Vintage clothing : a brand?

To dress in used clothes is no longer considered as unfashionable. The acceptance of thesecond hand market has increased over the years. Vintage clothing has becomefashionable because you get the opportunity to create your own individual style. Vintagehas been given status. It has become a trend. You no longer call second hand clothing“second hand”; people tend to call it vintage even though it’s not.Our aim with this study is to determine whether or not vintage is a brand. We start fromthe consumer’s perspective when we examine the status and image as vintage received byconsumers. Later we compare the image of vintage with theories about brands and brandbuilding. Our aim is to find out if vintage can be named as a brand.Our study is qualitative and we have chosen to conduct qualitative interviews withvintage consumers in the state of New York. The essay has a hermeneutic and ahypothetical deductive research approach. The hypothetical deductive research approachsuited us well because we assumed that vintage is actually a brand name.We found that vintage is actually a brand name. The benefits the consumers consider thatvintage gives them can be compared with the added value a brand gives the consumer. Itis difficult to find a suitable definition of what a brand is. Even with the big marketingauthors disagree. According to Grönroos, Aaker and Kotler et al definition we believethat vintage is a brand and that is also our conclusion. Finally we think that thedefinitions of a brand are outdated and should be updated. This essay is conducted inSwedish.Program: Textilekonomutbildninge