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Fashion through the Looking Glass:Investigating the role of “spatial” proximity in
brand building in virtual worlds
Workshop: Making sense of VWs and user-driven innovationDenmark, June 2010
Robin TeiglandStockholm School of Economics, Sweden
Serdar TemizRoyal Institute of Technology, Sweden
Dominic PowerUppsala University, Sweden
Linda Björg ÁrnadóttirIcelandic Academy of Arts, Iceland
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We are living in a brandscape!?
“The power of a brand derives from a curious mixture of how it performs and what it stands for. When a brand gets the mix right it makes us, the people who buy it, feel that it adds something to the idea of ourselves.” – Olins 2002
“Successful industries and firms are customer oriented rather than product oriented - there are no commodities only consumer desires.” - Levitt 1960
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Brands in action and in space
• Brand building is not just a question of firm centric action…
• Brands are constructed by networks of actors involved in
– Production chain– Construction of origins– Construction of outlet
• There is often a highly spatial aspect to branding and the institutions of brand building
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Fashionable places: Place matters in creation of immaterial value
Fashion Industry• Construction of origin
– Clearly not “Made in Sweden” – but “designed in Stockholm”
• Construction of outlet– “These jeans are cool in New York
so they will be really cool in Stockholm.”
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Key relationships in brand building
Retailers & shop assistants
Local market & lead consumers
Stylists
Media & information
intermediaries
Rival firms
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Fashion: one of the fastest growing industries in virtual worlds
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Research Question
• Fashion is based on volatile knowledge that is quickly negotiated and relies upon different spatial relationships.
• RQ: What role do “spatial” relationships play in brand building in the fashion industry in virtual worlds?
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Qualitative Study
• In Second Life and Entropia Universe– Interviews with entrepreneurs/designers,
fashion stores, resellers, media producers, photographers, customers
– Observation– Secondary data
• Data from research in ‘real’ world fashion clusters
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Additional Questions
• Does “spatial” proximity play a role in trust building between actors?
• What are “localization” and “globalization” in the context of virtual worlds?
• What role do ‘place-making’ and “spatial proximity” play more generally in the creation of immaterial value?
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Art produces ugly things which become beautiful with time. Fashion on the other hand, produces beautiful things which
always become ugly with time.
- Jean Cocteau
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Join us in exploring virtual worlds!
www.nordicworlds.net