Internet technology has greatly changed in form over the last few years and brands need to consider developing a successful strategy to navigate the new digital environment. Digital technologies and communications address the future of the fashion industry in multiple areas including consumption, branding, retail, product and lifestyles. For marketers and advertisers, the goal is to understand the cultural essence that drives consumer behaviour today and satisfies his/her new needs. New consumers are connected, interactive and they live in an increasingly integrated networked media space.

The course identifies the complex dynamics and rapid pace of the changing consumer and it addresses the most relevant digital innovations for fashion brands.
§This course provides students with a number of theoretical approaches to critically assess how digital media function and their expanding and expansive role in contemporary culture.
§The course further investigates digital media convergence and the new digital consumer in order to develop a critical lexicon .
§The course aims at introducing students into the world of brand and branding from both a theoretical and pragmatical perspective. Students will understand what is a brand and the importance of brand management within the fashion system.
§Special emphasis will be placed on the specific cultural, political, economic, and social issues raised by digital media forms.

By the end of the course students will be able to:

1. understand and analyze how digital media use contributes to shape the consumption and the consumer society.
2. recognize the role of consumer generated contents in defining brand’s visibility and circulation (reviews, recommendations, consumer generated ADS) within the web 2.0 environments
3. learn the following critical issues: converge culture, participatory culture, networked media space, transmedia storytelling, spreadability, culture of reviews, searchability, consumer generated content, etc.
4. understand what is a brand and the importance of brand management within the fashion system.
5. Advance one’s ability to work in team and produce qualitative research report.

By the end of the course students will be able to:

1. understand and analyze how digital media use contributes to shape the consumption and the consumer society.
2. recognize the role of consumer generated contents in defining brand’s visibility and circulation (reviews, recommendations, consumer generated ADS) within the web 2.0 environments
3. learn the following critical issues: converge culture, participatory culture, networked media space, transmedia storytelling, spreadability, culture of reviews, searchability, consumer generated content, etc.
4. Advance one’s ability to work in team and produce qualitative research report.

Students will be provided with articles, papers, research reports and slides during the course

This course aims at introducing students into the world of brands and branding as well as to the idea of consumer experience from both a theoretical and pragmatic perspective. Students will understand what is a brand and the importance of brand management within the fashion system. At the same time, they will better understand how (converging) media play a significant role in the ways in which consumers access and experience brands through multiple touchpoints.
Students will learn both from a theoretical and pragmatic perspective which are the necessary steps to undertake in order to establish and manage a brand: starting from the preliminary analysis of local mediascapes and media practices, up to the application of brand management strategies. Students will be also encouraged to practice critical thinking in relation to the role and functions of brands within contemporary society mostly in relation to some key aspects such as globalization and sustainability.
The course is structured in two main parts and is organized around traditional class lectures and project works and students’ presentations. (1) In the first part students will analyze, study and comment on some of the main theories and concepts related to branding and consumer experience such as brand identity, image, and personality; brand communication; mediatization of the fashion field; digital media and transmedia branding; customer journey, etc. (2) In the second part, students will apply those concepts working on a group project that includes the design and the administration of a survey related to consumer practices that will be finally developed into a final report to be presented.

Okonkwo U., Luxory Fashion Branding. Trends, Tactics, Technques, 2007, Palgrave