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

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

Despite the positive outcomes of brand-consumer interactions on social media documented in the literature, an important question still remains: Are active brand-consumer interactions always beneficial to luxury fashion brands? This study argues that such interactions may undermine the core perceptions of the brands by making consumers feel too close to the brands. Drawing upon construal level theory of psychological distance, the purpose of this study is to examine the negative effects of brand-consumer interactions on perceptions of luxury fashion brands (i.e., social perception, uniqueness perception, quality perception) in a social media context. Two experimental studies were conducted. The purpose of Study 1 was to test the hypothesis that luxury brands, compared to mainstream brands, will be perceived as more psychologically distant and abstract. Study 1 used a 2 (brand category: luxury vs. mainstream) x 2 (brand replicates) mixed-model design in which the brand category was a between-subject factor and the brand replicates were a within-subject factor. Fifty-nine subjects recruited from Amazon MTurk participated in the study. The results of Study 1 revealed that luxury brands are inherently psychologically distant than mainstream brands. The purpose of Study 2 was to test the impact of brand-consumer interactions (i.e., high vs. low) and the mediating role of psychological distance on the three perceptions of luxury brands (i.e., social perception, uniqueness perception, quality perception) on social media. A single factor between-subjects design was used, and a total of 74 participants were recruited from Amazon MTurk. To manipulate the level of consumer-brand interaction (high vs. low), two versions of a luxury brand’s mock Facebook pages were created. For the high interaction condition, the brand responded to consumers’ posts in a friendly way and displayed the images of user photos. For the low interaction condition, the brand did not respond to consumers’ posts and displayed no images of users. As predicted, the results showed that participants indicated lower brand perceptions when the brand’s social media page displayed a high level of interactions than a low level of interactions. Moreover, formality, a measure of psychological distance, partially mediated the relationship between brand-consumer interactions and all the three brand perceptions. The findings of this study provide empirical evidence that active consumer-brand interactions on social media do not necessarily benefit luxury fashion brands, rather they can damage consumer perceptions of the brands. This study provides important implications that luxury fashion brands should maintain a sacred distance on social media; otherwise it will undermine important perceptions of the brands such as status signaling, exclusivity, and quality.

Social media are increasingly becoming a strategic vehicle of modern companies’ way of communicating and interacting with consumers. Actually, social media marketing (SMM) has recently emerged as an effective two-way communication channel able to provide the sharing and exchange of information, ideas, and user-generated content in virtual environments. This is especially true for fashion brands, which are progressively creating interactive platforms such as online brand communities in order to enhance their consumer-based brand equity (CBE), interpreted as the consumers’ assessment of a company brand image, identity, and value. Scholars have widely analyzed the relationship between a company’s SMM and brand equity, thus finding a direct positive impact of the five main constructs depicting perceived SMM activities, namely entertainment, interaction, trendiness, customization, and word of mouth, on CBE. Despite this relevant scholarly interest, the consumer behavioral responses linking a company perceived SMM activities and CBE have been largely neglected. Actually, consumers’ benefits from virtual environments and online brand experience may represent significant elements marketing strategists should focus on in order to enhance a company’s brand equity. Building on the uses and gratifications theory and experiential marketing, we develop a conceptual model that unpacks such linkages, by relating SMM activities, perceived benefits of using social media, online brand experience, and CBE. Specifically, we interpret SMM activities as significant brand-related stimuli able to influence consumers’ cognitive, social interactive, personal interactive, and hedonic benefits, which in turn influence consumers’ sensory, affective, behavioral, and intellectual online experience. Moreover, we investigate the experiential responses of consumers that mostly affect a company’s brand equity, which finally impacts on consumers’ purchase intention of the fashion brand. The model is validated using structural equation modeling (SEM) on a sample of real users of online brand communities operating in the fashion industry. Our sample is composed of Millennials, which currently represent the most influential grown-digital generation of consumers. Overall, our findings shed light on consumers’ online behavioral and experiential responses to a company’s perceived SMM activities, thus proposing strategic implications for the management of brand online communities and suggesting interesting possibilities of future research on social media and fashion consumers.

This paper aims to analyze the characteristics of the contemporary Chinese fashion market and the competitiveness of Korean fashion brands in China. Fashion professionals experienced in both the Korean and Chinese fashion markets participated to investigate the Shanghai market and consumers. The results of in-depth interviews show that Shanghai is the most favorable city among Tier 1 cities for Korean fashion brands planning on entering into the Chinese market. Shanghai consumers are open to international brands and highly prefer newness in fashion. Contemporary menswear was selected as a potentially big market due to the increase of unique, young, upper-middle-class male consumers. The Korean fashion brands’ strength is that they are capable of satisfying Shanghai consumers with excellent product planning and sensory design capabilities. Their disadvantage is that their brand recognition is weaker than that of global and international brands, and their ability to localize to the Chinese market is weak. The opportunity comes is from the Korean Wave, which is a positive for Korea's products and has good geographical access. The threat is that the Shanghai market is fiercely competitive; having access to many worldwide brands, and the competitiveness of Chinese brands is on the rise. To enter the Shanghai market, creative design ability, trendy product development, skill, and appropriate PR methods such as using Korean culture contents would be required to satisfy the young, powerful consumers in Shanghai.

