritage (LinkedIn, 2015; Mckinsey & Company, 2015). Despite this strength, it is a not implemented effectively as a strategy (The Guardian, 2015). In this study, we want to emphasize the need for luxury brands to go digital and to spread their brand stories as a form of advertisement. Stories in advertising and their effects on consumer behavior has been dealt by previous research (Deighton, Romer, & Mcqueen, 1989; Escalas, 2007; Escalas, 2004; Wang & Calder, 2006). Deighton, Romer, and Mcqueen (1989) found that dramatization influenced viewers’ processing to become more empathetic than argumentative, which made dramatized commercials more persuasive than argument-oriented ones. Escalas (2004) showed that narrative advertisement processing is positively correlated with brand attitude and behavioral intention and that narratively structured advertisements persuade others through the experience known as narrative transportation. This experience has been explained by Green and Brock (2000) as “a convergent process where all mental systems and capacities become focused on events occurring in the narrative.” Narrative transportation theory explains the process of being lost in a story and that it takes place when a consumer experiences a feeling of stepping into a world stimulated by narratives due to the empathy with the characters and imagination of the story plot (Laer, Ruyter, Visconti, & Wetzels, 2014). This process can be effective in changing attitudes and beliefs of individuals who read stories (Green & Brock, 2000). For luxury brands, brand heritage can be transformed into stories that can transport readers to other worlds, and this can affect consumer attitudes, intentions, and behaviors (Laer, Ruyter, Visconti, & Wetzels, 2014). This experience is what this study pursues to delve into and understand.

Most researchers agree that core to the value proposition of luxury brands is their sym-bolic content and the image they convey (e.g., Dubois and Paternault 1995, Albrecht et al. 2013). One of the key mechanisms through which the brand is charged with symbolic content is advertising (McCracken 1986). Advertising is a key medium in the meaning creation process which is strongly controlled by brand management and intentionally used to convey a certain image to consumers (Kim, Lloyd, and Cervellon 2015). Given the importance of advertising to the luxury industry, it is surprising that only little re-search exists that explores how luxury brands build and communicate their brand in ad-vertising (Freire 2014, Mortelmans 1998, Mortelmans 2014). This study closes this gap by identifying the key themes and codes which luxury brands use in their advertising, analyses their usage and evolution over time, category and brand to show similarities and differences between the advertising of luxury brands. This pro-vides the basis to answer the following research questions: • What are the main thematic and stylistic codes that luxury brands use in print adver-tising? • How do the thematic and stylistic codes vary between brands? • How do the thematic and stylistic codes vary between categories? • How do the thematic and stylistic codes vary over time? This research thus contributes to the advancement of luxury advertising theory as it pro-vides a comprehensive framework for academics and practitioners alike, to analyse and design luxury print advertisements. Drawing on research in the areas of luxury advertis-ing and semiotics, we develop a conceptual framework allowing to analyse and catego-rise print campaigns of luxury brands along the three dimensions’ brand, category and time for over 500 advertisements of luxury fashion brands. The study has important im-plications for academic research as well as the luxury industry. This study identifies the identity-relevant and symbolic codes used in creating a luxury brand and thus adds to an enhanced understanding of how luxury is communicated and constructed.

One of the most significant challenges of modern strategic marketers refers to the ability of expressing the authentic value of fashion brand. This is particularly important for luxury goods, which are able to effectively impact on customers’ social attitude and behavior. Hence, pertinent literature is progressively focusing on the role of authenticity as a strategic element for marketing theory. Specifically, three elements have been associated with brand’s authenticity, namely quality commitment, heritage, and sincerity. In the present research we apply a validated empirical instrument concerning brand authenticity and its aforementioned three elements. Precisely, we will present and discuss the results of a survey implemented in the Tuscany region (Italy), thus aiming at investigating possible differences and/or similarities characterizing Tuscan customers’ perception of luxury brand authenticity. A structural equation model will be conceptualized and assessed in order to analyze the existing relationships between brand’s authenticity elements, namely quality commitment, heritage, and sincerity. The results confirm the hypothesized significance of these relationships among variables. Further, we will introduce the notion of mythopoiesis, which will be interpreted as a strategic vehicle able to appropriately communicate the traditional values, culture, and historical symbolic meanings of luxury fashion brand. Actually, marketing mythopoiesis results in being an effective element for translating a historical ‘stock’ of heritage into a strategic ‘flow’ of narrative capabilities by marketing managers.

