Abstract
In March 2012, Gap entered the South African market, but with a different pricing strategy to the one followed in the USA. While the brand is known as an affordable clothing brand in the USA, its goods were priced substantially higher in South Africa than in the USA. The same Gap T-shirt sold for $16 in the USA was being sold at $40 in South Africa. The positioning of the Gap brand as a luxury brand in the South African market suggests that what constitutes a luxury brand is not the same across global markets. This paper explores whether this mode of market entry is a sustainable business model or if the mode of entry is only viable for short-term success. In pursuing this line of thinking, the concept of the opportunistic luxury brand is presented. An opportunistic luxury brand is defined as a brand that is not normally known as a luxury brand in other markets (i.e. other countries) and is adopting a luxury brand positioning in a particular market. This paper develops and offers a research agenda for luxury brands in emerging markets.
You have full access to this open access chapter, Download conference paper PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
In March 2012, Gap entered the South African market, but with a different pricing strategy to the one followed in the USA. While the brand is known as an affordable clothing brand in the USA, its goods were priced substantially higher in South Africa than in the USA. The same Gap T-shirt sold for $16 in the USA was being sold at $40 in South Africa. The positioning of the Gap brand as a luxury brand in the South African market suggests that what constitutes a luxury brand is not the same across global markets. This paper explores whether this mode of market entry is a sustainable business model or if the mode of entry is only viable for short-term success. In pursuing this line of thinking, the concept of the opportunistic luxury brand is presented. An opportunistic luxury brand is defined as a brand that is not normally known as a luxury brand in other markets (i.e. other countries) and is adopting a luxury brand positioning in a particular market. This paper develops and offers a research agenda for luxury brands in emerging markets.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Academy of Marketing Science
About this paper
Cite this paper
Stiehler, B., Lee, L.W. (2016). Luxury Branding in Emerging Markets. In: Obal, M., Krey, N., Bushardt, C. (eds) Let’s Get Engaged! Crossing the Threshold of Marketing’s Engagement Era. Developments in Marketing Science: Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-11815-4_25
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-11815-4_25
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-11814-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-11815-4
eBook Packages: Business and ManagementBusiness and Management (R0)