Due to the highly competitive nature of the apparel industry, fashion brands attempt to constantly engage consumers through various marketing strategies. Social media was found to drive female consumer purchases for apparel items. In shopping for fashion, consumers have used their personal connections on social media as an information source about different brands and products and to seek approval of their peers before making a purchase decision (Park & Cho, 2012). Cha (2009) found that female consumers look to their social media network connections for emotional connections, opinions, and approval on clothing, perfume, and accessories they are considering purchasing online. Ruane and Wilson (2013) found that female consumers use social media sites for information on where to shop and what merchandise to purchase. In studying the effect of blogs on corporate outcome, the role Millennials play is found to be significant. They are heavily reliant on word of mouth when up to 93% of Millennials has purchased a product after hearing about it from a family member or friend (Hoffmann, 2014). They not only usually read reviews prior to purchase, but also pass their recommendations via social media post-purchase (Hoffman, 2014). This age group constitutes 27% of the US population and in spite of their lower incomes, they spend more money on e-commerce than any other age group ($2,000 annually) (Smith, 2015). Therefore, this study aims to suggest strategies to fashion brands on effective blog campaign, which may eventually provide insights on how marketers can encourage engagement with female Millennial apparel consumers. The study’s objectives are 1) to examine the effect of brand awareness building customer’s brand credibility, brand similarity and blog engagement 2) to investigate the impact of brand responses on customer’s brand credibility, brand similarity and blog engagement, and 3) interaction effect between brand awareness and brand responses on customer engagement through cognitive evaluation in fashion blog context. A 3 (brand response: automated response, personalized response, no response) x2 (Brand awareness: well know, unknown) experimental design was developed through a pre-test of 139 participants. For main-test, experiment conditions and the following survey were completed by the convenience sample of 537 students in a large Southern university. Research findings revealed the significant impact of brand awareness on customer perceived brand credibility and brand similarity which were significant predictors of engagement intention. In contrast, the study indicated the insignificant relationship between brand responses and blog engagement intention. Study’s result not only suggested implications for marketers but also expanded further studies contributing on the body of knowledge.

Motivated by the recent cases of negligent social responsibility as manifested by foreign luxury fashion brands in Korea, this study investigates whether agency costs depend on the sustainability of different types of corporate governance. Agency costs refer either to vertical costs arising from the relationship between stockholders and managers, or to horizontal costs associated with the potential conflicts between majority and minority stockholders. The firms with luxury fashion brand could spend large sums of money on maintenance of magnificent brand image, thereby increasing the agency cost. On the contrary, the firms may hold down wasteful spending to report a gaudily financial achievement. This results in mitigation of the agency cost.

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.

Social media has quickly becoming tools of choice for communicating between brand and their customers. Among all social medias, instagram is seen as the most effective one, especially for fashion brands. Instagram’s main function to share videos and pictures is suitable with visual communication methods that is often being used by fashion brands. Posts with high amount of likes and positive comments may increase brand awareness and can trigger positive e-WOM (Electronic Word of Mouth) among customers and potential customers. Why is communicating with consumers very important? Because in this era consumers are brands’ most trustworthy and loyal marketers for company’s products (Çukul, 2015). Customers are likely to believe review from their families and friends rather than reviews that is being written by the company itself (Chang, 2014). Realizing the importance of nurturing positive word of mouths among customers, this paper is going to use qualitative analysis to analyze Instagram posts of well-known local fashion brands to find out what kind of post that will generate the highest positive e-WOM feedback from the audience. Content of Instagram account of researched brands are being examined according to post type (photo / video), content type (9 elements), number of likes and reviews, photo type (amateur / professional), and shooting place (studio / outdoor / shops). Analysis is conducted to understand what kind of Instagram post that will give positive feedback from their customers. The result of this paper will serve as guidance for company to tailor interesting and engaging post hence increasing the probability of creating positive e-WOM that will increase brand image that ultimately will increase sales.

The fashion product image preference changes depending on one’s lifestyle and personal inclination. Women want to show the fashion product image preference, often through their clothing and makeup choices. Brand image includes those elements related to the brand. Advertising is the primary method for introducing brands. This study was conducted to investigate the effects of fashion product image preference on emphasis of brand image and advertising factor evaluation targeting working women in their 20s and 30s. The fashion product image preference was s sophisticated image. Preference for a sophisticated image has a significant effect on emphasis of brand image when selecting fashion products. Emphasis of brand image has a notable effect on the brand direct advertising factor evaluation. Fashion product image preference has a significant effect on both brand’s direct and indirect advertising factor evaluation. When selecting a fashion product (clothing and cosmetics), brand image importance was found to have a positive effect on a brand’s direct advertising factor evaluation. Therefore, fashion companies should take advantage of their brand logo. Companies should also pay attention to clothing and product containers used in advertising to show the brand. In addition, every company should create an advertising image that represents their overall brand, by using a combination of detailed advertising factor evaluation.