The aim of this article is to explore and to sum up essential elements in building a strong luxury brand. Contribution of this article to the academic discussion on branding is in critical review of the literature and collection of empirical insights from the Swiss watchmaking industry. The novelty of this project lies in the «industry-based» approach to the conceptual framework development (semi-structured interviews among watchmaking industry experts). The main findings of this research are ten pillars (axes) of strong luxury brand that gather the essential elements for creation of a strong brand in Swiss luxury watchmaking industry.

The popularity of visual communication in social network sites (SNS) can guide an important question about its effectiveness and the optimization for luxury brand advertising: How do visual communication messages via SNS work for consumer information processing and their evaluation of luxury hotels? To address this question, we examine consumer information processing in SNS in which visual communication messages work as narratives based on narrative transportation theory (Green & Brock, 2002; van Laer, Ruyter, Visconti, & Wetzels, 2014). Specific purposes are: (1) to identify key features of consumer information processing as narrative persuasion (i.e., narrative transportation), (2) to examine how consumers’ perceptions of fluency with visual messages (i.e., comprehension fluency and imagery fluency) influence the narrative persuasion process, and (3) to explore how the narrative persuasion process develops consumer responses with respect to positive affect and visit intention. First, we predict that increased fluency of information processing (comprehension fluency and imagery fluency) would increase narrative transportation. Second, increased narrative transportation would increase affective response and visit intention. Lastly, as for the two consequences, we predict that affective response would positively affect visit intention. A web-based survey was used for data collection. Measurement items of research variables were adapted from previous studies. A total of 193 usable responses were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk. Participants were directed to explore one randomly assigned luxury hotel Instagram page (Four Seasons or Ritz Carlton) and complete the questionnaire based on the experience. Results showed that comprehensive fluency, rather than imagery fluency, has significant impact on narrative transportation. Narrative transportation in turn influences affective response and visit intention; affective response influences visit intention. Additional tests suggest that narrative transportation and affective response play a mediating role in the narrative persuasion process. These findings highlight the power of narrative transportation in advertising for luxury brands, advising that marketers need to put efforts on enhancing visual storytelling in SNS communication.

Currently, the luxury retail market exceeds one trillion dollars in sales (Aroche, 2015) and is proliferated by the use of celebrities as endorsers and luxury brand ambassadors (Buckley, 2015; Okonkwo 2010). The practice of linking celebrities in luxury brand communications dates back to at least the 1800s and while the successful usage of celebrities is widely documented (e.g., Agrawal & Kamakura, 1995), so too are the stories of catastrophes as a result of celebrity transgression, overshadowing or just poor fit. Even without negative publicity or inappropriate behaviours, the use of a celebrity can still present risks to the luxury brand. For example, where unintended meanings associated with the celebrities are transferred to the luxury brand (Walker & Langmeyer, 1992; Till, 1998) or when the popularity of the celebrity (e.g. Angelina Jolie) overshadows the brand (e.g. St John) (Buckley, 2015; Horwell, 2011; Rossiter & Percy, 1987; Till & Busler, 2000). Overshadowing isn’t the only risk luxury brand managers may encounter when utilising a celebrity to endorse their brand. If, for example, consumers don’t see a match between the brand and the celebrity, or if consumers perceive the celebrity as being irrelevant to the brand, or if the celebrity has lost their appeal and connection with consumers then the celebrity presents a risk for the brand image (Choi & Rifon, 2012; Fleck, Korchia & Le Roy, 2012; Till & Busler, 2000). The choice of the ‘wrong’ celebrity can be an extremely costly mistake, with loss of sales and/or damage to the brand equity and image of the luxury brand being the potential outcome (Carrillat, D’Astous & Lasure, 2013; Folse, Burton & Netemeyer, 2013; Halonen-Knight & Hurmerinta, 