Dream Brands: Which One’s Yours?

Luxury clothes and accessories are items that transcend the basic needs that these objects fulfill. Because they offer aesthetic, emotional and social experiences, many people consider luxury goods to be not just products, but veritable works of art.

What is interesting about luxury brands is that the products would not offer the abovementioned experiences if the label itself through its branding did not offer a world with which people can connect. Luxury brands let people feel and be surrounded by a series of ideas, concepts and aspirations.

Buying and wearing something from a given brand allows the wearer to be part of a group that is united by the values of the brand they wear.

Some brands such as Dolce and Gabbana are colorful and explosive, others, such as Gucci are more calm and collected.

A study conducted a few years ago by an agency specializing in luxury brand management researched which are the brands that people enjoy most. They asked people around the world to name their top luxury brands from which they would buy an item if they could do it right now.

The study identified not only the top brands from which people would purchase, but also a few trends which depend on the location.

If you want to take the poll at the end, you can do it now, not to get influenced by the results).

The study found out that in the United States, the top three brands were

Rolex (39.3%)

Tiffany (32.6%)

Calvin Klein (27.3%)

followed by

Gucci (25.7%)

Armani (25.5%)

Tommy Hilfiger (25.1%)

and

Ralph Lauren (24.7%)

Cartier (24.4%).

In Europe, the top brands were:

Armani (21.6%)

Chanel (20.1%)

Calvin Klein (18.1%)

followed by

Hugo Boss (16.5%)

Dior (14.8%)

Rolex (12%)

and

Cartier (10%)

Gucci (10%).

In Japan, the top brands were:

Rolex (40.9%)

Hermès (31.1%)

Bulgari (30.2%)

followed by

Gucci (29.1%)

Louis Vuitton (28.5%)

Tiffany (27.6%).

These figures are very insightful if one wants to analyze the luxury brand market and people's preferences. It is also an interesting way to see how preferences vary based on cultural context. For example, we notice that in the US, two of the top three preferred brands are American, while in Europe, two of the top three are European, meaning that people do tend to support their local businesses and that local businesses have a stronger social image than foreign ones.

Secondly, we need to nice that percentages for top brands in Europe are smaller than those in the US and Japan. This could reinforce the findings of numerous studies on luxury brands, which have shown that in the United States of America, people purchase luxury goods to improve their social status or the way they are perceived by society, while in Europe, most luxury buyers want to own luxury goods in order to fulfill a personal need for aesthetics and elegance. Therefore, in the USA, there are fewer clear signals of social success, which is why most people concentrate on just a few brands, while in Europe, opinions are more divided.

These findings suggest exactly what researches have concluded for a number of years now: that luxury has both a social significance (people buy the brands that will confer them social status and a good position in the eyes of the community) and personal pleasure (people feel special owning luxury clothes and accessories).

Luxury fashion definitely goes beyond a basic fashion experience; the luxury buyer is a member of a group and benefits from an exclusive service that reinforces things such as his social status, elegance (mostly) and, more than anything else, aspirations.

Now, it's your turn to answer the poll: Which is your dream brand?

Fraquoh and Franchomme