With the increased importance of design creativity in global fashion marketplaces, there have arisen numerous promotional strategies for new fashion designers in Korea, yet little research has been done on this subject. This study examines the new fashion design promotion policies in Korea and their effects from the designer's perspective. First, we analyzed the contents of twenty-one strategies from thirteen organizations regarding the types of support from the strategies. As a result, four distinct types are identified: new designer recognition; information and consulting support; brand incubating; and marketing support. Next, we performed in-depth one-on-one interviews with eleven designers who had been awarded from one or more of the fashion design incubation policies. The results reveal that the incubating policies' cash rewards and space support are found to be most effective. In terms of the revised fashion and brand consulting policy, “brand operation” had an influence. In addition, fashion the new brand advertisement and marketing policy had positively influenced the “brand development.” However, throughout the interview, designers note that the quality of education and information provisions need some improvement. Furthermore, the designers indicate the lack of supervision and professionalism from the marketing departments. Based on this content, this study emphasizes the necessity of an effective fashion design promotion policy, and strategic and consistent support for the whole fashion promotion team. At the minimum, an integrated and united supervision by the organization is necessary and should be taken into consideration.

In recent years, utilization of social network sites (SNS) such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for text, image, and video sharing in Jakarta, Indonesia, is becoming very popular. Many fashionistas - artist, singer, designer, and fashion blogger - take advantage of SNS to share what they are doing, what they are wearing, and even their personal life. Apparently, their glamorous life style has been attracting million of followers. High appreciation toward their posts in SNS is given by clicking ‘likes’ symbol as well as positive comments from the followers. This paper provides an overview of social network activity in Jakarta for promoting fashion brand. A netnographic approach was conducted to observe and analyze SNS’ content, which consists of photos, texts and hashtags, and followers’ comments. Since SNS’ account owner could have dual roles, i.e. as consumer and supplier, we categorize two types of account owner. First, fashionistas who launch personal account and, at the same time, have collaboration with fashion brand or have their own clothing line; and second, apparel companies who promote their product through SNS. We noted that apparel companies utilize SNS to launch new fashion products and to give detail information, which include photos, products size, and how to purchase, which is simply a business as usual. In the other hand, fashionista’s shared their personal style, favorite brand and designer, and fashion tips for the followers, such as mix and match fashion and where to purchase. Personal style is presented by wearing an outfit for a commercial events, e.g. product launching, gala show, etc.; and for daily use, e.g. fashion shopping, hang out with friend, and travelling. Fashionistas usually mention the brand or the designer of clothing, shoes, and bag that they wear in the photo with good recommendation, thus a positive electronic word of mouth (e-WOM) is conveyed to the followers instantaneously. Even though fashionistas’ activity is actually part of marketing practice that promote fashion brand, personal approach through their shared life style is obviously more appealing rather than direct promotion activity by apparel companies. It is proven by number of followers, likes, and comment from fashionistas’ followers which is greater than apparel companies. As the similarity, both apparel companies and fashionistas give knowledge sharing about fashion to the followers, and utilize commenting section to interact with them. In turn, e-WOM is also exchanged through discussion among followers on the commenting section; and the ability of followers to share content with other users. Then, mentioning hashtags – a number sign character (#) followed by a word or phrase related to the topic - is strengthen e-WOM because hashtags is clickable and searchable for SNS users.

