349. IJRM. Luxury Branding and the Creator Economy.
February 6, 2025
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In this interview, Emanuela Prandelli, LVMH Associate Professor of Fashion and Luxury Management at Bocconi University, discusses research she and her colleagues published in the IJRM. Their paper explores the role of content creators in the luxury world and the challenges luxury brands face when engaging with them. Prandelli and her colleagues’ research highlights the importance of balancing control with creative autonomy, offering valuable lessons for luxury and consumer brands alike. By fostering strategic partnerships with content creators, luxury brands can enhance brand perception while maintaining exclusivity and authenticity in the digital era.
Key items discussed include:
Content Creators vs. Influencers: Content creators and influencers are both valuable to brands, but they are leveraged in different ways.
Content creators are sought after for their unique point of view and original content. Their ability to authentically reinterpret a brand's message and engage their niche communities is prized by marketers. Brands collaborate with them to tap into these communities and leverage their creative storytelling abilities.
Influencers, with their large fan bases, are primarily leveraged to extend brand reach and visibility. Their established audience offers brands a ready-made platform for product placement and endorsement. Marketers often focus on the size of an influencer's following when considering collaborations.
Luxury Brand DNA: Key elements defining luxury brands include heritage, craftsmanship, and a distinctive aesthetic, differentiating them from mass-market brands.
Unique Challenges in Digital Transformation: The digital revolution has been challenging for luxury brand marketers because of the apparent trade-off between the exclusivity and high status associated with luxury and the openness and accessibility of the digital world.
Collaborating with Content Creators: Luxury brands must find a balance between maintaining control and allowing creative freedom when working with content creators. Clear communication about brand identity and values is essential, but content creators need space to reinterpret the brand in their own authentic voice.
Finding the Right Content Creators: Luxury brands should identify content creators whose subculture aligns with their target audience. They should also be mindful of creators who are too open to sponsored content, as this can damage brand image.
Key Takeaways for Brands: Content creators can help luxury brands innovate and connect with new audiences. Brands need to relax creative control, set clear boundaries, and find a balance between exclusivity and openness.
Strategic Collaborations: Brands should provide creators with clear guidelines while allowing creative freedom to preserve authenticity and effectiveness.
Selecting the Right Creators: Brands prioritize creators embedded in relevant subcultures to maintain credibility and avoid over-commercialization.
Content Creator Guidelines: A recommended ratio of three organic posts to one sponsored post helps maintain credibility and engagement.
Click here for the Research Article
The Up Next podcast’s access to this content is courtesy of the International Journal of Research in Marketing, an international, double-blind peer-reviewed journal for marketing academics and practitioners. IJRM aims to contribute to the marketing discipline by providing high-quality, original research which advances marketing knowledge and techniques. As marketers increasingly draw on diverse and sophisticated methods, IJRM‘s target audience is comprised of marketing scholars, practitioners (e.g., marketing research and consulting professionals) and policymakers.
IJRM aims to be at the forefront of the marketing field with a particular emphasis on bringing timely ideas to market. The journal embraces innovative research with the potential to spur future research and influence practice. Hence, it welcomes contributions in various aspects of marketing. The editors, while accepting a wide array of scholarly contributions from different disciplinary approaches, especially encourage research that is novel, visionary or path breaking.
Corresponding Author & Interviewee
Emanuela Prandelli
Emanuela Prandelli holds a Ph.D. in Business Economics and Management from Bocconi University of Milan. She is LVMH Associate Professor of Fashion and Luxury Management at the Department of Management and Technology of Bocconi University and Associate Dean for Open Executive Programs and Director of the Master in Fashion, Design, and Experience Management at SDA Bocconi School of Management.
She served as a Research Assistant at St. Gallen University and at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, where she was also Visiting Professor. She also was visiting Professor at WU, Vien. Her research focus regards collaborative marketing, digital strategy and the process of innovation, fashion and luxury management. She published several books and articles in leading international journals, such as Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Journal of Interactive Marketing, Organization Studies, California Management Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, Journal of Business Venturing.
Co-Authors:
Yajin Wang
Yajin Wang is Professor of Marketing and Associate Dean (Research) at CEIBS, China Europe International Business School. Prior to joining CEIBS, she served on the faculty of the Marketing Department at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, USA. Professor Wang earned her Ph.D. in Marketing from the University of Minnesota. She also holds a Master’s degree in Mass Communication from the University of Minnesota and a Bachelor's degree in Journalism and Law & Sociology from Peking University. Professor Wang’s research integrates customer insights and psychology, digital marketing, Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and customer management to assist businesses in achieving effective and sustainable branding and marketing strategies, as well as build sustainable competitive advantages. Her research areas include brand strategy in the digital era, brand elevation, brand architecture management, consumer insights, ESG and sustainable consumption, as well as the application of technology and evolutionary psychology in marketing. Professor Wang’s research work has been published on top international academic journals such as Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Psychology, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Psychological Science.
Henri Weijo
Henri Weijo is Associate Professor in Marketing and Head of Marketing Department at Aalto University School of Business in Finland. He received his PhD at Aalto University in 2014 under the guidance of John W. Schouten. He has been Assistant Professor in Marketing at Bentley University, in the Greater Boston Area.
He is a consumer culture researcher specializing in the study of consumer creativity and value creation, with special emphasis on ethnographic methods. Henri Weijo teaches consumer research, creativity, branding, marketing communications, qualitative methods, and branding.
He published several articles in leading international journals, such as Journal of Consumer Research, Marketing Theory, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, Journal of Business Research.
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International Journal of Research in Marketing
Emanuela Prandelli