An Exploratory Study on Establishing an Irish Luxury Fashion Brand
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
An exploratory study on establishing an Irish Luxury Fashion Brand Author: ShaunaO’ Sullivan A Research Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of MSc Marketing, Institute of technology Sligo. Supervisor : Suzanne Ryan Declaration TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN The work of this dissertation ‘an exploratory study on establishing an Irish luxury fashion brand’ represents the research carried out by Shauna O’ Sullivan under the supervision of Suzanne Ryan and does not include work by any other party, with acknowledged exception. Signed: Shauna O’ Sullivan Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to my family and friends who have been a huge support throughout my five years in college. In particular my mother Imelda and father Brian as they have been a huge support during this process and my sister Roisin. Also to my closest friends who have made my years in college the best years of my life, Catherine, Antoinette, Aoife, Elaine, David, Eugene & Mickey Jo. Thanks for everything. Acknowledgements : IPs your attitude not your aptitude that’s determines your altitude - In presenting this dissertation I would like to acknowledge the assistance of several persons for their support and influence during my dissertation journey. Firstly, I would like to thank my supervisor Suzanne Ryan for her outstanding patience, support and advice. I couldn’t off asked for a better supervisor and without your guidance and support this would not have been possible. I would like to also thank my family in particular my mother Imelda and father Brian as I would not have had the opportunity to do a Masters without your help and I would like to thank you for being so understanding. Your constant support has been a huge motivational factor and you encouraged me every step of the way. To the participants who took the time to help me conduct my research, I really appreciated your help. Finally, to all my classmates who were very good at motivating and helping each other out, it has been a hard but memorable year. Abstract: Ireland is not taken seriously for its fashion and there is no internationally recognised fashion designer. (MacCabe, 2012) states ‘all the things the “Irish” are known for, fashion is not high on the list. There are a number of premium Irish fashion brands from Irish fashion designerssuch as Orla Kiely however these are not perceived as luxury. This research is with particular emphasis on the how an Irish fashion designer can establish a luxury Irish fashion brand and the ways by which International success can be realized. It is clear that a problem lies somewhere in relation to the Irish fashion industry and its lack of success and this will be investigated in this study. In solving the research problem it was necessary to determine the characteristics of luxury fashion brands while also examining consumers and designers perceptions of luxury fashion brands and the Irish fashion industry. Furthermore it was important to determine the methods which can be used by an Irish fashion designer to create a luxury fashion brand This is an exploratory study and so qualitative research methods were deemed best suitable. Five telephone interviews were conducted with Irish fashion designers throughout Ireland to uncover trends, attitudes and motivations in the Irish fashion industry. Six focus groups were conducted with female consumers of luxury fashion brands who were aged between twenty eight and sixty five years. Purposive sampling was used for both qualitative methods. The main findings reflected that there are many problems within the Irish fashion industry which makes it very difficult for an Irish designer to develop a successful fashion brand. Funding is a major problem and the findings showed that there is no support for designers from the Irish government. The UK have the British council of fashion designers which supports up and coming designers, a support group like this is needed in Ireland to help the talented designers shine. Designers feel they do not have the business skills needed to establish their own business and there is a lack of business subjects taught in fashion schools. There are no manufacturing facilities in Ireland so from these problems it can now be understood why there is no Irish luxury fashion brand. The characteristics of luxury fashion brands have been determined and some new ones have been discussed. Finally a model which will aid designers to build a luxury fashion brand was developed from the research findings. Tables: Table 1.0 Millward Brown Optimor's 2012 Table 1.1; Timeline Table 2.0; Top ten traits ( Keller 2001) Table 2.1; 12 steps to building a luxury brand (Mahailovich 2009) Table 3.0; Differences between qualitative and quantitative research Table 3.1; Times and dates of interviews Table 3.2; Seven stages of an interview (Kvale, 1995) Table 3,3; Dates times and locations for focus groups: Table 3.4 8 steps when conducting focus group research Table 3.5 Analysing focus groups (Hoak, 2013) Figures: Figure 2.0; Types of Luxury Brands by Level of Luxury, Awareness and Business Volume (Heine, 2011) Figure 2.1; Brand building( Kotler and Armstong 2007) Figure 2.2; Customer based brand equity model Keller, (2001) Figure 2.3; brand building( Kotler and Armstong 2007) Figure 2.4; The 8 PS of luxury fashion (Aora,2012) Figure 4.0; Characteristics of Luxury fashion brand. Figure 4.1; Luxury fashion brands Figure 4.2; Differences between luxury and premium brands Figure 4.3; Reasons people have a desire to buy luxury fashion products. Figure 4.4; Feeling when purchasing luxury brands Figure 4.5 Marketing a luxury fashion brand. Figure 4.6 magazines Figure 4.7 Popular stores Figure 4.8 Price expectations Figure 4.9 Main difficulties when creating a brand in Ireland. Figure 4.10 - Marketing tools used by Irish designers. Figure 4.11 -Help for Irish designers Figure 4.12 Model to establish a luxury Irish fashion brand. Figure 5.0 Model to build a luxury fashion brand. List of abbreviations: Rol - Republic of Ireland FG - Focus group Contents Declaration i Dedication ii Abstract iv Acknowledgements vi List of tables vii List of figures viii Abbreviations viiii Chapter One: Introduction..............................................................................................................3 1.1 Introduction:.......................................................................................................................4 1.3 Justification of the research:............................................................................................. 12 1.5 Outline plan and structure:............................................................................................... 13 1.6 Timeline:......................................................... 16 1.7 Conclusion:............................................................................................................................17 Chapter 2 : Literature Review....................... 18 2.1 Introduction:...........................................................................................................................19 2.2 Review of foundation literature:..............................................................................................19 2.2.1. Brand:.............................................................................................................................. 19 2.2.2 History of luxury fashion brands:.......................................................................... 20 2.2.3. Definition of luxury and luxury fashion brands:....................................................................21 2.2.4: Types of brands:...................................................................... 22 2.2.5. Premium Fashion Brands:................................................................................................. 26 2.3 Review of immediate/core literature:....................................................................................... 29 2.3.1 Building a strong luxury brand:............................................................................................29 2.3.2 Brand Promise and Equity:.............................................. 32 2.2.3 Customer Based Brand Equity..............................................................................................33 2.3.4 Brand identity:....................................................................................................................35 2.3.5 Brand experience:....................................... 36 2.3.6 Brand and Brand positioning:..................................... 36 2.3.7 Brand name: ......................... 37 2.3.8. Brand development:.................,........... 38 2.3.9 Avoiding pitfalls:................................................................................................................ 38 2.3.10. What makes a brand endure? :...........................................................................................39 2.3.11 Consumption of luxury:..................................................................................................... 40 2.3.12 The 8 p’s of Luxury Brand Marketing:......................................................... 42 2.3.13. Marketing a luxury fashion brand:..................................................................................... 45 2.4. Identification of key issues and gaps:..................................................................................... 47 2.5. Identification of the need for Empirical Research:...................................................................48