As the demand for luxury brands faces uprising trends in popularity, marketing strategies strive to fully encompass the shifting tides of the market. Especially, high-end customers, hereby VIPs, are heavily nurtured based on their high-spending nature. With the understanding of VIP sales behavior based on social comparison and the adequate use of VIP marketing programs, luxury brands can optimize their sales of luxury brands. However, scant research examines the simultaneous impact of social comparison and VIP marketing in the luxury industry.

The luxury fashion industry is facing increasing scrutiny due to its negative environmental impact and unsustainable production methods. However, new business models in the form of second-hand commerce and renting are emerging as attractive options for consumers, reshaping the luxury fashion landscape. This paper examines the current state of second-hand luxury fashion and explores the business models adopted by companies in this sector. A review of existing literature reveals key themes pertaining to second-hand luxury, including consumer motivations and attitudes towards recycled luxury fashion, the evolving meanings and consumer identities associated with second-hand luxury, the impact on the traditional luxury fashion industry, the environmental benefits of recycled luxury fashion, and the business models and sustainability strategies of companies operating in this sector.

This paper presents the results of qualitative research based on semi-structured interviews with CEO and Marketing managers among Swiss luxury watchmaking companies. We present the highlights on innovative business models and how it could create competitive advantage creation in the highly competitive Swiss luxury watchmaking industry.

The role of top managers in firm’s performance is central to strategic management. Trying to identify factors that influence company’s strategy and innovations this study adopts resource-based theory (RBT) and upper echelon theory (UET) and apply them to the Swiss luxury watchmaking companies. This paper presents results of qualitative and quantitative research based on interviews with CEO and Marketing managers among Swiss luxury watchmaking industry. We present a set of conclusions of the connection between top executive’s background and their strategic choices and innovation strategy in Swiss luxury watchmaking industry.

Cortical activity was assessed in fashion-luxury consumers with a different sustainability orientation, in order to obtain insight on implicit dynamic towards eco-luxury products. Findings highlighted a strong emotional negative impact elicited by sustainability pictures implying a high engagement in luxury consumers when exposed to specific sensitive issues.

Introduction According to the Federation of the Swiss Watchmaking Industry (FHS) in 2017, Switzerland occupies approximately 3% of the global market regarding the quantity of watches. As for value, Switzerland represents 54% of global sales that is 21 billion USD. About 95% of luxury watches with price starting from 1,000 USD are stamped "Swiss Made.” Thus, the Swiss watch industry has become an integral part of the luxury universe. However, it‟s not an easy task to get a place in this luxury market of reference. According to the estimation made by the Institute of Watch Marketing, there are approximately 200 active Swiss watch brands on the market today. In order to create an uncontested market space and stand out from the competition luxury watch brands are obliged to create a new way of dealing with concurrence. The majority of brands chose the positioning at the top of a watch pyramid. First of all, it is an economic issue: according to the recent Deloitte report (2017) on watchmaking industry, the most important increase is in the category of watches belonging to the “Haute Horlogerie” segment. While other categories have been steadily losing their shares in exports for years, the high-end category of watches is growing considerably. In the last two decades, luxury brand management has attracted much interest and discussions in academic and business circles. Among the business leaders and scientists, the debates were related to the challenges and paradoxes associated with luxury branding and management that emerged as a result of the evolution of the field (Okonkwo, 2007; Kapferer, 2008 Chevalier and Mazzalovo, 2008, Dubois B., Laurent G., et Czellar S, 2001). In order to create and maintain the position of a strong luxury brand, a number of key elements have been identified as crucial and divergent within the scientific literature (Sicard, 2008; Fionda and Moore, 2008, Merle, Chandon and Roux, 2008). Vigneron and Johnson (2004) proposes key luxury dimensions that managers should establish and monitor for creating a lasting luxury brand. Nevertheless, in our opinion there are no many researches explaining hyper luxury segment growth and the upward expansion of the Swiss luxury watchmaking to the hyper luxury. To our knowledge, there is no scientifically accepted definition of the hyper luxury segment. We attempt to define hyper luxury watch brands as “Haute Horlogerie” watch brands with a unique positioning based on the personal-oriented perceptions of customers, high experiential value and proprietary manufacturing know-how, offering mainly mechanical watches in a price range starting at roughly 60„000 USD and then passing to the price categories of 100‟000-500‟000-1‟000‟000 USD for a watch. In order to shed light on upward expansion to Hyper Luxury trend in Swiss luxury watchmaking we should formulate the following research question: What kind of resources to optimize and which processes to implement in order to create resource-based competitive advantage in a highly competitive market of Swiss luxury watchmaking? Methodology To gain a deeper understanding of the upward expansion to hyper luxury in Swiss watchmaking industry we proceed to qualitative research (semi-structured interviews with 20 CEO and Marketing managers) among watchmaking companies. We specifically focused on top managers involved in the product development and decision making and management processes. The key issues addressed were: definition of the key company‟s resources, information management, market sensing, innovative approaches in management, sources of value creation for customers and differentiation strategies, managerial vision and firm-specific practices and procedures. Qualitative research methods were selected for this study with the aim to generate data rich in details and embedded in context. This study will allow us to enlarge and enrich previous theoretical findings and illustrate it with practical evidences. Conceptual framework Last decades have seen an important economic shift from manufacturing to information and knowledge-driven services. This shift has been accompanied by an increase in the importance of intangible assets and capabilities. Thus the source of competitive advantage has changed from mostly manufacturing assets to market based intangible assets and capabilities (Ramaswami et al., 2009). The resource-based theory (RBT) provides an important framework in explanation and prediction of the firm‟s competitive advantage and superior performance based on market based insights (Barney and Arikan, 2001, Vorhies and Morgan, 2005). RBT considers a company as an idiosyncratic mix of resources and capabilities that are available for application by various departments in the company and are very difficult to imitate by competitors (Teece et al., 1997). Accordiang to Barney and Hesterly (2012), sustainable competitive advantage results only if resources are simultaneously valuable, rare, imperfectly imitable, and exploitable by the firm‟s organization (VRIO). This VRIO framework has acknowledged that resources need to be leveraged effectively by the organization, instead of simply possessed by the firm. Even if a resource is valuable, rare, and imperfectly imitable, a firm must be “organized to exploit the full competitive potential of its resources and capabilities. According to Newbert (2008), performance improvement is not directly a function of the value or rareness of a firm‟s resource-capability combinations but rather of the advantages it creates from their exploitation. Then, through insightful theoretical development researchers have expanded the RBT into the concept of dynamic capabilities. Specifically, dynamic capabilities are defined as the ability to build, integrate, and reconfigure internal and external intangible resources to address rapidly changing environments (Winter, 2003). Teece et al (1997) and Eisenhard and Martin states that sustained competitive advantage could be based on the firm‟s renewal and reconfiguration of its resources and capabilities through dynamic capabilities. The dynamic capabilities view changes from the resource-based view of the firm (Barney, 1991), by its attempts to the explanation of the conditions under which firms achieve competitive advantage based on their resources and capabilities (Molina et al., 2014). Furthermore, researchers have increased conceptual understanding of the role of marketing in enabling firms to create and sustain competitive advantage and superior performance (Ramaswami et al, 2009). In accordance with potential to improve business performance, some studies (Bruni and Verona, 2009), have introduced the term „Dynamic Marketing Capabilities‟ (DMCs hereafter). In fact, DMCs are specifically focused on releasing and integrating market knowledge that helps firms evolve. Developing DMCs could constitute the real basis for sustainable competitive advantage and superior performance in most competitive sectors (Molina et al, 2014). Fang and Zou (2009) define DMC as the responsiveness and efficiency of cross-functional business processes for creating and delivering customer value in response to market changes. It is this focus on customer value that distinguishes DMCs from dynamic capabilities in general. According to Bruni and Verona (2009) DMC are those capabilities aimed specifically at developing, releasing and integrating market knowledge that helps firm evolve. Main findings and analysis Analysis of semi-structured interviews with the CEO and marketing managers of the Swiss luxury watchmaking companies lead us to a number of findings concerning the role of DMC for the hyper luxury brand expansion. The exploratory study confirms many of the elements presented in the conceptual part of this article. Most of the Swiss high-end watchmaking companies are traditionally founded focusing on specific kind of watch and technological expertise in it. Often, these companies tend to develop and grow by mastering their technological competences. As it comes from our research nowadays rare are companies that uses dynamic DMC. Even if the majority of companies confirmed the importance of DMC, it is very difficult to implement it on practice due to the complexity of the numerous stages of industrial production, various operations and partners. Meanwhile, there are some companies that managed to integrate the concept of dynamic marketing capabilities and improve their performance. A deeper questioning into their management practices revealed that they are achieving these results because of the sophisticated and effective way of implementation marketing insights coming from partners and clients. These high performing companies generate growth because of their particular focus for constant improvement of their marketing activities. “The main idea is to question all the time our way of working and to elaborate more sophisticated marketing mix than most of our competitors. For us, sophistication of our watches has the same importance as sophistication of our marketing activities”. Our research pointed out that these few firms of Swiss luxury watchmaking industry, that successfully accomplish the search and