Journal of Global Fashion Marketing

Bridging Fashion and Marketing

ISSN: 2093-2685 (Print) 2325-4483 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rgfm20

Renaissance of marketing and management in

fashion

Raffaele Donvito

To cite this article: Raffaele Donvito (2018) Renaissance of marketing and management in
fashion, Journal of Global Fashion Marketing, 9:3, 179-184, DOI: 10.1080/20932685.2018.1463633

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/20932685.2018.1463633

Published online: 12 Jun 2018.

Submit your article to this journal

View related articles

View Crossmark data

Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at

http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rgfm20
JOURNAL OF GLOBAL FASHION MARKETING, 2018
VOL. 9, NO. 3, 179–184
https://doi.org/10.1080/20932685.2018.1463633

Renaissance of marketing and management in fashion

Raffaele Donvito
Department of Economics and Management, University of Florence, Florence, Italy

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

This special issue was jointly conceived together with the 2015 Received 24 March 2018
Global Fashion Management Conference at Florence entitled Revised 26 March 2018
“Renaissance of Marketing and Management in Fashion” organized Accepted 2 April 2018
by the Global Alliance of Marketing & Management Associations KEYWORDS
and co-hosted by the Italian Marketing Society (SIMktg), the Fashion; Luxury;
International Textile and Apparel Association, the Korean Renaissance; Florence;
Scholars of Marketing Science, and the University of Florence. Marketing
This article aims to inspire scholars and practitioners activating a
关键字
dynamic dialogue between Renaissance facets and the results of
时尚; 奢侈品; 复兴; 佛罗
contemporary research about luxury fashion marketing phenom- 伦萨; 市场营销
enon presented in this special issue (i.e. luxury fashion branding,
product, pricing, communication, and social media).

时尚营销与管理的复兴
这个特刊与2015年佛罗伦萨全球时尚管理大会共同构思，题为
“时尚营销与管理复兴”，由全球营销与管理协会联盟组织、意大
利营销学会（SIMktg）、国际纺织服装协会、韩国市场营销科学
学会和佛罗伦萨大学联合主办。本文旨在激发学者和实践者在文
艺复兴时期与当代关于奢侈品时尚营销现象的研究结果之间的动
态对话(即奢侈品品牌、产品、定价、传播和社交媒体)。

1. Introduction
This special issue was jointly conceived together with the 2015 Global Fashion
Management Conference at Florence entitled “Renaissance of Marketing and
Management in Fashion” organized by the Global Alliance of Marketing &
Management Associations and co-hosted by the Italian Marketing Society (SIMktg),
the International Textile and Apparel Association, the Korean Scholars of Marketing
Science, and the University of Florence. With the stimuli of Prof. Eunju Ko, Prof.
Kyung Hoon Kim, and Prof. Gaetano Aiello we discussed the opportunity to consider –
from a contemporary marketing perspective – the actual heritage of the Renaissance
period and the previous centuries that have made Florence the cradle of that incredible
age. The current special issue was born exactly from this idea. In particular, it aims to
inspire scholars and practitioners to create a “Renaissance of Marketing and

CORRESPONDENCE TO Raffaele Donvito raffaele.donvito@unifi.it Department of Economics and

Management, University of Florence, Florence, Italy
© Korean Scholars of Marketing Science
180 R. DONVITO

Management in Fashion” capable of reinforcing best practice, both in academia and in

managerial contexts, under the lens of the Florentine Renaissance’s living legacy.

