AD6605 - FMP Journey Process Book

FMP Process Journey Book – ‘Where It Started’ Jessica-Laine Vels (1910218) 5,866 Word Count.

Contents:

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Initial Idea & Why.

Pivotal Documentaries.

Research Based Direction.

How the Loss of the Luxury Market Began.

Looking at Depop & Other E-Commerce Platforms.

Chosen Consumer & Research Behind.

The Conclusion.

Initial Idea & Why. Upon my reflection of my 360-campaign module, I found a drastic issue that lays within the luxury market.

Where over the course of the last few decades and the various platforms and remodelled marketing tactics, there has been a significant drop in the luxury market and devaluation. This is, where the way our consumers and even industry itself views the luxury market and brands along with in a highly demolished way compared to say 30 years ago. My interest within this current problem within our industry lead me to where I found my pathways for where my FMP was to take me, the different doors it opened and the solvent for this identified issue.

This initial idea and start point of where I would begin my research were due to this early on identified problem that not simply the luxury market was facing, however rather the individual brands which categorise themselves within this market. However, it was more so the more I began reading articles of loss of transparency just how deep this problem stemmed from but most importantly how the progression of technology could potentially have a first identified hinderance. Which in revue is a controversial opinion, however this was something I felt strongly about, since for myself as a brand is luxury based.

Through this progression essay, I will be walking through and explaining the process and step by step actions I took within my research that led me to my final FMP conclusion. Additionally, answering all the big ‘Why’ questions surrounding the reasoning for each individual decision made.

Pivotal Documentaries.

For myself, I have always received information best through visual learning, these meaning images, documentaries, or even podcasts. So, my first place of research revolved around various fashion and luxury fashion documentaries. My first one I discovered was on Channel 4, called ‘Luxury Fashion for Less’, this was hosted by Sophie Morgan and Michelle Ackerley.

Where they spoke to industry insiders about the exposure of certain luxury fashion labels untruths to seem reduced, whereas is the complete opposite, let me explain.

Within this documentary there was many insights, however I will be exploring the two most relevant to which fitted my idea. Firstly, the focus upon outlets.

This program looked into Cheshire Oaks, one of the North’s largest outlet shopping centres. This segment focussed two people who did their monthly shopping trip, following them around for the day to see what exactly they were buying and which brands specifically. To this couple, they had the view of outlet shops to be selling items which were last seasons, this proved to not be the case at all. Well, in interview with Pooja Adam, “Whilst most of us assume that everything in these stores is simply last season, 80% of the items are, in fact, produced just for outlets. People don’t realise they’re spending so much money for something that was made specifically for outlet. They don’t know that it didn’t come from a pull-price store originally,” (kulniece, 2022).

Poota continued to go on to explain how you can identify a true bargain from an item designed for the outlet shops, “It is very important to look at the ticket - if it does have the two letters OE, it means ‘’Outlet Exclusive. If you see something with 30 per cent, it’s probably made just for outlets,’’ she added.” This segment was something that truly spiked my interest, purely based on how unaware all these shoppers are, believing in good faith that these reduced prices are for legitimate products.

I found this to be an extremely disappointing realisation, that so many brands such as Ralph Lauren, Lacost, Ted Baker, etc and many more brands outside the realm focussed upon for this documentary were affectively lying to their consumers. Finally, the subject of garment comparison came up, focussing directly on Levi’s jeans, where the comparison of a pair of Levi jeans to a pair of £12 Tesco jeans. Focussing on the origins of the fabric, and the durability of the fabric compared to the latter pair. Sally Deighton, who’s worked with big brands, such as ASOS and M&S, for more than two decades, claimed that it doesn’t always have to be the case. ‘’I think there are some great brands out there who do a really good job. However, when testing the durability, it was proven that for the most expensive out the two brands, Levi’s jeans proved to be the most colour transfer and shrinkage after a wash compared to the Tesco pair. So, this raises the question that as for years we have perceived the higher the price the better the quality, hence the term of buy quality not quantity. Does this mean our money is being spent on items that are not worth that extra investment now days? Simply by cutting corners for major fashion brands.

