This study assessed the effectiveness of brand image communication on consumer perceptions of cruelty-free fashion brands. Brand messaging data were gathered from postings on the official Instagram accounts of three cruelty-free fashion brands and consumer perception data were gathered from Tweets containing keywords related to each brand. Web crawling and natural language processing were performed using Python and sentiment analysis was conducted using the BERT model. By analyzing Instagram content from Stella McCartney, Patagonia, and Freitag from their inception until 2021, this study found these brands all emphasize environmental aspects but with differing focuses: Stella McCartney on ecological conservation, Patagonia on an active outdoor image, and Freitag on upcycled products. Keyword analysis further indicated consumers perceive these brands in line with their brand messaging: Stella McCartney as high-end and eco-friendly, Patagonia as active and environmentally conscious, and Freitag as centered on recycling. Results based on the assessment of the alignment between brand-driven images and consumer-perceived images and the sentiment evaluation of the brand confirmed the outcomes of brand communication performance. The study revealed a correlation between brand image and positive consumer evaluations, indicating that higher alignment of ethical values leads to more positive consumer assessments. Given that consumers tend to prioritize search keywords over brand concepts, it’s important for brands to focus on using visual imagery and promotions to effectively convey brand communication information. These findings highlight the importance of brand communication by emphasizing the connection between ethical brand images and consumer perceptions.

This study aims to analyze consumer perceptions of the metaverse platform and luxury fashion brands in relation to consumer lifestyles, thereby providing foundational data for future marketing strategies of fashion brands using the metaverse. A survey on the lifestyle and perceptions of the metaverse, as well as on luxury fashion brands, was conducted among 300 men and women between their 20s and 40s. Statistical analyses included frequency analysis, cross-tabulation, chi-square (χ2) analysis, factor analysis, cluster analysis, one-way ANOVA, and Duncan’s post-hoc test. Factor analysis of the participants’ lifestyles revealed five distinct types: “Indifferent,” “Social, individual, and leisure-oriented,” “Trend-leading and brand-oriented,” “Appearance and fashion-oriented,” and “Self-improvement-focused and individualistic” types. The analysis of luxury fashion brand perceptions based on lifestyle types showed that the “Trend-leading and brand-oriented” type had higher awareness and preference for brands such as Gucci, Burberry, and Balenciaga, while the “Indifferent” type showed lower levels of awareness and preference. Regarding brand perception related to luxury fashion brand content experiences within the metaverse, Gucci, Burberry, and Balenciaga showed consistent results across all types. Specifically individuals classified under the “Trend-leading and brand-oriented” category exhibited higher awareness and preference for these brands within metaverse experiences, while those categorized as “Indifferent” displayed comparatively lower levels. Therefore, digital marketing strategies targeting consumers under the “Trend-leading and brandoriented” category are expected to be highly effective for luxury fashion brands. This study is poised to contribute to the expansion of the marketing landscape within the metaverse virtual world for fashion.

In response to the global trend of making sustainable development an urgent task, luxury fashion brands actively embrace it in their corporate philosophies and management policies. However, despite the widespread consensus in the related industry and the strong will of companies for the sustainable development of luxury brands, there are still few cases of luxury fashion brands successfully implementing sustainable development. This study examined the impact of the types of message framing on the sustainability marketing of luxury fashion brands, focusing on their effects on perceived message effectiveness, sustainable brand image, and brand attitudes. An online survey was administered to 464 Korean consumers in their 20s to 40s to test the hypotheses. The results showed that perceived effectiveness was higher for negatively framed messages (loss) than for their positive counterparts (gain). The types of message framing did not significantly affect sustainable brand messages, and no significant difference in perceived brand image was found, regardless of message type. Perceived message effectiveness exerted a significant positive effect on sustainable brand image, and such an image had a significant positive effect on brand attitudes. The results provide implications for related research and practical implications for the development of competitive sustainability marketing strategies for luxury fashion—an industry still in its infancy.

To reveal the mechanism of the effect of the saliency and content fit of implantable advertising of time-honored brands in Liaoning Province on consumer purchase intention, a three relationship model was constructed based on the S-O-R theory and empirically tested. Research has shown that both the saliency and content fit of implantable advertising have a significant positive impact on consumer purchase intention, and perceived value plays a significant role in the saliency of implantable advertising; There is a significant mediating effect between content fit and consumer purchase intention. This study reveals the complex mechanism of the impact of the saliency and content fit of implantable advertising on consumer purchase intention of time-honored brands in Liaoning Province, providing theoretical support for improving the promotional effect of time-honored brands.

