Storytelling in the Luxury Industry: Narratives as a Tool for Experiential Branding - The Case of Christian Dior Couture

Abstract

A global trend in the luxury industry is to build an entire business around a story. While much has been written about the power of narratives in experiential branding, there is still little empirical evidence in the domain of consumer behaviour. In the era of digitalization, it became essential for luxury companies to set up new marketing strategies in order to communicate experiences through online as well as offline channels. The purpose of this academic paper is to discuss the role of storytelling in the branding strategies adopted in the luxury industry, in a time when digital content has become the main tool through which conveying ideas and collecting new potential clients. The research will investigate whether storytelling, in its transmedia forms and brand associations, is a product of digital transformation based on the human relational process, or something invented and eventually digitalized, yet transposed into heritage. The dissertation will start with conceptualizing the critical issues of the industry, analysing storytelling through its evolution from the pre-digitalized era to nowadays, finally discussing the case of Christian Dior, one of the most famous and important luxury maisons in the world, uncovering the importance of narratives and heritage to influence the consumer’s brand experience.