The Importance of Brand Reputation in Fashion— LOEWE vs Balenciaga

Building and maintaining a positive brand reputation in fashion is critical to garner success from the target market in this increasingly competitive industry. This results in established trust, reliability, and authority
amongst the brand’s target market. To do so, a consistent and strategic approach is often needed. Throughout the years, most luxury brands maintain consistency in delivering quality and style, garnering positive target market collective impressions, and creating a strong foothold for long-term success amidst competitiveness (Jaiswal). However, not the same can be said for ethical practices in terms of fashion advertisements (ads). Amongst the dynamic and trend-driven fashion economy (Bajpai), many luxury brands,
upon a desire to stand out amongst its counterparts, unintentionally or not, take it too far. LOEWE and Balenciaga, both originating as Spanish maisons, have a long history of quality craftsmanship and delivering consistent strong brand identities that fit their niche market. However, their brand personalities and ethicalities differ greatly, namely in the way they execute their campaign’s style, art direction and aim. This essay will discuss the impact of how brand reputation influences the two brand’s fashion advertisements’ success and the underlying factors on their attempts to promote their products from their Spring Summer 2024 pre-collection and Fall/Winter 2023 campaign, respectively. This in turn, allows us to establish which fashion advertisement is more successful than the other in advertising its products.

Figure 1. LOEWE Spring/Summer 2024 Pre-Collection Campaign featuring Maggie Smith

Figure 2. Balenciaga Fall/Winter 2023 Campaign

In the comparative images shown in Figures 1 and 2, the presence of LOEWE and Balenciaga’s bags places a significant part in communicating their brand identities and complex craftsmanship. However, their campaign aims are different. This is due to their differing brand reputation. Fresh off its Spring/Summer 2024 runway at Paris Fashion Week, Jonathan Anderson, the creative director of LOEWE revealed its pre-collection campaign featuring Harry Potter’s Maggie Smith as muse. Shot by a renowned German photographer Juergen Teller in Figure 1, Smith is holding LOEWE’s iconic Paseo bag and sits on a multi-coloured chair. The bag appears small, and what seems to be the main attention is the unexpected appearance of Dame Smith, best known for her performance as Professor Minerva McGonagall in Harry Potter (Esther). At 88, she brings a sense of timeless elegance as she models—stirring the internet into a positive frenzy. The presence of someone known to be highly respected and unattainable has amassed almost nothing but positive reviews. In addition, Anderson’s unwavering approach in challenging ageism; a deeply shadowed issue in fashion, proves his commitment to inclusivity and shattering stereotypes hence accelerating LOEWE’s well-acclaimed campaign success (Tipnis). In recent years, the 174-year-old luxury house has been building a “strong content-commerce-based strategy” on social media platforms like Tiktok (Booker). With many luxury houses finding difficulty connecting to the target market due to fear of ruining tradition, LOEWE proves possibility in building a forward-facing, less-serious, and dynamic approach—unwaveringly beating fashion stereotypes yet maintaining its reputability. This is proof of LOEWE’s ability to push regular fashion norms, boundaries and stay ahead of time in the competitive realm of luxury marketing. For Balenciaga, a much tamer approach is executed compared to LOEWE. Unlike LOEWE’s campaign in Figure 1 where the focus product is small in the ad, Balenciaga’s Fall/Winter 2023 Campaign in Figure 2 is mainly product focused. Beside the featuring merely just the trendy Le Cagole studded crinkle-leather shoulder bag, the campaign simply has a text that reads “It’s different.” in a simple typeface along with Balenciaga’s logo at the bottom. Personless and with no distractions with a plain white background, attention is immediately focused onto the product. A brand known for its bombastic and irreverent approach to advertising, a sudden laid-back minimalist approach (Pierce) with exaggerated proportions of the products, along with spot-lit snapshot and haloed artefacts found in archival studies proves Balenciaga’s attempt to place the products on a pedestal. Hence, proving creative director Denma’s aim for the market to make the products feel historical, heroic like transcendent objects (Balenciaga). The use of simplistic text “It’s different” acts as a juxtaposition underlining the campaign’s sudden minimal take (Pierce). Launched close to the one-year anniversary since its controversial brand campaign, Figure 3 shows one of the images from the infamous 2022 holiday ad campaign.

