RESEARCH ON CHINESE MILLENNIAL CONSUMERS' PERCEPTION OF CO- BRANDED FASHION COLLECTIONS - DIVA
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
Research on Chinese Millennial
Consumers’ Perception of Co-
branded Fashion Collections
BACHELOR THESIS WITHIN: Business Administration
NUMBER OF CREDITS: 15 ECTS
PROGRAMME OF STUDY: International Management
AUTHOR: Huashuai Yang; Yusi Zhang; Zijie Zhou
JÖNKÖPING July 2020
Bachelor Degree Project in Business Administration Title: Research on Chinese Millennial Consumers’ Perception of Co-branded Fashion Collections Authors: Huashuai Yang; Yusi Zhang; Zijie Zhou Tutor: Lucia Pizzichini Date: 2020-07-16 Key terms: Co-branding; Fashion Industry; Chinese Millennial Consumers Abstract Background: In fashion market, with the emergence of new brands and changing cus- tomer preference in style, competition is fierce nowadays. Brand is an intangible asset that fashion brands build and leverage to secure market position and customer loyalty, which leads to a competitive advantage. Among different brand building models and methods, co-branding alliance strategy is increasingly adopted between fashion brands in the past 20 years. Co-branding alliance refers to a marketing strategy that leveraging different brand names on a product or service, which suggests a strategic alliance be- tween different brands. For fashion brands, either in fast fashion or luxury fashion, co- branding alliance with other brands is a popular trend. Purpose: This research aims to investigate the factors that influence the perception of the Chinese millennial consumers to purchase co-branding fashion products. Method: Interpretivism philosophy and inductive approach are used in terms of meth- odology. Moreover, qualitative data are dominantly collected, and content analysis is conducted as analysis tool. A structured video interview is conducted through WeChat and open-end questions are asked to get empirical primary data. Conclusion: Chinese millennial consumers prefer the co-brand between LV and Su- preme, compared with H&M and Moschino. It is noticed that currently Chinese young consumers have highly preference towards collaboration which has perfect fit of two brand images and perfect connection connecting the co-branded image with consumers’ self-image.
Acknowledgment
During the five months of working on the dissertation, there are many people who have
given very much important help to us. Hence, here we would like to acknowledge these
people and express our appreciation to them.
Firstly, we would like to show full gratitude to our tutor Lucia Pizzichini for her brilliant
guidance and great patience on giving feedback continuously. A lot of times when we
were confronting challenges and became confused, Lucia Pizzichini enlightened us by
providing some other potential ways of thinking so that we could broaden our vision
and find an available way to go on.
Secondly, respondents who participated in the interview provided us with precious pri-
mary data on how consumers perceive cobranded products. These data allow us to in-
vestigate the chosen subject from a consumer perspective, which is crucial to fulfill our
research aim and objectives.
Last but not least, our opponents from former seminars, grader of dissertation and ex-
aminer gave us great feedback as well. Besides pointing out the shortcomings of our
work in a good manner, many constructive alternatives towards those shortcomings
were also given by them.
Thank you all.
Huashuai Yang Yusi Zhang Zijie ZhouTable of contents
1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 1
1.1 Research Background ................................................................................................................... 1
1.2 Problem ............................................................................................................................................. 3
1.3 Purpose ............................................................................................................................................. 4
1.4 Delimitation...................................................................................................................................... 4
2. Literature Review................................................................................................................................... 6
2.1 Co-branding Strategy .................................................................................................................. 6
2.1.1 Marketing Effects of Co-branding Strategy ....................................... 7
2.1.2 Co-branding Strategy from New Product Development (NPD)
Perspective................................................................................................. 8
2.1.3 Co-branding Alliance in Fashion Industry ......................................... 9
2.2 Brand Image and Brand Identity ............................................................................................. 10
2.2.1 Brand Image.................................................................................... 10
2.2.2 Brand Identity Prism ....................................................................... 11
2.3 Consumers’ Perception on Co-branding ............................................................................. 12
2.4 Consumer’s Perceived Benefits ............................................................................................... 14
3. Research Methodology ..................................................................................................................... 17
3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 17
3.2 Research Philosophy ................................................................................................................... 17
3.2.1 Positivism Philosophy ..................................................................... 17
3.2.2 Interpretivism .................................................................................. 18
3.3 Research Approach ..................................................................................................................... 20
3.4 Research Strategies ..................................................................................................................... 20
3.5 Data Collection and Sampling Technique ........................................................................... 21
3.6 Methods of data analysis .......................................................................................................... 22
3.7 Ethical considerations ................................................................................................................. 23
3.8 Research Limitation ..................................................................................................................... 24
4. Findings .................................................................................................................................................. 25
4.1 Demographical Information of the Interviewees ............................................................... 25
4.2 Interviewees’ Purchase Behaviours and Perception of Co-branded Fashion Products
.................................................................................................................................................................. 26
5. Analysis of the literatures and Findings ....................................................................................... 38
5.1 The importance of channels ..................................................................................................... 38
5.2 Brand identity prism and brand image from consumers’ perspective ....................... 395.2.1 The analysis of the LV&Supreme .................................................... 39
5.2.2 The analysis of H&M x Moschino ................................................... 41
5.3 Summary of the analysis............................................................................................................ 43
6. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 45
7. Implications and Future Study ........................................................................................................ 46
Reference ................................................................................................................................................... 47
Appendix .................................................................................................................................................... 541. Introduction
1.1 Research Background
In fashion market, with the emergence of new brands and changing customer preference
in style, competition is fierce nowadays. Brand is an intangible asset that fashion brands
build and leverage to secure market position and customer loyalty, which leads to a
competitive advantage (Clifton, 2009). For customers, brands are associated with con-
fidence and expectations on the characteristics and quality of the products and services
(Franzen & Moriarty, 2008). Keller (2003) points out that when a marketer creates a
new name, logo, or symbol of a product, the marketer creates a brand. Meanwhile, it is
recognized that branding is nowadays an important topic in product development strat-
egy, as brand image can influence product desirability in the targeted segment (P.
