CHAPTER 7

Leveraging Fashion Equity, the Absolute Benefit

In marketing literature, the concept of brand equity accounts for the additional value that a brand brings to a product.1 This concept has dramatically improved our knowledge of consumers’ reactions to and behavior toward branded products. Brand equity from the consumer perspective, as defined by Keller, is “the differential effect of brand knowledge on consumer responses to the marketing of the brand.”2 It refers to consumers’ reactions to an element of the marketing mix for a branded product, compared with their reactions to the same marketing mix for an identical product without any brand. Just as brand equity can explain why high equity brands appeal more to consumers than do low equity ones, fashion adds value to its related products. In this sense, consumer-based fashion equity accounts for the value that fashion adds to apparel and accessories, despite these products’ constantly varying attributes.3

The key benefits relate to consumers’ perceptions of fashion products’ favorable, unique, strong associations, from which they might benefit. Fashionable products appeal to consumers on the basis of the associations they convey, compared with the associations that nonfashionable products convey. In this chapter, we describe two main categories of fashion benefits: symbolic and experiential.

In Search of Symbolic Benefits

Fashion benefits represent personal values that consumers apply to apparel and accessories. The symbolic aspects of these benefits refer to the extrinsic advantages provided by the product and relate to people’s needs for social approval and personal expression. These benefits are particularly relevant for fashion products because, as we already have noted, they transmit nonverbal communication. In particular, fashion apparel and accessories represent social tools that fashion consumers can use to express themselves. That is, fashion is status determining, offering three prominent symbolic benefits: self-expression, social self-expression, and uniqueness.

Self-expression refers to people’s reliance on fashion to express themselves. Their choices of fashion apparel and accessories enable shoppers to convey a certain image of themselves and to express their identity.

Social self-expression entails the extent to which consumers use fashion products to present their self-image to others. Fashion products help consumers conform with their social environment; by encouraging consumers to choose products that belong to a particular fashion theme, fashion leads to conformity among all adopters who desire to follow the same trends.4 This search for conformity in turn enables people to be perceived as part of fashionable groups.5

Yet fashion apparel also helps people appear unique and singular. The search for uniqueness, in parallel with the search for conformity, can be satisfied by the value conveyed through fashion.

As fashion products depend much more on their symbolic significance than their physical characteristics for value, consumers’ choices depend on the products’ signification rather than their functionality. People choose their apparel and accessories with the knowledge that they offer visible clues of a self-image for others. As one shopper explained,

I only buy fashion clothes which give me the image I have about myself or I want to have. The most important thing for me when I buy a fashion product is the way I look. According to the clothes I choose, I can play with my looks. (Mary M., fashion shopper)

Fashion projects an image and acts as symbolic communication code for others, in this context, the search for conformity is critical, but so is the search for unique, original fashion products. Fashion shoppers want simultaneously to conform to others to obtain recognition and to maintain some level of originality through their fashion choices. This ambivalence mirrors Venkatesan’s concept of the degree of liberty: People want to be recognized as fashionable and accepted by their group, but they do not want to be indistinguishable from everyone else.6 For example,

It is important for me to fit in my friends’ group. I pay real attention to others and what they will think of me. I often buy fashion clothes but if everybody has the same pants or shirt. I don’t like too much, so I add some accessories or I change the color to be and feel different. (Lisa T., fashion shopper)

I always follow fashion trends and buy new clothes each season, but I try to keep my originality. I look for something kind of different but still fashionable. (Cindy P., fashion shopper)

As fashion products have the power to convey consumers’ self-image, identities, and preferences, fashion companies need to create fashion apparel and accessories that reveal symbolic meanings, so that they can develop strong emotional relationships with their customers. This power represents value that fashion adds to products. This value involves both fashion companies and shoppers. The meaning that shoppers assign to fashion items leads to their desire to purchase fashion products regularly, so that they can remain fashionable and preserve their self-image. Such shoppers also guarantee firms’ financial performance. By continuously changing fashion trends and themes, designers give the opportunity to their customers to play with their looks while maintaining their fashionable identities. This drive also results in higher sales volumes and profits for the company. Thus, fashion companies can gain considerable competitive advantages and differentiation by developing fashion assortments that convey specific values for their customers. The desirability of the items increases because they provide fashion equity to consumers, though companies benefit from this equity too. The first to offer the must have item for next season generally enjoys much larger market shares. Among fast-fashion companies, for example, the strategy of maintaining a wide, shallow assortment enables them to vary themes without supporting too much inventory while offering continually symbolic benefit to their shoppers. Many fashion brands and retailers pursue similar strategies to ensure they can react quickly to changes of fashion and offer possible means of differentiation and unique products to their devoted customers. The added values of fashion thus benefit fashion companies too. Fashion equity enables customers to have symbolic benefits and companies to gain from those values too. Hence, fashion brand managers should leverage these benefits to increase their profitability. This equity is also related to some experiential benefits for customers, established by fashion apparel and accessories.

