Study Proposal
By Xinyue Hu
Date: 28 November 2022 Word Count: 530
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How can luxury brands team up with IxD content creators to reshape the future of sustainable marketing?
1. Rationale
As global political landscapes, climate emergencies, and economic transition forces change faster than ever, digital fashion using fewer raw materials and more pixels ignites the future, making green initiatives and collaborations an imperative trend to come (DDW, 2022; Berndt, 2022). In the fashion and luxury industry, digital products, including IxD (Interaction Design), NFT collections, and AR fashion, are becoming a significant component where the virtual world expands rapidly (DDW, 2022).
Thus, creative developers, professionals who can combine the emotional, intellectual, and technological aspects of a project will be critical players in the future (Magnani, 2022). Balenciaga, Prada, and other luxury brands have recently joined the industry innovators' digital fashion retailer DressX by creating a digital fashion marketplace where users can shop in an immersive virtual space (Rijmenam, 2022). This gives physical designs a new digital life and revenue opportunity; also, marketing can see significant cost savings (Chaplin, 2021).
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Image: Balenciaga Fall 2021 Campaign Film (Balenciaga, 2021)
To develop a sustainable vision, it is essential to merge the previous framework of marketing ideas to create a concept of sustainable marketing and develop a new mix for sustainable marketing (Trivedi et al., 2018; Gordon et al., 2011). Sustainable marketing often focuses on the sustainability of product materials and supply chains the past. However, now it is gradually taking on a new perspective, moving away from physical constraints and innovating more in the virtual realm (Rijmenam, 2022). These pieces of evidence foreshadow that the future of sustainable marketing is reshaping. Therefore, this study proposed a research question on exploring how the collaborations between luxury brands and IxD content creators could change the playing field of sustainable marketing.
Figure 1: Venn diagram (Author's own, 2022)
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2. Aim and Objectives
Aim:
This study aims to explore how can collaborations between luxury brands and IxD content creators potentially reshape the future of sustainable marketing to provide strategic marketing recommendations for the luxury industry.
Objectives:
1. To explore the current forms, technical foundations, and possibilities of ICCs in the luxury industry
2. To identify the current model and effecting factors of sustainability marketing of luxury brands
3. To evaluate the effects of ICCs within the context of sustainable marketing.
4. To build a theoretical framework to illustrate how ICCs alter the traditional sustainable marketing mix of luxury brands.
5. To provide tactical suggestions for both luxury brands and the IxD creative industry to maximize the effect of ICCs in sustainable marketing initiatives.
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3. Methodology outline
To figure out the research question, this study adopts interpretivism as the philosophy and applies multiple qualitative methods with an inductive approach. The research onion below depicts the planned methodology.
Figure 2: The Research Onion for this study (Author’s own, Adapted from Saunders et al., 2009)
Sustainable marketing combining IxD contents is emergent in the fashion industry. So, this qualitative research uses both unstructured and semi-structured practices for primary data collection. The case study is considered to capture information about the more interpretive questions of "how", "what", and "why". (Sheikh et al., 2002). Meanwhile, the focus group is selected to collect information from luxury and creative industry insiders. As Boughton (2011) noted, the focus group could help gather qualitative data and in -depth insights and results in an open-ended, free-flowing discussion, which may assist in building a theoretical framework for this research. In addition, the time horizon will be cross-sectional and thematic coding will be the primary measure for data analysis.
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Reference List
DDW. (2022) Virtual clothing: The Fabricant moves towards sustainable fashion Available at: https://ddw.nl/en/magazine-archive/782/virtual-clothing-the-fabricant-moves-towardssustainable-fashion (Accessed: 21 October 2022)
Berndt, R. (2022) Is Circular Economy The Next Step for Fashion Industry? Available at: https://luxiders.com/circular-economy-for-fashion/ (Accessed: 18 October 2022).
Maghani, C. (2022) Revisiting Fashion Online: The Past, Present, and Future of Immersive Fashion Digital Experiences. Available at: https://www.fashionstudiesjournal.org/digitalengagement-a/2022/8/15/revisiting-fashion-online-the-past-present-and-future-of-immersivefashion-digital-experiences (Accessed: 23 October 2022).
Rijmenam, M. (2022) Digital Fashion: The Next Frontier in Fashion. Available at: https://www.thedigitalspeaker.com/digital-fashion-next-frontier-fashion/ (Accessed: 26 October 2022).
Chaplin, M. (2022) DressX – Future of Fashion. Available at: https://www.lofficiel.cy/fashion/dressx-new-fashion-reality (Accessed: 1 November 2022). Trivedi, Krunal; Trivedi, Pooja; Goswami, Vandana (2018): Sustainable marketing strategies: Creating business value by meeting consumer expectation, International Journal of Management, Economics and Social Sciences (IJMESS), ISSN 2304-1366, IJMESS International Publishers, Jersey City, NJ, Vol. 7, Iss. 2, pp. 186-205 (Accessed: 1 November 2022).
Gordon, Ross, Carrigan, Marylyn, & Hastings, Gerald (2011) A framework for sustainable marketing. Marketing Theory, 11(2), pp. 143-163. (Accessed: 2 November 2022).
Sheikh A, Smeeth L, Ashcroft R: Randomised controlled trials in primary care: scope and application. Br J Gen Pract. 2002, 52 (482): 746-51. (Accessed: 30 October 2022)
Boughton, L. (2011) What is a focus group and how can it benefit your market research? Available at: https://info.angelfishfieldwork.com/market-research-fieldwork-blog/what-is-afocus-group-and-how-can-it-benefit-your-market-research (Accessed: 3 November 2022).
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