Title:
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Fashion brand creation in China
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Brands have become one of the most discussed phenomena in marketing in recent years.
The process of brand creation, especially in fashion, is a challenging and complicated
matter. Exploration of a wide range of sources on marketing and branding reveals that
whilst they discuss a broad-spectrum approach to brand creation they do not cover some
of the practical aspects. For example, adaptation to cultural and psychological features
characteristic of the population in the target region is often neglected. A particular
omission in relation to understanding the China market concerns national brand creation
in a country lacking marketing experience and where many younger consumers prefer
foreign-made products.
With the aim of developing a process model for creating a Chinese fashion brand, this
study investigated brand-building literature, evaluated and compared current brandcreation
models, determined key Chinese consumer behaviour characteristics and
corresponding barriers to creating a brand, interviewed and analysed some of the largest
and most successful Chinese fashion brand retailers and compared their experience and
practices to the findings from studies of successful Asian companies. Using the outcomes
from the Chinese fashion industry survey, the new model has been based on two
academically acknowledged branding models but more-closely fits the Chinese fashion
market requirements for creating a successful national brand with potential to become
international.
Key words: brand, brand creation, China, fashion industry
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