Brand Authenticity impact on Brand Equity - Current customers

Heritage

When asked about the importance of heritage within the luxury industry, the interviewees seemed to agree on the fact that heritage is not the first thing that comes into their mind when they think about luxury brands and that is not a crucial attribute to define a luxury brand.

Interviewee 6: “It doesn’t mean that if it’s a new brand it’s not good”.

Interviewee 8: "it’s not the first thing that I have in mind when I think about it or when I see something from it".

FG Participant B: “I believe it’s something that you think about unconsciously. When I buy a product maybe I don’t think immediately about the story behind it, but when you asked me to think about it of course I think it’s important”.

Nevertheless, the researchers have noticed that while people at the beginning thought, as above, that heritage is not something that customers immediately think about and it is not the reason that made them buy luxury brands products, the more the topic was discussed the more they realise that it is a crucial factor.

FG Participant C: “I think that I like the history, but it’s not a driving factor behind the purchase, but of course I like that it has a history but probably it wouldn’t affect me”.

Brand Imagery. As the discussion about this topic continued, in both interviews and the focus group, heritage has resulted to have a positive influence on Brand Imagery and it has also started to be seen as a competitive advantage, that can differentiate a luxury brand from another.

Interviewee 4: “Heritage gives them (people, ed.) the trust”.

Interviewee 6: "It shows that they are a stable brand".

Interviewee 8: "they are able to create fashion stuff...because they have an historical tradition and professional skills".

Interviewee 9: "Because it has been alive for a long time so people trust the brand more because of its longevity [...] you respect the brand a lot more because of heritage"

FG Participant A: “I think that the heritage really defines the brand image and if you have no history you have no roots, and with all the brands coming up now, you should leverage on it and put the focus on what you have already. You don’t build it overnight, and the history that you have is a competitive advantage, it’s something that defends you, they cannot copy it”.

Engagement. Engagement represents the willingness to invest time, energy, money and other resources into the brand in addition to the purchase and consumption moments. During the interviews, these elements have been interpreted by the interviewees as a feeling to be more curious about the brand, more interested in searching information about it on the internet and in following it on Social Media.

Heritage has been seen an attribute that currently does not create much engagement among current customers: the participants have proven not to be much informed on the topic but manifested the interest on informing themselves after luxury brands start pushing content about this.

Interviewee 4: "Well, I’m not much informed now… I could probably start reading about old models and about the tradition of the brand and their history, but I believe that Louis Vuitton itself should first stimulate some kind of interest in me".

Attachment. It represents the consumer’s attitude towards the brand that goes beyond the simple

“yes, I like it”, but it’s something more. Interviewees have shown a deep attachment with their luxury brands products, giving them a sort of expressive value. For some, having a luxury product is a way to show that they share the same values of that specific luxury brand. Thanks to heritage, customers get to know the brand and can create a deep relationship with it.

FG Participant E: “I think that the idea that having a LV bag gives you is really important, in the sense that when I have my Louis Vuitton, I feel more empowered and I know that I’m portraying a strong image of myself, so it’s a little bit a part of my

personality. When I have a LV product with me it’s not just about having a cool bag, it’s something that defines me, I’m showing an image of myself, in a way a sort of share the values of Louis Vuitton, like that the quality is important and also the heritage, this kind of things. In a sense, these products have an expressive function”.

FG Participant B: “And if you now the story behind the brand, you become more attached to the brand, because it’s part of the relationship you develop with the brand.

If you don’t know the history behind you’re missing a huge part maybe and it could definitely affect the idea you have of the brand and the relationship you have with it”.

Loyalty. Loyalty, according to Keller (2001), refers to the customers’ purchasing in terms of frequency and monetary value. As a final step of the Consumer Brand Resonance, loyalty has also been see as factor that is influenced by heritage. Thanks to heritage, as explained above, customers understand the values of the brand and make them their own, with, as a consequence, the willingness to keep sharing these values by purchasing more from a luxury brand.

Interviewee 4: “I think that (thanks to heritage, ed.) it becomes a long-life relationship”.

Interviewee 6: “I would definitely want to buy something more (thanks to heritage, ed.)".

Interviewee 9: “I could be more loyal with Louis Vuitton because it has been there for a long time”.

