Brands without boundaries – The internationalisation of the designer retailer’s brand

Abstract

Addresses an area which has been neglected in the international retailing literature; the internationalisation of the fashion designer’s brand. Initial exploratory research revealed that there were 114 international fashion design houses competing for a global market of around £24 billion. Further research by postal questionnaire to entrants into the UK market, in addition to semi‐structured interviews with European and US designers, confirmed that this market was buoyant, fuelled by the development of diffusion lines for the mass market. Identifies four stages of market development: wholesale channels to department stores; the creation of ready‐to‐wear flagships; large diffusion flagships; the opening of stores in provincial cities. In order to acquire capital to enable this expansion, over 60 per cent of all fashion designers are now public limited companies. Even then franchising of stages 3 and 4, diffusion line development, is often franchised to third parties with the designer maintaining control over the product and its brand image. Between 20‐30 per cent of gross margin is spent on advertising support to create global campaigns to enhance brand image in foreign markets. However, there is increasing tension between the desire to be exclusive yet becoming involved in product line extensions and widespread distribution which could ultimately dilute the brand’s value.

Uma visão contingencial da internacionalização do varejo: proposição de uma taxonomia e discussão dos desafios teóricos

“…RI literature, as well as anecdotal evidence, usually support the argument that Branded Retailers can select more distant markets and may operate in many more countries than Traditional Retailers (Delloite, 2014;Moore et al, 2000). Develops and manages own brands.…”

“…However, large or 'big box' retailer are also used in the classification of department stores, such as Marks&Spencer (Mellahi et al, 2002) and of specialized retailers that operate with large store format, such as Home Depot and Ikea (Bianchi and Arnold, 2004;Jonsson, 2010). Large specialist retailers are also known as category killers (Moore et al, 2000).…”

“…They may be more resistant to failure, due to resources availability, and divestment is more likely to happen by completely leaving the host market (Cairns et al, 2008). Specialized Branded Retailers internationalize the branded store formula, influenced by pull factors, usually the opportunity to exploit an appealing brand and innovative/exclusive products in several host markets, whose consumers have similar life styles and "standardized" preferences (Moore et al, 2000). Their offer is unique, as they sell exclusively the brands they develop and these brands are sold exclusively through their stores, owned or master franchised.…”

“…Retail internationalization processes and trajectories are expected not to be homogeneous across different retail types (Mollá-Descals et al, 2011;Moore et al, 2000). Hollander (1970) was recognized as the first to identify international types of retailers, such as "luxury goods retailer" and "specialized retailers".…”

“…Several researchers (e.g., Alexander and Doherty, 2010;Ilonen et al, 2011;Lopez and Fan, 2009;Moore et al, 2000) have argued that many of the proposed typologies do not deal well with retail heterogeneity, an industry marked by different types of firms which are involved with the retailing activity, such as luxury retailers and fashion retailers, whose own brands are the main drive of their international expansion (Moore et al, 2000).…”