Cultural Branding: Turning Brands Into Icons for Fashion & Luxury - Essay Sample

Introduction

Cultural branding refers to a discipline that guides innovation in a systematic manner. The cultural branding ideology mainly aims at preserving the existing community practices through innovative marketing techniques. The literature review on cultural branding will involve a discussion on how a brand turns to be icons. Further, the review will involve the relevance of cultural branding mainly in the fashion industry as well as in the luxury sphere in the current generation whereby the new generation attitude would be analysed towards fashion and luxury including the likely limits and gaps that might be encountered in the process of conducting my research.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Concept of Cultural Branding

Generally, most company product value is determined by what they symbolize more than what the real product means, a condition that facilitates them signify as an icon of a company. According to Holt (2004, p. 9) study, companies like Coca-cola have retained their value in the market for quite a long time, a condition that has facilitated loyal sinking in customers' confidence from generation to generation, thus changing its name becomes a risk. According to Holt, icon brand creates a myth of identity whereby, through powerful symbolism as well as the resulting collective anxieties lead to social change. Holt, further warns that icon branding is not built through strategies on conventional branding, which mainly centres' on factors such as personality branding, benefits as well as emotional relationship. Rather, it is determined by the ridged cultural perspective regarding traditional themes on marketing such as the positioning, equity branding, targeting as well as brand loyalty.

Contrary, viral branding is aimed at ensuring the awareness of product existence is spread in a wide area, either over the internet benefiting the company through improving the image. Different from the brand icon which results to higher productivity of a company, viral branding is not an assurance of a company positivity since through the process of spreading, the idea may be perceived in a negativity way by the individuals thus tarnishing the name of the company a condition that may render it unproductive.

Relevance of Cultural Branding on the Fashion Industry Today

According to Ko and Lee (2011, p.92) study, in the current world, the concept of cultural branding is based on identity. The techniques of branding through the utilization of cultural heritage have facilitated to strong identity that is shared widely among various cultures enhancing their authenticity and their credibility in their cultural levels. The tactic has gained root in different cultural diversities such as those of dressing, music, and street collaboration, a condition that has led to the formation of the specific cultural brand icon. Ko and Lee (2011,p.92) the implementation of cultural heritage in branding plays an advantageous part in the current world of marketing in that it positions the organizations with depth credibility and authenticity for the consumers whereby the brand that is heritage fused attain high market influence in the market.

In the current millennium, the mode of dressing as really changed, whereby the current generation is tuning to a fashion brand that is reflective of the ancient back practices. Research on cultural branding on fashion, established the youth under the age of 25 years were the primary consumers of the developing culture on the streetwear. With the spreading diversity among the youth tags such as hip hop, the groups are using the cultural practices in identifying themselves through visual indications such as dressing. The process of social interaction within the streets has further lead to increased innovation among the individuals in the street, whereby through the established innovations, they have been able to think of their own on how they can come up with some other new innovations in order to outdo the existing. This condition has facilitated to flooding of various cultural fashion representations within the streets whereby various brand icons symbolizing different cultural have been developed. Youth cultural and fashion lying under context-dependent represents a key component when streetwear is being investigated, whereby one considers the communication intention on the dressing and the identification of the individual dressed in them.

The continuing cultural branding has further facilitated to innovative competitiveness in the field of artist such as music, films and video due to diversity of artist innovation established that the future of branding cultural and art has closely been linked with the development of theory of marketing as well as branding which have been considered to be non-profit as well as the on-going changes in the field of contention. This move has accounted for the resultant of various cultural innovative mechanisms in the entertainment ground such as that of poetry, music, and films. The artists have integrated several cultural tactics relating to multiple cultures, a condition that has led to the attraction of their performance from different diversions contributing to their market expansion. The use of artistic images by the artist in the marketing strategy persuades the consumers' positive evaluation due to the presence of high implication culture. However, despite the exposure of the brand to the alliance, the evaluation of consistent personality won't be affected in any way since the artist signal is promotional.

