LUXURY BRANDS AND THE FAST FASHION BRANDS

Running head: LUXURY BRANDS AND THE FAST FASHION BRANDS
A STUDY TO ANALYZE THE MAIN MOTIVES BEHIND THE LUXURY BRANDS’
COLLABORATION STRATEGY WITH THE FAST FASHION INDUSTRY
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1LUXURY BRANDS AND THE FAST FASHION BRANDS
Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction................................................................................................................................3
2.0 Overview of the Luxury Brands................................................................................................4
3.0 Overview of the Fast Fashion Brands........................................................................................6
4.0 Collaboration Strategy used by Luxury and the Fast Fashion Brands.......................................7
5.0 Motives behind the usage of the Collaboration Strategy...........................................................8
5.1 Market Size............................................................................................................................8
5.2 Competitive Situation............................................................................................................9
5.3 Company Resources............................................................................................................10
5.4 Product Newness.................................................................................................................11
6.0 Utility of the Collaborative Strategy........................................................................................12
7.0 Implementation of the Collaboration Strategy........................................................................13
8.0 Impact of the Collaboration Strategy.......................................................................................13
8.1 Brand Equity and Brand Awareness....................................................................................13
8.2 Purchase intention................................................................................................................14
8.3 New customers and customer retention...............................................................................14
9.0 Literature Gap..........................................................................................................................15
10.0 Summary................................................................................................................................15
11.0 References..............................................................................................................................16

2LUXURY BRANDS AND THE FAST FASHION BRANDS
1.0 Introduction
As stated by Childs and Jin (2015), the complexity of the modern business landscape
becomes apparent from the fact that the different business corporations often find it very difficult
to attain the required competitive edge within the business markets of their operations. Bly,
Gwozdz and Reisch (2015) are of the viewpoint that the processes of internationalization and
globalization have opened up new windows of business opportunities or for that matter the
growth possibilities for the business corporations which in turn had substantial contributed
towards the growth attained by them. Adding to this, Strähle and Höhn (2017) have noted that in
the fact of the enhancement of the business operations of the business corporations and also with
the increase in the number of business corporations presently operational, the choices or the
options that are available to the customers have increased in an exponential manner. This aspect
while being beneficial for the customers had adversely affected the prospects of the different
business corporations and thus it had been seen that the business corporations are struggling to
attain the required competitive advantage (Radclyffe-Thomas, 2018). In the face of these aspects
collaboration strategy or for that matter the process of co-branding is being used by the different
business corporations for the improvement of their business prospects. More importantly, it had
been seen that the different luxury brands are presently collaborating or co-branding with the fast
fashion brands for the purpose of market capitalization and thereby attain their business or
organizational objectives as well as goals. The purpose of this paper is to undertake a literature
review regarding the motives behind the luxury brands’ collaboration strategy with the fast
fashion brands.

3LUXURY BRANDS AND THE FAST FASHION BRANDS
2.0 Overview of the Luxury Brands
Ferraro, Sands and Brace-Govan (2016) are of the viewpoint that the luxury products are
those which while not being a necessity yet is being desired by the individuals and often
symbolizes the social status, economic class and other aspects of the section of society to which
the concerned individuals belong. Adding to this, Pal and Gander (2018) have noted that between
the years 2013 to 2018 the consumption of the different kinds of luxury products had increased
by more than 37.9% (or $1.9 trillion) in the various countries of the world. As discussed by Kent
(2017), an important reason for the unexpected growth experienced by the luxury industry can be
attributed to the fact that the average wealth held by the individuals in the present times had
increased in an exponential manner and this in turn had given rise to the tendency on the part of
the individual which are meant to fulfill their greed and not need. Furthermore, it had been seen
that unlike the earlier times the luxury brands related to the luxury industry presently offer a
plethora of products or services to their customers starting from beauty products, garments,
accessories, furnishing, houses and others (Sorensen & Jorgensen, 2019). More importantly, the
different luxury products offered by the luxury brands and also the manner in which they try to
attain a unique market position can be effectively understood by the below given figure-

4LUXURY BRANDS AND THE FAST FASHION BRANDS
Figure 1: Luxury Pyramid and its comparison with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Source: (Kapferer, 2015)
The luxury pyramid clearly indicates the luxury goods or services offered by the different
luxury brands can be categorized into five categories on the basis of the entities which they focus
on, namely, price and quality. As discussed by Cimatti, Campana and Carluccio (2017), the five
types of luxury goods or services in their hierarchical order to accessibility are mass-market,
premium, accessible luxury, aspirational and absolute luxury products or services. For instance,
the mass-market luxury products focus on the attribute of cost for gaining a unique market
position whereas premium and accessible luxury products focus on the entities of both cost and
quality and lastly aspirational and absolute luxury products focus solely on the entity of quality
(Caniato et al., 2015). Ryding et al. (2016) are of the viewpoint that the different luxury brands
in the present times by effectively focusing the customer requirements or for that matter their
needs and also through the adequate usage of the diverse layers of luxury products have been
able to attain a substantial amount of success. However, the major problem arises because

5LUXURY BRANDS AND THE FAST FASHION BRANDS
whereas the annual profitability of the luxury industry had soared up it had been seen that the
competition or the business rivalry within the concerned industry had also intensified presently
(Crewe, 2016). This in turn had made the strategy of collaboration or co-branding an important
one for the different luxury brands.
3.0 Overview of the Fast Fashion Brands
Jones and Hawley (2017) are of the viewpoint that the fast fashion brands are the ones
which specializes in the manufacture as well as the sale of the products that are based on the
most recent fashion trends. Adding to this, Bellini and Pasquinelli (2016) have noted that the
different fast fashion brands mainly target the customers who opt for the mass-market luxury
products and thus they are required to ensure the fact that the cost of the mass-market luxury
garments offered by them is not too high for the customers for whom it is intended. Thus, it is
seen that these brands largely offer inexpensive garments or clothes to the individuals who seek
to effectively capitalize on the latest fashion trends so to influence the buying behavior displayed
by the customers. As discussed by Wigley (2015), the word ‘fast’ is generally being associated
with these garments not only because of the fast that these garments move quickly from the
catwalks to the garment stores but also on the score of the fact that they move quickly from the
manufacturing units of the garment manufacturers to the garments stores to the customers and
thereby to the garbage cans. This in turn had created the perception among the customers that the
garments offered by these brands are meant only to be used for a shorter duration of time and
thus they are not willing to pay any significant amount of capital for the purchase of the same
(Jung & Jin, (2016). Moreover, another important reason for the fast disposal of these garments
can be attributed to the fact that the fashion trends keeps on changing frequently and thus it is
seen that a style which is popular today might become obsolete in a few months (Henninger et