Bachelor's degree in Business Administration: Marketing and Brand Management

Fashion, Men and Power - how emotional ties control brands within Swedish men's fashion

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate which attributes of and associations to fashion brands are meaningful and set them apart with regards to Swedish men's ready-to-wear fashion brands, from the opinion-makers' perspective. I came to the following conclusions: 

Quality, credibility and an image to which consumers could relate create strong emotional ties to brands within Swedish men's fashion, according to present-day opinion-makers. They deem that it above all requires design, sustainability and associations to classic fashion to create these important emotional ties.

All opinion-makers in this study think that fashion brand credibility is built above all on how quality is perceived in the present. At the same time brand image must deliver a feeling of uniqueness to the consumer. Opinion-makers think that design is fundamental and decisive for fashion brands and that if brands can be associated to classic fashion, it often improves the potential of the brand or the product. 

The parallel that I found between the opinion-makers' views on brands within Swedish men's fashion and luxury brands is their own emotional ties to fashion brands. This knowledge could have a concrete brand strategic value for Swedish fashion brands and it could therefore be important from the company's perspective to establish an explicit brand identity and furthermore create emotional ties between fashion brands and opinion-makers in order to reach the consumer.

Respondents 

Lena Patriksson Keller
Martina Bonnier
Musse Hasselvall
Olof Enckell
Per Nilsson
Pernilla Lippert
Tove Stål 

Key words: Fashion, Swedish Fashion Brands, Brand Management, Ready-To-Wear, Opinion-makers, Quality, Credibility, Image, Brand Credibility, Uniqueness, Design, Swedish Men's Fashion, Luxury Brands, Emotional Ties, Brand Strategic Value, Brand Identity. 

Stockholm University (2008-2009)