In Search of Experiential Benefits

According to Keller, an experiential benefit stems from “what it feels like to use the product.”7 Regarding fashion apparel and accessories, the two main experiential benefits considered here are hedonism and ostentation. In a fashion context, they describe the specific feelings experienced by wearing a fashionable product. Hedonism refers to the pleasure linked to new fashion apparel and accessories and their variety; ostentation involves shoppers’ demonstration of being fashionable.

In more detail, hedonism involves the pleasure that consumers receive through their consumption; as Hirschman and Holbrook note, products often are bought not for their utility but mostly for pleasure.8

Hedonism is a philosophic doctrine that makes pleasure the main goal of life. People inherently seek satisfaction, which is the primary driver of their behavior and helps explain the irrational aspects of some purchases. That is, hedonism affirms that consumer behaviors are not always rational—who among us has never bought something merely for the pleasure of doing so? Fashion shoppers are similarly irrational consumers, in that they buy fashion apparel because of the pleasure they gain from these items. This experiential consumption emphasizes the role of affective variables too because fashion items relate to emotions, sensations, and pleasure, all of which influence shoppers’ decisions and choices.

In this discussion, we do not refer to apparel in general, which may have key functionalities, such as a coat to keep people warm in winter. Rather, we consider fashion apparel bought for the meaning and sensation it conveys. Pleasure goes beyond functionality for fashion apparel and accessories and, hedonic consumption relates more to symbolic elements than to tangible aspects of the product.

In addition to emotion and pleasure, hedonism pertains to the search for variety. Fashion apparel and accessories offer repeated and continuous changes; through this diversity of choices, fashion creates the potential for people to apply or modify their self-image.9 Consumers search for variety in fashion products so that they can experience a new form of pleasure each time trends change, as they can experiment with new items and, still remain fashionable:

I always feel great with new fashion clothes. Fashion is exciting and fun. For me, it is really enjoyable to look for and to buy a new fashion top for example. I like that. Ninety percent of my fashion purchases are made only because it pleases me. (Mary M., fashion shopper)

If shoppers feel any culpability for these hedonic purchases, they can find justification in apparel’s ability to conform with the social environment. Through the benefits they offer, fashion apparel and accessories support the development of pleasure and conformity, such that customers avoid the risk of being judged as laggards or being rejected by their peers. In turn, fashion purchases enable shoppers to gain more self-confidence in social contexts because they adopt the same looks as others, change when others change, and follow fashion trends. To leverage this form of justification, fashion managers should ensure that they offer a variety of products that change regularly to stimulate shoppers and induce new purchases. Changes in products create new experiences for shoppers, and thus more hedonism.

Ostentation is the other key experiential benefit of fashion products. People pay attention to the indirect effects of their choices when their consumption can be observed by others. This social effect is relevant for fashion products, which are highly visible. As fashion consumption is public, fashion shoppers can send messages to their social environment and demonstrate that they are fashionable. Moreover, ostentation implies a tendency to improve the person’s self-image through consumption, such that people define themselves and others with respect to what they possess.10 However, when people notice a difference between the way they appear to others and the way they want to be, they may feel unsatisfied. Shoppers’ reactions to this dissatisfaction often include purchasing new products to change or improve their appearance and come closer to their ideal image of themselves. Fashion apparel and accessories offer easily accessible means to achieve this change, because of their variety, and usually affordable prices. Thus, fashion products enable shoppers to reveal and convey to others the chosen image of themselves. Fashion customers enjoy displaying their new fashion purchases, talking about them, and sharing ideas, experiences, and advice about new trends especially through the development of social networks.

Veblen notes the importance of conspicuous products in social interactions.11 Consumption enables fashion shoppers to exhibit their wealth, taste, and knowledge about what is fashionable. Such benefits, achieved through the adoption of fashion products, in turn change customers’ social status by reflecting their personal self, identity, and social self. Tangible, visible products that express fashion symbolism affect consumers’ relationships with others, including the arousal of desired reactions. Thus, this conspicuous consumption can be explained by interpersonal influence and the potential to demonstrate social status, as the following quote indicates.

I like when my friends notice the new fashion apparel I just bought. I talk a lot with my friends about what I bought or will buy. I usually share my shopping experience with my friends. Fashion gives me the opportunity to show others who I am. Fashion products convey an image of ourselves and give us a status among others. (Kate C., fashion shopper)

Figure 7.1 details the main benefits that fashion possesses and transmits to shoppers, according to a two-level approach, individual and social.