FG Participant E: “ [...] maybe if you were undecided whether to buy a product from LV or from another brand you might choose Louis Vuitton because you know all the things about the story and stuff”.

Quality

Quality has been cited by current customers as main reason to purchase luxury brands items, proving the crucially of this attribute, as it is the main point of differentiation with non-luxury brands.

Interviewee 4: “(quality, ed.) is the most important part of it."

Interviewee 6: “(quality is, ed.) probably the number one (attribute, ed.)".

Interviewee 8: "It is essential (quality, ed.). I mean, I’m going to spend a lot of money on that particular item, so the quality must be the first value".

Consumer Judgments. According to Keller (2001) brand quality refers to how customers perceive the quality of a brand after having experienced a product (see intra 2.3 Brand Equity) and it is one of the attributes of Consumer Judgments. Current customers both perceive and experience the high quality of the brand that they own, proving that they search for an extraordinary and outstanding quality.

Interviewee 4: "Every stitch, every piece of leather, every zipper is high quality"

Interviewee 8: “It’s (quality, ed.) excellent [...] you can see that it’s an excellent material".

Interviewee 9: "I think that (quality, ed.) it’s amazing, it’s long-lasting and it’s durable".

Engagement. Generally, quality has not been appointed as one of the main attributes that make people inform themselves about luxury brands, since high quality is an attribute that customers expect to find in this typology of products, so it is not something they research.

Interviewee 10: “I just know that the quality is good, so I don’t need any other information about it”.

FG Participant A: “I know that I should be sure about the quality, so I trust the brand already with that, I’m sure about the quality.”

Attachment. Quality is one of the main reasons to create attachment with luxury brands through the products that the customers own, because current customers feel their products as part of themselves and as something that they will have for their entire life. Moreover, the quality is perceived as so exceptional that the products will also survive their owners, being handed from one generation to the other, enhancing even more the attachment with the brand which could become a family brand.

Interviewee 4: "I’d like to keep it (my Louis Vuitton bag, ed.) for my entire life, so I’d be very careful with it."

FG Participant E: “[…] it’s more something that lasts forever in a way. And when you have a LV product, you can use it for 20 years and it will be still the same, thanks to this asset that is has. […] something that you give to your kids, it goes through generations”.

Loyalty. Quality is the main influencing factor on loyalty. Current customers have displayed their intention to purchase more products in the future thanks to the attribute of quality, since they are sure about the quality and are sure that the products will last for a long time.

Interviewee 8: “[...] people from my family who are now kind of old have something from Louis Vuitton, so I’ve felt in love with the brand already in my childhood because I used to take the stuff from them and as soon as I had some money of my own or I could ask for an important gift, like for my graduation, I’ve bought a Louis Vuitton product, because I know that they are long lasting and I will always have it”.

Interviewee 4: "in terms of loyalty, quality is the main driver for me, so it is a growing relationship".

Sincerity

The concept of “being sincere” is one of the personality’s attribute that a brand could have according to Keller (2001). In his authenticity analysis, Napoli et al. (2016) describes sincerity as the fact that a company acts for the love of its products instead for a merely economic purpose. This definition has been interpreted and discussed by the interviewees with several meanings: CSR, ethicality (workers’ treatment, …), sustainability (recycling, raw materials, …), supply chain.

As for heritage, the researchers have noticed that current customers are not much informed about sincerity and do not have a clear opinion about the topic.

Interviewee 6: “I feel that I’m not much informed about this topic so sorry but I wouldn't be able to answer that question”.

Nevertheless, the more the discussion on this continued, the more they seemed interested, especially in the focus group, pointing out that this is a very present topic that should be addressed to customers by luxury brands, as it will be displayed in the Communication part.

Brand imagery. As specified above, a way to describe a brand’s personality is using the attribute of sincerity. In general, current customers would expect luxury brands to be sincere.

Interviewee 6: “[...] if they’ve survived this long they must have done a pretty good job”.

Interviewee 8: “[...] yes (using the word sincere to describe Louis Vuitton, ed.) just because I trust the brand".

Interviewee 9: "I think that they are what they say, so their actions are aligned with what they promise... in this sense, I believe that they can be considered sincere, because they are able to meet your expectations."

