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Uché Okonkwo
Palgrave Macmillan , Basingstoke; 2007 ; 332pp ; £25 ; hardback ;
ISBN 0230521673
Although there have been previous academic books on fashion, this one appears to be the first to focus specifically upon luxury fashion branding. Author Uche Okonkwo provides a well-informed overview of the fashion industry and the place occupied within it by the concepts and practices of branding. As befits its subject matter, the book is physically attractive, printed on glossy paper and with full colour photos appearing throughout.
In chapter one, Okonkwo proposes that the core characteristics of luxury brands are brand strength, differentiation, exclusivity, innovation, product craftmanship and precision, premium pricing and high quality. These characteristics clearly represent fertile ground for brand managers, offering a multitude of options for crafting persuasive brand strategies. Examples of such brands cited by the author include Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Givenchy and Dior. At the ultra-premium end of the luxury market, Okonkwo gives the example of the Hermès brand and notes that 'it is the craftsmanship and precision qualities that result in an eighteen-hour manufacturing process of one Hermès Kelly bag by a single workman, from start to finish. It is the high-quality feature that has resulted in the high cost of the Hermès Birkin bag, which is equivalent to two first-class tickets from Paris to New York'.
A useful history of the evolution of luxury fashion branding is given in chapter two, tracing the origins of luxury fashion and defining eras in fashion such as from Egypt to Crete and Greece (700 BC to 1150 BC), the Etruscan and Roman fashion influence (800 BC to AD 476), from...