Tracing brand constellations in social media: the case of fashion week Stockholm

Abstract

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the effects of fashion weeks on brand constellations of participating fashion companies in social media.

Design/methodology/approach: The study analyses how brand constellations take form for seven Swedish fashion companies before, during and after Fashion Week Stockholm 2013. In total 3449 user-generated contents referring to the sampled brands were collected and analysed.

Findings: On average, brand constellations of participating companies are increasingly incorporating other participating brands as a result of the fashion week. Based on the presented results, four brand constellation outcomes for participating fashion companies are identified: brand constellation amplification, concentration, division, and dilution.

Research limitations/implications: As this paper is focused on the Swedish market, additional results from fashion weeks taking place in other cities would be beneficial to verify the four brand constellation outcomes.

Practical implications: The results question the resilience of professionally curated brand constellations due to the emergence of user-driven constellations that also shape the position of fashion brands. Therefore, this development can potentially have a considerable impact on often carefully orchestrated brand positioning strategies executed by fashion companies.

Originality/value: This paper contributes to the field of fashion marketing and management by identifying four different brand constellation outcomes in social media for participating fashion companies as a result of fashion weeks and how to managerially handle these respective outcomes.