FG Participant C: “For the price I pay, I would expect that they are sincere. Like, it would not expect that they have a factory in Pakistan or Bangladesh where they do not treat their people well. It’s important that the company itself is very ethical, especially in clothing, in terms that now we have so many brands and fast fashion, and lately I’m trying to purchase from brands that I know that it’s not child labour production”.

Regarding this argument, as explained above (see intra 7.1 Brand Authenticity impact on Brand Equity - Prospect Customers), the topic of brand ambassadors and their own personality that could be reflected on the brand that they promote has been further analysed also in the focus group with current customers. Specifically, the fact that a brand ambassador is perceived as sincere by his or her audience could influence the idea that this audience has on the brand.

Participants agreed on the fact that brand ambassadors’ personality have a major impact on the Brand Imagery and that they are key to communicate brand sincerity and to represent the brand values, as it will be explained later in this section. Current customers pointed out that for them it is important to be in line with the brand ambassadors’ personality and that they could not relate themselves with a brand promoted by brand ambassadors not in line with their own values.

FG Participant D: “I think that, especially like Louis Vuitton, it’s so much based on reputation and so much on this “projecting image” on you as an owner, you don’t want to be connected to bad celebrities [...] And they should be careful in the selection process”.

FG Participant A: “And also they should not be too far from you. Like, if a person is so far away from me, I cannot actually relate to that person”.

When talking about brand ambassadors, the topic of “passive brand ambassadors” came out.

Current customers do not want to be linked to brands whose brand ambassadors’ personality do not reflect their own, neither to passive brand ambassadors, who have been defined as “normal”

people that wear the brand and publicize it on social media.

FG Participant C: “[...] “passive” brand ambassadors, so you are not really officially a brand ambassador, but Louis Vuitton [...] is making everyone with a Louis Vuitton product a passive brand ambassador, because every person wearing LV represents it.”

FG Participant A: “[...] because if I see teenagers wearing fake Louis Vuitton’s and hashtagging the brand, they are also brand ambassadors, even though the company don’t know or want. [...] It’s more like that what I see around me, I think that that is representing the brand.”

Consumer Brand Resonance. Sincerity has not been directly appointed as attribute that could enhance engagement, attachment and loyalty, but the topic will be further developed in the communication paragraph at the end of the section.

Craftsmanship

For current customers, craftsmanship is a fundamental element that should be present in luxury products. It is an element that makes them unique and that gives them a soul, because it is made with passion and that also makes them more exclusive.

Interviewee 9: "when something is handcrafted it adds a big element".

Interviewee 10: "Craftsmanship in my opinion is a super important attribute for luxury brands because it would influence my desire to buy that specific product or not".

FG Participant E: “I think that craftsmanship is really important, especially nowadays that a lot of products can be super cheap and still of a good quality because maybe are produced by kids underpaid and working 24h a day.”.

FG Participant B: “Yeah and I also think that it’s more unique, because it’s not made by machine that means that it’s not exactly the same product. Of course, you don’t see it, but it has a personality”.

Brand Performance. The researchers have tested the relation between craftsmanship and Brand Performance, specifically regarding reliability and durability, to analyse whether handmade products are seen as more reliable and long lasting, adding value in the eyes on the consumer.

Only one participant has underlined the direct link between craftsmanship and the Brand Performance attributes above cited. For all the others, craftsmanship is more about a psychological value, which will be analysed in Brand Imagery.

FG Participant B: “I think that these two factors (reliability and durability, ed.) are among the reasons why I buy the brand. Their reliability and durability, of course their products are made to last and their quality is good, so that is why you spend that much money. That’s one of the main reasons”.

FG Participant E: “Yeah but I also think that for the connection with durability I don’t really think that it can impact that much, but for sure the intangible aspect yes. The main thing (about craftsmanship, ed.) is about the intangible aspect of the product.”

Brand imagery. The attribute of craftsmanship has been described as something that add psychological value to the product, so it can be linked with the intangible elements that the consumers perceive about a brand. Regarding craftsmanship, there is the idea of someone who has taken his or her time to create something specifically for you as a customer; craftsmanship is seen as an art, something done with passion and that makes the products unique.

Interviewee 6: "If it's completely hundred percent made by machine then it doesn't have a soul."

Interviewee 9: “For me it is really important when a product is handmade because I feel kinda unique when I wear it".