gap-assessment stages concerning dynamic marketing capabilities have an advantage over rivals. The market-based identification of valuable resources and internal management of intangibles help managers recognize the need for improvement. In a case of such particular industry as Swiss watchmaking where any considerable changes are very costly and time consuming the companies that applies DMC through small steps and project-based development assure their presence and adaptability to the globalized changes of the economy. “Swiss luxury watchmaking industry strongly related to the overall economic and social changes in the world. So we need to be constantly aware and understand global trends, for example, emerging categories of customers and their expectations towards luxury products”. Thus, dynamic marketing capabilities are considered as very important value creation drivers. We identified marketing intelligence, customer relationships and professional networks as the most important elements for additional value creation. “It is clear that information is very important in order to stay “up to date” with the market. As most of decisions and processes depends on the feeling of the current situation on the market and clients, it’s very important to gather as much information as possible. There is no one source of information, but the multitude of different sources and various information as a puzzle helps to construct the right vision”. Organizational capabilities, information sharing and collaboration between various departments are directly related to new value creation. As it came from the qualitative analysis the main conditions are the “openness” of management vision and strategic flexibility of decision makers. Moreover, high-performing companies participated in our research confirmed that it is very important to adopt an entrepreneurial attitude and to implement “participative” way of collaboration. “On the initial stages of product development, all departments are invited to give their feedback on the product. We organize regularly a brainstorming in order to obtain various perspectives. Cross-functional teamwork brings more value”. Those companies who could create some sort of flexibility in organization of production find themselves mostly on the niche market of hyper-luxury with a very personalized, sometimes even “co-created” watches. In this approach, it is a client, his visions and his preferences that are incorporated into the watch through its design, configuration, functions and complications. This phenomenon also confirms the recent trends on the luxury market of ultimate personalization and unique experience creation that accompanying the product. “People who could acquire almost everything that they want are looking for new experiences. Millennials are willing to pay higher price for personalized high-end and luxury items. The watch became not only the symbol of the status of its owner, but the reflection and continuation of the personality of a client. In this case a unique watch for somebody unique is a great concept”. Managerial recommendations Our research revealed that the concept of the dynamic marketing capabilities as a part of intangible resources of the company could be very beneficial for swiss luxury watchmaking companies in the process of expansion to hyper luxury segment. Managerial contribution of this article lies in new approach illustration that could be used as a support for strategic decision-making in Swiss watch-making companies. The concept of dynamic marketing capabilities is a very complex phenomenon. As a first step for improvement it would be important to get more informed and deeply understand it. In order to create more value and better performance, it is important to deep “intuitive” way of decision making and to implement more explicitly insights coming from practice. Traditionally very segmented industry of Swiss luxury watches is on the road to changes due to radical social and economic changes around the world. Nowadays, company growth and performance requires connecting many elements across various sources of data. There are more opportunities and synergies in initial collaboration on the basic steps of the expansion to hyper luxury segment of watches then filling in the gaps that were not considered in the beginning. Feedbacks from customers and partners could be the most valuable data sources for sustainable changes and following up current trends on the market. Extensive data gathering and analysis, flexibility and learning has a direct impact to the performance. The more internal and external sources engaged into the flexible management and decision making process, the better performance and customer value it could bring. Nowadays, customer is placed in the center of the most of successful businesses. The level of understanding of the customer preferences and values turning to solid insights that could help for better and more efficient performance and decision making processes. Co-created value with customer‟s insights will help to achieve more recognition, exclusivity and appreciation from customers. Direct interactions with wealthy individuals are the main differentiators and value creation mechanisms of a hyper luxury segment of watches. There are numerous opportunities to engage customers in a dialogue instead of traditional for Swiss luxury watchmaking industry one-directional communication. Largely applied in other industries (luxury cars, yachts etc.) this approach is considered to be a niche in the luxury watchmaking. Thus, in our opinion even in the highly traditional industry as Swiss luxury watchmaking it is of great importance to understand and try to implement this dynamic approach and to adopt “Bottom up” management practices. From managerial point of view it is important to encourage curiosity, open-mindedness and cross-departmental communication of the employees. Our key managerial recommendation would be to state that