2010; Thwaites, Lowe, Monkhouse & Barmes, 2012). Risk reducing strategies and due diligence during the selection process is a lengthy, complicated and complex process (Erdogan, Baker & Tagg, 2001). Luxury brand managers have long called for a more systematic and objective criteria by which to evaluate the potential celebrity risk factors (Okonkwo, 2010; Toncar, Reid, & Anderson, 2007); and this paper takes up that call with three contributions to both the literature and to practice. The first contribution concerns risk reduction strategies and extensions to the current thinking on the celebrity construct (for a thorough discussion on the celebrity construct see Gabler, 2001; Goldman, 2011; Rojek, 2001; Turner, 2004). There is a small stream of research that discusses the non-human celebrity as both a risk reducer for celebrity endorsement and also as an extension of the concept of ‘celebrity’ (e.g., Blewitt, 2013; Callcott & Lee, 1995; Folse et al., 2013; Giles, 2013; Rindova, Pollock & Hayward, 2006). This stream of research is novel and emergent and our work adds to this literature by defending our claim that like firms, animals, mythical beings and fictitious humans, events can also be celebrities. Broadening the conceptualisation of celebrity to apply to more than just real people, allows luxury brand managers to reduce costs, and regain some degree of control over the important image and reputational management of the celebrities with whom they wish to be associated The second contribution is the Celebrity Criterion Checklist, which provides luxury brand managers with a simple, systematic and quick way to determine whether someone or something (an entity) is a celebrity or not (given at least 15 years of debate about the contest term of “celebrity”). The Celebrity Criterion Checklist contains five criterion. If a luxury brand manager finds the entity they are considering fulfils all five criteria, then the brand manager be confident that they are a celebrity. The third contribution is the Celebrity Risk Evaluation Matrix (CREM). The Celebrity Risk Evaluation Matrix (CREM), facilitates higher-ordered assessments of the risk/benefit ratio associated with using different types of celebrities in luxury brand communications in a simple visual representation. Since celebrities are dynamic and have an ongoing narrative, celebrities can and do move between these quadrants and movement will depend on their life-cycle, their behavioural choices, their media presence, their authenticity and their relevance to consumers.

This study explores the role of corporate involvement and brand perception in moderating the Cause Related Marketing on consumer purchase intention in the luxury product category among Japanese consumers. This research examines three core cause attributes - cause scope, cause type and cause acuteness developed by Vanhamme, Lindgree, Reast and van Popering (2012) as well as an additional component of duration – with corporate involvement and brand perception moderating the effect on purchase intention. The general public places judgment on a corporation based on how much of positive or negative impacts its business has on environment or society (Sheikh & Beise-Zee, 2011). In fact, more corporations have been developing corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs, no matter how big their business sizes, big or small, are (Brinkvan, Odekerken-Schroder, & Pauwels, 2006). The general public loses its faith in corporations, especially after a financial crisis or malfeasances of big corporations and as a result, corporations are under stronger pressure to contribute to environmental or societal causes in order to reclaim lost faith from the general public (Sheikh & Beise-Zee, 2011; Berglind & Nakata, 2005). One way corporations contribute to society has been to employ marketing strategies that link product sales to the support of specific charities to create and maintain favorable brand images known as cause related marketing or CRM. CRM has been growing faster as a type of marketing that allow corporations to contribute to environment or society (Brinkvan et al., 2006). Various factors have been extensively researched on and identified as pertinent in the success of cause-related marketing campaigns such as brand-cause fit (Bigne-Alcanniz, Currase-Perez, Ruiz-Mafe and Sanz-Blas, 2011; Nan and Heo, 2007; Samu and Wymer, 2009), donation size (Dahl and Labvack, 1995; Pracejus, Olsen and Brown, 2003), types of causes (local causes are preferred to national ones) (Ellen, Mohr, and Webb, 1996; Smith and Alcorn, 1991) and product type with luxury products found to be more effective (Strahilevitz and Myers, 1995).