본 연구는 골프웨어 브랜드 전략의 기초자료를 제공하기 위해 골프웨어 브랜드의 소비가치가 태도 및 구매행동에 미치는 영향력을 검증하는데 목적이 있다. 따라서 대한민국 국민들 중 골프웨어를 구 매했던 경험이 있는 사람들을 표본으로 선정했으며, 496부의 자료를 최종분석에 도입했다. 본 연구의 자료 처리는 빈도분석과 탐색적 요인분석 및 내적일관성을 실시했다. 더불어 연구문제를 검증하기 위해 상관분 석과 단순 및 다중회귀분석을 실시했으며, 모든 자료처리는 SPSS(ver. 21.0) 프로그램을 활용했다. 본 연구 결과, 첫 번째로 골프웨어 브랜드의 소비가치가 쾌락성, 심미성, 상징성 순으로 태도에 유의한 영향이 있는 것으로 나타났다. 둘째, 골프웨어 브랜드의 태도가 구매행동에 유의한 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 셋 째, 골프웨어 브랜드의 소비가치가 쾌락성, 심미성, 상징성 순으로 구매행동에 유의한 영향이 있는 것으로 나타났다.

In the last years, we have witnessed the consolidation of an increasing number of media channels including but not limited to, social media, brand sites, podcasts and the recent developments into the metaverse (Blazquez, 2023). Consumers are exposed to multiple stimuli with shorter attention spans which makes challenging for brands to create meaningful relationships that can sustain brand loyalty. It is important to revisit the role of campaigns that communicate brand-related messages and aim to affect brand image. Christmas advertising has become a part of consumers’ festive rituals (Cartwright et al., 2016) and engendering a positive response is particularly important at this time of year given that it is associated with love, friendship and reconciliation. These campaigns that appeal to a wider target audience, find in traditional media an important channel to get to their customers but also use digital channels which make them more inclusive.

This study focuses on critical brands, design, and material functionality in contemporary golf, workwear, and outdoor clothing. The research employs a detailed case study approach, analyzing product characteristics to gauge current industry trends and predict future trajectories in functional clothing. The results reveal an industry-wide adoption of advanced materials and ergonomic design features to enhance performance, comfort, safety, sustainability and durability. A noticeable shift towards sustainability, versatility, and adaptability is also identified as a growing consumer expectation. In conclusion, the study offers an all-encompassing view of the functional apparel market, potential future trends, and concrete applications for enhancing the Korean civil defense uniform.

Environmental concern has escalated as the climate crisis is an increasingly prevalent issue for the global society. Further catalysed by the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, consumer behaviours are shifting, materialising in greener purchasing behaviour and heightened expectations of environmental brand practices. This phenomenon is affecting consumer attitudes and behaviour towards fashion brands. As such, credible environmental marketing strategies are increasingly central to brand success, influencing brand credibility perception.

In this research, given the recent spurt of luxury brands featuring their products in the metaverse, we examine if the use of luxury brand items to enhance one’s virtual avatar augments the gamer’s sense of confidence, empowerment, and actual performance. We conduct two studies to test the same. In our first study, we simulated a gaming environment on an online survey portal and asked participants to choose their avatar features. We provided them with a branded item (luxury/regular). Consequently, we asked them to indicate their level of confidence, and empowerment. They were asked to play a game to record their actual performance. In our second study, we asked participants to choose their avatar on an online game on their mobiles and similarly provided them with a branded item (luxury/regular). We then measured their confidence, and empowerment and observed their actual performance.

Fashion companies develop initiatives in the Metaverse, especially through Gamification, Non-Fungible Tokens or Shopping experience. Through a Systematic Literature Review in Metaverse and Fashion Communication and Systematic Content analysis in Vogue Business and The Business of Fashion we highlight the best actions in the metaverse and their future application.