in order to gain competitive advantage, information from the markets, partners and clients should be translated into actionable plans that, once applied, tend to yield concrete results. This transition from data to reconfiguration of processes represents the path that creates more value and competitive advantage in a highly competitive industry. More specifically, firms aimed to compete on the basis of the superior customer service and expansion to the “hyper luxury” sector are advised to invest into building new type of relationship and more dynamic organizational process based on the insights coming from various partners. Limitations and further research avenues The resource advantage theory was predominantly constructed on the theoretical level. In our opinion, such approach could be considered as the key drawback of scientific discourse. Recognition that science and practice produce distinct forms of knowledge has been longstanding. According to Van de Ven (2007), the gap between theory and practice may be a knowledge production problem. The aim of the current research is to suggest a vice versa point of view and to highlight empirical evidence coming from practice. The theoretical contribution of this article to the academic discussion lies in explaining the expansion to the Hyper Luxury Watchmaking Segment based on intangible assets management. We contribute to the development of RBT with its insights deriving from Swiss luxury watchmaking industry. These issues helps us to come up with managerial recommendations and thus to contribute to the advancement of the RBT. The main limitation of this research is in the nature of our research. The exploratory research helped us to identify the key elements in expansion to hyper luxury watch segment by Swiss luxury watchmaking companies. However, this does not allow us to understand the depth of this phenomenon. In order to confirm this results the more profound and focused analysis is needed. It could help to understand deeper micro-foundations of DMC. In addition to that, in our opinion a detailed case study of the firm with outstanding DMC‟s would be particularly valuable. Otherwise, to test quantitatively what are the links between various elements is also a promising avenue for this research.

Introduction This paper investigates the implementation possibilities of the Industry 4.0 systems within the production of fashion luxury goods by collecting the opinion of the managers and the perception of the potential customers. The results indicate that technologies 4.0 can be implemented within luxury fashion production without affecting the quality of the finished product. However customers are negatively prevented against them. Therefore, giving the present situation of the fashion industry, now more demanding than ever, it would be appropriate to implement such systems without disclosing it to customers. Theoretical development With this research we aim to demonstrate that in the world of luxury fashion production there is room, if not the need, to implement the technologies of the Industry 4.0 without affecting the quality of the final product. We believe it is crucial that the luxury environment starts to seriously consider the Industry 4.0 as the former, in recent years, has become ever more challenging. Since luxury has become more accessible to masses, customers are no longer content just by getting the product, they often want it before the general public has it or fully customized to distinguish themselves. This implies a reduction of production times together with multiple rearrangements of the entire production process. Which is why we need to start thinking about Luxury and Industry 4.0. The concept of Industry 4.0 started developing with the exponential involvement of technological means during production processes of any kind. The term describes the model of the “smart” factory of the future where computer-driven systems “monitor physical processes, create a virtual copy of the physical world and make decentralized decisions” based on self-organization mechanisms (Smith, 2016). The goal of the industry 4.0 is to reach a deeper interconnection and cooperation between the available resources and the final customer; it’s a multiple layer engagement composed by complex machines, people, products, information within the production sight and all along the value chain (Tolio, 2016). The implementation of such systems allows achieving better levels of efficiency and contributes to increase the competitive advantage; it is a revolution that involves a company at all levels from the production centers to human resources. Although luxury fashion is a quite peculiar industry, all its processes are still very much cyclical and could benefit from the help of such implementations. The main technologies that are often quoted as being at the core of the Industry 4.0 are IoT (Internet of Things), big data, additive manufacturing, 3D printing, augmented reality and new generation robots. All this may seem too futuristic for an industry such as luxury that has always been associated with craftsmanship. When defining luxury in fact, one of the qualities attributed to this kind of products is the “strong connection with the past proven by the tradition handed down over time” (Dubois, 2001); a description that can be taken quite literally as the heritage of the brand is built upon the traditions passed on by the different artisans who crafted the product. But if we fraction the production process and analyze it in depth, we will see that it is cyclical, and that some of its parts may benefit from such technologies that would make it leaner without affecting the quality of the end product. An example of this can be seen in the laser cutting machines for leather. A robot can cut the elements required to compose a bag in a few minutes, while it would take up to half an hour to do it by hand. Even if mechanically cut though, the bag will still need to