There has been a global growth of luxury business start-ups, which has accelerated especially since the late 1990s along with the upswing of the global luxury market. Start-ups in the high-end cultural and creative industries reflect the various new types of luxury from green or sustainable luxury and slow luxury to value luxury, and from digital and high-tech luxury to experience luxury. However, there exist only a few studies about luxury brand-building, the related area of luxury marketing success factors (Fionda and Moore, 2008) and the new research domain of luxury entrepreneurship (Fonrouge and Lipovetsky, 2013). Therefore, the objective of this paper is to identify critical success factors of luxury brand-building. In the high-end and generally in the lifestyle segment, the generation of a business model must go hand in hand with brand-building. Even more, setting-up a luxury or lifestyle business is hardly possible without emphasizing on brand-building. Consequently, we suggest combing business model generation with brand-building as this is naturally an interrelated process, especially in the high-end and creative industries. Based on the Business Model Canvass by Osterwalder and Pigneur (2014), we develop the Brand-Building Canvas and then use it as a framework to analyze the success factors of luxury brand-building. As success criteria of luxury marketing depend on a brand’s stage of development, we employ the concept of brand lifecycles to differentiate success factors. Due to its explanatory power for real-life organisational phenomena, our study relies on Grounded Theory, combined with a multiple case study methodology according to Fionda and Moore (2008). We analyzed ten luxury start-ups in different development stages and from various luxury industry segments and countries. The empirical database was obtained from multiple sources including also documentary material such as company presentations, brochures, homepages, and media articles. Moreover, expert interviews were conducted with representatives of the luxury start-ups and other relevant industry experts. Based on a content-analysis of the empirical database, we outline an overview of success factors of luxury brand-building, organized by brand lifecycle stages and the categories of the Brand-Building Canvas.

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate how a luxury brand may be affected by the variables associated to a new market entry as the Chinese and how those new market variables are integrated in the process of rebranding in the new geographical context. In doing so, the paper will review the existing literature in the field and following three derived propositions through a qualitative approach, it will analyse the successful brand strategy of three Italian luxury brands. The luxury brands considered in our investigation are three international ones with a specific consolidated brand heritage and with a multisectorial positioning. The methodological approach chosen in the analysis is the case-study method (Yin, 1984) with the specific purpose of focusing on a particular phenomenon instead of generalising (Schramm, 1971). Following the case-study methodology, this paper will explore and analyse the specific luxury brand building and rebranding process adopted by three Italian luxury brands to enter the new market and specifically through the digitalisation of the brand. The abstract will report a summary of one case as a reference sample. The empirical research will evidence the positive impact of digitalisation for successful luxury branding and rebranding in entry market strategy and justify its adoption in the exclusive luxury sector by the socio-cultural context-related factors of the new market. It will provide specific orientations and recommendations as well as best practices for luxury corporations on the specificities of branding and digitalisation of luxury in China. The research will show a successful model path for luxury branding when entering the Chinese market and the key impact of the “luxury digitalisation” strategy - usually associated to high accessibility - with respect to a traditional “luxury retailing” strategy - associated to the exclusivity of the luxury sector. Introduction The increasing interest in luxury brands in the fast growing economies of Asia, with particular attention towards China, has supported the growth of the luxury market in the last years. China, the global second largest economy, with the global largest consumer market, has reached a role of an undisguisable strategic leader in the luxury market. Far from theexponential double digit growth rates characterizing China’s growth in the past decades - as high as 14.2% in 2007 – at the moment it is entering a different phase of growth. A recent trend is tending to see China as the source of a multiplicity of diversified aspects impacting the global luxury market scenario – despite the fact that luxury industry market situation is not simply China related. The ongoing Chinese growth in the last decade has been associated with a decrease in European and US markets. In addition to this, further issues have negatively affected the market grow more related to Chinese market specificity. Chinese exponential luxury market growth has negatively influenced the exclusivity aura associated to luxury goods and consequently disrupting non-Chinese luxury customers and Chinese top spenders