Competition is keen in the fashion industry of today. Homogenous products and prices are
driving competition and most firms are struggling hard to attract customers. Brands have
become one of the most important assets for success and are often critical for the choices of the
consumers. A strong brand is often considered as a substantial value in the eyes of the consumer
and gives the individual firm a competitive advantage in the marketplace. To build a strong
brand it takes that the brand identity not is in conflict with the brand image of a firm or a product.
Sometimes one of these conflicts exit and sometimes the firms are not even aware of it.
In this thesis we study how two firms, Lindex and Prada, perceive their own image and then we
compare how the images of the firms are perceived by the customers. We have also tried to
explain why such discrepancies take place.
The thesis is based on secondary data such as articles and books about the subject and primary
data in the form of carried out interviews with people representing the fashion firms Prada and
Lindex. We also interviewed twelve women in the age of 25 to 35. Our choice of people to
interview was guided by our ambition to understand similarities, differences and problems in
the communication between the two firms and their customer.
We have applied a hermenephtic research perspective which means that we as scientist are
fairly free in our interpretations of the phenomenons that we study. This suited us well in our
ambition to try to understand how firms work to make their perception of their own brand not
differ from the perception of their own brand in the eyes of their customers.
The thesis was based on a deductive research approach and existing theories in the field of
brand identity and brand image. The theory frame of references being used is to some extent
also based on a model concerning expected and perceived quality both from a customer and a
supplier perspective, developed by professor C. Grönroos. A model that we modified a little bit
to make it fit the purpose of our study.
The result of our study clearly indicate that brand identity and the brand image of Prada are
much more homogeneous compared to the brand identity and the brand image of Lindex. The
result is reflecting that Prada is much more successful and consequent in its market
communication. We also reached the conclusion that Lindex must be more realistic and specific
in its market communication and not create customer expectations that it can not live up ...