The entire process of branding entails expanding the field of product and service market. Cultural branding has of late been associated with artist collaboration as well as brand collaboration in various parts of the world. The impact of cultural branding in corporate excelling, established institution diversity, as well as centers of excellence in branding of corporates. Through the collaboration of artists in an institution, enhances the production of more quality services that are marketable due to their reflection on people's interest that is more understood due to their symbolism. When dealing with the branding of corporates, perceived the corporate image. The researcher focused on company external perception, whereby he compared the identity of the corporate that dealt with the company's internal perception. The researcher further established that the collaboration framework provided a competitive advantage through the reduction of cost such as those of communication hence enhancing the group image as well as their product through an increase of sale. While, Dowling suggests that, the companies that are most successful in the world mostly invest in their images. He adds that developing an image as a marketing asset coordinates the vision of the company, communication of market strategy of the corporate, and design of the organization and culture. Branding cooperation further creates a marketing image that facilitates customer satisfaction, thus enhances customer loyalty.

Branding strategy is mainly considered valuable when associated with certain artists and their work. Through the persistence of the inclusion of artists' work in the product branding, leads to the accumulation of customer trust and loyalty for a long time, thus leading the existing artist features in a product becoming its cultural icon. Smith's (2013) study established that artists may serve the value of national icon in support of the national identity. At the level of the corporate, artistic activities embodies imagination whereby they deepen their aesthetic experience that is possessed by the consumers in relation to the brand as well as the corporation. Additionally, artist skills have widely been utilized in the creation of branding logos that are used in determining strategic positioning as well as the development of managerial expertise. Berthoin (2013) studied the impact of artistic intervention in motivating the change in an organization. In his findings, he established that the use of creative interventions facilitates to over 27 percent of organization growth. Also, Lee et al. (2015) established the usefulness of visual art in some to enhance their perceived luxury of brands.

The act of fashion branding through the utilization of cultural cold enhances rigidity and recognition of a certain community. This technique of cultural branding enhances the understanding of specific cultural symbols and their meaning through fashion. The techniques are currently utilized in the field of marketing to different unit customers who may feel willing to be associated with the specific community cultural code. Different cultural codes have of late been introduced in the market due to increased competition in fashion design. Cultural codes create an identity that is linked to ethnicity, religion, and symbols. When shearing these links such as the symbols, it creates a feeling of binding among the people. Mouret (2013), in his study, established that the act of expressing cultural codes through fashion might be a demonstration of emotional expression in the way that the body relates to the cloth. According to Goffman (1995) research, established that some clothes are designed as a communication tool that is used for sending the information regarding certain community identities whereby they are used to give the intended impression.

Cultural branding has also been experienced in the current market of fashion, whereby several traditional acts have been considered in fashion design among different manufacturers. However, several manufacturers company have encountered different accusations regarding cultural appropriation. In the year 2015, the Marant company was criticized for designing a dress that was considered to be similar to a traditional blouse that existed for centuries by the Mexico tradition that consisted of the indigenous community. The criteria of appropriation in fashion have continued to face several challenges in the current generation borrowing of cultural practices from others may be offensive to the traditional cultural holders.

Relevance of Cultural Branding in Luxury Brands Strategies Today

Due to the revolution of living, today, the segment of luxury is changing a condition that calls for the inclusion of more advanced strategies as well as the models in the business. Luxury aimed at delivering competent intention requires more advanced execution mechanisms. Currently, the desire for good products that are authentic for both the environment, especially those of personal health, has contributed to the demand for new strategies for luxury implementation. Thus it requires full inclusion of various factors such as the cultural capital to create the brand identity that is acceptable.

The continuous change in luxury due to cultural branding, has widely facilitated the widening of social boundaries due to existing cultural differences in various sectors such as beliefs, the existing myth, as well as a personal interest. The condition has brought a lot of mixtures in the social relations among individuals that shear a common cultural origin. Potavanich's (2015, P.14) study states that the view of luxury on traditional is mainly theorized from the perspective of the market, whereby it focuses on the market interface and consumers. The research further emphasizes in the future, and luxury will be meaningless if the consumers continue to control what is perceived as a luxury. Based on his findings, the luxury meaning falls under the regard of the traditional conspicuous model of consumption through the use of price perception and self-consciousness that involves the perceived uniqueness and quality as the conventional luxury indicators (Potavanich 2015, P.10). He further adds, the overall meaning of luxury does not n...