Kotler, 1999).
Among different brand building models and methods, co-branding alliance strategy is
increasingly adopted between fashion brands in the past 20 years (Oeppen & Jamal,
2014). Co-branding alliance refers to a marketing strategy that leveraging different
brand names on a product or service, which suggests a strategic alliance between dif-
ferent brands. For fashion brands, either in fast fashion or luxury fashion, co-branding
alliance with other brands is a popular trend. The pioneering cobranding alliance prac-
tices were seen in the 1990s, when fashion brands like Philip Treacy and Jasper Coran
sought opportunities to with high street retailers to release a special collection of prod-
ucts (Luck, Muratovski, & Hedley, 2014). Co-branding alliance is usually developed
strategically, which suggests that brands need to carefully select the partners to release
a collection and to reach the business goal. If brands fail to select the appropriate part-
ner, co-branding initiative will be ineffective and may jeopardy the brand image. S.
Ahn, Kim, and Forney (2010) examine the existing co-branding alliance in fashion
1brands, and suggests that co-branding strategies can play an important role to transform
branding strategy and to approach new market segments.
The collaboration between fast fashion brands, premium fashion brands and luxury
fashion brands is now an evident phenomenon in the global fashion market. The result
of the co-branding initiatives is usually a new collection of fashion products presented
with the brand names of the collaborated brands. Designers’ inputs are critical in the
new collection of products, as for fashion products, fashion style is an important attrac-
tion for customers.
Two examples of successful co-branding alliances in fashion industry will be presented
to directly showcase the formats and characteristics of co-branding alliance practices
in recent years.
H&M x Moschino
In 2018, fast fashion brand H&M released a collaborative collection with an Italian
luxury fashion brand Moschino. According to the press release of H&M, this collection
was driven by the creative director of Moschino, Jeremy Scott, to pay tribute to Amer-
ican national icons and entertaining spirits. H&M initiated this collaboration to leverage
the influence and popularity of Moschino in the young market segment, which fits
H&M’s brand positioning in the future (H&M, 2018).
According to the comments of Phelps (2018), the collaboration between H&M and
Moschino can be considered a high-low collaboration. H&M aims to leverage the pop-
ularity and influence of Moschino to enhance the brand positioning of the fast fashion
brand. As for Moschino, it is an opportunity for the brand to get closer to the mass
market through the collaboration with H&M.
Louis Vuitton x Supreme
In 2017, Louis Vuitton released a collaborated collection with an American skateboard-
ing shop and clothing brand Supreme (Lebeau, 2017). In the major cities in the world,
2the collection was a great hit with the launch of the pop-up shops. The collaboration
was initiated by Louis Vuitton, while the products ranged from backpacks, belts, bags
to clothing. From all these products, a characteristic is perceived, since the strong de-
sign features of Supreme were adopted by Louis Vuitton. The logo of Supreme was
printed on the design of the Louis Vuitton. The co-existence of the two iconic logos,
the distinctive red box logo with Supreme and the Monogram logo of LV, created heat
among the customers.
Louis Vuitton was founded in 1854 in France, which is one of the leading luxury fash-
ion brands in the world (Nagasawa, 2008). As for Supreme, it is a brand founded to
cater to the street sports trend in America in 1994 (Lebeau, 2017).
These two successful cases are successful, while similar strategies can be determined.
Both co-branding practices tend to leverage brand image, designing talents and market
access to reach a different segment. H&M has been long considered a fast fashion brand
offering clothing product in low price for the mass customers. Its collaboration with an
Italian luxury brand demonstrating popular culture suggests that H&M will be consid-
ered by the fans of Moschino or the customers in the luxury fashion segment. For Louis
Vuitton, the brand has been perceived a prestigious luxury brand of high exclusivity.
Its ambition to approach a younger segment in the market is the explanation why Louis
Vuitton had the idea to collaborate with a brand from sports segment. The similar ob-
jective in reaching out for a different segment through the influence of the collaborated
brand can be concluded from these two examples.
1.2 Problem
Fashion industry, no matter fast fashion or luxury fashion, has shifted its focus to the
Chinese market in the recent years. China is now the largest fashion retail market in the
world since 2018. In 2018, China accounted for 38% of the global fashion industry
growth in all segments (Nuorder, 2019). According to a report of McKinsey &
Company (2019), the Chinese consumers contribute to almost two-thirds of global
growth in luxury spending between 2012 to 2018. As indicated in McKinsey’s report,
the Chinese luxury consumers are generally younger than the global average, and they
3value the combination of brand and product value. It is an interesting subject for this
research to explore the Chinese millennial consumers’ perception of co-branding fash-
ion collections, as they are active consumers in the Chinese fashion industry. Under-
standing that the co-branding fashion collections have driven a global need for the prod-
ucts, while the underlying motivation for consumers to purchase these products in dif-
ferent markets can differ. This research therefore aims to specifically examine the rea-
soning behind the purchase decisions made by the Chinese millennials in purchasing
the co-branding fashion products in the recent years.
