Karinna Nobbs

Form and function of luxury flagships

Purpose – Luxury shopping touches upon many facets of experience, ranging from the strategic objectives of the brand to the subjective, interpersonal experiences of individuals. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the flagships form and appearance: including architecture, decor, arrangement of space, symbolic elements, location, and its function to better understand the role of the aesthetic environment of the flagship as a means of communicating the brands objectives, which are mediated by a consumers perception of the brand and store, the goals he or she brings to the experience, and the situational determinants of the shopping experience.Design/methodology/approach – The authors explore the strategic role and customer experience of flagships in major international locations through interviews with luxury flagship managers and customers. Site visits were made to multiple brands. Ethnographic research on the consumer experience was carried out in two locations of a major brands flagship store...

An exploration of fashion visual merchandising and its role as a brand positioning device

In todays globally competitive and dynamic fashion environment every clothing and lifestyle brand, from the largest luxury conglomerate to the independent market stall trader, utilises one if not more elements and principles of visual merchandising (VM). This exploratory study aimed to investigate this under-researched marketing tool within the context of a window displays role in communicating the brands identity and position in the marketplace. Using a qualitative two-phase approach of non-participant store observations and in-depth interviews with visual merchandisers, the research focused on two main elements of window display: color and lighting. Undertaking a comparison between the VM window display techniques of high street and luxury fashion brands, the primary research demonstrated that a clear difference in approach was evident and that this was dependent on the position in the marketplace. The paper concludes by identifying these differences.

The growing permanence of pop-up outlets within the international location strategies of fashion retailers

Purpose The purpose of this paper is threefold: first, to establish the role of the pop-up store within the international location strategy of fashion retailers, second, to identify the factors influencing pop-up store location choice and the importance retailers ascribe to it and third, to assess how pop-up locations are sourced and selected. Design/methodology/approach A multiple case study was adopted. Research was conducted using secondary data sources, observation and semi-structured interviews with senior executives with strategic responsibility for store/brand development internationally. Manual content analysis was conducted. Findings Key findings cover the role of Pop-up stores within international retail location strategy, notably features, forms and function, with the latter highlighting the importance of opportunistic market testing and trial, reduced risk, regeneration, ROI- and CRM-driven decisions; the factors impacting location choice and selection, specifically the trade-offs between reactive and proactive approaches and the importance of networks and intuition, and future pop-up directions. Research limitations/implications Due to the chosen research approach, the results may lack generalization outside of the given sector and marketplaces. Several avenues for future research are elucidated including exploration of pop-up transformations including pop-up rebrand, technology enabled, experiential and third place. Originality/value The study contributes to the nascent field of research by providing new insight into the role of pop-ups within international location strategy, the factors influencing location choice and selection and offers a pop-up location taxonomy.