Lastly, another relevant documentary I focussed on was the ‘Chanel Shoes but No Salary’ documentary. This was led by Giulia Mensitieri, where she was exposing the high luxury treatment of its workers, and complete disregard to the people behind the garment works. Which, in reality is unacceptable, however expected more so in the fast fashion market level, but hardly I the high fashion area. The reality of fashion was illustrated by Mensitieri’s chance introduction, eight years ago, to her subject matter. She met “Mia”, a successful Italian stylist who had moved to Paris: “She was wearing Chanel shoes and carrying a Prada handbag, being flown across the world in business class. I never would have imagined that she was in the situation she was in.” Mia couldn’t afford to rent a room, so she was couch surfing at a friend’s house behind a screen in the kitchen. “Sometimes she had no money for her phone bill. She was eating McDonald’s every day. She never knew when she would be paid for a job and how much she would get. For example, for a week’s work, a very big luxury brand gave her a voucher for €5,000 (£4,500) to spend in their boutique.” True, Mia could have sold it (and, among hard-up fashion workers, there is a lively market in reselling luxury goods). But Mensitieri points out that working in fashion means being seen in a constantly updated uniform of beautiful, expensive clothes and accessories – paid for by vouchers such as the one Mia received instead of a salary. “This situation is nothing exceptional. Mia is just a paradigm of what is going on,” (marsh, 2022). This dirty underbelly of the luxury fashion industry is becoming increasingly subject to open knowledge, especially where the people who have been spat back out are finally speaking out, one interviewee, a former fashion journalist at a glossy magazine, describes how she was dropped by her coterie of friends and colleagues one day. They just suddenly stopped taking her calls or responding to her emails. There was no explanation. “This is the violence everyone told me about,” says Mensitieri. “Once you’re out, you’re out.” There can be a trauma attached to such sudden ejection.

“All your social relationships are in that world. They’re gone.” From being exceptional, now you have transgressed in some unmentionable way. Or, simply, you are not special enough anymore. “Finding work in a new sector can be difficult because ‘normal’ people behave so differently from what you’re used to.” Finding a job can be difficult, coming from an industry that those on the outside tend to look down on as fluffy and lightweight, (marsh, 2022). So, my interrogation still stands, is corruption beyond simply the fall of transparency, garment production, etc. However, are there now more likenesses with those of the fast fashion realm of the ill treatment of the exact people who helped built the label of the luxury fashion label as disposable?

Research Based Direction.

My research began taking direction when I dove into the specific area of how these sustainable platforms have hindered the reputation luxury fashion has retained for years, to put it in simple terms, the platforms such as Depop, Vinted, Klarna etc have in my eyes exploited the message luxury brands try to portray to their customers, however, this is not to say this is the singular reason to the fall of luxury, but rather in my opinion a large contributor, specifically during the pandemic. In other words, there was years of prior build up, seen when new platforms came out in the mid-2000s, such as Facebook, Instagram, Depop, etc. However, this was pushed over the metaphorical cliff when the Pandemic hit, to which I will now delve into this secular area. mid the coronavirus pandemic, every company’s first priority is, of course, to protect the health and safety of employees, consumers, and business partners. Indeed, luxury companies have pivoted toaddress urgent public-health needs: factories that produced scarves and perfume now manufacture face masks and hand sanitizer, and many luxury groups have made monetary donations to hospitals and other not-for-profit organizations. At the same time, with millions of people relying on the luxury-goods industry to make a living— from factory workers and retail-store employees to small-town artisans and craftsmen—industry leaders are planning ahead and wrestling with longer-term strategic questions to ensure the survival of their businesses.

In this sector, I discuss the impact of the crisis on the luxury-goods department. I discovered two sets of priorities for industry luxury branding: short-term actions for “navigating the now” and longer-term considerations for shaping the future. This was a marketing theorem that continuously kept becoming apparent. the pandemic has certainly shaken some of the foundational aspects of the luxury industry—and some of these changes could be permanent, (anchille, 2022).