1.3 Purpose
This research aims to investigate the factors that influence the perception of the Chinese
millennial consumers to purchase co-branding fashion products.
Research objectives:
• to investigate Chinese millennial consumers’ attitudes towards LV x Supreme
and H&M x Moschino
• To identify factors that influence Chinese millennial consumers’ perception of
co-branded fashion collections
• To show hints for fashion brands in China to improve their co-branding alliance
strategy
1.4 Delimitation
Chinese market is nowadays highly competitive for fashion brands, as winning the mar-
ket and the young consuming power means victory in the global market. Co-branding
alliance is nowadays a popular strategy adopted in fashion industry. Considering the
importance of the Chinese market, it is important for fashion brands in China to lever-
age the consumer insights and to improve the strategic approach. The millennial con-
sumers in China are of power in consuming, hence, many fashion brands have decided
to target this segment. With the aim of this research is determined to explore the factors
4that influence the perception of the Chinese millennial consumers to purchase co-brand-
ing fashion products, it is expected that the results explain the consumer behaviours of
Chinese millennial consumers in a specific context. The result of this research helps
understanding some unique characteristics of the Chinese millennial consumers. As
stated, the research focus on Chinese millennial consumers and brands’ co-branding
event in China, consequently, the region limitation and consumer limit are presented in
the research.
52. Literature Review
2.1 Co-branding Strategy
Tow essential entities are determined in co-branding alliance, including two collabo-
rating brands that already own their own existing product portfolios and a new product
jointly developed by the two brands (Washburn, Till, & Priluck, 2000a). P. T. Kotler
(2019) suggests that new product success in the market relies on the properly executed
brand strategy. Hence, it is necessary to examine both of the marketing effects and new
product development (NPD) impacts that co-branding alliance contributes. Co-brand-
ing is a marketing strategy used to leverage the names of multiple brands on a product
or service with a strategy alliance agreed. Co-branding alliance is a form of brand part-
nership, while different types of branding collaborations have been demonstrated
(Blackett & Russell, 1999). The nature of brand alliance strategy is considered as a
solution when a firm lacks or leverages certain resources that can bring an overall ben-
efit and so does the co-branding strategy which also represents a significant and effec-
tive tool for one brand to look for the highest level of brand authenticity and improve
perceptions of the brand image through borrowing certain associations from a partner
brand (Rowley & Hanna, 2019). Reach awareness co-branding represents the first level
whereby the primary brands only aim to maximize brand awareness by accessing the
partner brand’s resources, such as the customer database. Value endorsement co-brand-
ing is thought to be the second level, which focuses more on endorsing either or both
brand values and positioning with a view to aligning brand values in consumers’ minds.
Ingredient or complementary competence co-branding is the third, also the highest
level, which is conducted to combine and share strategic advantages and resources such
as skills and competences to produce co-branded products (Oeppen & Jamal, 2014).
From the perspective of brand managers and the company itself, the critical focus of
co-branding is to stay relevant in a highly competitive environment and retain a com-
petitive advantage with a strong position in the market by taking the growth of brand
equity and accurate brand perception into consideration. Since the ingredient co-brand-
ing strategy is mainly practiced in a cross-industry field, most brand managers in the
6fashion industry prefer to participate a valued endorsement co-branding strategy that
has the features of allowing brands to borrow image associations from retailers in order
to test the market for potential line extensions, seeking the opportunity to partner with
a retailer who allows them to produce a very small collection, but still receiving large-
scale media attention, consumer awareness and the reputation of the retail partner
(Thompson & Strutton, 2012).
2.1.1 Marketing Effects of Co-branding Strategy
Marketing literature focuses on examining customers’ evaluation of the product. In the
scenario of co-branding alliance, the result of this strategy is a co-branded new product
(Blackett & Russell, 1999). Synergies and competitiveness are main themes discussed
in the studies on co-branding strategy (Blackett & Russell, 1999; J.-N. Kapferer, 2001;
Washburn, Till, & Priluck, 2000b). J.-N. Kapferer (2001)’s study suggests that con-
sumer recognition of brands can be enhanced through co-branding alliance. This is be-
cause with the collaboration of two brand, the newly proposed product shows differen-
tiated features from the previous offer of the single-branded products, hence, it is easier
to attract consumers’ attention. Consumers’ expectation on the new product’s perfor-
mance is also enhanced. Ruekert and Rao (1994) point out that the presence of a second
brand on the products as results of co-branding alliance drives consumers expectation
of the quality of the products. The theme of customers’ evaluation towards co-branding
product is perceived essential, since it is a way for a brand to attract customers towards
the new products.
Regarding the relevance of co-branding, there is discussion demonstrated in the exist-
ing studies. Compatibility between the collaborating brands can affect the perception
of the consumers towards the entire partnership and the result of the new products
(Simonin & Ruth, 1998). It is pointed out for those brands who decided to participate
in co-branding alliance, it is important to examine the extent to which both brands are
perceived sensible for the customers (Decker & Baade, 2016). This determines whether
consumers will have the interest to purchase the co-branded products. Simonin and
Ruth (1998) specifically proposes that brands need to be a fit in the partnership. The
evaluation comes from the logic of brand partnership in product category and brand
7image. If the collaborated brands demonstrate a good fit, then consumers will evaluate
the new co-branded products positively. Thompson and Strutton (2012)’s study sug-
gests that the value in cobranding alliance is important, while the role of the parent
brands play in introducing the new product is perceived important to influence the con-
sumer perception. H. Ahn and Sung (2012) point out that consumers’ perceived fit of
the co-branding alliance covers the functional fit and also the symbolic fit from the
perspective of branding. Bouten, Snelders, and Hultink (2011) suggests that fit
measures remain and important criterion for consumers to perceive the effectiveness of
the alliance strategy and the co-branded products. Geuens and Pecheux (2006) point
out that advertising can also create the effect to specifically demonstrate the fit between
the co-branded partners. Meanwhile, Geuens and Pecheux (2006) proposes to use ad-
vertising to manipulate consumers’ perception of brand fit.
