Labeling Luxury: The Effects of Co-creation in Luxury Fashion

Sammanfattning

This thesis investigates how attributing product design to an influencer compared to the company itself in social media shapes consumer responses in a luxury context. Drawing on research on luxury branding, influencer marketing, co-creation, and labelling, I examine whether a company labelled source enhances message credibility, brand credibility, perceived design quality, attitude towards the brand and purchase intention compared to an influencer label. These ideas are tested in a between-subjects online experiment using two versions of an Instagram post for Hermès' Garden Party handbag (N = 155), where the image and core caption are identical, and only the design-source line is varied. The findings show that crediting the brand leads to significantly higher message credibility than crediting a fashion influencer. No statistically significant differences arise for brand credibility, perceived design quality, brand attitude or purchase intention. This pattern suggests that, in a luxury context, creative authorship primarily serves as a message-level credibility cue, and that a single post exposure is insufficient to shift deeper brand evaluations or behavioural intentions. The thesis extends existing work on influencer roles, co-creation, and labelling effects in luxury marketing, and offers practical guidance on how and when co-creation is appropriate and effective to utilize.