Luxury communication vs. Fashion communication By Nainan Chopra Fashion Media Communication, Level 2
With luxury brands there always comes a sense of heritage. These brands offer goods and services that are all united under the umbrella of one common brand message. It is this brand message that luxury brands aim at communicating through their advertising. Therefore
luxury
brand
communication
is
very
minimal; all the elements of the advertisements point towards one common message- the culture of the brand. The concept of luxury has always surrounded the consumer and her/his dreams and desires. Through their communication, luxury brands aim to keep this ‘luxury dream’ alive by creating a brand universe around their identity. These ads seldom carry any words, or are direct. They are in fact, only and only about the brand positioning and visuals that help facilitate the same. They therefore don’t communicate to sell, they communicate to position their brand in alignment with the heritage of the brand
Fashion communication on the other hand, aims at garnering sales. They use visuals and text that communicate their strengths in the best way. These advertisements aim at establishing how they are different from other fashion brand out there, and in what ways they are better- it is highly competition oriented. On occasions, fashion brands use communication to change their brand’s positioning, or to reposition it slightly, for example- ‘The advertisements given by Sears that said “come see the other side of Sears.” This is a statement of repositioning for the consumers as well as the retailers that sell their garments’ (Winters, 1996). There are also instances where the message being communicated changes depending on the merchandise that is being advertised. These brands are therefore very direct in their approach and aim at increasing sales of through their communication. Hence, the main objective of communication for both these types of brands is contrary to one another.
While
it
is
sales
that
fashion
communication aims at, luxury communication only concentrates on the cultural message of the brand. Luxury brands are also not bothered by competition, unlike fashion, they only want to invite people to participate in their brand and be a part of the world they have created around it. Luxury brands also don’t use celebrities as a means to endorse their brands. If a celebrity is involved, it is not because this person is on a pedestal above the brand but because this person has now become a part of the heritage of the brand. On the flipside, fashion brands use celebrities as a means to endorse the brand and to inspire the audiences to buy the band that the celebrity is advertising for.
With luxury brand advertising, one can look through the timeline of their ads and tell that they all have a common thread that ties them together. So, every ad belongs to one family, one can tell that they belong to the same brand. With fashion ads however it’s not always easy to tell they belong to the same brand, as you go down the timeline. These ads would be similar but not distinctively.