Luxury Jewelry and Fast Fashion Insights

Formulating a Successful Communication Strategy

• Luxury positioning: luxury versus mass-market
• Communication level: product, brand, or corporate
• Communication objective: awareness, image, and reputation

How to Create the "Dream Factor"

• Designer ambassadors
• Heritage storytelling
• Product focus
• Celebrities, KOLs, and influencers
• Creating buzz
• Visual communication

The "Dream Factor" Communication: What Is Special

• Importance of visual elements in advertising campaigns
• Regular updates to advertising campaigns (every 6 months, with collections)
• Collaboration with art directors for campaigns
• Fashion shows, store openings, and anniversaries as events
• Media usage (magazines, Instagram)
• Role of designers and influencers
• Videos used for storytelling
• Collaboration across brands for cultural aggregation
• Constant experimentation with digital platforms

Communication Identity

• Permanent visual codes within the brand's identity
• Concept derived from heritage or storytelling ("The Art of Travel" for Louis Vuitton)
• Brand tone of voice: friendly for mass-market, formal/bold for luxury
• Use of iconic colors (Tiffany Blue)
• High-profile figures (e.g., top models and musicians for Versace)
• Specific locations and atmospheres (e.g., dreamy aesthetics for Hermès)
• Media platforms: Instagram, videos, KOLs, and influencers

Gucci: Empowering Self-Expression

• Fashion reflects social change (more people express individuality)
• Emphasis on freedom of self-expression in fashion

Balenciaga: A Dystopian Universe

• Aims to disrupt the internet with a dystopian style
• Images have a challenging or unsettling quality

Tone of Voice

• Designers brands: "come on, challenge me" - conceptual tone
• Skincare brands: friendly and informative tone
• Framework for four dimensions of tone of voice: funny, serious, formal, casual, respectful, irreverent, enthusiastic, and matter-of-fact

Tone of Voice: Error Messages

• Different approaches to communicating errors: serious, formal, and even humorous.
• Important considerations: brand personality and target audience for effective approaches

Tone of Voice: The Brand vs The Person

• Visual aspects like colors and models in different brand communication
• Emphasis on different brand and individual voices or personas

Designing the Communication Identity for New Generations

• Gen Alpha and voice assistants (increasing use of voice technology to interact with brands)
• Importance of visual, sonic, and audio elements for brand experiences
• Powerful storytelling, authentic imperfections, unconventional interactions and inclusive not woke

From Influencers to Content Creators

• Educative content creation by thoughtful creators is increasingly important.
• Considering talent's engagement rate, audience demographics, and industry benchmarks when choosing creators.
• Balancing talent purpose and value with quality, supportive collaboration, and timely delivery in influencer partnerships.
• Importance is now placed on high-quality creative content.

From Influencing to Deinfluencing

• Online creators now try to dissuade purchases in addition to promotion of products.
• Content creators now focusing more on brand values vs. quantity of followers or viral content.

Facts about TikTok

• TikTok as a gateway for fashion and luxury players (high engagement for fashion-related content)
• Measurement of campaign effectiveness on TikTok given its fast-paced nature.
• Trend message and associated hashtags for success on the platform
• Importance of speed and rapid trend adoption
• Sonic and visual elements remain crucial for success

The Power of Short Videos

• Viral UGC videos, with associated hashtags, driving engagement
• Increasing interaction and driving sales through creative short videos

The New ROI (Return on Investment): ROE (Return on Empathy)

• Important elements now: captive conversations, conscious communication, thoughtful, and inspiring creators.
• Shifting from focusing on marketing to consumer-centric strategies
• Key takeaways and comparisons to past periods in brand strategy and consumer interactions

Innovation: First-Mover and Late-Mover Advantages

• First-mover advantages: being first to market, securing resources and building brand reputation early.
• Late-mover advantages: free riding, gaining knowledge from others mistakes
• Importance of tailoring innovation to the best strategy regardless of the approach

Creativity as a Remix

• Creativity and innovation (elements for value creation)
• Newness and Uniqueness
• Relevance
• NUR test approach
• Key considerations for product development success in today's market: newness, uniqueness, and relevance

Disruptive Innovation

• Survivor - aligning with the current operating conditions
• Exploiter - delivering incremental growth
• Disruptor - reinventing existing norms
• Understanding the distinction between these approaches and applying the appropriate methods

The Obstacles to Change

• Distortion in perception of change
• Lack of motivation for change
• Difficulty in defining response to change
• Existing forces against implementing change
• Addressing the resistance to change (methods)
• Continuous performance monitoring
• Constant attention, respect, and listening to customer behavior
• Inclusivity of new people with diverse skills and characteristics
• Promoting a sense of urgency to motivate adaptation to change

Disrupting Communication

• Top of mind recognition of a brand
• Focus on attributes, benefit for customers, and role in society
• Maintaining and developing brand values
• Importance of shift in messaging, for example, in the perfume industry.