2. Renaissance lessons: from the past to the future

Colleagues working in the fields of History and Economic History have advised me
several times: it is not prudent – or even sometimes possible – to directly compare or
link events related to different eras. However, being aware of that, I would like to
activate a dynamic dialogue between the Renaissance (one of the roots of modern
culture; Cox, 2016) and today (even tomorrow) in order to stimulate readers – in a
timeless approach – given the interesting fashion marketing topics covered in this
special issue.
Centuries before Michael Porter defined his five forces model (1979) explaining the
bargaining power of suppliers, and even before E. H. Chamberlin introduced the concept
of differentiation in monopolistic competition (1933), and predating Thorsten Veblen
discussion on the reverse elasticity of luxury goods (1899), Giorgio Vasari – in his work
“The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects” (1550) – reported a
very interesting economic episode, which happened to Agnolo Doni, a rich Florentine
banker in 1540. Doni asked his friend, one of the absolute Masters of the Renaissance,
Michelangelo Buonarroti to paint a portrait for him of the Holy Family (the Child Jesus,
Mary, and Joseph) a theme often requested at that time in Florence as both a devotional
and a luxury ornament in affluent private houses. As soon as the work was ready (we are
talking about the divine masterpiece called “Tondo Doni” now on display at Uffizi
Gallery), the artist sent an apprentice to deliver it. But, when requested for payment of
70 ducats (surely a high price), Doni, who was very attentive to his finances, hesitated to
spend so much on a painting, offering only 40 ducats. Michelangelo, however, had no
hesitation and ordered the apprentice to bring the painting back. So Doni immediately
offered 70 ducats, but at that point Michelangelo consented to deliver the painting only at
the increased price of 140 ducats. The banker – fatally attracted to that portrait – agreed
to pay the doubled price.
In line with this topic, the article written by Aiello, Donvito, Vannucci, Wagner,
and Wilson (2018) deals with the theme “price” in the luxury sector. In particular,
this work detects and considers the literature gap, analyzing a pricing strategy that
seems in contrast with the essence of luxury pricing: the odd even price. Price has
always had a key role in the luxury market since high prices are associated with the
uniqueness and the prestige of luxury products and brands. Probably because of this
scholars have partially ignored the possible existence of unintuitive and controver-
sial pricing strategies followed by luxury firms. Based on the direct observation of
physical and digital stores selling 20 fashion luxury brands, this research shows that
the paradox of the odd even price in fashion luxury sector exists but – as you will
discover by reading the paper – is partially reconciled considering the “level of
luxury” of fashion brands.
The development of Florence as the cradle of the Renaissance had been possible also
for the essential contribution of the Guilds, secular corporations that controlled the arts
and trades in Florence. Their rigorous quality control and the political role that Guilds
assumed highly influenced the history of Florence, which became one of the richest
 JOURNAL OF GLOBAL FASHION MARKETING 181

cities at that time (Scipione Ammirato, 1600; Cardini, 1990). Notably, the “Arte di
Calimala” was the guild of the cloth finishers and cloth merchants, one of the greater
guilds of Florence. The “entrepreneurs” of the Arte di Calimala imported woolen cloth
(the so-called panni franceschi) from northern France, Flanders, and Brabant, which
was dyed, stretched, fulled, and finished in Florence. After that, the Arte di Calimala
operators turned their output into high-quality finished products that were sold mainly
abroad, often in the same markets where the raw material was sourced. The fabrics were
sold and cut with scissors in shops, according to strict customer-based standards. The
same statute of the Arte contained precise dispositions to protect the customers,
according to which the pieces had to be extended on the bench of the shop with the
edge well in sight, marked in the requested point and cut without surpluses. All of these
qualitative elements created very positive evaluations of the Arte di Calimala (Sarchiani,
1781) and – we would say today – they had an excellent brand image and brand
reputation that was also guaranteed by the coat of arms (the logo) of the guild: an eagle
with a bale of fabric in the middle of the claws.
Brand image and brand credibility are at the core of the article “Understanding
fashion products consumers’ brand image and purchase intention: a focus on the
influence of social media” written by Martín-Consuegra Navarro, Faraoni, Diaz, and
Ranfagni (2018). In particular, the study examines the effect of the use of social media
as communication and promotion tools of fashion products based on the purchase
intention, considering brand credibility and brand image. The research analyzes the
differences in the purchase intention of a fashion product, evaluating the impact of
social media comments. The authors adopt a conditional process analysis methodology
to describe the mediation and moderation effects of the variables under analysis.
Raffaello Sanzio, another Master of the Renaissance, lived in Florence from 1504 to
1506, a period when he also produced his self-portrait (an ancestor of the many “selfies”
taken today in Florence). This sojourn in Florence was of fundamental importance for
the artistic training of the painter; in addition to working with many colleagues, he
could admire the works of the contemporary masters, first of all Leonardo da Vinci and
Michelangelo (Adorno, 1986). In 1504, when Raffaello decided to come to Florence, he
collected a letter of reference written by the sister of the Duke of Urbino, Giovanna
Feltria. The letter, addressed to the gonfalonier Pier Soderini (the highest political office
of the Florentine Republic of that time), asked him to support the young artist from
Urbino, who wanted to stay in Florence to study and improve his art. The letter did not
produce the commission of the Republic that Raffaello perhaps wished, but it did not
take long before the wealthy Florentine patrons began to entrust him with orders
(Artfiller, 2018). So, we could say the “recommendation” of the sister of the Duke of
Urbino had unclear behavioral effects that are still to be deciphered.
A similar effect – still a recommendation but from peer to peer – is one of the object
of interest in the article written by Mazzucchelli et al. (2018) entitled “Affecting brand
loyalty intention: The effects of UGC and shopping searches via Facebook”. The authors
develop a conceptual model to analyze empirically how brand loyalty intention is
affected by customers’ trust in a brand Facebook page, by their willingness to utilize a
brand’s Facebook page for shopping-related searches, and by three different types of
user-generated contents (UGC), that is to say, (a) peer recommendations, (b) informa-
tional support, and (c) emotional support. Results show that online shopping-related
182 R. DONVITO