Even before the pandemic struck, independent luxury-goods wholesalers in Europe — in part because of luxury brands moving to vertical integration over the past 20 years and, more recently, the growth of e-commerce. This pandemic might force some of them out of business. The damage could extend to brands that have not yet fully transitioned to a vertically integrated distribution model, as well as to upstart brands that need wholesale channels to reach new customers and to finance the development of their full collections. To survive, wholesalers are likely to adopt aggressive commercial and discount policies—which, at least in the medium term, could hurt the luxury positioning of brands that don’t have a concession model.

Now, wholesalers have taken these luxury goods and exploited them on ‘conscious’ platforms, now, Millennials (those born 1980–95) opted more for experiences and “Instagram-able moments” rather than luxury items. Baby boomers (born 1946–64), too, were moving in this direction, having already accumulated luxury products over the years, (anchille, 2022). While we expect the positive momentum of experiential luxury to persist, it will slow down in the short term as consumers temporarily revert to buying goods over experiences. Time and again, the luxury industry has proved capable of reinvention. We are confident about the sector’s long-term potential. But some brands will emerge from the crisis stronger, while others will struggle to preserve the integrity of their business. Much will depend on their ability to respond to the short-term urgencies related to COVID-19 while simultaneously planning and executing for the future.

Now, the question posed is to which we will explore further in detail later on is, ‘does this new reinvention of mean the end of the luxury market itself’, is it even reversable and do we have the capacity to discover a new way for the luxury market to regrow in a new form?

How the Loss of the Luxury Market Began.

This question suggested is in fact a domino effect, in this case, it starts with brand un-transparency. Fashion is, often literally, a world of smoke and mirrors.

It is an industry that presents its wares with a glamour that belies the often-unsavoury way they’re made, as though Shell were to launch its latest offshore oil rig by building a glitzy model of it in Paris’s Grand Palais then inviting press and influencers to come take a look.

But unlike oil, clothes are a luxury. They’re sold not through logic, but emotion: you don’t need that new Dior jacket, but my god you want it. To gin up that yearning, brands use all kinds of techniques, from your typical glossy ad campaign to the murkier world of influencers, and an entirely opaque array of manufacturing tricks. These are just a handful of the ways in which you, and every other consumer, are being played. Upon my research, I discovered multiple examples of these untruths told to consumers, You might think that you could use the Made in Switzerland stamp on your watch, the Made in Italy tag on your shoes, or even the Made in Britain label in your suit, to know where your clothes were made. Well, not quite. Country of origin regulations can be hazy, particularly since they’ve been set by governments that want to protect domestic industries and allow them to compete on price.

In the EU, the country-of-origin label generally means that “the last substantial, economically justified processing” has been made in the nation on the label. That mealy-mouthed definition is easily circumvented. In the case of Louis Vuitton, it means Italians sewing the soles onto shoes that had been manufactured in Romania, according to a report by the Guardian. The same is true for ‘British’ sneaker companies, who have the uppers made in China then stitch the soles in UK factories.

Leather goods are especially unlikely to have been made entirely in the country of origin, largely because the production of leather is so unpleasant that most of it is done in the developing world. “There’s nothing worse than leather production and a lot of the luxury leather production comes from very unsavory sources,” says Orsola de Castro, co-founder of Fashion Revolution. Much easier to import the parts for your weekend bag, sew it together in the hills of Tuscany, then stick a Made in Italy label on the handle. Until 2017, even ‘Swiss made’, that mark of watchmaking excellence, could be easily circumvented; so long as the movement was Swiss, everything else in the watch could be made outside the country, from non-Swiss parts. You just needed someone Swiss give it its final quality inspection. Today, the rules are slightly tighter – 60 percent of the cost of the components has to be spent in Switzerland – but it’s still possible to bung an off-the-shelf movement into a case made in India and claim your watch is Swiss Made. According to Credit Suisse, that can add up to 112 percent to the price tag.