From marketing perspective, the existing studies on co-branding alliance suggests that
the issue of brand fit can influence consumers’ perception and interest in the products.
2.1.2 Co-branding Strategy from New Product Development
(NPD) Perspective
The result of co-branding alliance is usually a new product or service with the two or
more brands’ names and inputs on it. Srinivasan and Gopalakrishnan (2007) points out
that co-branding strategy helps one company that lacks certain resources or capacities
to develop a new product that the partners can help. The benefit of having a co-branding
partner is that the partner can share costs in the process of developing a new product.
The risks associated with the new product introduction into the market can also be re-
duced (Boad, 1999). Prince and Davies (2002) point out that co-branding alliance strat-
egy is critical to motivate the development of innovation. Bucklin and Sengupta
(1993)’s study suggest that it is important for partners to develop a balanced partnership
and to ensure that the distribution of power and benefits in the co-branding practices do
not form conflicts. Meanwhile, there is usually one dominant brand and another non-
dominant brand in the co-branding practices.
82.1.3 Co-branding Alliance in Fashion Industry
To retain their features such as exclusivity, uniqueness and, in turn, premium prices,
luxury fashion brands have to face the additional pressure of expanding their consumer
base and brand awareness (Bruce & Kratz, 2007). According to the trends of the fashion
industry in recent decades, luxury fashion brands have become more democratized
which led brand managers to seek a more diverse consumer base and relate fashion
brands with status consumption since luxury brands and their products represent as
highly valuable assets that closely linked with customers’ self-concept and expression
(Okonkwo, 2016; Tsai, 2005). The utilization of a co-branding strategy enables luxury
brands to reach this type of customers as brand extensions. For example, companies
like Marni, Jimmy Choo, Stella McCartney have used a co-branding strategy to collab-
orate with global fast-fashion retailers such as H&M to gain a new consumer base and
additional market share (Jemma and Ahmad, 2014).
Luxury brands are known for their exclusivity, but by combining their unique charac-
teristics with familiar products or brands that every consumer can enjoy, they create a
sense of excitement and adventure which can provide a positive brand image, establish
a better sales revenue and improve the brand awareness. It sells co-branded luxury
goods in fast fashion stores and provides a gateway for mass-market customers to enter
the luxury arena as well .(Shen, Jung, Chow, & Wong, 2014).
Pros Cons
Luxury • High media exposure • Could harm brand image and di-
Brands • Expand and new cus- lute brand equity
tomer base • Negative experience associated
• Increased sales vol- with partner brand might trans-
ume fer
9Fast Fash- • High media exposure • Could confuse consumers and
ion Brands • Increased sales reve- dilute brand equity (especially
nue brand knowledge)
• Differentiate from
other fast fashion
brands
• Position brand as more
premium
Table 0: Pros and cons of co-branding for luxury brands and fast fashion brands
(Shen et al., 2014)
According to table 0, for both luxury and fast fashion brands, there are both pros and cons
demonstrated, though this research project focuses on studying the co-branding alliance be-
tween fast brand and luxury brands from a customer perspective.
2.2 Brand Image and Brand Identity
2.2.1 Brand Image
The significance of being differentiated from competitors’ products has been perceived
by many market leaders, and they start to view the brand as a firm’s competitive ad-
vantage (Amini, Darani, Afshani, & Amini, 2012). Brand is considered as an important
factor that can cause distinctions and the preference for one specific product over the
other (Aaker, 2009). According to American Marketing Association, brand is defined
as a name, word or phrase, mark, sign, symbol, design or combination of them with the
purpose of introducing products or service which sellers offer in order to distinguish
them from the products of competing firms (Aaker & Equity, 1991; Aaker &
Joachimsthaler, 2000). To create a favorable image of the brand, many companies use
brand extension strategy as their primary approach, but this strategy may not be suitable
for all brands, and it may adversely affect the image of the extended brand. Though
new product associations may be positive, a negative association may also arise and
unfavorably influence the consumer’s attitude to extension and brand image (Kazemi,
Mohammadi, & Seify, 2013).
10Brand image refers to the individual characteristics of an enterprise or one of its brands
in the market and in the minds of the public (Janonis, Dovalienė, & Virvilaitė, 2007).
Brand image reflects the evaluation and cognition of the public, especially consumers,
on the brand. Brand image and brand cannot be separated (Faircloth, Capella, & Alford,
2001). Image is the characteristic of a brand, which reflects the strength and essence of
a brand (Chen, 2010). The brand image includes product name, packaging, pattern ad-
vertising design, etc. Image is the foundation of a brand, so enterprises must attach great
importance to building the brand image. Brand image is a combination of all the asso-
ciations which consumers have with a brand, which reflects the image of the brand in
consumers’ memory (Martinez & De Chernatony, 2004). The formation of brand asso-
ciation is the result of both marketing activities and non-marketing activities. Consum-
ers’ association of brand formation can be acquired either through channels controlled
by enterprises or through channels not controlled by enterprises (Rahaman, Hossain,
Islam, & Sarker, 2017). The studies show that if the firms bring a positive brand image
to the consumers, it will increase the level of consumers’ brand loyalty and the level of
satisfaction, meanwhile, lower the consumer’s perceived risk of the brand itself. It has
been proven that a good brand image has a positive influence on the process of deter-
mining the product’s line due to the associations between consumer’s mind and the
strong brand value that comes from the impressive brand image (Kazemi, A., Moham-
madi, M., & Seify, M, 2013).