Paco Rabanne Community Universes' Evolution

• Focus on different themes connecting with different demographic groups (music, sports, and technology)
• Brand turnaround through a revised approach to brand identity.

The Ray-Ban Journey

• History and evolution of Ray-Ban sunglasses
• Success through design innovation and practicality

What Happened Before (The Ray-Ban Case)

• Difficulties and missed opportunities with brand management and response to market trends
• Importance of the 1999 Luxottica acquisition for brand turnaround

A New Communication Strategy (The Ray-Ban Brief)

• Recognizable brand challenges and repositioning of the brand
• New direction and overarching story for the company
• Moving from a one-way communication approach to a more interactive communication method aimed at better understanding the target consumers

Ray-Ban Disruption

• Strategy shifting to a more interactive approach and two-way customer conversations.

From One-Way to Two-Ways Conversations

• Demographic to psychographic target
• Constant dialogue and entertainment for customers
• Value messaging, not just advertising, to build brand reputation and relationships
• Important considerations for success

From 'Never Hide' to Product Stories

• Ray-Ban campaign timelines over the years (2007-2016)
• Highlighting product lines and brand identity shifts

2023-2024: From 'Never Hide' to 'Proud to Belong'

• Evolution of Ray-Ban's message and marketing approach since the 'Never Hide' campaign (2023-2024)
• New focus on branding and community building.

The Last Mile (Creating a Unique Consumer Experience)

• Building a unique and lasting consumer experience is key.
• Emphasis on understanding brand value, product selection, and maximizing both performance and experience of the brand
• Focus on successful digital and physical retail store designs.
• Brand-centric physical strategy
• Global trends in eyewear products

What You Will Learn (Retailers)

• Definition of a retailer, multichannel distribution, and prominent retail business models
• Role of a client advisor, explanation of omnichannel, and customer relationship management
• Retailers in the fashion business sell directly to consumers (e.g., Louis Vuitton, Zara, H&M), and some are vertically integrated (controlling every step in the production chain)

Multichannel Distribution

• Different distribution methods for brands, including direct, wholesale, and transnational channels.
• Importance of brand voice consistency across all channels.

Digital Platforms: Reasons for Success

• Importance of using digital tools, and other platforms to further enhance the customer experience
• Understanding and catering to customer experience, using appropriate metrics to inform company decision-making
• Value of the portfolio to further understand customer needs.

Fashion Companies: Vertically Integrated

• Fashion company trends for becoming vertically integrated to gain control of the entire product pipeline.
• Benefits and issues of creating more vertical integration.
• Importance of insights gathered from end consumers and brand positioning in relation to those consumers.

The Role of a Client Advisor

• Client-advisor responsibilities: maintain product knowledge, provide exceptional service, managing customer relationships, and contributing to achieving store and personal goals.
• Key aspects of client-advisor interaction
• Specific responsibilities
• Importance of building relationships

The Phygital Store

• The importance of using physical stores as part of marketing strategies
• Key aspects of the modern phygital store
• The store as a community-centric hub
• Physical stores as tourism destinations

Pop-up Stores

• Pop-up stores as a brand-building strategy for brands
• Taking advantage through branding promotions of faddish trends and seasonal high demand
• Additional opportunities to engage with customers
• Methods for generating buzz, and increasing brand visibility

Gamification

• Using digital games to engage customers
• Importance of virtual and physical brand interactions for enhancing the brand's offerings.
• Utilizing digital games to create wider appeal across demographics

Stylistic Identity and Merchandising

• Importance of balancing current styles with permanent brand codes
• How brand management and design interacts to influence and support the creation of new product variations
• Identifying a specific ratio between innovation and the evolution of a product for a defined collection
• Merchandising and brand experience implications.