luxury brands orientation. In relation to the economic crisis in consolidated markets, international luxury brands have focused their interest towards fast growing economies. As a result, global brands have focused their attention on attracting fast growing economies with a specific growth in affluent consumers interested in foreign brands and in an augmentation in global consumption (Le Monkhouse et al., 2012). As a consequence, China has attracted much attention by significantly contributing to balance the sales decline in consolidated economies that in 2013 accounted for 28% of the €212 billion global luxury consumption (Schiliro, 2013). In the new luxury oriented Chinese context, local shoppers have started to become brand aware of what they were in the past and with a specific focus on luxury fashion brands (Bruce & Kratz, 2007). However, it would be too limited to simply consider that the volumes of the market and focus on luxury brands is resulting only from consumer intentions to purchase luxury brands. A multiplicity of factors and in particular context related factors affecting shoppers luxury brand perception and luxury goods purchasing experience must be considered and as a consequence those context related factors that may affect the branding process itself. China's culture is different from Western cultures (Henriksen, 2009), and thus, Chinese luxury consumption may not follow the trends of the Western world. The Chinese perceive luxury brand value in terms of China's unique cultural background and as a consequence of the Chinese economic development, the Chinese luxury lifestyle is gradually evolving and beginning to show its own distinct characteristics. Although prior research related to luxury examines different cultures and markets such as the US, Indian, European, the Chinese luxury context and its impact on luxury brand when entering this market have not been examined sufficiently. Literature review Luxury Brands, Rebranding and the Chinese Context Literature teaches us that “luxury” is used to denote the main category of highly prestigious brands (Vigneron & Johnson, 2004). In the same way, luxury brands are related to wealth, exclusivity and power and are related to the fulfilment of nonessential desires (Brun et al., 2008 and Dubois and Gilles, 1994). “Luxury brands” comprises highly quality, expensive and nonessential goods and services that are symbols of rarity, exclusivity, prestige, and authenticity in for their consumers and they can provide highlevels of symbolic and emotional value (Tynan, McKechnie, & Chhuon, 2009). Vigneron and Johnson (2004) and later Wiedman et al. (2007) defined the concept of luxury as the physical and psychological values provided by prestige of luxury brands and consequently highlighting the symbolic and conceptual dimension associated to luxury. However, it was evidenced how the dimension is strongly associated to the cultural values and to the social environment by considering luxury goods representatives of individual and social identity (Vickers & Renand, 2003). These elements of exclusivity, prestige, rarity as well as individual and social identity are the key values distinguishing luxury from nonluxury brands (Tynan et al., 2009). In the same perspective, Kapferer (1997, p. 334) highlighted the importance of those luxury brand values in evidencing that brand memory and brand values should not be abandoned when the brand is revised suggesting that rebranding is an incremental process in contrast to a radical change. The Digitalisation of Luxury Brands and the Chinese Market In the western countries, the elder people mainly compose luxury customers, while luxury consumers become younger (about under 40 years old) in China. The increasing number of middle-level class has been the main force of online luxury consuming. The consumption concept of younger customers are huge different from that of traditional customers. Solomon (2009) expressed that customers’ behavior is a dynamic concept because they are influenced by the outer factors and inner elements (Solomon, 2009). A survey from McKinsey & Company indicates that there are almost 90% of Chinese Internet users living in tier1, tier2 and tier 3 cities have enrolled in a social-media site and Chinese people can be regarded as the world’s most active social-media population, around 91% of respondents telling they visited a social-media site in the previous six months, followed by 70% in South Korea, 67% in the United States and 30% in Japan (Chiu, Lin, & Silverman, 2012). The Chinese social and cultural context is increasingly becoming “digitally savvy” and Chinese citizens are more likely to gain information from Internet when they would make shopping decisions. First Proposition Indirect orientation for the first proposition comes from Vickers and Renard (2003) conceptual development that evidences that the conceptual dimension of luxury is strongly influenced by cultural elements and by the social context. Consequently it derives that the digitalisation of luxury as a part of the social and cultural variables of contemporary Chinese consumers’ market will be conceptualised in the rebranding process for luxury brands when entering the Chinese market. Second Proposition Specific support for our second proposition comes from Kapferer (1997) theory highlighting that successful luxury rebranding has to keep least certain core brand elements