2.2.2 Brand Identity Prism
Brand is more than just a symbol or design, as consumers’ perceptions and emotions
towards the product and service can be influenced by the brand details taking the social
dimension into account (Janonis et al., 2007). To explore the meaning behind the con-
cept of brand identity specifically, Kapferer (2006) introduced a brand identity prism
to determine six facets of brand identity, including physique, personality, relationship,
culture, reflection and self-image. As of the brand’s physique, Kapferer (2006) deter-
mines it as the tangible value and the quality of products. Brand’s personality is the
result of brand communication practices, as some traits of human personality is at-
tributed to brands. As for culture, it is determined as a set of values with which the
actions are driven to enhance the differentiation points of the brands and to demonstrate
11competitiveness. The relationship facet refers to the brand’s style of behaviour and con-
duct. This is how brands offers the services and supports for the customers. Reflection
is a term opposite to target customers. Target customers refer to both the potential and
actual customers that a brand intends to attract. However, reflection means that custom-
ers should be reflected as they wish to be seen after using the products from the brand.
Self-image is consumers’ internal mirror, which means how consumers feel with the
relation to the brand. Brand identity prism theory is constructed based on the commu-
nication theory. This is because the one that communicates usually build s representa-
tion for those who receive the message and the relationship will then be demonstrated.
Hence, the faces of physique and personality demonstrate an important role to define
the brand, as messages are created and distributed by the sender in communication
practices. Reflection and self-image facts are used to define consumers, who receive
message and information from senders (Viot, 2011). As for relationship and culture,
they play the role to fill the gap between the sender and the receiver. The physique,
relationship and reflection are determined as the social expression of the brand, which
are the visual components in the brand as well. As for the personality, culture and self-
image, they are the intangible components and the spiritual meanings of the brands
(Ross & Harradine, 2011).
2.3 Consumers’ Perception on Co-branding
Starčević (2011) proves the significance of self-concept, which determines the con-
sumer behaviour and choice of brands. Meanwhile, as a sum of ideas and thoughts, self-
concept is a very important psychological construct in social sciences and marketing.
Individuals define themselves in regard to others in a socially determined environment
through self-concept. Thus, self-concept is an essential course for brands to learn. By
knowing more about their customers’ minds and logic of the decision, a better branding
strategy could be built to reach the customers.
Nowadays, more and more new strategies for branding, such as co-branding, are emerg-
ing. Even though there are many new forms of branding, it is always very closely con-
nected to consumers’ psychology and always built upon the consciousness of custom-
ers. A persuasive example here to prove this has been offered by Bouten et al. (2011),
12who argues that co-branded products will be evaluated as more value if one parent
brand of the product contributes more to the brand image of the product. This finding
indicates a vital implication that firms must consider this kind of psychology of cus-
tomers before they decide which partner to have co-branded products with. This is only
one factor of consumer psychology, and there are still lots of other factors that need to
be taken into consideration by firms when they develop a branding strategy. Another
support statement that proves the importance of knowledge on consumer psychology is
from Schmitt (2012), who introduced “Inter-brand relations”. It was explained in the
way that “to identify a brand on a social level, the consumer may be drawn to further
information, namely, to the relations that the brand has with other brands. Brands be-
come contextualized when brands are compared to other brands”. Hence, after knowing
this, a brand could understand more about how customers recognize brands and
strengthen its image by building brand-alliance with appropriate partners.
According to the research done by Giovannini (2015), customers’ brand consciousness
is enhanced by higher levels of public self-consciousness. Furthermore, a higher level
of brand consciousness strengthens brand self-congruency motivations, which means
individuals with a high level of brand consciousness tend to purchase brands or prod-
ucts which could give them a sense of intense connection. Co-branding is a creative
way for fashion companies to combine their brand images by meeting the congruence
concept of customers. Additionally, Bouten (2011) also gave the viewpoint that “a high
fit between the current products of both brands and a high fit between both brand im-
ages will lead to a more positive evaluation of a co‐branded product”. Therefore, a fit
combination of brand images (co-branding) will better satisfy the brand congruency of
consumers, and higher customer satisfaction strengthens brand loyalty towards both
brands.
Brand personality is a term introduced by Aaker (1997), which describes the situation
that consumers fill brands with human personality traits. User imagery, advertising and
distribution style could all become the determinants of a brand’s personality, which
consumers imbue a brand with. Thus, the cues by which consumers define a brand’s
personality can vary on a large scale. A viewpoint given by Monga (2007) indicates
13that the extent to which a partner brand fit with its parent brands determines how con-
sumers evaluate single versus dual personalities, and those high-brand-fit ones tend to
elicit a good response from consumers. In other words, the details of the way in which
a cobrand is connected to its parent brands are significant to the evaluation from con-
sumers. Consumers usually prefer the brand personality that is congruent with their
own self-concept and self-views. Therefore, by knowing the exact self-views of con-
sumers, the brand image and the determinants mentioned at the beginning of this para-
graph could be revised in a corresponding way to give the consumers a brand person-
ality they like. Indeed, the self is a crucial factor that keeps influencing preferences for
cobrand, but it is almost impossible to know exactly the self of all consumers. Even
though larger market share and higher revenue could be gained by collecting infor-
mation and inferring all consumers’ self, it is still too costly to do so. Instead, companies
segment the market and only try to satisfy the target segments but not cover every in-
dividual.
