Communicating Fashion Brands

Theoretical and Practical Perspectives

Emily Huggard, Jon Cope

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9780429875588
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Media Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

This book demonstrates how fashion brands communicate, why the practice is significant within wider society and how it can be perceived as culturally meaningful.

Enabling readers to connect the tools and techniques of communication with their theoretical underpinnings and historical antecedents, the book shows how these methods can be applied in practice. The authors utilise social, consumer and cultural theory, and frameworks rooted in psychology, sociology and economics, as mechanisms to analyse and deconstruct current communication strategies used by fashion brands. The book presents insights and strategies for communicating authentic values, conveying a clearly defined aesthetic and visual language and generating shareable content that resonates with audiences. With insights into strategies used by brands including Burberry, Gucci, Dior, COS, Rapha, Warby Parker and Maryam Nassir Zadeh, each chapter outlines ways of maintaining relevant and consistent brand narratives in the 21st century. From how to sustain a dialogue with a brand's community, to the use of brand collaboration, co-creative storytelling and fashion spaces, the book aims to develop reflective communication practitioners who have a deep understanding of the cultural landscape, brand strategy and industry innovation.

Written for scholars and practitioners, this book is a valuable blend of theory and practice across the fields of fashion, communication and branding.

1 An introduction to fashion brand communication

Emily Huggard

Introduction

Central to defining the concept of brand communication within the fashion industry are definitions of ‘fashion’ and of ‘brand.’ Fashion itself, as Cheryl Buckley and Hazel Clark note, is a somewhat ‘troubled term’ (2017: 1), spanning “high fashion on the one hand, street style and youth culture . . . at the other” (Church Gibson, 2012: 18), but also recognisable as a practice of everyday life and a “cultural phenomenon that facilitates embodied identity . . . how individuals and groups of people present themselves in and for the world” (Buckley and Clark, 2017: 1). Many see fashion as an art form, a luxury based on exclusivity, couture and craftsmanship. For others, it is seen as an industry based on trends with accelerated cycles of production and consumption (Business of Fashion and McKinsey&Company, 2019). In contrast to clothing, which is defined as a more functional form of dress, fashion thrives on novelty, change and contradiction (Arnold, 2009). In order for change—which is intrinsic to fashion—to take place, the industry must continually innovate and introduce new products and collections and drive desire for the latest styles—a key part of the fashion communicator’s role (Easey, 2009).

Fashion is also a “vibrant form of visual and material culture” (Arnold, 2009: 7) that dictates and challenges what is deemed beautiful or acceptable, confronts societal constructs and beliefs and raises important ethical and moral questions. It is global, but can also be local and micro, specific to a niche group (Arnold, 2009).

Fashion is of course also recognisable as a highly competitive industry. The global apparel market is projected to grow in value to about 1.5 trillion dollars in 2020 (Business of Fashion and McKinsey&Company, 2019).

But despite its tangible value, most assets in the fashion industry are non-tangible and these non-tangible (symbolic and evocative) brand-related elements of fashion products are more important than their functionality (Jin and Cedrola, 2017). Brands, and their non-tangible elements, provide consumers with a feeling of shared well-being and common interest (Varley et al., 2018).

What is a brand?

Originally defined as an object or a mark of identification, a brand is defined as “A name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies the seller’s good or services as distinct from those of other sellers” (American Marketing Association, 2007). Brands are generally considered to be the sum of the tangible, physical features that create a brand (the logo, physical retail space, product, packaging) and the non-tangible elements—the feelings, meanings, values and associations that consumers ascribe to the brand that allow brand audiences to understand the intrinsic characteristics of a product (Jin and Cedrola, 2017). The combination of physical and emotional cues is triggered when the audience is exposed to the name, logo, the visual identity, brand imagery and brand messaging.

In Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind, Ries and Trout (2001) defined a brand as a concept idea or space that is owned inside the mind of the prospect or consumer. The most recent wave focuses on brand as experience. “A brand is essentially a container for a customer’s complete experience with the product or company” (Zyman, 2002: 41). It is not something you manage over time, but something you deliver in the moment (Bonchek and France, 2016; Zyman, 2002). Crucial to understanding the nuances of a brand are the differences between brand identity, brand image, brand personality and brand positioning.

Brand identity is the unique set of associations that the brand creates or maintains to influence consumer perception (Aaker, 1996). These associations represent what the brand stands for and imply a promise to customers (Aaker, 1996). It includes the brand’s voice, values, imagery and visual communication. Brand identity is tangible, appeals to the senses, and is a clear projection of how the company desires to be viewed by their audience in every interaction with the brand, both online and offline. It stimulates brand recognition and helps differentiate and position a brand (Kapferer, 2008).

Brand image is the set of perceptions that the consumer has in their mind about a particular brand (Aaker 1996, 1997). Unlike brand identity, it cannot be controlled by the brand. Brands aim to ensure that the image held by consumers of that brand remains in alignment with the intended brand identity.

