awareness for luxury brands is a carefully managed process that applies the
most effective communications channels. For example, British luxury acces-
sories brand Jimmy Choo attained rapid global awareness through celebrity
connections, notably in Hollywood. The brand features celebrities in its print
advertisements and associates itself with major ‘Red Carpet’ events like the
famous American Oscar awards. The brand was also frequently featured in
episodes of the world-famous American TV series, Sex and the City. An addi-
tional celebrity-linked promotional tactic by Jimmy Choo is the production of
the book titled Four Inches, in 2005, which features photographs of
Hollywood stars wearing nothing but Jimmy Choo shoes. Proceeds of the
book sales were donated towards cancer research but the publicity generated
from this venture was enormous. Similarly, shoe designer Manolo Blahnik
attained a global consumer following through celebrity connections despite
having only two stores. By adopting the celebrity promotional tactic, these
two relatively new brands have succeeded in creating a link between their
brand and the luxury goods category.
An additional brand awareness creation tactic is ‘Word-of-mouth’, which
is often underestimated. Creating awareness for a luxury brand through word
of mouth is both tricky and challenging. It is not something that is achieved
on the street but is rather most effective when implemented through opinion
leaders and experts in the luxury field and the fashion world. Examples
abound in fashion magazine product reviews and features. Other effective
methods of word-of-mouth promotion include the endorsement of experts in
the luxury sector such as those that have authority in the global luxury fash-
ion field. Think of who made Christian Louboutin famous.
Branding expert Kevin Keller asserts in his text, Strategic Brand
Management: Building, Measuring and Managing Brand Equity, that if a
brand desires a high brand recall level, then its name should be short, simple
and easy to spell and pronounce. This opinion makes logical sense for
conventional consumer goods such as FMCGs but it is unsuitable for luxury
brands. Luxury brand names are more attractive when they are unique,
symbolic and original. This is because the luxury consumer expects a high
level of sophistication, exoticness and a degree of complexity in luxury brand
names. For example, the brand names ‘Comptoir Des Cotonniers’, ‘Marithe
Francois Girbaud’, ‘Comme des Garçons’ and ‘Jaeger Le Coultre’ are all
difficult to pronounce for non-French speakers. The brand name
‘Abercrombie & Fitch’ on the other hand is a nightmare for the French to
pronounce. However, the exoticness and originality of these brands’ names
atone for the difficulty in pronunciation and make them more appealing.
The brand awareness goal of every luxury brand is to attain a high level of
familiarity with consumers, leading to affiliation with the brand. This will
ensure that when consumers think of luxury goods, they would be likely to
think of the brand. This can be achieved through repeated exposure and asso-
ciations in the appropriate media.
chapter 5 115the art of creating and managing luxury fashion brands