How Luxury Brands Balance Their Brand Image

Recently, Prada has been controversial. After going through a series of spokesmen disturbances, Prada and the Chinese Women's Football Team jointly announced on July 10 that Prada has become the official partner of the Chinese National Women's Football Team.

As we all know, spokesmen are very important for luxury brands. They are communicators of brand image and can attract more attention and recognition. However, compared with entertainment stars, athletes as spokesmen seem to be able to bring a more stable image to the brand, which is fully reflected in Prada's cooperation with the Chinese women's football team.

This cooperation has attracted wide attention. # Prada has found the right person this time, # which has become a hot topic, and has been read 590 million times on Weibo. Compared with entertainment stars who often have negative news, choosing athletes as spokesmen seems to have become the consensus of major brands.

Looking back over the past few years, Prada seems really unlucky. The spokesmen selected in China, such as Ke Zhendong, Zheng Shuang, Wu Yifan and Li Yifeng, have all been involved in illegal and immoral behaviors. Prada is therefore compared to the brand that "endorses * * most seriously" by the outside world.

In 2021, Prada successively announced artists Zheng Shuang and Li Yifeng as brand spokesmen. However, in January of the same year, Zheng Shuang was exposed to tax evasion and other negative news. Prada immediately announced to terminate the cooperation with Zheng Shuang. It only took 9 days from the official endorsement to the termination of the contract. In September 2022, Li Yifeng, who has been acting as Prada's spokesman for 10 months, was also terminated by Prada due to negative news such as prostitution.

Recently, Prada brand encountered trouble again. Cai Xukun, another spokesman, was caught in the whirlpool of public opinion. Although it has not yet announced the termination of the cooperation, Prada's brand image and reputation have been troubled again.

Prada's cooperation with Cai Xukun began in 2019, when the idol culture was flourishing. There is no doubt that Prada chose the spokesperson to attract Chinese consumers and win the favor of the younger generation. This business behavior is justifiable, no matter right or wrong.

Traffic stars will undoubtedly bring considerable attention to the brand. In March this year, at Milan Fashion Week, Cai Xukun was invited to participate in the fashion show. On February 24, the micro blog reading of Prada, its endorsement brand, reached 497 million.

Affected by the epidemic, Prada's performance has been greatly impacted in the past three years, and 40% of its stores have been closed worldwide. However, in the Chinese market, from the second half of 2022, Prada's net * * * increased by 93.6% year on year; The gross profit margin also increased from 74.3% in 2021 to 77.7%. For such performance growth, it can be said that Prada spent a lot of money to hire spokesmen.

However, "water can carry a boat, and it can also capsize it". On June 28, under the influence of Cai Xukun's incident, Prada's share price fell by nearly 2%. Based on Prada's total market value of more than HK $130 billion, the market value has evaporated by nearly HK $3 billion.

Therefore, brands need to find alternatives to celebrity endorsement. This is one of the reasons why luxury brands tend to choose athletes as their spokesmen. Athletes represent positive energy such as health, enthusiasm, hard work and teamwork. Their image is consistent with the concept pursued by the brand and can convey the core value of the brand to consumers. In addition, the achievements of athletes in their careers have also added attraction and credibility to the brand.

Prada's cooperation with the Chinese women's football team is just under this background. The Chinese women's football team is a team with strength and much attention. Their aggressive and struggling spirit can reflect the luxury quality represented by Prada. This cooperation not only brought Prada great exposure and attention, but also brought more support and attention to the Chinese women's football team. When stars in the entertainment circle frequently roll over, Prada chooses to cooperate with the healthy and confident Chinese women's football team, which can be said to be a very wise choice.

Prada said in the statement that this cooperation will provide formal dress support for the Chinese Women's Football Team, become the official formal dress partner of the Chinese Women's Football Team, and create a new modern image for the team.

The Chinese Football Association said that the cooperation marked the cultural collision and integration of international fashion and Chinese women's football. In the future, both sides will work together to develop women's sports and promote the vigorous development of Chinese women's football.