With traditional boundaries among culture, technology, finance, politics, and ecology are disappearing (Friedman, 1999), the need of businesses to deliver unusual experiences to the consumers have increased in order to survive and thrive. With consumer’s need diversifying and getting more complex, capturing receiver’s attention is becoming the key issue for brands (Jung & Shin, 2010). Resultantly, the traditional operators are feeling the necessity to co-operate with those in other fields to obtain differentiation. Hence, even without one consensus meaning existing, the emphasis on the word 'convergence' is consistently growing. Its popularity of use reflects the era we live in, where boundaries are fading and unaccustomed ideas are brought together (Lord & Velez, 2013). However, despite its importance increasing, researches on convergence marketing are very limited. Most of the studies focus only on qualitative research, especially on case studies or defining conceptual definition of term convergence. Thus, not much is known of how consumers perceive this new way of approach. Therefore, the main goal of this study is to first, understand how the consumers perceive marketing of technology and marketing of culture, and second, how the convergence of these two influence on brand perception. The concept of convergence holds meaning in all sorts of fields from telecommunications, computer sciences, mathematics, logic, to economics, sociology, accounting and others (Lord & Velez, 2013). Although it seems that the word convergence is more or only related to the information technology discourse, however in large, although it is true that it was mainly based on the advance of information technology, the concept of convergence is frequently used both in the media industry and the other academic fields. From media industry, it denotes the ongoing restructuring of media companies as well as to describe the various intersections between media technologies, industries, content and audiences. Yet, in academic fields, in the same context of convergence several other terms are frequently used in the literatures, for example as alliance, partnership, sponsorship, and collaboration (Appelgren, 2004) which is all based on the same ‘coming together’ yet differs in specific goal. The convergence marketing that emerged from the intensified competition among brands co-operates with those in other fields in order to create differentiating point. The convergence in fashion industry is found with two main streams of technology convergence and cultural convergence (Wi, 2013). In line with the fact that convergence in everyday life bases from the improvement of technology, the application of technology in fashion industry is also found throughout the production process, from design to production and distribution. Unlike 2000s where fast fashion changed the fashion system, the impact of technology seems to be the largest in the turn of 2010 (Choo et al., 2012; Ko, Kim, & Lee, 2009). As the convergence of marketing and IT can create rich, technologically enabled digital experiences that engage, delight, and serve the consumer, now it plays a part as a source of innovation (Lord & Velez, 2013). Accordingly, with pioneering advantages that technology appliance can deliver, many luxury brands have adopted new technology in its marketing strategies, including QR code in the magazine ad, hologram technique replacing the plastic mannequin, motion reacting interactive show window are to name a few. Similarly, culture for marketing is found with consumers pursuing more and more cultural and intellectual activities with the improvement of the standard of living. As concept of art exemplified from the marketing standpoint evoke general connotations of sophistication, culture, luxury and prestige (Martorella, 1996), many luxury brands are applying cultural contents to improve brand images (Hagtvedt & Patrick, 2008). In sum, to satisfy consumers’ diverse need, brands are trying to incorporate not only using the novel digital devices, but also conveying the cultural contents to provide emotional stimulus. Thus, this study focuses on the marketing communication using convergence of technology and culture that aims to gain consumers’ evaluation. This study applies complex model of Technology acceptance model to Pleasure-arousal-dominance theory to better understand how consumers perceived and adopt the new type of marketing strategy. TAM is a widely employed in various studies to predict users’ behavior intentions (Hsu & Lu, 2004). Technology acceptance model suggested by Davis (1989) is agreed as the theoretical background useful to explain individual adoption behavior with the introduction of such relatively new medium like this make users to experience new ways (Bagozzi & Yi, 1988). Yet, in the model application stage, it was suggested that TAM model focuses only on the judgment of the system of technology and lacks the ability to explain other potentially important factors that can influence on users’ acceptance process. Thus, similar to the other previous researches, this study also linked the emotion response to the existing technology acceptance model (Igbaria, Zinatelli, Cragg, & Cavaye, 1997; Venkatesh, 2000). This was due to the fact that the usage of technology is extending throughout the industry, and emotional factors are found to work as an important factor in such work. Many other approaches have been made in order to explain the emotional side of the adoption, yet in this study, pleasure-arousal-dominance theory which is often used to explain in marketing communication discourse and is supported in application for experiential aspect (Holbrook & Batra, 1987). Pleasure-arousal-dominance theory (PAD; Mehrabian & Russell (1974)) suggested by Mehrabian & Russell (1974) explains the three basic emotion status to mediate approach-avoidance behaviors in any environment based on the Stimulus-Organism-Response(S-O-R) paradigm. It explains that individual’s emotional status is aroused by the mediating environment (Donovan, Rossiter, Marcoolyn, & Nesdale, 1994). Yet, interpreting the recent studies arguing that in consumption related emotions situation, dominance is not necessary (Donovan et al., 1994), this study was adopted as a two-dimensional construct that can impact the user’s behavior intention. In sum, this study applies perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, pleasure, and arousal as the determinants of adoption. In addition, not simply examining the adoption process of the convergence marketing, but this study relates to the actual effect on consumers’ brand evaluation. The appliance of TAM as the part of individual dimension variable was found in recent studies that investigated the effect of adverting with interactive medium (Han & Park, 2010; Shim, 2009). Previous literatures have suggested the perceived usefulness significantly influences on the attitude toward the retailer that provides such experience (Lee et al, 2006). Especially, such studies were made within the e-commerce conditions, such as investigation of consumer behavior towards a non-profit organization’s virtual store (Chen et al, 2002), influence of perceived usefulness positively influencing on attitude towards the online retailer and intentions to use from such retailer (Vijayasarathy, 2004), and determinants of adoption (usefulness, ease of use, and enjoyment) on the attitude toward the online retailer (Lee et al, 2006). On this account, brand attitude, and purchase intention was examined. In this study, survey method in order to investigate how consumers perceive the convergence marketing in the marketing communication context, and further, how they evaluated the brand performing convergence marketing. Preliminary study was first proceed to understand how marketing of technology and marketing of culture is recognized by consumers, and further, manipulate each stimuli. The adoption process was investigated using technology acceptance model combined with pleasure-arousal-dominance theory, as a part of the individual variables. With mediating effect of consumer characteristics found to be important in convergence marketing (Kim, 2007), personal innovativeness, art involvement, and need for uniqueness was applied to see the mediating effect. Therefore, a survey was conducted to see the differences in the degree of convergence. The preliminary research with 183 samples indicated that convergence marketing method was preferred over the dedicated marketing of technology or culture. Thus, the experimental design that was designed in a form of 2 by 2 between subjects factorial design with factors of innovation of technology and classiness of culture, the 513 samples collected a total of 485 samples being used. The analysis indicated that as the convergence traits of novelty and classic increase, determinant of intentions were strongly generated, followed by the increasing intention to accept, continued to building positive brand attitude and purchase intention. Yet, in specific, novelty trait had direct influences on making emotional feeling, including pleasure and arousal, rather than on generating cognitive reaction. It was the classic trait that had relationship in between cognitive and emotional reaction. Additionally, it was also found that in case of emotional feeling were evoked, pleasure and arousal, it influenced on building positive brand attitude continued to purchase intention even if adoption intention was not made. Moreover, when adoption intention was made, the direct influence on positive brand attitude was found to be significant. Meanwhile, determinants of adoption were found to have the significant influence on adoption intention and on brand attitude. The positive influence of determinants of adoption on adoption intention is in line with a number of researches on ETAM. When perceived to be higher, all resulted in higher adoption intention (Tzou et al., 2009). In terms of brand attitude, it was found that only the emotional variables of pleasure and arousal that had direct influence to have marketing effectance, which coincides with the result of Childers et al. (2001). This study indicates that compared to the perceived usefulness and ease of use, enjoyment was a stronger driver to predict the attitude. In sum, the result implies that convergence marketing can work to satisfy both the cognition dimension as well as the emotional facet. When drivers of determinants of adoption is generated, it strongly influence on the adoption intention. Yet, in order to have the marketing communication effect on brand attitude and purchase intention, it is necessary to consider the emotional aspect, either pleasure or arousal. Such relationship is not only related to the cultural contents, but technology itself can now deliver emotional feelings to the consumers. Thus, the marketing director should focus on the usage of technology to involve emotional facets. In addition, all individual characteristics were found to be significantly moderating. Result of the effect of personal innovativeness implies that those of highly innovated tends to not only have strongly influence on adoption intention, but also had significant effect of advertising effect compared to the less innovated groups. The moderating effects of art involvement turned out that those highly involved in art, novelty did not matter much compared to the less involved group. In case of need for uniqueness, the significant relationship of perceived pleasure on brand attitude was found, yet unlike expected, those low in need for uniqueness had significantly stronger adoption intention. Thus, this can be perceived as due to the marketing activity targeting the mass audience, lacking the attractiveness towards those in higher need for uniqueness. Thus, in order to attract both those in high and low need of uniqueness, delivering both usefulness as well as pleasure is important. The result of this study contributes to understanding on status and recent trend of convergence marketing activities. Further, it is meaningful in that it is in line with the recent studies of applying TAM in combination with PAD theory as well as within the context of marketing communication. Thus, the result of this study is expected to be helpful in understanding the new hybrid consumers and give suggests useful information for establishing future brand communication plans. Yet, to further understand the interpretation process of consumer studies that incorporate variables suggested from the interview should be incorporated in the study.