Figure 3. Balenciaga Holiday Ad 2022 Campaign

The campaign featured insensitive visuals that indicate forms of child exploitation. Photographed by now infamous Gabriele Galimberti, children were featured holding teddy bears in bondage harnesses along with visual documentation of United States v. Williams from the Supreme Court case, a ruling that upheld the PROTECT Act, which increased federal protections against child pornography (Issawi and Cohen). Since then, the house received storms of backlash across the internet. With Balenciaga’s reputation being at an all time low, the fashion house has been on a tedious journey to recuperate towards rehabilitation. With its subsequent campaign comeback being a much more laid-back approach, it can indicate a sense of self awareness and attempt to mellow their campaign down in hopes of giving off sincerity in acknowledging the situation. Hence, both fashion brands have a differing focus to their target market through the execution of their campaign based on their brand reputation. LOEWE does it better as the brand exemplifies Anderson’s message and vision well without the possibility of controversy, with their ever-continuance of good brand image and ability to not only be perceived well, but constantly break the boundaries of fashion luxury marketing through their forward approach.

Besides brand reputation, signifiers are essential to identify a brand’s legacy presence. Anderson for LOEWE presented muse Smith sitting on what looks like a well-crafted multi-coloured chair, holding the classic Paseo bag. Despite being a chair, the image gives viewers an illusion of a bag; and Smith being the centre hold of the bag. Anderson’s use of Smith in this manner; a centre-hold of what looks like a bag itself reflects the brand’s vision and their goal to portray the bag in a similar way that reflects Smith’s long-time timeless style as an acclaimed icon and actress, in hopes that her strong presence also brings light to the craftsmanship and timelessness of the Paseo bag and the brand itself. LOEWE has always been known as “one of the most imaginative and experimental labels” in the luxury fashion fold (Gilchrist). With their out-of-pocket ideas, they remain ever-committed to their craft-first approach, finding ways to stay ahead of the marketing curve breaking down fashion stigmas.

Figure 4. Lynda Benglis for LOEWE Fall/Winter 2022 Campaign

In Figure 4, American sculptor and visual artist Lynda Benglis, is one of the faces for their LOEWE Fall/Winter 2022 Campaign. At 82 years of age, she wears a multicoloured knitwear along with vibrant print tights and shoes, posing on a pink stool. LOEWE has been known for their anti-ageism activism and general inclusivity for many years (Saunders). Balenciaga has also been known for their quality craftsmanship, and over-the-edge imaginative executions in both their products and campaigns; constantly coming up with ground-breaking and innovative designs, thought-provoking campaigns along with a consistent playfulness. As seen in the ad, the extreme simplicity of the Balenciaga campaign proves to be an ironic take towards advertising. Different from Balenciaga’s history of complex and imaginative campaigns, this time, Balenciaga decides on just a plain background with the product itself (Maniarasan). This sudden tongue-in-cheek approach through simplicity portrays their self-awareness to mellow down from their previous campaign backlash yet still being ever-consistent with their signature much-adored brand identity—playfulness.

Figure 5. Balenciaga Fall 2021 Campaign

Figure 5 shows Balenciaga’s Fall 2021 ad campaign, featuring a dystopian video game digital short film along with complex gaming CGI as Denma decided to collaborate with developer Quantic Dream (Brain). Technological equipment like AR headsets were involved, along with a storyline where the protagonist navigates idyllic environments, along with his romantic interest (Hore-Thorburn). This proves Balenciaga’s consistent brand identity of constantly pushing narratives, experimentations and sense of playfulness. Despite the animosity raised from their 2022 holiday ad, Balenciaga’s intentionality of their tongue-in-cheek approach to maintain consistent brand legacy amidst backlash conveys their resilience and loyalty. With the playfulness and strong imaginative concepts in their campaigns constantly being at the top of their game amongst other houses, they have a far stronger brand legacy than LOEWE’s sophisticated campaign. Hence, Balenciaga is better in selling its advertisement as there is that heightened sense of expectation and anticipation.

