In light of growing interest in the use of social media for advertising and marketing (SMM) purposes among luxury fashion brands, this paper set out to identify and examine the key attributes of SMM and study the relationships, between fee fairness, courting equity, logo equity, patron fairness, and purchase goal through a structural equation model. Five constructs of perceived SSM activities of luxury style manufacturers were examined for the purpose of this study. These include entertainment, interplay, trendiness, customization, and word of mouth. The study revealed that the impact of these attributes on price fairness, dating fairness, and brand fairness are substantially superb. Furthermore, with regard to connection between patron fairness drivers and consumer equity, it was observed that logo fairness has significant negative effect on consumer fairness whilst fee equity and dating equity displayed no significant effect. As for purchase goal, value fairness and relationship equity had enormous consequences, whilst courting fairness had no such effect. Lastly, the connection between purchase intention and patron fairness was observed to be highly significant. The findings of this study offer a glimpse into the manner in which various factors play a key role in enabling luxury manufacturers to forecast the final purchase decision and buyer behaviour and offer guidance regarding dealing with their property and advertising strategies.
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of The Study
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of The Study
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of The Study
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of The Study
1. Introduction
The luxury goods market has attained maturity after years of stellar sales growth and has begun showing signs of a sluggish growth ever since. The luxury goods market is a high-end market characterised by excessive pricing. However, the increased demand for luxury goods in new and emerging markets such as China, India, and the Middle East have presented new opportunities for the luxury brands. Moreover, the luxury fashion manufacturers may also rely on some of their inherent strengths and assets, which include an established brand name, an existing customer base, and strong loyalty among the customers with regard to the brand as well as a positive brand image. However, the current emergence of various novel fashion brands accompanied by using has intensified the current competition within the industry.
Furthermore, the fall in sales due to the global financial downturn has driven several luxury brands to change their strategies. They can no longer rely completely on their brand image and hence are compelled to focus on their legacy, aesthetic value, as well as their sincere relationships with their customers in order to sustain their competitive positioning in the industry. One of the key factors driving revenues within the luxury fashion goods industry is to ensure efficient delivery and/or communication of brand value to the customers, through product/ service delivery or any other means possible.
In a bid to engage in effective communication with customers and ensure active engagement with their target consumers, luxury brands have of-late, turned to the social media platforms to help them achieve their strategic objectives. Advertising communiqué, which includes, the use of social media along with Twitter, Facebook and YouTube has already been evaluated as business take-off equipment for luxurious luxury fashion goods manufacturers. Popular luxury fashion brands such as Louis Vuitton, for instance, run a fashion blog involved in offering fashion tips, suggestions and promoting their own content to their niche customers. Several other luxury fashion brands such as Ralph Lauren, Chanel, Donna Karan, and Gucci have worked with Apple to create iPhone applications, thus further diversifying into other lucrative business ventures. Such tie-ups with other luxury brands such as Apple, helps the luxury fashion brands to leverage their brand image and ensure consistent revenue generation, ultimately helping them maintain their profitability.
The advent of social media platforms have provided a unique opportunity for businesses worldwide to engage directly with their target consumers online and interact with them on a one-on-one basis. This unique opportunity has in turn allowed the manufacturers to follow, interact and observe their customers, understand their likes, tastes and preferences, keep updated about the recent shift in fashion preferences and work with their customers to to create new products, services, commercial enterprise models, and values. Furthermore, manufacturers can also benefit from the publicity and use the same to improve their relationships with the customers. Social media marketing (SMM) is a two-way communication tool which allows the brands to interact with their customers, and help them transfer the brand value and brand image to the target customers in a more effective manner. Also, social media activities of the luxury fashion manufacturers offer a unique opportunity to address any issues, negative impression and/ or prejudice, held by the customers toward the brand and enable them to reach out to their customers effortlessly.
The drastic rise in social media marketing and the corresponding change in the manner in which luxury fashion brands market and advertise their products online, have made it imperative for researchers to quantitatively examine the outcome of such change in strategy on the luxury fashion brands. This paper aims to examine the manner in which SMM is used by manufacturers of luxury fashion goods, assess the impact of SMM on equity and to ascertain whether it translates into final purchase decision. As the luxury fashion goods industry is undergoing a fast change, owing to a corresponding change to the external environment motivated by a technological revolution, this study becomes all the more significant, given the wide-scale impact of social media advertising on consumer buying behaviour. Finally, this research will offer recommendations to enhance brands performance. The findings of this study will help luxury brands to forecast patron-buying behaviour and use their purchaser fairness and social media interest as well.
Research question
Do social media marketing activities enhance customer equity?
Objectives
1.To identify and understand the Social media marketing activities of luxury brands.
2.To examine the impact of Social media marketing activities and their results on overall performance of the firm.
3. To explain the concept of Customer equity and identify its key drivers