Fashion Company Prada - Dissertation Example

Even though, on a global basis, there are only handfuls that can actually afford the luxury goods available, there are however a large number of common people exposed to such advertisements that these brands publish, often creating a kind of aspiration amongst them of affording these luxury items someday. This research paper will conduct an analysis into the advertising world of luxury brands, using Prada as a case study, where it is divided into three parts. The first part is the conceptual context, which is a critical evaluation of the relationship that exists between luxury goods and advertising in the context of the high fashion brands.

The second part will deal with the management issue, which would be a critical evaluation of the strategic importance of advertisements in selling luxury items (as in Prada). The third part is the visual analysis, which is a analysis of the advertisements created for Prada and their impact on consumers. “Luxury brands should seize every opportunity to talk about themselves, distinguish themselves from other brands & revive their fascinating history”~ Aurelie Pichard. . The third part is the visual analysis, which is a analysis of the advertisements created for Prada and their impact on consumers.

1 Conceptual context: an insight into the relationship that exists between luxury goods and advertising in context of high fashion brands “Luxury brands should seize every opportunity to talk about themselves, distinguish themselves from other brands & revive their fascinating history”~ Aurelie Pichard. The economic recession of the 2007-2008 negatively affected the global market, including and the market for luxury items. Those relatively less affluent, spent less money on luxury items, forcing many of the luxury brands to less their prices to maintain growth (KPMG International Cooperative, 2011, 10).

Despite the price cuts, there was 8% year-on-year fall in worldwide demand for luxury items, during the year 2009. Along with fall in sale of luxury goods, there was an inadvertent fall in the advertisements of these companies. In a 2008 news report, we find that “ad pages at the top luxury magazines fell 22 percent year over year for the December issues, according to Media Industry Newsletter. Vogue, for example, dropped from 284 pages last December, to 221 pages this December, while Food & Wine went from 160 pages to 126” (Clifford, For Luxury Brands, Less Money to Spend on Ads, 2008).

However, 2010 again saw a rise in demands for luxury items in the first quarter and this trend continued throughout 2010, leading to a comeback for this industry (ibid), as seen in fig 1. Fig 1: Revenues of top global luxury goods players (US$ billion) (KPMG International Cooperative, 2011, 10). The worldwide sales of luxury items were