H. Ahn and Sung (2012) point out that in co-branding strategy development, it is es-
sential to partner with a brand with high brand equity in order to create a positive eval-
uation of the co-branding alliance. Luck et al. (2014) suggest that the attitudes of the
consumers towards the co-branding products influence the general results of the co-
branding alliance. For those strong brands that have been well recognized in the market,
their co-branding alliance strategy will receive positive attitudes from customers. How-
ever, for brands that they are perceived of negative image in the market, co-branding
does not seem to be an effective way to change this brand image. Instead, consumers
will grow negative attitudes towards these brands. Shen, Choi, and Chow (2017)’s
study suggests that fast fashion brand H&M has demonstrated successful co-branding
projects with luxury brands in the past years, which shows that brand loyalty to both of
H&M and other luxury fashion brands can be an important factor to influence customer
perception.
2.4 Consumer’s Perceived Benefits
The purpose process shows an exchange made by two parties with a value equation
result to provide the expected benefits for both parties (Sözer, Civelek, & Kara, 2017).
14To determine the general customer value, there are three categories identified, which
are value component models, benefits/costs ratio model, and means-end models
(Khalifa, 2004). Zeithaml (2000) defines perceived value of customers as the assess-
ment of the ratio of the perceived benefits versus the perceived costs. Perceived benefits
that customers receive are generally determined as the sum of the advantages that sat-
isfy the needs and wants of customers (Trentin, Perin, & Forza, 2014). Customers have
their own evaluation of whether the products or services can bring them better benefits,
which are the criteria driving their purchase behaviours. Sarkar (2011) states that utili-
tarian benefits and hedonic bases are important for customers to perceive when making
purchase decisions. Utilitarian benefits are associated with functional and cognitive
means that lead to the determination of consumer value (Mimouni-Chaabane & Volle,
2010). As for hedonic benefits, they are related to experiential and emotional perception
of the needs of the customers (Holbrook & Hirschman, 2015). Overall, perceived ben-
efits are subjective construct that consumers have towards the products and services,
which suggests that there are difference expected on this perspective taking consumers’
cultures into account (Sabiote-Ortiz, Frías-Jamilena, & Castañeda-García, 2016). This
study provides the support for this research to focus on studying Chinese millennial
consumers’ behaviours towards co-branded fashion products. Santos-Olmo, Sánchez,
Caballero, Camacho, and Fernandez-Medina (2016) point out that the interaction be-
tween customer and a product is essential to drive for the determination of perceived
value, especially because customers can compare different options and to input their
preferences in the decisions. Perceived benefits are preferential, perceptual and cogni-
tive-affective as indicated in the study of Santos-Olmo et al. (2016). Both expected and
unexpected benefits that customers receive can influence their final evaluation on the
entire purchase experience. Kumar and Reinartz (2016) suggest that customers usually
make efforts to maximize their desired consequences in consumption and minimize the
undesired consequences. With this idea, consumers are generally considered rational,
as they are expected to evaluate the benefits that they can gain from products and ser-
vices before they make the decisions to purchase (Amaro & Duarte, 2015). Plewa,
Sweeney, and Michayluk (2015) argue that the perceived benefits of customers are
equivalent to the value-in-use, which come from customers’ evaluation of the specific
attributes and the quality of the products or services.
15In the study of consumer perceived benefits and consumer behaviours, it is necessary
to integrate the consumer decision making process because it is helpful to gain the in-
sights on how consumers make their final decisions and to purchase the products.
Variawa (2010) suggests that consumer decision making process include the stages of
need recognition, information collection of alternative options, evaluation of alterna-
tives, purchase and post-purchase feedbacks. To integrate the current information chan-
nels and landscape of communication, it is viewed that the development of the Internet
and social media influence how people grow their awareness of the available products
from brands (Cowart & Goldsmith, 2007; Dasgupta & Kothari, 2018; Sema, 2013).
Consumers nowadays evaluate their holistic experience taking multiple stages in the
purchase into consideration. The perceived benefits that consumers evaluate are also
based on whether they can obtain benefits from different consuming stages in their de-
cision-making process.
163. Research Methodology
3.1 Introduction
In this chapter of research methodology, the possible research methods and options are
discussed, though the objective is to select the most suitable research method for this
project to integrate ad to fulfil the research aim. Saunders (2012)’s study of research
methodology offers a research onion model that demonstrates multiple layers of activ-
ities in determining research method for research projects. This research intends to in-
tegrate Saunders’ research model to construct the methodology.
3.2 Research Philosophy
A research philosophy is defined as the belief of how data are collected, studied and
used for researchers to understand a phenomenon (Hughes & Sharrock, 2016). In the
determination of the different approaches in research philosophy, epistemology and
doxology are important terms mentioned. Epistemology means what is known to be
true, while doxology means what is believed to be true. For research studies, an im-
portant purpose is to turn the believed notion into known, therefore it shows a process
of moving from doxa to episteme. Crossan (2003) points out that that there are two
main research philosophies used in scientific research, namely positivism and interpre-
tivism. Researcher’s decision in selecting the research philosophy can influence the
research process and results.