Fashion brands are influenced by multiple identities. Even though, for example, the brand name might still be associated with one or more creative founders (Gucci, Prada, Chanel, Hermès, Adidas, Joop) the brand image, and moreover the overall brand reputation are influenced by many different identities. For instance, a specific product identity (e.g., Gucci’s Bamboo Bag), the identity of the city or country of origin (Florence, Italy), the identities of well-known key customers as brand ambassadors (Sophia Loren, Vanessa Redgrave, Lady Diana, Naomi Watts etc.). Of course, also fashion brands who are not directly associated with the name of creative founders are composed of the effects of several identities. In the case of e.g. Nike especially successful athletes (Steve Prefontaine, Michael Jordan etc.), specific sports and sport events, and product lines tailor-made for them did help to build a strong brand reputation. All in all, it seems to be expedient to understand fashion brands as more of less complex systems composed of several identities. To deal in more detail with such “brand systems” is becoming particularly important against the background of several strategic challenges – e.g., when fashion brands are growing older and the creative founders lose their specific gravitational power, when in the process of internationalization new countries gain more and more importance who’s citizens might not have a strong access to the existing brand reputation drivers, or simply when in the context of the growing global competition the fashion brand needs to be “refreshed”. Against the background of cultural differences, or even - as within countries - lifestyle differences between different groups of customers, it can also be quite possibly that very different reputation drivers account for the success of a brand. Thus, it is necessary to identify, in different contexts, the relevant reputation drivers, and to analyze which interplay of those drivers might be particularly promising. Is it the creative founder, the corporate heritage, the country and/or city of origin, a special designer, a specific corporate culture, an outstanding product design, attractive key customers etc.? Which combination of such identity factors leads to what kind of success (e.g., brand loyalty, brand trust, price premium)? Will, for instance, heritage especially lead to brand trust, whereas an outstanding product design and specifically attractive key customers create the readiness for a higher price premium? And, is it necessary to create sub-brands to especially highlight specific identities in the process of building a brand system (e.g., the sub-branding of a Michael Jordan product line in the case of Nike)? Or is sufficient to only communicate an alignment with the brand (e.g., ads showing Naomi Watts wearing a Gucci Bamboo Handbag)? In other words, which kind of brand system, and which kind of brand communications has to be designed to attract specific target groups and to sustain competitive advantages? The present contribution aims to present a conceptual framework for analyzing “brand systems” in the fashion industry. Concomitantly, an approach of measuring such brand systems will be presented. Furthermore, a concept for analyzing the impact of several sub-identities on the development of the overall brand reputation and brand success against the background of existing contingencies will be outlined. With the introduction and discussion of such a conceptual framework it especially is intended to initiate the launching of an international research project which attempts to find an answer basically to the following question: Which via an integrated branding and brand systems communication carefully crafted composition of sub-identities might be how successful under what kind of situational conditions?

