Heritage Marketing in the Luxury Industry: Villa Foscarini Rossi and The Museum Salvatore Ferragamo

Abstract

The objective of this thesis is to address the concept of heritage and the way it is exploited as a marketing strategy by brands in the luxury sector. In the last years, heritage has been increasingly leveraged by luxury brands to gain competitive advantages, since it is capable of strengthening brand authenticity and brand identity. This is why brands exploit more and more the link with the territory, culture, history, traditions and art to differentiate themselves from competing companies and to strengthen the relationship with the various stakeholders. This work will analyze the way heritage is managed by luxury brands, mainly through the coordination between the activities of storytelling, product development, and distribution strategies. The analysis and comparison between the different strategies adopted by luxury brands will help to understand why and how these companies manage their past and their heritage to make them relevant for present and future purposes. More in details, this paper will highlight corporate museums as instruments to enhance brand identity: museums are able to influence consumers and visitors perceptions about brand authenticity and identity. In particular, to better understand how luxury companies leverage this strategic tool, two cases have been directly examined: the Museum Salvatore Ferragamo and the Shoe Museum of Villa Foscarini Rossi.