3.2.1 Positivism Philosophy
The philosophy of positivism values the development of factual knowledge through
observing and measuring data in an objective manner. With this perception determined,
positivists’ involvement in research is limited, they are only expected to observe and
17analyze data objectively. According to Levin (1988), the reality is perceived stable be-
cause events repeat, therefore researchers are offered with the opportunities to observe
and to interpret the reality. As the objective feature of positivist research is emphasized,
data collected in this philosophy is quantifiable. To facilitate the analysis of the quan-
titative data, statistical analysis is often adopted. Collins (2018) points out that human
observation and analysis enhances the empiricist view and knowledge development.
The reality is considered having observable elements; hence researchers can observe
these elements and develop knowledge. According to Wilson (2014), an important prin-
ciple to emphasize on the involvement of positivist researchers is their independence.
No human interest should be associated in the process of research and analysis to ensure
the objectiveness. The purpose of positivism is often demonstrated for identifying the
relationship between different variables with an adoption of specific research design
and principles (Laudan, 1996). To ensure the objectiveness, positivists tend to collect
data from a large sample size. With the positivist research, results lead to predictions
of future events and phenomenon.
Positivism philosophy has its advantages in facilitating research in driving objective
results. There are disadvantages to determine in this research philosophy meanwhile. It
is noticed that in knowledge development, positivists tend to rely on human experience,
though human experience has its limitation (Laudan, 1996). There are subjects that
positivism does not effectively support, including, cause of event, time and space in-
vestigation (Hunt, 1991). Hence, positivism is not applicable to all research subjects
and types. Positivists often focus on the study based on status quo, which only lead to
the study on a specific phenomenon, hence it is difficult to lead to in-depth insights.
3.2.2 Interpretivism
Interpretivism was brought up with the understanding of the limitation of positivism,
hence interpretivism is opposite to positivism. Interpretivist researchers are involved in
data collection and data interpretation dynamically. Besides, the inputs of the interpre-
tivists are appreciated in primary research. It is pointed out that social constructions are
useful for researchers to understand reality, which means that language, meaning and
18consciousness are explored (Walsham, 1995). From the philosophical stance, it is nec-
essary to point out that interpretivism is allocated with idealism, such as social con-
structivism, phenomenology and hermeneutics (Goldkuhl, 2012). Interpretivism fol-
lows a subjective manner in data collection and analysis. Unlike positivism, qualitative
data are collected in interpretivist research and studies with the tools of interview and
observation. Researchers can make the decision on whether to use primary or secondary
data to facilitate the studies (Williams, 2000). From the philosophical perspective, her-
meneutics is associated with subjective interpretation and to develop understanding. In
this case, both textual information and wisdom literature are used. However, herme-
neutics are not adopted in studying business. Regarding phenomenology, it refers to the
tradition of seeking understanding of a phenomenon leveraging human experience. Rel-
ativism supports the adoption of interpretivism, as it is believed that there is only rela-
tive truth (Goldkuhl, 2012). With the support of subjective epistemology, it is perceived
that the role of interpretivists in the process of knowledge development is important.
Rigid research principles are not adopted in interpretivist approach, which offers flexi-
bility for researchers to develop their involvement and insights.
The limitation of interpretivism is evident, because it endorses the use of subjective
study and analysis. There is chance that interpretivism grows the chance of bias in the
results, because researchers and the research participants tend to use subjective manners
to collect and analyze data (Heshusius & Ballard, 1996). It is difficult for the results of
interpretivist research to be generalized, because the subjective viewpoints can only be
used in a specific context. Therefore, a disadvantage of interpretivism is its reliability
and representativeness.
Reviewing the meaning and application of positivism and interpretivism, it is now im-
portant to decide which one to adopt for this research. This research is constructed with
the aim to investigate the perception of the Chinese millennial consumers towards the
co-branded fashion products. The researcher perceives that it is essential to explore in-
depth insights based on the experience of the Chinese consumers, because consuming
process consists different stages and subjective preference. Between positivism and in-
terpretivism, interpretivism is considered more suitable for this research to explore in-
depth insights from the research respondents.
193.3 Research Approach
As interpretivism is selected for this research to use, it is then important to identify the
research approach. Research approach is defined as a plan and procedure that consist
of different steps and consumptions to specify data collection methods, analysis and
interpretation (Bloomberg & Volpe, 2008). The research philosophy and the nature of
the research problem are addressed. Researchers can adopt deductive or inductive ap-
proach based on the specific research perception and nature. A Bryman and Bell (2011)
suggest that deductive approach requires researchers to identify research hypotheses to
facilitate the actions in analyzing collected data. Whether the researcher can find a fit
between the research hypotheses and the collected data is an important rule to follow.
Deductive approach is usually used in positivist research. Inductive approach is differ-
ent from deductive approach, especially the objective is to generate a new theory based
on the data collected for the research (Cooper & Schindler, 2003).
Understanding the different procedures of different research approaches, this research
will use inductive approach. This research intends to adopt interpretivism as indicated
above, and therefore inductive research approach is more suitable. Besides, from the
research theme and nature, it is viewed that this research is planned to examine the
perception of the Chinese millennial consumers, which is a specific context. Hence,
this research is expected to generate a new theory based on the insights of the Chinese
millennials on the subject of co-branding fashion products consumption.