Through effective and strategic dialogue, brands are able to project their desired image and develop a brand personality with human characteristics that coordinate with their target consumer’s self-image (Aaker 1997). Just as with humans, a brand’s personality describes the way a brand speaks, behaves, thinks, acts and reacts. Brand personalities are as abundant as their human equivalents, and some theorists have made attempts to categorise them (see Aaker’s 1997 Dimensions of brand personality, illustrated in Figure 1.1).

Figure 1.1 Dimensions of brand personality, adapted from Aaker (1997).

Brand positioning is the act of designing the company’s offer and image so that the target market understands and appreciates what the company stands for in relationship to its competitors (Kotler, 2003). It allows brands to strengthen the brand message to consumers; target a particular segment and ensure the product is differentiated in the mind of the consumer.

Branding

Branding is the process of giving meaning to specific company, product or service by creating and shaping a brand in consumers’ minds, allowing consumers to identify the brand’s products and choose them over competitors (Kotler, 2003). Branding is a set of practices designed to generate cultural relevance and connect with the consumer’s subconscious, intelligence and personality (Schroeder, 2005).

Varley et al. (2018) developed a brand-building model which includes five distinct stages (see Figure 1.2):

1. Understanding the business including defining the mission and vision clearly, as well as the internal and external environment impacting the brand.
2. Understanding the target market’s attitudes, beliefs and behaviour.
3. Competitively positioning the brand’s unique selling proposition across the marketing mix (product, price, place and promotion).
4. Creative development, or crafting the visual identity of the brand. This includes elements such as the logo, colour palette, typeface, use of language, and other elements of ‘corporate identity,’ through to its packaging, pricing, retail environment, customer service, advertising, collaborations and partnerships and products.
5. Evaluating the brand’s internal alignment to ensure there is a fit between the identity that the brand has created and the consumer’s perception of the brand.

Figure 1.2 Stages of the brand-building process.
Source: Varley et al., 2018. Image courtesy of Palgrave Macmillan Limited. Reproduced with permission.

What is brand communication?

Brand communication is the process in which companies inform, persuade, enlighten, teach, remind, and enrich the knowledge of their audiences and stakeholders about the brand, its vision, values, products and services (Bhasin, 2018). Led by the overall company or corporate strategy, it is fundamental to the brand’s “functional” strategies, also known as the marketing mix or 4Ps (product, price, place, including retail, sales channels and distribution, and promotion) (Lea-Greenwood, 2013). Although many other marketing textbooks may place brand communication solely within the “promotional mix” (the blend of promotional tools used by marketers to help a company reach its goals including advertising, public relations, personal selling, sales promotion, direct marketing, product placement and digital marketing), we argue that brand communication is involved throughout the marketing mix as a vital part of product development, pricing strategy, product retail/distribution as well as, of course, product promotion.

Brand communication encompasses the use of ‘media,’ ‘channels’ or ‘platforms’ to communicate with audiences. The term ‘brand touchpoints’ is also used to denote the places in which a brand comes into contact or ‘touches’ people (Lemon and Verhoef, 2016). Brand touchpoints can be broken down using the media planning model of paid, owned, earned and social (PESO; see Figure 1.3) which emerged in the digital age to encompass the communication methods brands utilise to create and maintain a narrative (Varley et al., 2018).

The PESO model: paid, earned, social and owned media

Paid media encompasses brand communication touchpoints that are paid for. Paid media includes print advertising, search engine marketing (payper-click), online (display) advertising, social media advertising and paid influencers (explained further below in digital brand communication).

Figure 1.3 The PESO model.
Source: Adapted from Dietrich, 2014.

Owned media are the content assets owned and wholly controlled by the brand (Prasanna, 2018) including websites, brand imagery and photography (advertising and campaign, and social media imagery), video and films, newsletters and email marketing campaigns, brand publications (magazines, lookbooks, catalogues), editorial articles, and the content created for brand-owned social media channels (also called organic content). Owned media is primarily driven by a brand’s content marketing strategy and can include paying influencers, creatives and celebrities to create content that is then owned by the brand.

Earned media is the content and word-of-mouth around a brand or product that has been created by a third party and published somewhere other than brand-owned channels. Earned media is the amplification of the brand’s campaigns, paid and owned media by news sites, journalists, social media users, customers and influencers. This can include social media posts, mentions and shares; product or company reviews; videos, photos and online communities. Earned media also includes brand articles, product placements and editorial features on the brand called ‘press coverage’ or ‘organic media coverage,’ often generated by public relations, a core aspect of brand communication.

Social media Brand communication was once siloed into the different ways the company spoke to their consumer. These individually planned channels or ‘units’ of conversation (retail, advertising, direct marketing) were developed separately (Murphy, 2008). The rise of social media and digital strategies has led to an open, multi-way and co-created dialogue between brands and their audiences. In turn, brands are adopting integrated brand communication which unites various media and communication mixes to avoid audience fragmentation and deliver a seamless, cohesive narrative (Keller, 2003, 2009; Kliatchko, 2005).

Communicatio...