be assembled by a highly skilled artisan to become the exceptional quality product that customers expect to see in stores. Many are afraid that technological implementations will lead to the disappearance of the artisanal component failing to understand that the Industry 4.0 is not about complete automation but rather about human-machine interaction. Talking about production we will refer to the process in its integrity, from the sketches to the products in the stores. Research design The research was conducted using semi-structured interviews to questiont professionals who work in different stages of luxury fashion production for different companies. All the interviewees were chosen among the industry biggest players: LVMH, Kering, Richemont, Hermès, Chanel and others. To establish the sample of interviewees we divided the production process into four main phases and then identified at least one professional to question for each one of them. The subdivision we applied was the following: ⦁ Phase 1 - Creation & Design ⦁ Phase 2 - Production & Merchandising ⦁ Phase 3 - Retail & Marketing ⦁ Phase 4 - Supply Chain & Distribution Each interviewee was asked a set of specific questions related to the complexities of their job and the problems encountered while doing it (Appendix 1). Among the sample there were two professionals that did not belong to the production process but that we deemed necessary to involve to have a more complete outcome. One is a Professor of Fashion design at the Politecnico of Milan, the other is a Strategic Planning Analyst who works for Lectra, one of the biggest companies producing technologies for fashion. In order to investigate the perception of the customers we distributed a multiple choice survey to a heterogeneous sample of 200 people. Among the questions asked one was strictly related to the use of technology while the others regarded arguments, related to its utilization, that emerged while interviewing the professionals. Despite not being directly on the use of technology, we deemed the other queries important to evaluate if the problems emerged from the interviews were relevant also from a customer point of view. The questions submitted via survey were the followings: 1) On a scale of 1 to 4, (1= low interest, 4=high interest) how interested are you in luxury goods? 2) How much worth is being able to buy a luxury good before it is on sale in stores? (1= not worth, 4= very worth) 3) Would you think of higher quality a bag completely handcrafted rather than the very same bag produced also by using industrial processes? 4) Would you attribute a higher value to a luxury product conceived to be respectful for the environment? The survey ended up highlighting that customers have a negative bias towards the exploitation of such systems within the production of luxury goods. In fact they attribute a higher value to completely handcrafted products, without considering the possibility that the latters may have more defects. The methodology used was successful in helping us understanding the opinion of the management along with the perceptions of the customers. Moreover, through the interviews we were able to highlight practical daily problems encountered by people directly involved in the production process. Results and conclusion We used the problems that arose as bases to begin thinking what could be concretely implemented, in which phase and with what goal. We started by focusing our attention on five points that currently challenge production and could be exploited as opportunities for the implementation of specific technology. Nevertheless, we also highlighted three main limits that might prevent the application of said technology. The opportunities of implementation were the following: Production times - Representing one of the biggest problems in the industry, we believe that technology could come to the rescue especially in the first two stages of the process. For example, the use of 3D printing to produce some prototypes or certain components that could be useful for reducing time and costs. Another example is Modaris 3D, a new generation software that allows you to digitize the pattern allowing you to see it in 3D. Exploiting this software would allow to predict the potential problems of the prototype before even crafting it and would help save a lot of time and resources. Not to mention that digitized patterns can be archived and easily reused later. Moreover, the exploitation of the new generation robots to pre-cut certain components would once again allow a shorter production time and reduce costs. Couterfeiting - Another implementation opportunity is represented by counterfeiting. Now that online commerce is booming, the fake industry is at its peak and people find it difficult to distinguish between what is real and what is not. IoT technologies could help immensely with this problem. One of the interviewees working in the distribution phase told us that today when the products are shipped, in order to track them down and recognize them from counterfeits, companies install into their pockets RFID chips, small chips similar to those of credit cards. Their limitation though is that they can be traced or recognized only if scanned. The use of IoT technologies on this type of device (for example, providing the same type of support with a GPS) would allow them to be interactive and serve their purpose even better when the products are shipped all over the world. Sustainability - In recent years the problem of sustainability has become increasingly relevant, to the point that some luxury empires have been built on it, as in the case of Stella McCartney. To pay more attention to the environmental cause, fashion houses could start by wasting less resources. One way to do this could be to use software to optimize pattern placements on fabrics or on leather. Human supervision would still be required, as some pieces need to be cut from specific parts of the leather