Exhibitions are becoming a new important marketing tool in the fashion industry. Consumer’s interest in the haute couture and arts is increasing in parallel to the increase of the need of museums to attract visitors. While many fashion brands have been holding exhibitions, very few studies have investigated the effectiveness of exhibitions. This study aims to obtain practical implications which can be applied to further exhibition marketing processes. To this end, the main goals of this study are thus as follows: (1) to analyze the fashion exhibition cases by categories; and (2) to examine customer satisfaction by the fashion exhibition types and to determine how customer satisfaction affects the brand image. In order to classify the fashion exhibition types, a total of 160 cases held in the last five years in all over the world were collected and the range was set to the B2C fashion exhibition practices. For quantitative analysis of the customer recognition, the survey was distributed to total of 309 participants. Each of respondents evaluated three stimuli therefore the nine stimuli were respectively evaluated by 103 people. As a result of our analysis, nine types of fashion exhibitions were derived by two criteria, namely, (1) the main purpose of an exhibition and (2) the contents of an exhibition. Most fashion exhibitions are held with the goals of aesthetics, sociability, and remembrance. Exhibitions display various fashion products, such as apparel, shoes, bags, and jewellry, fashion photography, as well as various artistic media, such as video, drawings, and installation arts. The nine types of fashion exhibitions were used as a stimulus to quantitatively verify the effectiveness of fashion exhibitions. According to the results of the statistical analyses, customer satisfaction and brand image were significantly different in the fashion exhibition type but the exhibition type does not directly affect the brand image. This study provides a better understanding of the growing influence of factors on the fashion exhibitions and extends the limited research area by verifying the response of fashion exhibition visitors on the marketing level. Moreover, our results provide practical implications for fashion brands to establish successful exhibition marketing strategies.

