3 Where can the lines between luxury, prestige, aspirational, premium and
mass fashion brands be drawn?
There are no black and white answers to these questions. However, to lessen
the confusion, some definitions will be given.
Luxury and prestigebrands represent the highest form of craftsmanship and
product quality and command a staunch consumer loyalty base that is not
affected by trends. These brands create and set the seasonal fashion trends
and have the ability to retail an item for €20,000 and another for €300 to
different consumer groups. They are the epitome of prestige and are capable
of pulling all of their consumers with them wherever they are located. Brands
in this group include Bvlgari and Hermès, among others. True luxury and
prestige brands do not utilize mass-market strategies in order to become
mass-market brands. Rather, they have recognized the changes in the luxury
marketplace and are attuning their strategies accordingly, without sacrificing
their core heritage and brand essence.
Premium brands are those brands that aspire to become luxury and prestige
brands but their marketing mix strategies are more attuned to a mass market,
albeit a luxury mass market. The brands in this group are also sometimes
referred to as mass-premiumbrands, aspirational brands, mass-luxury
brands, designerbrands or simply high-end brands. The group of premium
brands has a broad scope, which makes narrowing them down challenging.
Several of the brands in this group also have different levels of operations.
Consequently they have been categorized as follows:
(a) High premium brands, such as Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger and
Longchamp, among numerous others.
(b) Medium premium brands like Lacoste, Furla and Lanvin, among several
others.
(c) Low premium brands are brands like Zara, H&M and Gap, among others.
This group can no longer be considered as merely fashion brands, in the
same sphere as supermarket brands such as Wal-Mart and Tesco, as a
result of the elevation of their offerings and strategies. The brands in this
group are playing a key role in the ‘trading-down’ phenomenon of luxury
consumers.
There are also several ‘luxury’ brands that have adopted strategies utilized by
premium brands including licensing and end-of-season sales. However, this
factor doesn’t make them premium brands as their overall corporate strategies
reflect luxury and prestige status. At the same time, implementing mass-
focused strategies without effective control could lead to the eventual loss of
the brand cachet.
chapter 7 241le new luxe