but it would certainly help in making some useful proposals. Internal communication – Internal communication is a problem at all levels of the production process. It can be an issue especially when it comes to communicating the intentions of the design team to the production and controlling the stock level in real time. In the first case, to solve the problem, we could consider the implementation of a software like PLM (Product Life Management). This type of program helps to follow the transformation from sketches to prototypes to products, providing detailed information on everything that is present on the garment, specifying consumption and costs of materials. With regard to the inventory control problem, we could again use the help of the IoT. Inventory control is a problem both in terms of raw materials (for all those houses that produce prototypes internally) and finished products. In the first case a potential solution could be to label the raw materials with magnetic labels that would allow to see immediately when the components leave the stock. In the second case, as previously mentioned, supplying the finished products with IoT chips would help to locate them and know how many are in stock. Demand forecast – Another major help that industry 4.0 could bring to fashion production is the exploitation of big data to forecast the demand. Nowadays in fact, the constant and hardly predictable changes in fashion heavily affect a demand that already has few reference standards. When it comes to forecast, several factors have an impact on it: trends, social medias, consumption habits etc. The most unpredictable of these factors is probably represented by the social media as clients may cause a peek in demand after seeing a celebrity or an influencer wearing a specific product. Giving all this, it's evident how the more variables we are able to consider when doing forecasts, the better the chances of predicting a scenario close to reality and Big Data would allow to do so. As previously mentioned we also highlighted some limits that could prevent implementation: Costs - The more significant limit when talking about this kind of technology is related to costs. It is important to consider both the ones needed to purchase the technology as well as the ones to train the employees in order to make the implementation possible. As we all know technology is extremely expensive, and in a certain way a form of luxury itself, often being just for few. The size of the brand would modulate of course the amount of the investment in it. Client perception & adverse attitude – The survey pointed out that clients are negatively biased towards technology and, if informed that the product has been realized with the help of technological means, may attribute to it a lower value. What it's necessary to keep in mind though, is that, when taking a survey, you are in front of a screen and not in front of the products. I believe in fact that if a "blind" test was conducted presenting two products of which one completely handcrafted and the other realized by artisans who exploited technological means as well, no one would be able to tell the difference. Training of employees - Another big challenge in the implementation of such systems is the training of the employees. Implementing these technologies for some employees may mean learning again how to do their job with the help of a computer. Being an environment where youngsters are outscored due to the lack of experience, this may represent a problem. In conclusion our research proved that there is indeed room to implement the 4.0 systems as the issues emerged can be partially, if not completely, solved by introducing these technologies making the process leaner and more efficient. Nevertheless, giving the fact that customers are negatively biased towards their use, it would be appropriate avoiding to disclose the information with them.

Social media have altered the communication landscape and significantly impacted brand communications in the luxury fashion industry. Research suggests that with the rise of social media, brand communication has been democratised, and the power has shifted from those in marketing to the individuals and communities that create and consume content, redistributing it across a variety of channels (Kozinets, Valck, Wojnicki, & Wilner, 2010; Kumar & Sundaram, 2012). Yet the implications of social media are still largely unknown among practitioners and managers. Moreover, there is a lack of effective frameworks for developing, analysing and comparing social-media strategies (Effing & Spil, 2016). Scholars have just started giving their attention to the subject of ‘social-media strategy’ as such, highlighting a gap in our knowledge, which this study seeks to address. The aim of this research is to understand the role of social media as a strategic brand-communications tool in the luxury fashion industry. Firstly, the main theoretical contribution is the development of a conceptual framework that enables an understanding, explanation and description of the process of building a social-media strategy. There has been a call for this type of research from a managerial perspective, across multiple platforms and objectives, and this work provides much-needed insights. Secondly, the findings provide valuable managerial insights. The conceptual framework emerging from this research is a managerial tool that can be used to tackle the process of building a social-media strategy and to identify its key elements. In particular, the framework can be deployed to guide and evaluate the process of creating a social-media strategy. With the help of the framework, managers can harness their resources successfully and identify the factors that need to be considered. Moreover, the framework aims to guide managerial action towards a sustainable social-media approach that helps to build competitive advantage for global luxury fashion brands in the longer term.

