Chapter 2
What’s in a name?
The history of luxury
fashion branding
‘What is in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name
would smell as sweet.’
William Shakespeare, English playwright (1564–1616)In the quote above, legendary English playwright William Shakespeare raised
an age-old question, ‘What is in a name?’ In the luxury fashion branding
scene, the ‘name’, in other words the ‘brand name’, is everything. This is
because it is the ‘brand name’ and the ‘brand logo’ that attracts consumers to
a brand and launches the often enduring relationship between them and their
chosen luxury brand.
Shakespeare indicated that if a rose were to be known by another name, it
would still smell as sweet. Does the same principle apply to the luxury fash-
ion sector? Would brands like Louis Vuitton and Giorgio Armani have the
same associative elements and success if the names of their founders were
different? The answers to these questions will become clear as we take a trip
down the history lane to the origins of branding and the evolution of the
global luxury fashion sector.
Branding evolution
The notion of branding as part of ancient trading can be traced to the Greek
and Roman empires, before the modern industrial revolution. During this
period, market awareness was created through carving out shop route signs
and product descriptions, in stone along footpaths. This method progressed
on to the early sixteenth century when whisky distillers began to ship their
products in wooden barrels with the name of the producer burned into them.
The sole purpose of this method was to differentiate the maker of each type
of whisky from his competitors and to aid consumers in identifying the orig-
inal products from cheaper substitutes.
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