LOEWE and Balenciaga both have a simplistic yet unserious approach towards their campaign. In Figure 1, a plain white background is portrayed along with Dame Smith in the centre, sitting comfortably and poise on a couch holding the iconic Paseo bag. An empowering message combating ageism is inferred without a need to be over-dramatic with its visuals. There is no sense of aggressive energy exuded and the campaign gives off a light-hearted energy. In Figure 2, there are little to no extra elements shown. With just a light-hearted text “It’s different” and the famous Le Cagole shoulder bag, the ad sits there plainly, without a need for external elements to emphasise the product value itself. By doing so, they intentionally produce a message of being laid back and subtle. However, Balenciaga is better in getting their message of subtleness across in the advertisement almost instantly to the target market due to the directness of their elements, leading to target market to understand it easier and more efficiently as compared to LOEWE’s campaign where the message of ageism needs time to be deciphered.

Mood plays a crucial role in the effectiveness of a fashion advertisement, advertisements that evokes a sense of empowerment or positive energy towards the target market would really enhance its success. Factors such as who is being portrayed, the colour scheme, expressions of the model, the background set and medium determines the effectiveness of selling its product. Making sure everything is balanced and not overdone in getting a message across is crucial to stand out. Fred Davis stated in the book Fashion Theory, “certain style emphasis “means” will vary tremendously depending upon the identity of the wearer, the occasion, the place, the company, and even something as vague and transient as the wearer’s and the viewers’ moods” (151). In Figure 1, there is no background, just white along with tethered sides surrounding the perimeters of the vibrant multi-coloured chair. With its vibrant shades of magenta, lilac and burgundy, the overall colour scheme gives off an alluding energy. It is also noted that Dame Smith sits confidently on the couch, evoking power, and prestige despite her frail age. The tetheredness of the print is intentional, as it adds on the idea of carefree and edginess of the fashion advertisement. Balenciaga, on the other hand, fails to convey this sense of positive energy as much as LOEWE’s. In Figure 2, there are no vibrant colours shown. With a mere semi humorous approach to their campaign that has been a consistent brand identity, it is signified that there is no intended sense of empowerment. Hence, may not give off any sense of positivity to the target market. In terms of mood, LOEWE is better in selling its products by providing a sense of empowerment and optimism through their use of visual imagery and social context while Balenciaga falls short.

Both Spanish luxury houses are world-renowned for their brand legacy and refined quality and craftsmanship in their products. In terms of marketing, Balenciaga can be consistent with a very strong brand identity and style constantly leaving the target market bewildered by their outward-innovative marketing approach with a playful twist. However, LOEWE has never tarnished their brand reputation, kept a clean slate and sophistication which signifies a sense of consistency to the target market, hence always meeting expectations. They are known to not only come up with trendy social media marketing ideas, but also have a consistent brand reputation of empowerment and breaking discriminatory stigmas and boundaries of fashion. They constantly leave positive impressions with little to no negative connotations whereas Balenciaga, although more out-of-the-box, has been inconsistent with maintaining ethicality within their execution of campaigns, contributing to their gradual infamy and skepticism by the target market. It is clear that they attempted to salvage their reputation by incorporating elements of low profiling, simplifying the tediosity of their usual campaign while maintaining consistency with their brand style. However, Balenciaga’s reputation reached peak animosity whereas LOEWE acted upon the confidence of an ever-growing success and high expectations. Hence, due to the scandal, LOEWE outweighs Balenciaga’s current efforts to redeem themselves hence LOEWE is more successful.

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Images Cited

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