“The impact of social media marketing on consumption of luxury brands in the fashion industry”

Abstract

This research paper undertaken has investigated the impact that social media marketing has had on brands in the luxury fashion industry, in terms of the increase in consumption. The luxury fashion market is now predominantly made up of younger generations, those of which are also the highest users of social media, so luxury fashion marketers have began using social media for marketing to these consumers to aid in increase of consumption. The study aims to explore how much of an impact social media marketing has had on luxury brands in the fashion industry and to identify the importance of other factors that have an influence on consumption. Objectives were developed to aid with answering the research aim, these were: - To identify the extent that luxury consumers use social media -To evaluate whether luxury fashion brands marketing strategies on social media influences consumption. - To evaluate other factors that impact consumers purchasing decisions of luxury fashion products. For data collection, primary data collection was selected as the most appropriate method to allow new data to be formed on the subject area. Secondary sources were also used., such as journal articles, to conduct the literature review and to gather already found knowledge surrounding the subject areas. A quantitative approach was selected for the data collection, due to time restrictions and a large amount of data being accumulated. The research concluded that social media is a useful tool for luxury fashion brands but does not play a highly significant role in terms of increasing consumer spending. Marketing on social media makes a slight impact on consumption, but luxury consumers have already perceived values attached to luxury that contribute to their spending choices.