Role of Brand Management of the Luxury Fashion Brand in the Global Economic Crisis: A Case Study of Aeffe Group

Abstract

Abstract In the last two decades, the luxury fashion industry has generated much interest and discussions among academicians and managers since it has became a consolidated economic sector in the late 1990s (Truong, McColl & Kitchen, 2009). Despite the significance of luxury fashion sector both in terms of market value and rate of growth, there are few empirical studies concerning luxury brand management (Kapferer, 2008; Okonkwo, 2007) mainly focused on specific topics such as: brand protection (Clarke & Owens, 2000; Elsemore, 2000), brand extension (Dias & Ryab, 2002; Sjodin, 2008; Stankeviciute & Hoffmann, 2010), counterfeiting (Gistri, Romani, Pace, Gabrielli & Grappi, 2009; Nia & Zaichkowsky, 2000) or luxury brand personality (Fionda & Moore, 2009; Phau & Prendergast, 2000). The same definition of luxury brand is still open for debate in the literature (Atwal & Williams, 2009). From a product perspective, luxury brands can be distinguished from non-luxury brands by product-related associations. Theref...