A study of consumer passion and brand devotion.
In an arena where emotional connection dictates consumer behaviour, “Brand Love,” is the link people have with a given brand. BrandVue embraces the concept of brand love to delve into the dynamics of this bond, measuring the intensity of this emotional connection, the probability of audience preference for one brand over another, and future engagement likelihood.
This is a critical component in the marketing strategies of luxury brands, where the ‘love’ for a brand can heavily influence future engagement and marketing decisions. The landscape of the premium and aspirational luxury market is vast – from time-honoured luxury fashion houses to the budding, innovative specialist brands that have ignited interest through effective PR around distinctive ranges and unconventional pieces.
The pulse of “Brand Love” in this sector is ever-changing and encompasses numerous brands. A brand’s “Brand Love” score is a fluid metric, rising or falling relative to other brands, in line with the constant shifts in the market scenario. Our analysis of “Brand Love” trends spans across the Top 10 brands, and also tracks the ebb and flow of brands entering and exiting the prestigious Top 10 each year. Our analysis highlights two top stories.
The Top 10 brands ranked for Brand Love in December 2023 were: Rolex, Apple Watch, Dior, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, Moncler, Tiffany, Chanel, Ray-Ban, and Gucci.
Most of these are established fashion houses, jewellery or watch brands – like Dior and Rolex – which have consistently been in the Top 10. These established brands have nurtured strong awareness and affinity over time, and are loved by many, including people who aspire to ownership; there’s still very much a place for these.
A notable addition to the Top 10 is luxury fashion house, Moncler. From its early days as a down jacket boutique, the company has expanded into vests, raincoats, windbreakers, knitwear, leather goods, footwear, fragrance, and accessories. In just one year, the brand has skyrocketed from outside the Top 20 (Dec 2022) into joint 4th place with Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein (Dec 2023).
This increase in Brand Love is driven by ABC1s – who placed Moncler in clear 3rd position in December 2023, versus 26th in December 2022! Its popularity is skewed towards younger consumers, scoring significantly higher for Brand Love among 16-34 year olds.
Moncler has clearly been a crowd-pleaser; doing a superb job of generating a positive vibe among this audience. It is possible for specialised brands to compete with bigger, established players in creating an emotional brand connection.
So, how has Moncler achieved this?
For several years the brand has collaborated with partners, which has proved invaluable in becoming an aspirational streetwear, ski and sportswear brand. Since 2020, an ongoing collaboration with American-born, Paris-based Rick Owens has seen capsule collections that fuse the shapes and themes the designer is known for, with Moncler’s quintessential quilted materials.
Moncler has skilfully created three distinct collections with a clear purpose for each:
The Art of Genius: Expect the Unexpected event at London Fashion Week (Feb 2023) brought together collaborators including Roc Nation, Pharrell Williams, adidas Originals, Palm Angels, Alicia Keys and Mercedes-Benz, with streaming and exclusive online content.
Communication of events, collaborations and drops have been through a strong digital marketing and social media engagement strategy. The brand regularly publishes engaging content across multiple platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and YouTube, supported by a strong network of celebrity endorsers and influencers.
While the brand has flagship stores in the UK, it’s also present in high-end department stores, online, and via multi-brand retailers such as Farfetch and Flannels. So, while it remains aspirational for many, increased visibility and availability is cultivating a growing desire and hard-to-resist love for the brand.
This in-depth understanding of Brand Love and its influencers is exactly what our bespoke product, BrandVue, is designed to offer. With BrandVue, we delve into the hearts and minds of customers, providing actionable insights to navigate the ever-evolving landscape of the luxury market.
BrandVue Premium & Aspirational Luxury is the largest, most granular brand, audience and customer tracker in the market. This rigour enables us to provide detailed research and analysis, forming beneficial insight to various industry sectors.
We interview over 100 respondents per day and track over 140 Premium & Aspirational Luxury brands across different categories, such as clothes / shoes, leather goods (e.g. handbags, briefcases), fashion accessories (e.g. sunglasses, scarves), and jewellery & watches.
The BrandVue Premium & Aspirational Luxury dashboard gives you key industry trend reports and offers clarity on exactly what drives brand performance in the marketplace and how to improve it. It’s a cost-effective way to access enormous sample sizes for your brand and competitors from a sector specific survey. For more information please click here.
To find out more about the work our wealth & luxury team do, or to speak to one of our wealth specialists, please click here.