Fashion’s supply chains are global and almost impossibly convoluted. Especially in fast fashion, however now noticeable in luxury brands additionally, which relies on short turnarounds to get new products to consumers as rapidly as possible, it can be difficult to know exactly where certain products are being made. In low-wage countries like Bangladesh, Vietnam and Cambodia, the margins that factories earn on each item are so small that they feel unable to turn down orders, even when the deadlines aren’t feasible. The solution has long been sub-contracting, where the factory commissioned by a western fashion brand will outsource a portion of the work to another factory.

The first factory will generally have been vetted by the fashion brand to ensure it meets the ethical standards they claim in their marketing.

But the second factory, which has to have cheaper labor costs to make the outsourcing economically viable, often won’t. Which could be how Benetton and Mango labels ended up in the rubble of the collapsed Rana Plaza factory in 2013, even though the brand claims it wasn’t a supplier. Even when products are made entirely in the claimed country of origin, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re of higher quality than those produced in the East. The Financial Times found that, in some factories in Leicester in the UK, workers were paid significantly less than the minimum wage to make clothes for brands like Missguided or for the luxury brands area such as Balenciaga. According to a New Yorker investigation, many designer brands now use Chinese-run, Chinese-staffed factories that have displaced artisanal makers in Italy’s traditional manufacturing hubs. “Even in Made in Italy [brands], there are sub-contractors working for £1 a day, there were sweatshops linked to Bangladesh, there were sweatshops discovered in London’s East End,” says de Castro, (Banham, 2022). luxury is not the synonym for quality that it once was. Yet we’re conditioned to assume that high prices are linked with some artisanal in the way that product was manufactured. For de Castro, it goes together with the offshoring of fashion manufacturing. “There’s been an overall removing of the industry from our doorsteps to developing countries,” she says, which means that we no longer have any real sense of how our clothes are made or whether they’ve been made well. “The fashion industry has made us like things that we shouldn’t, like glossy bags – which we buy in their millions – where you can’t see the human mistakes. It’s a very cynical way to remove us from the process. In Hong Kong, the Gucci and Marc Jacobs stores, Prada, in the window they have products that are badly made. You can point out a badly made them because you can see it in the window.”

Over the last few decades, as the fashion industry has expanded, its biggest brands have sought to cut costs while increasing prices, to boost their margins. This means that the cost of goods has increased, sometimes by three or four times, while the quality has collapsed.

This trend began with diffusion lines (think Prada’s Miu Miu, or Versace Versus) which were originally a way for brands to create more accessible products to expand their market. “They quickly became just as expensive as the mainlines,” says de Castro, “but still with cheap manufacturing.” (Banham, 2022).

The luxury market comprises of products created with a certain purpose, that of making the consumer special and unique, and not necessarily covering a specific need other than the ego. It seems like a market made only for the crème de la crème of the society, although many luxury brands fight to increase their brand awareness among other consumer segments as well (Cristini et al., 2017; Kapferer & Laurent, 2016), by opting for entering product sectors that appear to have a more approachable value-price relation, such as the eyewear market or the accessories apparel product class (Alvarez et al., 2004). Moreover, the new youth segment of the market, also known as the new money, represents the future possible luxury brands consumer segment (Husic & Cicic, 2009); the luxury brands fight to create in that group a consistent returning clientele for their products. In 2019, the luxury market was mostly driven by the Asian market, with the global luxury market reaching € 1.3 trillion, a 4 % increase at constant exchange rates since 2018 (Bain & Co., 2019). Following a similar path, the core of the core of luxury, the personal luxury goods segment, registered a 4% growth, reaching a global value of € 281 billion. In terms of luxury consumer profile, there is a strong tendency towards developing a continuous discussion/relationship between the young luxury buyers and the luxury brands with the main purpose of innovating both the business model and the value proposition of the latter (Kapferer, 2014; Li et al., 2012; Zhan & He, 2012).

