High-street fashion brand communication amongst female adolescents

Abstract

The nature of high-street fashion brands amongst female adolescents is a combined set of fast fashion movements and early adopter demands within a compressed timeframe. This research has investigated the need for a communication plan to appropriately deliver the brand message for this sector. There are a number of information barriers for high-street fashion brands to build customer value and differentiate the core values of their brands from competitors because of 1) imbalanced strategic communication implementation particularly in the encoding process, 2) ambiguous interpretation of target audience behaviour as a key disseminator of brand messages and 3) a lack of an integrated communication approach to complement the brand building communication plan. Accordingly, there is a need for a brand building communication framework to formulate and direct the female adolescent perceived values within a limited time based on mutual understanding and shared requirements between a high-street fashion brand and its target audience. Moreover, a strategic plan using an integrated brand-building communication in the encoding process which optimises the contribution of the audience must be developed. This research has revealed that high-street fashion brands should concentrate on consumer self-construal, consumer-brand congruence and consumer-brand relationships of female adolescents in order to clearly construct brand messages which match audiences’ values and lifestyles. Due to the needs for informative cooperation amongst the target audiences, the brand-building communication strategy as a persuasive medium, which encourages audiences and prospects to initiate interactivity with the high-street fashion brand, was thoroughly examined in the empirical study. A conceptual model of a high-street fashion brand-building communication was developed and evaluated by means of design research methodology and soft systems methodology. The proposed model explains the platform of brand-building communication strategy in the encoding process for the high-street fashion market. A number of advantages are offered: Firstly, brand managers may use the model to overcome the barriers to integrate a fashion brand communication strategy. Secondly, it can enhance the recognition of fashion brand-building communication. Thirdly, the model offers an approach to leverage customer-brand relationships by means of the communication process. Fourthly, it allows the description of a holistic view of brand message construction in the encoding process. Finally, it offers a strategy to integrate online and off-line communications.