to have a proper transition from the existing luxury brand to the revised luxury brand in the new Chinese market. The digitalisation process for rebranding will evidence the core elements kept as a part of the brand heritage and identity.In the re-branding process new market segments may be touched or even new markets (Kapferer, 1997). Successful luxury rebranding may require meeting the needs of new market segments. As a consequence, in our third proposition it is assumed that new attributes to the brand may be required to satisfy the new market and in particular the Chinese digitally savvy” segment. These principles of rebranding applied to our Chinese luxury context refers to the existing literature relating to re-create the brand vision to entry the new Chinese market. Research questions and methodology This research aims to analyse the impact of cultural and social variables of a new market, the Chinese one, in the redefinition of a luxury brand and in particular: - the evolution towards a new digital orientation as a response to the needs of the new customer segments - the specific socio-cultural characteristics of the new Chinese market customer segments In order to provide specific responses from the field, the empirical research methodology is based on the case analysis method (Yin, 1984). The luxury brands cases considered in the research have been kept anonymous in order to keep the confidentiality of the data collected and consequently referred as A, B and C. It has been based on interviews carried out in China and in Europe with the management of the luxury brand, with a sample of its customer segments and also on the published data of the corporation. The Case of an Italian Luxury Brand in China The A case: Rebranding through Digitalisation for Successful Entry in the Chinese Market Out of the three cases, A is an Italian global luxury brand with an established brand image and heritage internationally. Its positioning as authentic luxury brand worldwide specifically focus its image on exclusivity, originality and innovative design. China, which was entered lately with respect to the other geographical markets in their global strategy, has now become clearly the main focus. Its entry strategy has been oriented towards a progressive reinforcement of relations between brand and market, in particular in relation to the digitalisation of the market and its consumption mode. The brand started opening the main flagship store in the Mainland China capital Beijing and following with the fashion centre Shanghai at the beginning of 2006. After a few years of gradual expansion and monitoring of the market evolution, the brand can nowadays count on a consolidated flagship store network adding value to the brand awareness. Counting on the younger Chinese luxury market segments, the brand had a remarkable immediate growth in the market as a result of its brand core values and image as well as of its own digitalisation of the brand development strategy. The growth and consolidated positioning allowed the brand to start a brand expansion strategy by introducing the cosmetics line in department stores after clothing and apparel and perfumes. Conclusion A luxury brand focused on a specific rebranding as entry strategy for the Chinese market through the integration between the socio-cultural variables associated to the local context and the core components of the brand. A transferred the brand to the Chinesemarket by maintaining its own young style and image, specifically suitable for the young Chinese luxury market. In the initial phase of the Chinese market entry, A focused on reinforcing the brand image and awareness in the local socio-cultural context by developing their retail and distribution in particular by having key premium locations, fundamental to communicate the brand identity and core values. However, the retailing network was not perceived as sufficient to create “a social buzz” in the Chinese young socio-cultural context that is specifically influenced by digital media in this geographical environment. The analysis of the brand and its entry strategy in China have clearly shown that they entry and kept expanding in China from first to third tier cities and to different targeted segments by developing an intelligent digitalisation of the brand. Starting from developing a Chinese version of the brand name, A brand modified its brand name as a main strategy to giving meaning to the brand in the Chinese socio-cultural context, as well as emphasizing the heritage of the brand and creating a strong position in the mind of the Chinese consumer and creating a strong advantage in the digital search positioning. Furthermore, in analysing the market socio-cultural digital trends and the decreasing reach of conventional media and the increasing one of the digital ones, A decided to focalise on a diversified use of digital media in their entry strategy - through online video advertising and the growing digital out of home as well as local search engine as Baidu or local social networks, BAIDU Sina.com Wechat Youku and in particular online influencers and BBS, Bullet Board Systems – by clearly choosing to rebrand through the digitalisation of their luxury brand in compliance with the socio-cultural variables and trends of the market. The sample case will be reported and the model path for branding and rebranding in the Chinese context will be presented.