The Relationship Between Management and Creativity

• Short-term vs. long-term considerations relating to brand strategy
• Importance of stylistic codes in the fashion industry
• How different stylistic elements are used for different design, production, and selling purposes
• Strategic code implementations

Burberry's Stylistic Identity Evolution

• Burberry's brand codes and how it uses them to maintain a consistent, relevant brand presence
• Key figures associated with Burberry and times in the company's history, particularly in relation to current production output
• Understanding the key products and how the company adapts them through time

Fashion Collections Key and Level of Innovation

• Definition of fashion collections and importance of understanding the product categories
• Importance of understanding the components for collections and how products are sold by different divisions (e.g. retail, wholesale, etc)
• Maintaining and innovating the classical parts of the brand

Different Types of Merchandisers

• Defining the roles and responsibilities of the product, retail and visual merchandisers
• Importance of these roles for understanding the overall strategy, and business structure

Product Development in Fashion

• How product development impacts the industry as a whole.
• External/internal research on fashion trends
• Defining collection guidelines
• Defining the merchandising plan
• Collection development
• Presenting the collection

Monitoring Competitors and Merchandise Overview

• Importance of analysis
• Importance of using metrics to measure impact and effectiveness in the market
• Various analysis methods
• Key items and their use cases

Analyzing Needs by Area

• Customer needs and how they relate to business strategies, specifically focusing on the product and value-added services for customer satisfaction

The Merchandising Plan

• Key elements relating to design, production, and sales for planning a collection
• Methodology and considerations when developing a merchandising plan

Collection Presentation

• Steps in presenting a collection and importance of brand visibility and strategy based on presentation techniques.
• Importance of recognizing stylistic codes as they define a collection, design, production, and presentation

Sustainability

• Maintaining a consistent brand approach relates to the present without compromising future generations.
• 3P and 5P sustainable development models
• Challenges, especially in the clothing industry, with producing sustainable products
• ESG factors (Environmental, Social, and Governance)
• Sustainability initiatives and standards for product development and production

Sustainability in the Fashion Industry

• The fashion industry as a significant source of environmental pollution.
• Main challenges with the fashion industry (overconsumption of fashion items, use of synthetic fibers, agricultural pollution of fashion crops).
• Sustainability perspectives of different products
• Consideration of the 'take, make and dispose' method in the industry vs. circular economic initiatives
• Costs and advantages in being sustainable (environmentally and socially)
• Case studies of companies that embody sustainability

Transparency and Traceability

• Importance of transparent and tracebale supply chains
• Practical examples relating to brand and their visibility to consumers
• Understanding the requirements of the EU strategy for responsible textile production.

Key Sustainability Initiatives (EU)

• EU strategies for sustainable textile production
• Importance for the future of the fashion industry of companies adhering to these strategies
• Assessing different company strategies

Inspirational Sustainability Initiatives

• Examples of innovative approaches and industry best practices relating to brand practices

Manufacturing

• Water consumption in manufacturing processes
• Transparent pricing to ensure ethical and sustainable labor and production
• Importance of sustainable packaging (reduction of material waste)

Packaging

• Reducing packaging materials and reusing or recycling materials.

Certifications

• Importance and validity of certifications in the fashion industry
• Importance of understanding different brand and product certifications (B Corp, Bluesign, etc)
• How brands use certifications as part of their value proposition and marketing and branding efforts

Big Events

• Importance of understanding relevant fashion industry events including the Copenhagen Fashion Summit
• Specific case-study focus on the inspirational aspect of 'Big events' in the fashion industry

Brand Management in Fashion: Line/Brand Extension

• Reasons for brands extending lines or using line extension
• Distinguishing between the two approaches in practice
• Importance of using consistent brand strategies

Luxury Brand Management

• Different methods of brand management strategies
• What makes a trademark unique and its strategic value.

Emotional Associations and Brand Signature

• Importance of emotional associations for brands
• Brand identity characteristics
• Importance of having a strong and recognizable brand signature for positive customer loyalty

This quiz explores key concepts in the luxury jewelry and fast fashion industries, addressing sustainability, brand management, and ethical concerns in garment production. Participants will gain insights into how major players like Rocca and Ray-Ban navigate these markets, alongside examining the characteristics of fast fashion brands such as Zara and H&M.