Marketing Strategies and Retailing Concepts

Introduction

The issue: The chosen topic is focusing on the changes and challenges undergone by the Luxury Apparel Industry in the present as a result of the changing business environment and customer expectations.
 The problems I have identified are:
- Changing of important aspects in the luxury apparel market such as:
o The expansion of the luxury consumer market to include a broader mass market
o Competition from mass fashion brands
o The reinterpretation of luxury by the consumer society
o The increase in the number of the world’s wealthy and changing attitudes in their spending patterns.
o Changing consumer psychology and perception of luxury (the products can be accessed by internet, consumers don’t only buy products but also sell or borrow them)
-Challenges for the luxury department:
o The different evolutionary stages of the luxury market in several parts of the world (Europe, US, Middle East, Asia, Africa)
o Rapid market expansion and competition as a result of easier entry into the industry, the emergence of new luxury markets and also of the increase in wealth and mobility of the luxury consumer.

The aim of my thesis is to describe the current situation of the Luxury Fashion Industry, and determine which competitive strategies could be adopted by the Luxury Fashion Brands in order to cope with the current changes and new challenges of the business environment.
The final part of the thesis is represented by a study case of one of the leading companies in the Luxury Fashion Industry, The Prada Group.

 My Objectives can be summarized as following:
- to provide a framework of business management techniques that can be applied to the luxury goods market and beyond
- to review strategies that can be used to interpret current and future market changes and ways that luxury brands can be alert to face competitive challenges
- to find new approaches towards the business of smartly bringing objects of desire into the marketplace
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