Brand equity, “the marketing effects uniquely attributable to the brand” (Keller, 1993, p. 1), is at the heart of competition in the luxury goods market (Keller, 2009). While firms competing in this segment have come up with sophisticated ways to build brand equity, they are currently challenged by the increasing importance of the internet in consumers’ journeys (Kapferer & Bastien, 2012; Okonkwo, 2009). With online sales of luxury goods showing a twelvefold increase over the past 11 years (D’Arpizio et al., 2014), it is evident that luxury brands have to be present somehow in the digital environment today (Heine & Berghaus, 2014). The strategic purposes, business potentials, and consequences for brand equity of this presence, however, are still largely unexplored and remain a paradoxical topic. As a luxury brand’s website is the brand’s most valuable digital asset (Heine & Berghaus, 2014) and as there appears to be a consensus that luxury brands can use their websites to present their products in the digital environment, at least for purposes of communication, the question arises which products are most suitable for reinforcing the brand’s image. The roles a luxury brand’s products can play in relation to brand management can be classified between four poles spanning two dimensions, which this research terms ‘accessibility’ and ‘contemporariness’, in relation to Kapferer and Bastien’s (2012) luxury brand architecture map. Empirical evidence of these dimensions is, nevertheless, scarce, and yet no prior research has investigated these product roles in an e-commerce setting. The current study develops a model to test how an online purchase option and the contemporariness as well as the accessibility of the product assortment offered on the websites of luxury brands affect specific brand equity dimensions of luxury brands. Data of a 2x2x2-online scenario experiment were analyzed, showing that prestige and uniqueness value are non-significantly affected by offering an online purchase option, while functional value increases significantly. Regarding the displayed product assortment, the brand equity dimensions of functionality, prestige, and uniqueness are found to be significantly affected by the inaccessibility of the products, while their contemporariness elicits significant changes in uniqueness value. The study also assesses the mediating role of the brand attributes of availability, price premium, aesthetics, and innovativeness, as well as the moderating role of consumers’ prior brand ownership, for these effects.

The Internet is providing companies with an opportunity to market their goods more widely than has been the case in the past. This is having implications for senior managers as it means that some luxury goods are being made available to a wider market segment than previously and also, there are issues as regards authenticity and counterfeiting for example. Cultural value systems underpin psychological needs which are taken into account when advertising a brand and in addition, marketers are keen to build a relationship with customers, which takes into account the customers’ psychological aspirations. Meeting consumer expectations is crucial in the luxury sector because of the value placed on uniqueness and the price-quality dynamic. Bearing these points in mind, the research question to be addressed in this paper is: How can marketers utilize the Elaboration Likelihood Model (Petty & Cacioppo 1984 & 1986) in order to maintain the quality of the luxury brand and develop a relationship with high net worth individuals while marketing the product online? The aim of the paper is to explain how marketers can develop a better understanding of how the Elaboration Likelihood Model (Petty & Cacioppo 1984 & 1986) can be utilized to develop theoretical insights into promoting luxury goods online. Bearing this in mind, two research objectives were formed: (i) to explain how the Elaboration Likelihood Model can be used to formulate international luxury brand strategies; and (ii) to provide guidance as to how marketers can develop a better understanding of marketing luxury products online. The study will build on the work of Hennessey and Anderson (1990), as it will explain how involvement affects motivation vis-à-vis luxury brands. By studying luxury brands, the Internet, and social psychology, it should be possible for marketers to provide marketing practitioners with relevant theoretical insights into how marketing theory is evolving and is applied in practice. The Elaboration Likelihood Model represents “a fairly general framework for organizing, categorizing, and understanding the basis processes underlying the effectiveness of persuasive communications” (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986, p.125) and proves ideal with respect to researching cultural value systems. The Elaboration Likelihood Model allows academic researchers to look into and comprehend cognitive processing (Cacipppo, Harkins, & Petty, 1981, p.37). The main strength of the Elaboration Likelihood Model is that the variables that can impact certain judgements are made clear and in addition, the processes underlyingchanges in attitude are made known and so too are the resulting judgements (Petty, Rucker, Bizer, & Cacioppo, 2004, pp.66-67). The Elaboration Likelihood Model has been extensively used by marketing academics and has relevance in terms of how people formulate a systematic information processing strategy (De Meulenaer, Dens, & De Pelsmacker, 2015, p.610). Marketers are concerned about the price-quality dynamic and also the trust construct (Shu-Chen, Wanchiao, Sung, & Cheng-Kiang, 2006) and risk (Park, Lennon, & Stoel, 2005) vis-à-vis buying