In the fashion industry, designers and researchers have proposed various sustainable fashion products (i.e., sustainability in product development), and retailers have also created many sustainable business practices (i.e., sustainability in distribution). However, according to the previous researches, even though the industry have offered a variety of sustainable designs and retail offers, consumers did not show a positive purchase behavior on the sustainable products. Currently, the gap exists between industry offers for sustainability and consumers’ expectation/acceptance of those offers. This result supports that there are other aspects than environmental protection aspect of the sustainable fashion products that need to be improved and/or be emphasized on to make consumers feel confident in purchasing. To examine consumers’ purchase behavior changes on sustainable fashion products, this study will measure consumers’ equity of sustainability on existing sustainable fashion products with three criteria of sustainable designs proposed by Day and Townsend (1993), which are socially equitable, economically viable, and environmentally benign. Then, consumers’ purchase intention for sustainable fashion products will be measured. The result will show the sustainable fashion product types that currently satisfy consumers so that the industry can concentrate on and develop the types further. In addition, this study will explore the impact of well-known brand names and cause-related marketing whether they would improve consumers’ purchase intention towards sustainable fashion products. No research has studied these two variables for sustainable fashion products as well as the equity of sustainability. Finally, different benefit sought groups will be tested whether they show different acceptance/preference and impact of brand names and cause-related marketing on the sustainable fashion products so that companies can set the appropriate strategies based on their target market’s benefit sought. PROPOSED MODEL AND HYPOTHESES Based on previous researches, the authors propose a new model shown in the figure 1, and the hypotheses are developed based on the model. H1. Significant differences in equity of sustainability, purchase intention before and after cause-related marketing and the relationships in the model. H1-1. Consumers will differently evaluate equity of sustainability of each sustainable fashion product type. H1-2. Consumers will have different purchase intention on each sustainable fashion product type. H1-3. Consumers will have different purchase intention on each sustainable fashion product type after cause-related marketing. H1-4. Equity of sustainability will significantly influence on purchase intention in all sustainable fashion product types. H1-5. Cause-related marketing will significantly improve purchase intention in all sustainable fashion product types. H2. Significantly different results in H1 between benefit sought groups. H2-1. Benefit sought groups will have significantly different equity of sustainability on all sustainable fashion product types. H2-2. Benefit sought groups will have significantly different purchase intention on all sustainable fashion product types. H2-3. Benefit sought groups will have significantly different purchase intention on all sustainable fashion product types after cause-related marketing. H2-4. Benefit sought groups will show a different relationship between equity of sustainability and purchase intention in all sustainable fashion product types. H2-5. Benefit sought groups will show a different influence of cause-related marketing on purchase intention in all sustainable fashion product types. H3. Significantly different results in H1 after adding well-known brand names on sustainable fashion product types. H3-1. Equity of sustainability will be significantly different for all sustainable fashion product types after adding well-known brand names. H3-2. Purchase intention will be significantly different for all sustainable fashion product types after adding well-known brand names. H3-3. Purchase intention after cause-related marketing will be significantly different for all sustainable fashion product types after adding well-known brand names. H3-4. The relationship between equity of sustainability and purchase intention will be different after adding well-known brand names in all sustainable fashion product types. H3-5. The influence of cause-related marketing on purchase intention will be different after adding well-known brand names in all sustainable fashion product types. H4. Different results from H2 after adding well-known brand names. H4-1. The significant difference of equity of sustainability between benefit sought groups will be different after adding well-known brand names in all sustainable fashion product types. H4-2. The significant difference of purchase intention between benefit sought groups will be different after adding well-known brand names in all sustainable fashion product types. H4-3. The significant difference of purchase intention after cause-related marketing between benefit sought groups will be different after adding well-known brand names in all sustainable fashion product types. H4-4. After adding well-known brand names, the result of the relationship between equity of sustainability and purchase intention in each benefit group will be different in all sustainable fashion product types. H4-5. After adding well-known brand names, the result of the relationship between cause-related marketing and purchase intention in each benefit sought group will be different in all sustainable fashion product types. RESEARCH METHOD A simple black dress which is the product silhouette consistently shown through all sustainable fashion product types and relatively low involved when purchasing was selected to minimize the cognitive effort to process/judge the product attributes (Tucker, Rifon, Lee & Reece, 2012). The equity of sustainability is determined as an average score of economic viability, social equity, and environmental responsibility of each sustainable fashion product type. Benefit segments most commonly studied in the previous researches are selected for this study which are price-conscious, fashion-conscious, brand-conscious, convenience-conscious, quality-conscious, self-express, and self-confidence groups. Brand name is a moderator variable to test the brand name effect on participants’ response. Two different versions of questionnaires were distributed. One version shows brand names on the product types, which are selected as reliable brand names from a pretest in terms of quality and credibility, and the other version does not show any brand names on the product types. The reliable brand names are luxury brands such as Ralph Lauren rather than middle to low-priced brands. Both versions include the question for purchase intention before and after cause-related marketing (e.g., “If 10% of this sales is donated to a non-profit organization to preserve our environment, I would buy this item.”). Only female consumers are allowed to participate in the survey because the stimuli are dresses. Surveys were distributed by a commercial survey data collection company. Total 399 surveys were usable (non-brand version, n=190; brand name version, n= 209). The majority of participants are between 25 to 44 years old (22-34 years 49.1%, 35-44 years 16.8%) and has a college degree (college degree 52.6%, graduate school degree 25.8%). RESULTS & CONCLUSIONS From the data analysis (see table 1), non-brand companies would have a benefit by offering transformable products in which consumers feel more value than other sustainable fashion product types. When showing luxury brand names, participants evaluated upcycling products as the highest equity of sustainability and purchase intention after cause-related marketing. The zero waste luxury brand product received the highest purchase intention before cause-related marketing and also received a significantly higher equity of sustainability than the non-brand zero waste product. Therefore, it is recommended for luxury brands to show their sustainability practice on the product through labels, especially showing a zero waste production label. The result in all sustainable fashion product types regardless of brand names showed that the higher sustainability, the higher purchase intention. Thus, again, it is important for companies to educate their sustainability practices (e.g., economic, social and environmental values) to consumers through either promotions or labels on the products. For both non-brand and luxury brand products, promoting a donation or support for community/society (i.e., cause-related marketing) on the product would influence consumers' purchase decision when selling the upcycling, recycling and promotion on fashion products. For example, companies could create/include a symbol of their cause-related marketing or include a symbol of a non-profit organization on the sustainable fashion products. Considering different benefit sought groups, the high fashion involved group scored the variables higher in most sustainable fashion product types in the model than the low fashion involved group did. When companies plan to offer sustainable fashion products, they need to target the high fashion involved group for a better sales outcome. Even though participants perceived that the upcycled product was highly sustainable, they purchased different product types. The high fashion involved group highly intended to purchase the transformable product in the non-brand product types and the animal-free product in luxury brand product types in both before and after cause-related marketing. Luxury brands are the ones typically consume most real animal furs and skins, and this might influenced the participants’ purchase intention. The low fashion involved group were willing to purchase the product with organic materials in both non-brand and luxury brands, but cause-related marketing increased the purchase intention on the most of product types. Companies targeting a low fashion conscious group are suggested developing/promoting organic fashion products and actively promote their community/society involvement. Regardless of benefit sought groups, higher equity of sustainability generated higher purchase intention. Again, companies need to inform/promote their sustainability practices to consumers through products or media to improve sales. The impact of cause-related marketing on the purchase intention was significant for the low fashion involved group in the upcycling, recycling, promotion on the product, zero waste and transformable products regardless of brand names. Therefore, when companies cannot appeal consumers with their brand names, the cause-related marketing plays an important role. The low fashion involved consumers seem to consider the after-purchase impact on the society than product itself when purchasing sustainable fashion products. The cause-related marketing had less impact for the high fashion involved group on their purchase intention than the low fashion involved group; however, the purchase intention of non-brand upcycling and the upcycling, recycling and promotion on the product for luxury brands have significantly improved after cause-related marketing. Companies, especially luxury brand names, need to include cause-related marketing when selling those product targeting the high fashion involved group.

