Tracing brand constellations in social media : the case of Fashion Week Stockholm

• Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of fashion weeks on brand constellations of participating fashion companies in social media.Design/methodology/approach: The study analyses how brand constellations take form for seven Swedish fashion companies before, during and after Fashion Week Stockholm. In total, 3,449 user-generated contents referring to the sampled brands were collected and analysed.Findings: On average, brand constellations of participating companies are increasingly incorporating other participating brands as a result of the fashion week. Based on the presented results, four brand constellation outcomes for participating fashion companies are identified: brand constellation amplification, concentration, division and dilution.Research limitations/implications: As this paper is focussed on the Swedish market, additional results from fashion weeks taking place in other cities would be beneficial to verify the four brand constellation outcomes.Practical implications: The results question the resilience of professionally curated brand constellations due to the emergence of user-driven constellations that also shape the position of fashion brands. Therefore, this development can potentially have a considerable impact on often carefully orchestrated brand positioning strategies executed by fashion companies.Social implications: Digitally fuelled interdependences of brand constellations by professionals and consumers attest to the dilution of borders between consumers and producers.Originality/value: This paper contributes to the field of fashion marketing and management by identifying four different brand constellation outcomes in social media for participating fashion companies as a result of fashion weeks and how to managerially handle these respective outcomes.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv -- Företagsekonomi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business -- Business Administration (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Digitization

Social media

Fashion

Brand constellation

Fashion week

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)