Abstract
British cycling company Rapha presents itself as a premium brand offering high quality apparel, concierge travel services, boutique 'clubhouses' and beautiful publications. Since 2004, it has enjoyed year-on-year growth and in 2016 sales increased almost 30% to £63 million (Wood 2017). This chapter critiques how we can know that and know how (Roberts and Armitage 2016) Rapha is a luxury brand – contrary to its labelling as 'premium' – and how this can be established through socio-cultural sense-making of the brand offerings, through critical textual analysis. This chapter interrogates how Rapha has developed a luxurious 'storyworld' (Abbott 2008) and charts how story strands of luxury are woven through its material artefacts, texts and environments, acting as a symbolic 'red thread' that cohesively binds the brand together.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Understanding Luxury Fashion |
| Subtitle of host publication | From Emotions to Brand Building |
| Editors | Isabel Cantista, Teresa Sádaba |
| Place of Publication | Cham |
| Publisher | Palgrave Macmillan |
| Chapter | 11 |
| Pages | 243-273 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9783030256548 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9783030256531 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 15 Jan 2020 |
Publication series
| Name | Palgrave Advances in Luxury |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Palgrave Macmillan |
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Member of Chartered Institute of Public Relations
Glover, C. (Participant)
Impact: Pedagogic/curricula (within Northumbria), Pedagogic/curricula (beyond Northumbria), Pathway to Impact, Creativity, culture and society, Economic, commercial and technological