Storytelling has become increasingly of interest for marketing and management in the last years and promises both aesthetic design and effecting consumers’ perception of fashion brands positively. Nevertheless, the complexity of story design, still being rather focussed by the humanities, and its effective adaption for luxury fashion brands regarding value perception and related behavioural consequences are still poorly understood and have not been explored so far. We seek to fill this research gap. In our study, we chose a luxury brand’s existing story and applied story concepts of narratology to rearrange plot, characters, and style first. In a second step, we examined the effect of applying the story concepts by testing the perception of three different groups (no story, original story, and rearranged story). Using PLS path modelling, we proved our hypotheses empirically. Our examination suggests that an application of narrative concepts for creating fashion brand stories has a measurable impact on consumer’s reception and behavioural outcome. On the one hand, this involves dimensions of luxury value, such as financial, functional, individual, and social consumer perceptions as well as an overall likability perception of the brand. On the other hand, this perception obviously impacts consumption habits regarding luxury fashion as much as it is related to recommendation behaviour, willingness to pay a premium price, and purchase intentions. Our findings strongly advice to consult established theories, concepts, and models of the humanities for storytelling in marketing and management. While measuring specific elements already proves their applicability, it will be a major task for theoretical and qualitative research to discuss existing material for the demands of marketing and management as well as (fashion) brands. Even for professionals in brand management, our study advices to have a closer look on traditional storytelling concepts to create effective campaigns. The particular value of our study is to present and empirically verify design elements of storytelling with respect to theoretical narrative approaches, which may have specific impact on certain luxury values and their causal effects on luxury fashion consumption. Our results reflect remarkable implications for luxury brand management as well as future research in luxury fashion, brand management, and marketing storytelling. A luxury company may stimulate purchase behaviour with a storytelling campaign. Nevertheless our study proved that a rather appropriate design, respecting research approaches of narratology, is able to increase the impact on consumers’ perception and behavioural outcome.

The global luxury market is relentlessly growing over the last few decades, defying the global economic crisis. It is estimated that the luxury market is made up by a continuously enlarging heterogeneous group of 330 to 380 million consumers worldwide. The consumption of luxuries goes beyond the riches and wealth of countries, as the highest luxury spenders are to be found in places like the Middle East, Japan, and China. Luxury goods’ penetration relatively to GDP is low in countries like Germany and the U.S. and high in Italy, France, and South Korea. Wealth and economics alone cannot explain the economics underlying luxury consumption; culture is an important driver of growth in this sector. Culture gives meaning to luxuries, affects the perceived value and motivations to buy luxury goods, and determines luxuries’ signaling power and potency as differentiators and identity signifiers. Today, despite the size, growth and geographical spread of the luxury goods market, cross-cultural research is limited and rather scattered in different fields. Much of the research undertaken draws from Hofstede’s typology of culture and focuses on a narrow range of conceptual issues. The purpose of this presentation is to review and summarize existing cross-cultural research on luxury products and to identify fruitful future research directions that will expand our understanding of luxury goods marketing. In addition, attention will be given to examining current trends and behaviors in the field