Okonkwo Prelims

This depicts similarity in terms of products and brand personality portrayal.
Consumers are bored with this level of sameness and monotony and now
have higher expectations from luxury brands.
In response to the monotonous images and messages often found in luxury
goods advertisements, several luxury and mass fashion brands constantly
devise innovative advertising means and messages that act as ‘firsts’ in their
categories. A notable example is the spring–summer 2006 advertising
campaign of premium leather-goods brand Furla, which features its own
employees as models (Figure 5.20). The strategic aim of this advertisement
for the brand was to ‘express the spirit of the brand’ and to show that the brand
understands its consumers’ real needs. This tactic represents a new approach
to fashion advertising. It portrays the employees of Furla as ‘brand stewards’
and ‘brand ambassadors’, who are attuned to serving their customers and
fulfilling their expectations. This is an effective representation of perceived
product efficiency and customer services. Another advantage of this advertis-
ing tactic is that it gives the brand a ‘face’ through revealing the dynamic and
creative team behind the products and their complement to the brand’s person-
ality. This advertising method could however raise other questions related to
the ‘fantasy’ aspect of a luxury brand’s image projection to the public.

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the art of creating and managing luxury fashion brands

Figure 5.20 Furla’s advertisement featuring employee Daniela Bernardi (2006).
This is an innovative advertising technique that shows the brand’s employees as
its ambassadors. However, it raises the question of whether luxury consumers
relate more to the people who represent the brand or to the ‘fantasy’ and
‘desire’ aspects of luxury goods