Alexander Wang X H&M

The strategy of co-branding gains popularity across different fields of business. An increasing number of companies are applying this strategy in order to develop positive attitudes toward the constituent brands, as well as to increase consumers’ awareness of the brands and the actual purchases of various goods. Nevertheless, little research addressing the co-branding strategy has been done. Therefore, this investigation was conducted to enrich research on co-branding and to find out how can co-branding strategies increase future purchase intentions in the fashion industry. The study focuses on the co-branding phenomenon between luxury fashion designers and mass-market retailers, and analyzes a focal example of co-branding, namely, the collaboration between Alexander Wang and H&M. The qualitative nature of this research contributes to the better understanding of the perception of co-branding among mass-market audience and reveals the influence of this strategy on the future purchase intentions for luxury fashion products. The results derived from in-depth interviews demonstrate that customers’ attitudes toward a co-branded product would be affected by prior attitudes toward each individual brand that constitutes the collaboration. Therefore, the perceived norm of luxury fashion goods and H&M products are among the key factors that influence one’s intention to purchase a co-branded item. This study also suggests that co-branding campaigns increase the awareness of luxury fashion brands and their production lines among H&M customers. Furthermore, the investigation demonstrates that mass-market consumers become interested in specific high fashion brands that participated in the collaboration. However, the current use of luxury fashion among mass-market consumers is moderated by environmental constraints, such as the consumers’ financial status. Finally, the study suggests that current mass-market audience intend to switch to more expensive brands in the future when they would become economically powerful enough. Taking into account these findings, the study assumes that luxury brands could implement co-branding campaigns as a long-term investment in order to establish preliminary relationships with potential customers, and to subsequently increase future purchases of luxury fashion goods.