fashion and the democratization of luxury presented extensively in Chapter 7.
They have also contributed significantly to the attitude change of luxury
consumers who have also become their own stylists.
The market environment of the noughties has also steered towards
unprecedented development in the globalization of luxury brands. This has
been spurred by the continuous influence of the Internet and the emergence
of new markets like China, Russia and India. Consequently, several luxury
brands have launched rapid global expansion plans and many luxury brands
now have more stores in some particular foreign countries than in their home
countries. For example, American brand Coach has more than 100 stores in
Japan alone. Other brands like Louis Vuitton and Giorgio Armani have
launched aggressive expansions plans in several new markets.
On the level of market competition, the noughties has also seen great
advancement in the concept of branding strategy as a core business aspect.
The development has been most visible in the process of creating and manag-
ing the brand value as a company’s asset. Great emphasis has been placed on
the financial returns that a company accrues through its brand’s asset. As a
result, several luxury brands have made brand management central to their
corporate strategies. In other words, every strategy adopted is measured
against its role in the protection of the brand. The prominence of the intangi-
ble brand asset was highlighted through the annual Global Brands
Scoreboard, conducted by brand consultancy company Interbrand and
published by Businessweekmagazine. The luxury brands that have featured
in the scoreboard include Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Chanel and Hermès, among
others.
An additional noteworthy emerging occurrence of the noughties is the
advancement of several British luxury brands and fashion designers. While
the 1990s ushered in an era of luxury fashion branding adoption in Britain,
the noughties has been a decade of visible success for the British luxury
brands like Jimmy Choo, Burberry, Mulberry, Ozwald Boateng, Stella
McCartney, Alexander McQueen, Matthew Williamson, John Galliano and
Alice Temperley, among others.
Finally, the noughties has also witnessed growth in the luxury services
sub-sector. In addition to Luxury Briefingjournal, which was launched in
1996, several companies that cater to the needs of luxury companies and
luxury consumers alike have emerged. These include companies specializing
in trend tracking, consumer insights, style reporting, exclusive clubs and
private concierge services and product loaning, exchanges and auctioning.
2007 and beyond
The rest of the noughties and the following decades will feature symbolic
developments in the luxury goods sector. Information and communications
chapter 2 37the history of luxury fashion branding