This trend, the new normal, has commenced also another epoque in the history of the luxury market, with luxury brands converging around the idea of creating a triangle model of communicating, consuming and purchasing based on the needs of consumers. Moreover, the luxury consumers prefer brands that are socially responsible and eco-friendly in their approach (Bain & Co., 2019). Following that line of thought, a very successful model for luxury business has become the new second-hand luxury market, with a value of € 26 billion in 2019. The development of the new second hand luxury stores, especially online, but also in local trade fairs, has somehow destabilised and took by surprise with its amplitude the luxury market and the luxury brands management (Ryding et al., 2018).

Looking at Depop & Other E-Commerce Platforms.

In recent years, vintage clothing has undergone quite a transformation, becoming a trending theme within the fashion sector as shoppers look to make more sustainable choices when on the hunt for their next outfit. According to the online thrift store Thredup, we can expect to see the resale market grow much faster than traditional retail, with the second-hand fashion market expected to be twice the size of fast fashion by 2030.

The global report – which was conducted by Thredup, with analysis from GlobalData – stated that the resale market is growing 11 times faster than traditional retail. If it continues to grow at this rate, it should be worth $84 billion by 2030, when fast fashion is predicted to be worth about $40 billion. With more than 12m posts on Instagram at the time of writing, vintage clothing has become increasingly trendy across social media. This has also made way for the rise of the mega-popular Depop sellers, many of whom have managed to amass cult status among their young customers, who are looking to keep up with trends while remaining eco-friendly. With sustainability now on the forefront of shoppers’ minds more than ever, you’d be forgiven for thinking charity shops would be filled with a new wave of savvy shopaholics.

This isn’t the case, with the majority heading online to find their hidden gems instead. Aisling Byrne, founder of the virtual clothes swap website Nuw told Retail Gazette she has a “great love of charity shops” but found that the charity shop experience can be very different based on where you live and the sizes you are searching for. “Charity shopping tends to be more experiential in cosmopolitan and gentrified cities where thrifting is a big part of the culture and is seen as being ‘on trend’,” she explained. “You can often find the best charity shop finds in more expensive locations which not everyone has access to and as charity shops become more ‘on trend’ the prices increase, cutting out that previous accessibility which made them competitive with high street brands.” (wright, 2022).

“Going online can provide a breath of variety that simply cannot be achieved in store.” With the complete easing of Covid-19 restrictions across England, various Depop sellers have now branched out, launching successful physical pop-up stores across the UK. Popular sellers such as Isabella Vrana, who boasts 164,000 followers on Depop, saw eager shoppers queue for over three hours round the streets of London to step foot in the store. Within an interview I researched, Amy Lee, senior manager global trends and insights, apparel at Avery Dennison which provides innovative digital solutions for the fashion industry explained how these smaller, online stores have managed to amass such followings and notoriety online.

“In the same way that social media influencers amass large followings, this space has been democratised and it’s accessible for sellers to be successful through engaging like-minded audiences who align with their taste and price level,” said Lee. “There’s a trust element, too,” she continued. “Younger consumers who are particularly concerned about climate change and the future of the planet might have greater trust for a small-scale seller, who they can have a direct conversation with, as opposed to a large brand that can feel inaccessible.” Lee also stated that her research revealed that the optimal way to shop is through a mix of both online and offline channels. So it is unsurprising that successful Depop sellers have gained traction with physical pop-up stores, by expanding and improving the overall experience.

In recent years there have been concerns that Depop has now become gentrified, as what started off as a platform for people to sell unwanted clothes has turned into an app where Depop resellers try to make high profits by exploiting trends. Confirmed that “gentrification is slowly creeping its way into Depop” but explained that “not all sellers are exploiting trends for profit.” Because the platform’s model allows anyone to buy and sell, she says it essentially becomes a free marketplace for all. “This may classify as gentrification, but I don’t believe that Depop sellers who want to grow a business out of sourcing and selling trends are necessarily a bad thing. Market stalls on Portobello Market, for example, are run the same way… the vendor spends a good deal of time sourcing goods to be sold at a profit. “Depop just offers this selling opportunity online to a wider audience. Although this is not the initial intention of the platform, perhaps it is the evolution of consumer demand.” Unless Depop can come up with a slick way of monitoring sellers’ accounts terms and conditions, it will prove very tricky to combat this, (wright, 2022).

