Celebrity Endorsement in British Fashion: PR Models & Effects

Introduction: Globalization and the Fashion Industry

In assessing the effectiveness of celebrity spokespeople in the fashion industry, it is helpful to understand, at least to a limited degree, that the fashion industry—despite being global—often operates as a small, tightly knit enterprise, with an interdependence that extends to the retail level. In particular, globalization's effect on the fashion industry, in Great Britain or any other location, can best be understood in terms of the mutual influences of consumer and industry on each other.

Globalization was the context in which Rantisi investigated women's garment production in New York City. While her work was mainly concerned with the operation of that industry, it also sheds light on how cultural products industries are affected by, and in turn affect, the consumer. She noted that in the garment industry—especially in New York City—frequent and flexible interfirm exchanges require the sharing of conventions, norms, and understandings that are inherent in the local environment (including, specifically, unions). However, she also notes:

"A recent extension of this perspective, as embodied in the literature on the cultural products industries, underscores the continuous and recursive relationship between product and place associated with the increasing commodification of culture in the new economy. The point of convergence between these perspectives is that the agglomeration of economic activities confers significant benefits on individual firms by providing distinctive tangible and intangible resources and an institutional infrastructure to use and capitalize on those resources" (Rantisi, 2002, p. 441+).

Granted, the New York City garment district is in most ways very distinct from the British fashion industry. However, if one is attempting to ascertain how public relations operates within the British fashion industry, knowing how it operates in the much more closed system of a few blocks in New York City—where design becomes clothing—cannot help but be useful, at least in terms of understanding the "fashion" mindset from the vantage point of producers. In fact, New York's historic garment district constitutes a unique and distinctive local industry in a global marketplace, and enables the rapid circulation of "information on market trends and new design innovations that are demanded by a cultural economy" (Rantisi, 2002, p. 441+).

Other facets of the U.S. garment industry, as seen through the lens of New York's garment district, may also be helpful in assessing how public relations operates vis-à-vis the British fashion industry—itself a relatively small and close-knit industry. Rantisi notes:

"Because of the highly competitive market structure of the U.S. apparel industry, in which the predominance of small- to medium-sized manufacturers stands in stark contrast to the concentrated buying power at the retail level, relations among district manufacturers are characterized by an intense competition that inhibits the direct exchange of information" (2002, p. 441+).

Another factor investigated by Rantisi is the changing nature of competition "and the increasing centrality of innovation as a basis of competitive advantage" (2002, p. 441+). That public relations efforts—possibly supplemented by, or based upon, celebrity endorsements—are nearly indispensable is confirmed when Rantisi notes that the advent of telecommunications has reinforced a shift in consumer demands "and the growing significance of identity and lifestyle movements in the production and marketing of goods and services, which demand the continual production of 'novel-seeming goods,' at ever faster rates of turnover (Jameson, 1990; Lash and Urry, 1994; Scott, 1997)" (Rantisi, 2002, p. 441+).

Moreover, influential on both the fashion industry and the public relations efforts within it is the fact that the U.K., like the U.S., has a shareholder-based economic system. This, in turn, has many disincentives built in, requiring relatively intensive interaction between shareholders and the public—that is, public relations efforts. The same is not seen as true in a coordinated economic system such as Germany's (Rantisi, 2002, p. 441+).

In the United States, there is also a seminal trade publication through which public relations efforts throughout the fashion industry—from designers to manufacturers to retailers to individual subscribers—are collected and, logically, influence the course of the industry. That publication, WWD (formerly Women's Wear Daily), circulates to 55,000 industry insiders, providing information on general fashion business issues but also including "market overviews, ready-to-wear and couture presentations, and the latest fashion trends for various price points" (Rantisi, 2002, p. 441+). Rantisi's interviewees regard it as "the most important source of fashion news" (Rantisi, 2002, p. 441+). Rantisi believes that the Garment District is, in fact, one large press release, as its "specialized services and associations can serve as the means through which information is distributed" (2002, p. 441+).