online. Furthermore, how online consumers interpret signals has been given attention (San Martin, Camarero & San Jose, 2011) and according to Areni (2003), argument-driven persuasion is important and will be given attention in the study. Attention will be given to luxury branding, the development of an international brand strategy and how marketers can protect a luxury brand through a marketing intelligence strategy that counteracts counterfeiting. As well as utilizing data collected via a group interview, reference will be made to data collected over a three year period using a survey instrument. The Elaboration Likelihood Model (Petty & Cacioppo 1984 & 1986) will be used as a basis for providing a framework for understanding how a luxury brand can be perceived and protected, and the research outcome will be used by marketers to advise senior management about the need for implementing an integrated international luxury brand strategy. For example, research has been undertaken into the relevance of the construct trustworthiness and it is important to note that “trustworthiness is an attribute of individual exchange partners” (Barney and Hansen, 1994, p.176). This is an important observation because the producers of luxury goods depend on a number of external specialists (eg., designers, communication and public relations advisors, and manufacturers of specialist components) in order to help the company to add value to the product/service and make sure that it is viewed as unique. Marketers employed by a luxury goods producer need to ensure that data and information relating to the product offering is well guarded because they need to have confidence in the fact that there are no vulnerabilities in existence. A vulnerability could result in leakage of sensitive data and information (e.g., a new design) and result in a loss in intellectual property and ultimately brand piracy and reputational damage. By failing to identify potential vulnerabilities and deal with them through adequate counter threat measures, it is likely that it will take several years and require a repositioning and a rebranding strategy to recover the brand in the market. What we are advocating is a marketing counterintelligence strategy that is aimed at reinforcing the need and usefulness of security to protect the brand and ensure that the brand is not diluted in any way. Another reason as to why marketers need to engage in risk management is because there are a number of country-of-origin issues that arise and need to be addressed. Balabanis and Diamantopoulos (2011) have indicated that consumers are not always able to link a brand correctly with its country-of-origin and this may prove problematic. This is linked with brand image perceptions and again the Elaboration Likelihood Model can help to provide evidence that is used by marketers to overcome consumer misperceptions. Reflecting on the fact that marketers are confronted with legitimate competition (products and services compete in adherence with regulatory processes) as well asillegal forms of competition, it can also be argued that marketers need to be aware of and embrace the standards that govern the production of the product/service to the quality specified. Thus, senior management need to ensure that employees lower down the organizational hierarchy are committed to maintaining the standards that are in being (Ghoshal and Bartlett, 1994, p.96). Ghoshal and Bartlett (1994, p.98 and pp.106-107) add to our understanding by suggesting that marketers need also to have a shared ambition and participate in a collective decision-making, which relies upon collective learning. The logic of this view manifests in the fact that the Elaboration Likelihood Model is used to reinforce and condition the views of the employees as well as the organization’s customers and because it has both an internal and an external dimension. Because marketers work closely with organizational strategists that are outward looking and intelligence driven, and liaise with R&D, technology and production staff that are inward looking and security driven, they are well able to contribute to the risk management process and advise on all the aspects of marketing strategy. The research undertaken will be placed within a strategic marketing context and the learning aspect will be drawn upon to show how marketers can link social psychology theory with marketing theory, and how risk communication can be used to reinforce the advertising message. The paper will explore the advertising-consumer perception dynamic and will examine how the Elaboration Likelihood Model (Petty & Cacioppo 1984 & 1986) can be used to promote the uniqueness of a luxury good to individual consumers who share and exchange information using social networks. The influence of social networks is growing and marketers need to be aware of how and why consumers share and exchange information as they do across geographical boundaries. In particular, it will build on the work of Michaelidou and Christodoulides (2011) by establishing how certain psychological factors influence attitudes towards counterfeited products and what marketers can do to counteract these attitudes. This will contribute to the literature because it will highlight both price related and ethical related issues associated with the purchasing of counterfeited goods. In addition, it will allow marketers to identify trends in customer buying behavior and build on the work of Jack and Powers (2013) relating to shopping behavior and consumer satisfaction. By understanding better the motivations of those that purchase luxury products, marketers will be better able to plan product offerings and formulate and implement promotional strategies.