Additionally, Business of Fashion also identified the role Depop, and all these reselling platforms played in the fashion industry, the article reads, “There are no boundaries anymore between commerce and connections, consumption and production, and even entertainment and entrepreneurship.”

(Nast, 2022). This extends to how these generations view life and society, but also fashion. When it comes to newness, this generation has a new lens through which they see ‘new’. For Gen Z, the trend cycle continues to quicken, posing a challenge for fashion brand marketers seeking to connect with younger consumers. Some of the motivations for using Depop come as no surprise — 75 per cent of those surveyed are looking to reduce clothing consumption. But their interest in secondhand clothes also has significance beyond save-the-planet instincts. Over half of respondents said they buy secondhand “to find one of a kind pieces”, while 45 per cent use it “to tap into trends”. Secondhand may be sustainable — but it’s also cool. Growing up in a hyper-connected world, Gen Z is “more vulnerable to macro level uncertainties”, the report finds. This is a fluid generation defying categorisation in every sense, Levato says.

This partly refers to self-identity. A 2020 Hulu study found 75 per cent of Gen Z respondents rejected easy categorisation of their race, gender or sexuality, while 60 per cent felt their identity was linked to a broad mix of factors, including race, culture and language. The Depop study echoes this point, with respondents underlining fluid identity when buying and selling clothes.

Chosen Consumer & Research Behind.

It has long been appreciated that luxury consumers are not a homogenous group – they operate differently across cultures, regions and demographics. However, as the luxury consumer continues to become more international, and global travel numbers increase, developing an appreciation of how markets and consumers differ by region is vital. The increasingly varied cultural and national desires and buying preferences within ‘home markets’ – driven by the international consumer – means it is increasingly challenging to target marketing, trends, and triggers at the optimal time, or ensure the brand is ‘front of mind’ the next time a prospective consumer goes on an impulsive luxury shopping spree. For UK-market executives, part of this will involve building a richer understanding of the local, domestic market – as it evolves. But an equally important part is to learn from other markets: what is working (or not working) in those markets and why, so that the learnings can be applied to the international consumer in the ‘home market’ However, it is absolutely clear that the consumer – the UK consumer in particular – is shifting their engagement and buying habits to online at a rapid pace (e.g. own brand websites, Net-aPorter / Yoox, Farfetch). And so the time to respond is now. An integrated omni-channel model can build wider brand reach, richer customer insight (from data) deepens, and – if executed well – can add supply chain efficiencies. If non-luxury markets are any guide, a joined-up channel approach will also drive more footfall in-store, higher conversion rates, bigger order values, and – crucially for luxury brands – improved brand loyalty1 . However, regardless of whether e-commerce is the right choice (and for many luxury brands it may not be), using the internet to sell the dream is certainly a requirement. Luxury consumers want, and demand, more from their brands of choice. They want to know about the latest styles instantly, be engaged with the brand and have the option to purchase through multiple channels, while also retaining the bespoke in-store service that they have come to expect. Social media has reshaped the way in which companies engage with their customers and the pace of change shows no sign of letting up any time soon – notably in the emerging generation of luxury consumers. For luxury brands, there is the added challenge of maintaining a constant focus and vigilance on protecting the brand equity, and managing the evolving risks. But if they are used smartly, and with strategic and marketing alignment, the social channels can really offer a cost-effective mechanism to introduce beautiful, cost-effective, and innovative visions (e.g. Hermès “Tie Break” app) to continue to build the allure of the brand and the luxury lifestyle. And to build immersive, two-way dialogues with luxury consumers.

