Brand Image Case Study

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

All over the world, consumers who aim to own special, unique and valuable products have unlimited choices in luxury goods, shopping channels and price levels. Therefore, luxury brands play an integral role in capturing consumers´ attention. Much is known about purchase intentions of mass products, but little research has been done on the factors that influence consumers´ intentions to buy luxury brands. Regardless of the amount of money that is needed to buy luxury fashion brands, people have to go through different decision-making processes first, which then lead to positive or negative purchase desires and intentions. It is important to note that luxury fashion brands are high-involvement products that are not bought out

One of the most important factors is the association with a brand, called brand image. Brand image is defined as subjective, but reasoned or emotional perception consumers attach to specific brands (Dobni & Zinkhan,1990). Hence, brand image is everything consumers associate with a brand. Brand images or brand associations of luxury brands also lead to the concept of symbolic meaning. Luxury brands themselves cannot symbolize anything, but they do have to comply with the taste of the consumers. Kapferer and Bastien (2009) describe the phenomenon of luxury consumption as "the symbolic desire to belong to a superior class". This means that luxury brands have to show high amount of prestige, which they also have to symbolize to some extent (Keller, 2009). By symbols, consumers can communicate meaning about themselves to others. In addition, Dubois and Duquesne (1993) argue that many consumers seek for status labels or images associated with a brand in order to express their own values. Djelic and Ainamo (1999) also propose that luxury fashion brands have tangible and intangible meanings by which consumers can gratify their symbolic needs. Brand associations are the category of a brand’s assets and liabilities that include anything “linked” in memory to a brand (Aaker, 1997). Especially luxury brands are bought for what they mean, instead of for what they are. Therefore, the purchase of luxury fashion brands communicate meaning about a consumers´ self-identity, so that consumers may prefer brands that have images similar to their perceptions of self (Zinkham & Hong, 1991). In other words, the more similar the brand’s image to the self-image, the more favourable the consumers´ evaluations of the brand (Graeff, 1996). Although many people desire to own luxury fashion brands, they are not always able to purchase