The war in Ukraine found numerous global brands publicly taking stances on the issue. They turned to their social media channels to disclose their initiatives, which ranged from simple statements through to actions of greater substantiality such as donations and divestments and triggered a lively conversation and opposing consumer reactions. The phenomenon of brands advocating for crucial but polarising socio-political matters is known as brand activism and is a concept still under-conceptualised. Our study extends the knowledge of brand activism in two ways. First, we address literature calls for investigating the ways through which the marketplace endorses peace by exploring how brand activism serves as a peace marketing tool. We, therefore, term brands’ stance-taking promoting peace or in relation to war as “peace brand activism” and embark on fully unpacking it as a concept. Second, extending the understanding of the concept of brand activism that stands as mostly unidimensional, we proceed in developing a comprehensive conceptualisation of peace brand activism that tracks the range of forms it can take and accounts for its different types and characteristics. Our work employs an exploratory qualitative analysis to unravel how global brands become peace activists, as disclosed in their social media channels across different platforms. Our data captures the activities of a sample of global brands across social media channels. Our findings reveal the range of brand activism forms that can be employed by brands. We also unearth the types of peace brand activism approaches that can be adopted when disclosing peace brand activism initiatives on social media channels. Our work contributes to theory by providing a holistic understanding of the concept of brand activism for peace and explicates important implications for managers and policy makers alike.

In order to communicate brand concepts and values to the young generations, many brands are highly active on social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Brand-Generated Content has already become the most common marketing strategy for fashion brands and plays a significant role in influencing consumers’ purchase intention. With increased competition on social media platforms, companies need to understand which posting features can bring in more consumer engagements such as number of likes and comments on social media platforms. In this paper, we develop (1) a model to predict the number of likes and (2) a methodology to detect anomaly of posts that have unusually high percentage of negative user comments based on Instagram design variables, including semantic text meanings, facial expressions, color scheme and background of photos, and post timing, among others. We collected a data set of brand-generated Instagram posts from ten fashion brands. The data covers the image, text, and user comments posted between 2019 and 2020. Image features were extracted using Convolutional Neural Network, and text topics were generated through Latent Dirichlet Allocation. Our results will help managers design Instagram posts to increase consumer engagement and to reduce negative consumer reactions.

With the raise of artificial intelligence (AI), a new form of influencers has entered the proposition of marketing strategies for brands. Virtual influencers (VI’s) have shown their potential for brands in general, fashion lifestyle, or fashion luxury, even being more impactful in specific aspects than traditional influencers. Zooming in on sports, the VI space has been discovered by some brands already, yet for lifestyle sports products only. The performance sports products environment is still untouched. This study aims to identify the potential goals to be achieved for sports brands creating human-like virtual influencers to implement in their performance range of products strategy.

The backbone of any customer experience management is the ability to understand customers’ needs, wants and lifestyles (Schmidt, 2003). In a post Covid era where consumer behaviours have changed forever, luxury brands need to step up to woe consumers back to their brick-and-mortar stores. For example, the Dior historical and global store at the Avenue Montaigne reopened after two years of renovations to offer a unique customer experience. This iconic store now offers not only the full range of products one can buy, but also an art gallery, a café, a 3-Michelin stars restaurant and an exclusive suite at the price of 25,000 Euros per night. The centrepiece of this new store is the huge glass staircase overlooked by a wall of mannequins dressed in various Dior dresses. It is meant to be “instagramable” for those who need to show off their visit to their virtual followers. The key question one may ask is whether all these innovations and investments in building an exceptional flagship store provide a better customer experience?

In ethical consumerism, the issue of ethical attitudes not translating to ethical behaviors has been highly debated. While previous studies attribute this attitude-behavioral mismatch to the lack of education, hypocrisy, or low commitment, we propose a novel approach of applying Moral Foundation Theory (MFT) to account for the phenomenon. MFT identifies two dimensions of morality: individualizing moral foundations (INDI) which focuses on justice and harm, and binding moral foundations (BIND) which emphasizes authority and loyalty. Using responses from more than 4,000 consumers from four culturally and regionally diverse markets, we investigate the differing roles of moral foundations in response to a scenario on a sweatshop issue of a supplier whose factory is in a developing country. We use the mediator-moderator model of MFT-anticorporate attitude-boycott behavioral intention sequence to examine the differing role of INDI and BIND. Our results show that INDI and BIND are both positively related to anticorporate attitude; However, BIND is negatively related to boycott behavioral intention while INDI is positively related. That is, consumers with a strong BIND may show an attitude-behavioral mismatch although they are highly ethical.

