An exploration of fashion retailer own brand strategies

Abstract

PurposeIt has been proposed within the branding literature that the theory of the brand be extended within a variety of industries. The purpose of this paper is to offer a deeper understanding of the centrality of the own brand to fashion retailer brand strategy.Design/methodology/approachThe research involved six in‐depth interviews with large‐scale fashion retailers from a sample of the 20 largest and most successful fashion retailers in the UK.FindingsParticipants identified the motivations, dimensions, success factors and problems associated with the creation, development and management of the own brandResearch limitations/implicationsThis is an exploratory study and as such is limited to the experiences of six fashion retailers. It is, however, part of a larger empirical study.Practical implicationsThe results of this study provide key areas for future research development to be applied within the fashion retail sector or to be expanded within alternative retail sectors.Originality/valueThe development of brand strategy within the fashion retailing sector reveals a paucity of empirical and theoretical studies. This exploratory paper seeks to address this scarcity.