In addition, the long pandemic lockdowns gave many luxury consumers more opportunity to reassess their values. Social issues such as Black Lives Matter exploded. The environmental causes of the pandemic were endlessly discussed. The risks of climate change were made ever more evident with wildfires in the West. And people — luxury consumers included — swarmed to outdoor recreation areas and activities and fell in love with nature. a company that tracks the Modern Luxury Consumer, we set out to discover whether luxury consumers did so in the only way you can without resorting to surveys or extensive ethnographic studies: social listening. We listened across multiple sectors, ranging from travel to fashion to home and lifestyle.

Social listening is an evolving way of gaining customer insight, often used in conjunction with traditional surveys. Even the most unbiased surveys tend to prompt respondents into giving an opinion, while social listening is a far more organic tool — which merely “listens” for insights gathered from the millions of breadcrumbs consumers scatter across the web detailing their experiences, viewpoints and personal perspectives. While considered “alternative data,” it is a vast dataset, expanding exponentially, and often overlooked or underutilized.

Our “listening” partner, social listening expert Metric Centric, used a process that combines data and human analytics: It “crawls” the open web (not just social channels), then combines that information with industry research and audience data. Analysts filter massive amounts of data to pull out the key insights and review sentiment, comments, issues, problems and ideas “heard” for contextual meaning. The analysts then develop scorecard summary analyses of trends and key findings that allow business managers to fully understand audience segments, influencers and public opinion. In a nutshell, we discovered that despite survey claims that sustainability and social purpose were important to them, Modern Luxury Consumers rarely mentioned it in the context of shopping decisions. In fact, they rarely mentioned it at all.

Given that kind of finding, it might be tempting to conclude that luxury consumers only say they care about sustainability and social responsibility when prompted, but that’s not the whole story.

Modern Luxury consumers did engage intensively but ONLY when prompted to do so via news reports, etc. Organic online commentary around the topic was low, but discussions increased when brands themselves or — much more likely — industry media highlighted CSR efforts.

It appears that more of the conversation is sparked by business press than by consumer press, with much of the conversation being had by executives, journalists and marketers. Sustainability was a big driver in positive conversations around luxury brands, indicating that it does have a significant effect on brand reputation. Social responsibility and sustainability had distinctly different profiles: sustainability is “safer” than “social responsibility.” Unsurprisingly (and consistent with the survey findings), Millennial and Gen Z luxury consumers were more engaged, particularly when it came to social responsibility. “Sustainability” resonated relatively more strongly with older luxury consumers.

Social equity-related issues (BLM, the election) created conversational intensity. They drove a much higher volume of comments (300 percent) than sustainability issues, indicating a higher connection to “human” issues than “environmental” issues (though of course, these two are highly intertwined). Unsurprisingly, social equity issues were highly polarizing and resonated significantly more positively with younger consumers (Gen Z, Millennials) than older ones, (connell, 2022).

Now, with all of this condensed, and information explored into the ‘typical’ consumer within the luxury market, I can firmly say my consumer chosen through research and various brand case studies above will be that of the Gen-Z type. Where adapting and challenge is accepted if not welcomed. Much like the welcome of the redirection for sustainability, I plan on introducing that of the remade luxury market, with the hypothetically same reply.

The Conclusion.

As I have investigated the following topics as mentioned, I have found that patterns often form with consumers, in the respect of the way change is accepted, marketing tactics welcomed, the appreciation of brand transparency within businesses, how these ‘New’ sustainable platforms have many faces, and especially how luxury fashion has become dilute due to Covid19. In return from this, my final major project both addresses and problem solve these issues through a diverse and regrown viewpoint.

In conclusion, I have radically shifted how I originally viewed the break down in the luxury market. Meaning I no longer see it as this unprovoked domino effect, but rather much like all other market levels within the fashion industry a step by step break down from business to consumer with correct after affects. However, my problem-solving skills still remain strong, where there must be a remodel for the luxury market level if we are to ever get back to where we once were, and more importantly the trust there was when calling an item/brand high fashion.