Is the Artification process perceived by final consumers of luxury products? Results from an experiment based on the application of the Customer-based Brand Equity Model

Many companies in the fashion industry are increasingly weaving close relationships with the art world, to appropriate art values and meanings to be associated with their own products and brands. The fashion luxury sector has been especially prone to using such strategies to transform their products into true artworks to address the issue of commodification resulting from high production volumes. This research aims to observe if a strategy based on the visual arts is recognized and accepted by final consumers. For this purpose, we use the Customer-based Brand Equity tool to test the artification effect on brand equity from a consumer perspective. The brand of reference is Louis Vuitton, the top brand worldwide as stated by 2016 Interbrand. They have embraced an art-based strategy for a long time. The methodology used is that of the questionnaire built on the measurement of scales of values. The questionnaire was created and distributed via Qualtrics Survey Software in collaboration with the Insead-Sorbonne Behavioural Lab Research Center. In brief, the experiment shows that Louis Vuitton strategy has been to act as an art institution that displays art collections to the widest public art status and bestows art status and global recognition to collaborating artists. This strategy relies on LV ability to raise consumers’ awareness of the arts. While the art-oriented public recognizes artistic collaborations, the larger public does not and is still very much aware of new designs.