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.

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?

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.