search, peer recommendations, and social support have positive effects on customers’
trust.
The so-called Pianta della Catena attributed to Francesco di Lorenzo Rosselli between 1471
and 1482, is the first known example in the history of cartography intended as a complete
representation of the city of Florence, including all of its buildings and dense network of
streets and squares. The name is derived from the padlocked chain (Italian: catena) that
frames the map. The artist, depicted from behind in the right foreground, while sketching
the walls of the city on a sheet of paper, draws attention to the author’s perspective from
the area southwest of Florence, illustrated as a bird’s eye view conforming to the medieval
genre, but with modern intentions of perspective realism. (Firenze Musei, 2018)

This representation is one of the many that have appeared across the centuries (from
the old prints to the digital pictures in Instagram) around the world and contributes to
create the set of associations at the base of the current city of Florence from a branding
perception.
The article “An Instagram Content Analysis for City Branding in London and
Florence” written by Acuti, Mazzoli, Donvito, and Chan (2018) considers the rele-
vance of UGC in the process of place branding, identifying the main associations of
various actors related to London and Florence, both traditionally linked to the fashion
industry. This research applies a content analysis of visual information (pictures) and
textual information (hashtags), typing the hashtags #London and #Florence, to recon-
struct the brand image of the cities. This article is one of the first to apply content
analysis on Instagram in relation to city branding, where the core of communication
is based on images.
By the beginning of the fifteenth century, after a hundred years of construction,
Santa Maria del Fiore, the Cathedral of Florence designed by Arnolfo di Cambio in
1296, was still missing its dome. Intuition, genius, a modern understanding of
physical laws, and the mathematical tools for calculating stresses were Filippo
Brunelleschi’s resources for solving the problem. In the period from 1420 to 1436,
Brunelleschi designed and guided the work for building the largest – and according
to many even the most elegant – dome in the world (still the largest bricks and
mortar dome ever built) with a maximum diameter of 54.8 m and a height of
116.5 m. To move 37,000 tons of material, he invented new cranes, hoists, and other
machines for lifting heavy stones. Actually, to build this amazing masterpiece of
design “only” one worker died (probably drunk) during the construction period
which lasted for 16 years. After this tragic event, Brunelleschi gave instructions to
prohibit the use of wine on construction sites and reinforced even more the safety
levels in the workplace (Conti & Corazzi, 2005). This attention was devoted to the
well-being of individuals, irrespective of their social position. The presence of very
high safety standards for those times (and not only for those times) was an essential
ingredient for the prevention of potential tensions and crises: an example of evolved
Corporate Social Responsibility approach.
Think, by contrast, of the crisis that recently struck an important Italian fashion
brand after the publication of a journalistic inquiry claiming the presence of
illegal, nonethical practices during the production phases that highlighting con-
troversial manufacturing outsourcing choices. This topic is at the core of “The
interaction effect between brand identification and personal crisis relevance on
 JOURNAL OF GLOBAL FASHION MARKETING 183

consumers’ emotional reactions to a fashion brand crisis” article written by Gistri,

Corciolani, and Pace (2018). The authors, through a moderated mediation model,
show that the impact of brand identification on attitudes toward the company and
purchase intention is significantly mediated by anger for high levels of personal
crisis relevance, and by sympathy for average and low personal crisis relevance
levels.
The portrait of Eleanor of Toledo was painted by a Renaissance artist Agnolo di
Cosimo, alias Bronzino, in 1545. The painting presents Eleanor of Toledo, the wife of
Cosimo I de’ Medici, Duke of Tuscany, together with one of her sons. Eleanor wears a
brocaded dress enriched by black arabesques; this gorgeous and elaborate brocaded
velvet is meticulously reproduced by the Bronzino (Orsi Landini & Niccoli, 2005). The
painting appears as a perfect form of marketing communication (you may decide if it is
advertising or product placement) for the Florentine fashion industry, which had
experienced severe turbulences at the beginning of the sixteenth century. The luxurious
golden belt, decorated with precious jewels and beads, is a masterpiece and it appears in
the style of the famous goldsmith, Benvenuto Cellini. In a certain sense, the real
protagonist of this painting is Eleanor’s dress, which becomes an object of art both in
its nature and in its artistic representation.
The interesting and recurrent relationship between art and luxury fashion is analyzed
in the last article of the special issue entitled “Is the Artification Process Perceived by
Consumers of Luxury Products?: Results from an Experiment Based on the application
of the Customer-Based Brand Equity Model” developed by Masè, Cedrola, and Cohen-
Cheminet (2018). The authors observe that many companies in the fashion industry are
increasingly creating bonds and link this with the art world to transform their products
into true artworks to avoid the possible risk of becoming banal. This research in
particular analyzes if a brand and product strategy based on the visual arts is recognized
and accepted by consumers. For this purpose, the authors adopt the Customer-based
Brand Equity tool to test the “artification effect” on brand equity from a consumer
perspective. Results show the art-oriented consumers recognize artistic collaborations,
while the others do not.
Finally, at the end of this metaphorical “duet” between different ages mirroring
themselves, I really hope that the current special issue will be able to achieve its goal
ofinspiring scholars and practitioners to make a Renaissance of Marketing
andManagement in Fashion!

Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Prof. Virginia Cox and Prof. Francesco Guidi Bruscoli for their precious
comments that greatly improved the manuscript. I would really like to thank the Editor in Chief
of the Journal of Global Fashion Marketing Prof. Eunju Ko for this opportunity to serve as guest
editor for the journal. Also, I really thank Prof. Kyung Hoon Kim and Prof. Gaetano Aiello for
their involvement in this publication project and Prof. Hyun Min Kong for her dedication too.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
184 R. DONVITO

ORCID
Raffaele Donvito http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5135-2538

References
Acuti, D., Mazzoli, V., Donvito, R., & Chan, P. (2018). An instagram content analysis for city
branding in London and Florence. Journal of Global Fashion Marketing, 9(3), 179–184.
Adorno, P. (1986). L’arte italiana. Volume 2. Firenze: Casa Editrice G.D’Anna.
Aiello, G., Donvito, R., Vannucci, V., Wagner, B., & Wilson, J. (2018). The paradox of odd even
price in fashion luxury sector: Empirical evidence from an international direct observation of
luxury stores. Journal of Global Fashion Marketing, 9(3), 205–222.
Ammirato, S. (1600). Istorie fiorentine. Parte I. Libro 3. Firenze: Incarico del Granduca Cosimo
de’ Medici del 1570.
Artfiller. (2018). Retrieved from:http://www.artfiller.it/artisti/raffaello/trasferimento-a-firenze-
1504-1506/.
Cardini, F. (1990). Breve Storia di Firenze. Firenze: Feltrinelli.
Chamberlin, E. H. (1933). The theory of monopolistic competition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press.
Conti, G., & Corazzi, R. (2005). La Cupola di Santa Maria del Fiore raccontata dal suo progettista
Filippo Brunelleschi. Livorno: Sillabe.
Cox, V. (2016). A short history of the Italian renaissance. London-New York: I.B. Tauris.
Gistri, G., Corciolani, M., & Pace, S. (2018). The interaction effect between brand identification
and personal crisis relevance on consumers’ emotional reactions to a fashion brand crisis.
Journal of Global Fashion Marketing, 9(3), 252–269.
Martín-Consuegra Navarro, D., Faraoni, M., Diaz, E., & Ranfagni, S. (2018). Exploring relation-
ships among brand credibility, purchase intention and social media for fashion brands: A
conditional mediation model. Journal of Global Fashion Marketing, 9(3), 237–251.
Masè, S., Cedrola, E., & Cohen-Cheminet, G. (2018). Is artification perceived by consumers of
luxury products? The research relevance of a Customer-Based Brand Equity model. Journal of
Global Fashion Marketing, 9(3), 223–236.
Mazzucchelli, A., Chierici, R., Ceruti., F., Chiacchierini., C., Godey., B., & Pederzoli., D. (2018).
Affecting brand loyalty intention: The effects of UGC and shopping searches via Facebook.
Journal of Global Fashion Marketing, 9(3), 270–286.
Musei, F. (2018), Fiorenza, veduta a volo di uccello della pianta detta della Catena. Retrieved
from:http://www.firenzemuseistore.it/en/opere/6/fiorenza-veduta-a-volo-di-uccello-della-
pianta-detta-della-catena. Polo Museale Fiorentino. Soprintendenza Speciale per il Patrimonio
Storico, Artistico ed Etnoantropologico e per il Polo Museale della città di Firenze.
Orsi, Landini, R., & Niccoli, B. (2005). Moda a Firenze 1540–1580. Lo stile di Eleonora da Toledo
e la sua influenza. Firenze: Pagliai – Polistampa.
Porter, M. E. (1979). How competitive forces shape strategy. Harvard Business Review. March–
April, 1–10.
Sarchiani, G. (1781). Ragionamento sul Commercio, Arti e Manifatture della Toscana. Firenze:
Stamperie Stecche e Del vivo.
Vasari, G. (1550). Le vite de’ più eccellenti architetti, pittori, et scultori italiani, da Cimabue insino
a’ tempi nostri. Firenze: Nell’edizione per i tipi di Lorenzo Torrentino.
Veblen, T. B. (1899). The theory of the Leisure class. An economic study of institutions. London:
Macmillan Publishers.