Figure 7.1 Fashion benefits

By being fashionable, a product owns and transmits added value which benefits to its owner. Fashion equity, thus, spans both individual and social levels, and the benefits can be defined as symbolic or experiential. For example, a shopper benefits from the hedonic value of fashion at the interaction of the individual and experiential levels. Hedonism acts at the individual level because fashion shoppers benefit from enjoyable purchases and the variety they can access. Chosen fashion items convey this benefit to the person, rather than to the social environment. In contrast, ostentation benefits the shopper but also exerts an influence among others.

For fashion managers, fashion equity is a critical consideration, insofar as it offers a competitive advantage for fashion companies through added value, beyond the novelty or physical characteristics of any particular product. As multiple fashion products appear every day, managers must manage them closely to develop their fashion equity, through well-understood, strongly communicated benefits. By integrating considerations of fashion equity into their marketing efforts, managers may better maintain fashionable perceptions of their products, accelerate their adoption, and facilitate their diffusion. Then, fashion firms must make the most of these benefits to attract customers continually, regardless of changes in trends. In particular, they should determine appropriate marketing mix activities to interact with and communicate to shoppers, to prompt them to buy the latest fashion apparel and accessories. Targeting customers is an important step; it is in the best interest of fashion companies to focus on specific shoppers and become the epitome of the fashionable brand or retailer chosen by passionate fashion consumers.

Among the primary marketing mix activities, attractive pricing and promotion policies can convey both symbolic and experiential benefits and draw shoppers’ attention and desires. Companies also can adjust their retail store selection, store atmosphere, and displays. Such tools related to the point of sale lead fashion shoppers to enjoy their experience and want to spend more time in stores. Knowledgeable salespeople, who help shoppers find the best fit or give advice about the latest trends, also represent resources fashion managers can use to emphasize the hedonic experience of shopping, thus making shoppers more comfortable so that they stay longer, roam more, and maybe purchase additional items.

Macy’s went beyond this idea of helping their customers. To offer the best to its shoppers, Macy’s created Macy’s College, which trains the people who work in its stores, according to various profiles, from product development to store management. Through these programs, Macy’s teaches its employees how to best serve their customers, catch their attention, develop good customer relationships, and ensure positive experiences. By investing in training and developing customer services, Macy’s achieves a good return on investment, in the form of increased sales and profitability.

To emphasize uniqueness benefit, fashion firms can offer limited ­collections and collections cobranded with upscale designers. H&M is pioneer among fast-fashion retailers to enhance uniqueness thanks to specific collections. Each year, fashion fans wait for the announcement of H&M’s latest collaboration with a well-known designer. Karl Lagerfeld came first in 2004 and created a limited collection with this fast-fashion retailer; he was followed by many others designers, such as Viktor and Rolf in 2006, Roberto Cavalli in 2007, Sonia Rykiel in 2009, Lanvin in 2010, and Versace in 2011.

Private labels are another means to create uniqueness, leading many retailers to create their own brands and associated communication. These labels represent a tactic for retailers to present unique fashion collections to their shoppers at affordable price. As we noted previously, Target produces several private brands, such as Mossino, to attract fashionable shoppers to its stores across different products lines. Target customers may feel special by wearing the latest trendy trench created by this retailer.

Avant Premiere, Briefing, Jodhpur, and Version Originale are private labels owned by Galeries Lafayette in France, created to appeal to its different target markets. Each private label provides ready-to-wear offerings for women, men, and children, as well as home goods.

Such private labels establish specific atmospheres in stores, with a feeling of uniqueness surrounding the specific collection and assortment for fashion customers. Thus, these distinctive offers benefit both shoppers, who can not only conform with fashion trends but also achieve some differentiation, and the fashion firms, which enjoy increased margins and profits.

Special in-store presentations, displays, and discounts for new collections also help arouse the appeal of fashion-related benefits. According to their communication style, fashion companies reach different customers and emphasize particular fashion values. For example, Ralph Lauren’s advertising campaigns often show a group of models, wearing apparel that adopts the same fashion theme, such as college days or rugby. For its Spring-Summer 2013 collection, Tommy Hilfiger relied on a marine theme, exhibited by dozens of models representing different ages and ethnicities. The ads also emphasized a team spirit, with the same kind of clothes appealing to diverse persons, in line with ideas of both conformity and fashion’s symbolic value for social self-expression. In turn, it helped shoppers identify themselves with a group of their choice.

Fashion companies have many tools at their disposal to interact with shoppers and emphasize the value added by fashion through their apparel and accessories. Fashion reveals benefits that can explain why these products attract consumers’ interest, even if they offer few innovative features. It is up to fashion managers to deliver and emphasize these benefits to fashion customers.