Abstract
M.A.
The luxury goods industry constitutes a niche, yet tremendously valuable, segment of the global economy (Atwal & Bryson, 2014b). According to Euromonitor (2019), the sale of luxury fashion goods and leather accessories in South Africa grew by 53.8% between 2013 and 2018. The growth prospect of South Africa’s luxury goods industry remains robust, propelled by good retail and supply chain infrastructure and a steadily expanding aspirational middle-class (Pwc, 2012; AfrAsia, 2018; Euromonitor, 2019). South Africa’s vibrant luxury retail market has attracted scores of international luxury fashion brands and fostered the establishment of a small, yet distinguished, cohort of local luxury fashion brands (Jacobs, 2013, Crosswaite, 2014; Martin-leke & Ellis, 2014). However, local luxury fashion brands are encumbered by numerous challenges, the most crucial of which is a pervasive negative consumer disposition and resultant weak brand equity. These challenges threaten the growth potential of South African luxury fashion brands and have in some extreme circumstances led to the collapse of once-promising brands. Brand equity is a marketing asset that presents substantial benefits to a brand, such as market leadership, price premiums, higher effectiveness of marketing and communication strategies, and immunity to price competition from new category entrants (Keller, 2013). While several theoretical models for determining brand equity exist, the consumer-based brand equity model is the dominant perspective due to the consumer-centric nature of marketing management practice in contemporary times. Aaker (1991) defined consumer-based brand equity as a set of brand assets and liabilities linked to a brand, its name and symbol, which improves or diminishes the value of the products and/or services of a firm. Aaker’s consumer-based brand equity model consists of five fundamental aspects that include brand awareness, perceived quality, brand association, brand loyalty and other proprietary brand assets. The aim of the study is to determine consumer-based brand equity of South African luxury fashion brands. The study adopts Aaker's (1991) consumer-based brand equity model to examine the impact of consumer-based brand equity variables such as brand...