Before that, the cooperation between luxury brands and female athletes was not common. According to the statistics of Aiman, before 2021, only Chinese comprehensive wrestler Zhang Weili had shot the promotion video of foundation liquid for Estee Lauder. For a long time, the fashion and luxury industry has hardly seen the opportunity for female athletes to show their commercial potential.

However, the current situation has changed a lot. Female athletes are gradually entering the "fashion luxury circle". In July 2021, at the Tokyo Olympic Games, Chinese fencer Sun Yiwen won the women's individual epee * * *. Her outstanding personal ability and charming appearance made her business value rise rapidly. In August, the beauty brand OLAY quickly signed with Sun Yiwen as the brand ambassador.

In January this year, Sun Yiwen became a close friend of Dior's brand. In Dior's advertising video, she wore a Vibe early spring series printed sports suit and told about "women's power" with her own experience.

In May this year, Prada announced that Yang Shuyu was the brand ambassador. Yang Shuyu won the bronze medal in the women's three person basketball team event of the Tokyo Olympic Games with the Chinese team in 2021. Prada released a large advertising film shot by her on camera, and opened a diary column on Prada's Little Red Book account, which was taken over by Yang Shuyu. Just last week, Yang Shuyu's Chinese women's basketball team won the Asian Cup again after 12 years.

In addition, with its outstanding performance at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games, Gu Ailing has successively become the spokesman of Tiffany global brand, a member of the underwear brand The VS Collective, and a close friend of Wanguobiao and Estee Lauder brands in the Asia Pacific region.

It can be said that the choice of athletes as spokesmen is a gamble. The promotion of the commercial value of female athletes, to a certain extent, can not be separated from the rise of female consciousness and the vigorous development of female sports in recent years. Nowadays, the influence and attention of women's sports events are rising.

Younger athletes also provide important conditions for the rise of female athletes. The post-00s like Gu Ailing have the same age as Generation Z, and they are more in line with the current needs in terms of aesthetics, consumption habits and values. With young female athletes as the link, fashion luxury brands can better resonate with the new generation of consumers.

When we review the cooperation between luxury brands and celebrity endorsements, we will find that its essence is still the game between brand and capital. For the current luxury brands, they are generally afraid of missing the opportunity of mass protests, and more worried about missing the anxiety of millennial consumers. The millennial generation is gradually becoming the new main force of luxury consumption. If luxury brands ignore the existence of this group now, it will be difficult to attract their attention again in the future, and may even be marginalized.

In the past few years, luxury brands have tended to choose traffic stars for cooperation, which should be a situation of * * *. The cooperation between traffic stars and luxury brands can not only bring huge exposure to the brand, but also these stars are aware of China's unique "fan economy", and their fans are also willing to buy the products that their idols endorse. This strategy was really effective for a period of time, which brought huge exposure and sales growth.

However, with the passage of time, consumers' tastes and needs are also changing.

Nowadays, consumers pay more attention to products and images that are consistent with the core values of the brand. They pay more and more attention to the story, cultural connotation and sustainability of the brand. In this context, luxury brands began to increase the depth of publicity with local culture, and pay more attention to the fit between the spokesperson and the core concept of the brand.

From Prada's cooperation with the Chinese women's football team, we can see that the choice of athletes as spokesmen has become the current hot trend, and has been recognized and supported by the majority of consumers. By cooperating with athletes, the brand can better convey its values and create a more emotional image. Spokespersons have become the extension of brand stories, and they themselves are the symbols of brand culture. Through cooperation with the spokesperson, luxury brands can better convey their values and establish a true and in-depth emotional connection with consumers.

Although flow is still an important reference factor, the trend of "de flow" of luxury brand endorsement cannot be ignored. The needs and tastes of consumers are constantly developing. Luxury brands need to adjust their strategies in time to meet consumers' expectations. In the future, how to balance brand image, spokesperson selection and flow transformation will be the key to brand success.