Throughout recent years, many physical establishments were forced to close, and events were canceled due to the outbreak of Covid-19. Consequently, brands, especially luxury brands, saw their contact with consumers greatly diminished and revenues decreased significantly (D’Arpizio et al., 2021). On the contrary, the global gaming industry saw its demand, exposure, and revenues increase. In fact, this industry is expected to exceed $200 billion by the end of 2023 (Gilliland, 2020), and there were more than 2.6 billion players worldwide in 2020 (Palframan, 2021). Thus, in 2020, many luxury brands opted to significantly upsurge their investments in the world of online gaming. The adoption of game advertising also represents a way for the luxury industry to adapt to its current target, as 81% of Gen Z and 77% of Millennials are gamers (Jain, 2021). By 2025, both generations are expected to account for 50% of the market, making them important players in the sector. However, there is still little empirical research regarding consumers’ perceptions of game advertising in the context of luxury brands. Thus, this research aims to study the impact that brand credibility and the use of game advertising have on the perceived coolness of luxury brands and, subsequently, on their equity.

The development and application of NFTs has gained great attentions. Especially, with the eyes on the potential of Metaverse and Web 3.0, NFTs are regarded as one of the foundational parts of the future internet. The main contribution of NFTs is the innovative solution for creating digital uniqueness through its property of non-fungibility. With this property, the ubiquity caused by replicable data on the current internet can be advanced with NFT-backed uniqueness, which can assist in certifying authenticity, authorship, and possessions of contents, products, and assets online. This has tremendous meaning for the luxury brand industry, which has been struggling with the ubiquity of the internet for years. The emergence of NFTs, however, represents hope and a potential mean to represent scarcity in a digital context. By the use of NFTs, luxury brands’ conservative digital marketing strategies and their ways of production design, marketing, consumer management could be fundamentally changed. This study aims to discuss the NFT marketing strategy from the perspective of luxury brands. Particularly, the study will investigate the desirability strategies in these luxury NFT cases. To do so, the study uses a socio-technical perspective to understand how luxury brands embody the desirability strategy through NFTs, by considering the technical factors of NFTs (i.e., design, issuance, and ecosystem functioning) and social factors of desirability (i.e., exclusivity, rarity, prestige, and creative leadership). The study explores applicable strategy of how to realize luxury desirability through NFT technics. As a result, this study investigates 39 luxury NFT cases from 2021 to 2022, including the NFTs launched by famous luxury brands such as Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Dolce & Gabbana, and KARL LAGERFELD. The study showcases three within-case analyses to exhibit vivid examples of NFT innovations. Besides, the study generates a common framework by a complete cross-case analysis. The framework contains three domains and seven dimensions to guide further luxury NFT innovations and contributes to theory development in the field of NFT marketing and branding.

While companies and brands have always collected and used customer data for multiple purposes, the advent of smart devices, Internet of Things (IoT), and big data has made it much easier to access and utilize consumers’ personal information. For consumers, however, such ease of access to their personal data and frequent cases of data breach have increased their concerns about data privacy (Harris & Associates, 1996; Milne et al., 2004). Nevertheless, consumers continue to share their personal information with companies and brands in the digital environment (Turow et al., 2015).

Recent studies have examined the correlation between erotic capital and luxury brands, which is essential to social success. However, limitations of such research have been noted due to the ambiguity of the concept and measurement of erotic capital. Therefore, in this study, we clarify the components of erotic capital and develop measurement tools to study the expansion of the base of luxury brands. To this end, a survey targeted 200 consumers who had purchased luxury brands within six months. The results of this study show that the attraction value of individuals and expected social success increases purchases of luxury products. This study suggests that marketers of luxury brands based on traditional values should reflect the concept of erotic capital for product planning, promotion, and marketing to expand the consumer base.

Today, customers have more authority thanks to digital tools, and extensive information access. Customers use technology to hold companies accountable and utilize consumer rights. Personal data and information can be generated, stored, and exchanged almost indefinitely through digital and the Internet. In particular, maintaining a digital environment requires facilitating collaboration and simplifying decision-making, and companies need structures and plan to facilitate faster, easier, and more efficient flows. This study focuses on the impact of Corporate Digital Responsibility-based ESG fashion brand activities on purchasing intentions, and we will present suggestions after identifying value congruence, brand trust, and attitude effects on CDR-based ESG fashion brand activities.