3.4 Research Strategies
After identifying the research philosophy and research approach, it is important to spec-
ify the research methods to be used in this research. This research will need to collect
in-depth information leveraging the experience and insights of the Chinese millennial
consumers, and therefore interview is considered an effective tool to use. Meanwhile,
the method of interview is useful to explore attitudes and perception, which fits the
research objective of this project. With the method of interview, open-end questions are
20designed in the interview question list to facilitate the researcher to proceed the inter-
views. Structured interviews will be conducted, which means that the interviewer will
stick strictly to the prepared question list (Alan Bryman, 2008).
3.5 Data Collection and Sampling Technique
With the selection of interview method, the following stage is data collection. For this
entire research, researcher can collect primary and secondary data. It is necessary to
understand meaning of primary and secondary research before a decision is made. Sec-
ondary data refer to data that are not collected by the researcher but others (Hox &
Boeije, 2005). To ensure that secondary data are trustful, researchers will need to care-
fully select the reliable sources of data, such as industrial reports, official database of
governments or academic studies. The authors insist this principle when collecting data,
all secondary data are collected from trustworthy sources like university library and
authorized journals. Primary data are collected by researchers to facilitate their own
studies (Hox & Boeije, 2005). The advantage of conducting primary data is that the
researcher can effectively manage the research direction and to make the decision in
data collection and to ensure that the data are specifically reflecting the research sub-
jects, since not all secondary resources are effective. For this research, both primary
and secondary data are useful. In the research background and literature review, sec-
ondary data are collected. The researcher finds it necessary to first examine what is
available in the current studies on the relevant subjects. Besides, it is also critical to
develop a primary research with interviews to collect primary data. This is because the
intended research subject is specific, and therefore the existing studies may not provide
enough information for this research to use. In the primary data collection, there are
quantitative and qualitative data to be taken into account. Quantitative data are pre-
sented in the numerical format, while qualitative data re often in textual form (Smith &
Firth, 2011; Treiman, 2014). This research will use the research method of interviews
to collect primary data, and therefore it is perceived that qualitative data will be col-
lected from the interviews.
21Taking the issue of COVID-19 pandemic into account, face-to-face interviews with the
Chinese millennial consumers is not recommended, and therefore the interviews are
conducted though phone calls or WeChat (a Chinese social media network) video chat.
Moreover, the interviews are conducted in both Chinese and English according to the
interviewees’ language skills, which means when some Chinese interviewees can speak
English, the English will be used during interview, and when interviewees only speak
Chinese, the interview will be in Chinese, in the meanwhile, their answers will be trans-
lated in to English in this research.
As this research conducts primary research, it is important to make sure that the re-
search collect data from those individuals who fit the criteria of the research (Etikan &
Bala, 2017). As indicated in the research topic, the targeted respondents are those Chi-
nese millennial consumers who have insights to share about their experience purchasing
co-branded fashion products. Initially, this research intended to have 12 participants to
respond to the interview with a voluntary approach. The result was that 13 individuals
expressed their intention to participate in the interview project, hence the sample size
is now 13. The sample size is satisfying, considering that qualitative research is time
consuming, and it is challenging to ensure to have many people attend. A snowball
sampling technique is adopted in this research to have access to interviewees. People
who are considered fit the research criteria are contacted and asked if they were inter-
ested to participate in this project. Meanwhile, they are also asked if they could recom-
mend their friends who also have the insights in this subject (Doherty, 1994). This sam-
pling technique is useful, since they help me to recruit people who share the similar
interests.
3.6 Methods of data analysis
The primary research is conducted with the tool of structured interviews, and therefore
qualitative data are collected. It is then effective to select a suitable data analysis method
to facilitate this research project to process the data collected. To analyse qualitative
data, the available methods are content analysis, narrative analysis, discourse analysis
and framework analysis (Dey, 2003). This research will select one research method out
22of these four to facilitate the data analysis in this research project. Content analysis is a
procedure conducted for categorizing and summarizing information collected from
qualitative research (Liu, 2016). As for discourse analysis, it refers to the practice of
naturally analyze the conversation happen in the qualitative research. Narrative analysis
requires researchers to reformulate data collected from the research context and expe-
rience of interview, hence research respondents’ narratives need to be specifically ex-
amined and studied. Framework analysis facilitate the practice of identifying a thematic
framework from the primary data collected from the research participants (Dey, 2003).
After reviewing these four qualitative analysis methods, this research decides to use
content analysis. Interviews are conducted with the participants, and the researcher rec-
ords the content with a recording device. After the interviews are all completed, then
the data will be transcribed into textual information to facilitate the data analysis and
review. The specific content will be presented to ensure that the research aim and ob-
jectives are satisfied.
3.7 Ethical considerations
For research that collects primary data, it is necessary to examine the potential ethical
risks and to see whether there are such issues in the research and to develop effective
practices to eliminate the risks. The first ethical risk to mention is about interviewees’
privacy. It is essential to defend the privacy of the interviewees that participate in this
research project. Some of the participants in the research are authors’ friends, so the
authors can easily identify their identities in the projects. However, the interviewees’
private information should not be released to others. Besides, when these research par-
ticipants are contacted to conduct interviews, the authors will have access to the inter-
viewees’ private phone numbers or social media accounts. The information is also con-
sidered privacy for the interviewees. In fact, the private information of the interviewees
is irrelevant to the research since the research aims to investigate behaviors. In the in-
terview process, there is chance that private information of the interviewees may be
collected. To avoid this, in the interview question design, private and sensitive ques-
tions regarding interviewees’ name, address, contact details and other personal infor-
23You can also read