The present study contributes to the recent debate on luxury brands and sustainability practices. By combining Implicit Association Test (IAT) with two online experiments, the research aims at reconciling previous results on this topic. Particularly, in the first study, millennials’ unconscious associations to sustainable luxury are investigated. In the second study, the effect of sustainability on millennials intentions to buy toward luxury and fast-fashion products are assessed. Finally, the third study considers the role of different product appeals involved in the sustainability practices in determining consumers’ responses. Expected results of study 1 and 2 confirm the idea supported by a part of previous studies that sustainability is not automatically and positively associated to luxury brands. Study 3 provides with an explanation of discording results, by focusing on sustainability appeals and their centrality on the evaluation of luxury products. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

With consumption increasingly shifting to online and mobile, the physical retail environment has been called into question. However, not all facets of a physical experience can be substituted virtually (Anderson & Eckstein, 2013; Johnson, Kim, Mun & Lee, 2014, Piotrowicz & Cuthbertson 2014, Verhoef, Kannan, & Inman, 2015). The enduring quest for real, tangible experiences with real people and in real environments is one reason for the acknowledgement of the importance of architectural branding 1 , enabling memorable experiences (Raffelt, 2012). Here, architectural branding plays a key role at the intersection of consumer behavior, marketing management, and design. Furthermore, one can also observe the trend of forward brand verticalization in retail: with brands increasingly strive towards direct distribution, they open and manage more retail stores themselves (Kahn, Inman & Verhoef, 2016, Nierobisch et al. 2017, Teufel & Zimmermann, 2015, Tischer, 2014). This is especially true for the luxury industry, where brands are looking for ways to attain more control over the brand in order to steer highend customer experiences (Wiedmann & Hennings, 2013, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, 2015). Therefore, demand to develop good architectural branding in retail and to improve retail design strategies for current and future challenges is crucial. During the last five years, marketing scholars, renowned management consulting firms, and the popular press have examined the role of brick and mortar as one aspect of an omnichannel strategy in a world of increasing digitalization (Anderson & Eckstein, 2013; Bauer, Beil, & Wege, 2014; Piotrowicz & Cuthbertson 2014; Worden, 2013; Verhoef, Kannan, & Inman, 2015). The importance of architecture in general and retail design as a specialization thereof in marketing strategy has been broadly acknowledged (e.g. Kotler, 1973; Kotler & Rath, 1984; Martineau, 1958; Münster & Haug, 2017). Although, there is only little research focused on architectural branding (Raffelt, Littich & Meyer, 2011; Raffelt, Schmitt & Meyer, 2013). This is likely caused by its position at the intersection of the research fields on retail stores (e.g Kent & Stone, 2007; Kirby & Kent, 2010; Borghini, Diamand, Kazinets, Mccrath, Muiz, JR., & Sherry, JR., 2009; Hiss; 1987; Kozinets, Sherry, DeBerry-Spence, Duhachek, Nuttavuthisit, & Storm, 2002), brand experience (e.g. Brakus, Schmitt & Zarantonello, 2009; Pine & Gilmore, 1998; Schmitt 1999), and atmospherics (e.g. Kotler, 1973; Donovan & Rossiter, 1982; Rayburn & Voss, 2013; Spence, Puccinelli, Grewal, & Roggeveen, 2014). Here, articles primarily focused on store design in general (e.g; Kent & Sone, 2007; Kirby & Kent, 2010; Meyers-Levy & Zhu, 2008),flagship store design (e.g. Borghini et al., 2009; Hiss; 1987; Kozinets et al., 2002), or were primarily published in retail management journals. However, in marketing and management research, there are limited journal publications about the role of physical stores in the luxury industry in times of digitalization. Dion & Borraz (2015) stated that luxury brands recently followed the strategy to build very costly and unique boutiques with star architects, which have become sacred places. The role of store design in the luxury industry is even scarcer. In two case studies, Jiang, Nagasawa, & Watada (2014) investigated the role of store design for the brands Bally and Tod's in Japan. Thus, this research project aims to fill this research gap and extend the research in the field of architectural branding in the luxury industry, investigating role of physical stores in an omnichannel construct and to gain a deeper knowledge on how to sustainably tangibilize brands in modern and future luxury retail environments, answering the following question: What is the role of store design for luxury monobrand stores in a digital economy? This research project will apply an inductive and exploratory research method, implying a qualitative research design. It will build upon existing literature in the mass market and draw from two studies using in-depth interviews with academics and practitioners from the field of marketing and retail primarily working in the luxury industry to gain more insights about the role of physical stores in this specific industry. One study will focus on ways to make brands tangible in store. The other study will lay its focus on how a omnichannel strategy supports luxury brands in offering a superior in-store experience. Furthermore, results from a workshop with executives from brands with high-end positioning will be taken into account as well as expert interviews about the role of store design in general. These four studies will be presented in an aggregated manner during the conference. The overall contribution of this project is to provide insights about the role of brick and mortar retail design in the luxury industry and thereby extend research in the field or architectural branding in retail.