FG Participant D: “[...] when it’s produced by hand it gives the product a soul. Because somebody put some art in it”.

FG Participant E: “So for me it is good that it is a product made by kind of an artist, a person that actually studied to do that and that it’s really devoted to its job”.

Engagement. For current customers, craftsmanship is not seen as a topic that could boost engagement: current customers appreciate the presence of craftsmanship in luxury products and expect them to be handcrafted. An exception to this trend that has emerged during the focus group is the possibility that some luxury brands give to their customers to personalize their products with their initials. Customers need to spend some time to bring their items to the shop to personalize them and the process of printing the initials is visible by the customers: in this way, they engage with the brand and become aware and knowledgeable about the craftsmanship.

FG Participant E: “When I wanted to purchase the bag that I own now, I remember that I did some researchers because I saw that many girls had the initials on their LV bags

and I wanted to have them as well. I discovered that I could do it directly in the shops at the moment of the purchase so of course I engaged with the brand in that sense”.

Attachment. Craftsmanship, as cited above, is an element that helps in creating attachment with the brand: customers feel that their items have a soul and they become more attached to those and from those to the specific luxury brand. Moreover, building on the example of the personalization with the initials, thanks to this specific element people get even more attached to their products.

FG Participant E: “[...] also the fact that you can put your initials, I think it helps the process of feeling that the product is only yours, and I think that when it comes to luxury products, it’s even stronger that feeling, in a way that you feel that you have that product and nobody else has it”.

Loyalty. Current customers did not seem much informed about the craftsmanship of luxury brands specifically, even though they value this attribute. Two of the interviewees have affirmed that they would be willing to buy more luxury products if they were sure that some of the parts of the items are handcrafted, proving that loyalty could be influenced by craftsmanship.

Interviewee 8: “I will be happier to buy something that I know that it is in part handcrafted”.

Interviewee 9: "I think I would definitely buy even more if I knew that it is hand-crafted, or at least I would try, because it would be much more desirable for me".

Communication

As for the Prospect Customers, also for the Current Customers the researchers have decided to analyse the communication topic in a separate paragraph, for the same reasons mentioned above. In fact, Current Customers also raised the point that a proper communication regarding the above-mentioned dimensions is missing.

More specifically, for heritage, most of the interviewees were not much informed about history and values, but they showed interest in knowing more. Heritage has been the most discussed topic and they proposed several ideas that luxury brands could develop to boost its

communication regarding heritage, which would stimulate engagement and attachment to the brand.

FG Participant A: “In the store where I’m working, which is quite premium, it’s high-end I would say, we actually do the same. I mean, we try to talk about the history, so even though a person, and we have a lot of Millennials coming in, and even though they do not buy anything they will still have the idea of the story and we build a relationship with them, which is quite different, because we don’t care if you enter, buy something and then we won’t see you ever again, we want to create trust in them”.

FG Participant D: “I think Louis Vuitton should stimulate curiosity in an indirect way.

Like, maybe posting in social media or in their advertisement or maybe making the showroom as a trigger for curiosity, because people can see it from outside and enter it, focusing rather than on the product itself on the history. Now for example you can do this “cam code” where people can go with their phone and scan the QR code and the story could pop up, like a video or something”.

FG Participant A: “I still believe that this memory thing, the fact that it has history and that you can be part of it, they should address it in the advertising or do some like black and white images that bring you back to the roots. Like you FG Participant C said that you are not informed but that you are interested in knowing more, this could be the trigger and a point of strength they should leverage on”.

FG Participant E: “Especially also on social media, a lot of people follow LV even though they do not own a product, because maybe they just like the brand but they didn’t get the chance to buy one. An it would be nice to get info about their story, culture and heritage from Instagram for example, which is really easy to use and you can get info and then maybe go on the website and discover more and maybe this can lead to purchase also, because you might get some information you didn’t know before [...]

Especially if it’s for Millennials”.

Sincerity is a very much discussed topic and, as mentioned above, Current Customers would like to know more about it, but luxury brands should be the ones that start the conversation with their customers. Social Media is the perfect mean to do so, especially when the target group is Millennials, because most of the current customers follow luxury brands on this platform and engage with their content.

In document Authenticity and Equity in Luxury (Sider 93-105)