Recent years have brought along a significant increase of possibilities to get in touch and interact with potential and current customers (Neslin et al., 2006; Lemon & Verhoef, 2016). Especially the rise of digital media as well as sales channels has added new challenges and general complexity to the management of customer interactions (Brynjolfsson, Hu, and Rahman, 2013; Lamberton & Stephen, 2016). At the same time, consumers’ preferences regarding how, where, and when to get in touch with brands, be approached by, and interact with them are changing (Edelmann, 2010; Batra & Keller, 2016; Sherman, 2017). At the forefront of this trend are consumers of the millennial generation, who are stereotyped to be much more connected, social media present, and impatient than previous generations (Fromm & Garton, 2013; Goldman Sachs, 2016). For luxury brands the challenge is particularly difficult. They want to provide the best experience to their consumers to underpin their exclusiveness (Atwal & Williams, 2009; Kapferer, 1996; Kapferer, 2014) at the same time they are facing a high risk of inconsistency across touchpoints. Their limited experience with digital touchpoints reinforce the challenging task even further (Okonkwo, 2009; Heine & Berghaus, 2014). Not reacting does not seem to be an option in light of the market developments. Following every trend and being present in every possible channel does not appear to be the most compelling strategy either. It raises the risk of inconsistency and badly managed interactions. Rather, companies need to define goals along the customer journey, pick the right touchpoints and manage them in a way to reach those goals, and deduct strategies to provide an integrated customer experience. The question arises how can brands successfully exploit touchpoint strategies to engage Millennials in the luxury market? Most published studies focus on specific groups of touchpoints and conclude that a more holistic understanding of customer interactions is needed (Baxendale, Macdonald & Wilson, 2015; Verhoef & Lemon, 2016). Also in the luxury segment, research has mainly explored the new digital touchpoints or the retail channel in particular, but not taken a holistic view discussing overall touchpoint strategies (e.g. Kim & Ko, 2012; Heine & Berghaus, 2014; Lee & Watkins, 2016). We aim to close this gap by taking a strategic view on touchpoint management and its goals focusing on the luxury industry and Millennial consumers as a customer group to secure a forward-looking perspective. Based on Baxendale et al. (2015) we define a touchpoint as each direct or indirect interaction of a consumer with a brand. This means that brand to consumer as well as consumer to consumer and third party to consumer interactions are included in our understanding, which appears to be highly relevant in light of the high importance of word of mouth referrals for luxury brands and the increasing relevance of bloggers and influencers. To understand which touchpoints should and can be used for which purposes, we first want to understand what goals companies pursue along the customer journey and then deduct which touchpoints can help them accomplish those goals. Is a brand website for example a tool that should convert customers to buy or is it rather an information tool that nurtures awareness in the pre-purchase phase? Depending on the answer, the content and website design as well as the definition what constitutes success for the website presence need to be fundamentally different. If the goal has not been defined in advance, the management of the website may appear difficult as different directions may be pursued. To shed light on these challenges, we use a literature review to develop a semi-structured interview guide. We then speak to industry experts to learn more about the goals they pursue in each phase of interaction with consumers along the customer journey. We deduct the types of interactions that are the most fruitful to successfully perform these interactions. This way, we aim to deduct first insights into the management of touchpoints. These can later on be further deepened.

Luxury goods are characterised by a series of traits such as exclusivity, rarity, premium price, high quality and aesthetic value, but also to specific methods of production that focus on notions of excellent workmanship carried out by expert craftspeople. This paper focuses on the problematic relationship between craftsmanship and the luxury fashion industry by examining how representations of craftsmanship are employed by luxury fashion labels in their communication strategies. In particular, the strategies employed by Dolce&Gabbana will be examined. It will be argued that the label has emphasised in its online communication the craftsmanship involved in the creation of its products, but it will be observed how that element is presented only in association to limited categories of goods, and not to the totality of products that are associated to the name of the fashion brand. The case study of Dolce&Gabbana will be explored with regards to the role that the label's online communication strategies attributes to notions of Italian handmade craftsmanship, and in this sense those practices will be examined in terms of national identity. This phenomenon will also be contextualised in terms of the contemporary marketing strategies employed by luxury fashion labels and the relationship they hold with regards to traditional conceptualisations of luxury.

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.