Luxury Brands & Cartoons: The Arising Trend

4 Key Factors of Surprising Success in Luxury Brands’ Co-Branding with Cartoon Characters

When you think of luxury brands, what comes to mind? The first image that comes to mind is the elegant and sophisticated brand image. In recent years, the arising trend of luxury brand co-branding with cartoon characters has been impacting the market in a  successful way.


Luxury Brand Loewe teamed up with Howl's Moving Castle Pop Up
Loewe X Howl’s Moving Castle Pop-Up Shop at MixC, Shenzhen Bay, China 2023 COURTESY

Visit https://www.loewe.com/int/en/stories-collection/loewe-howls-moving-castle.html to discover the amazing collaboration.

To begin with, let’s take a quick look at Gucci and Loewe’s brand profiles and a couple of cartoon collaborations to find out how nostalgic cartoons boost the sale!

Luxury Fashion Brands Introduction – Loewe & Gucci

Loewe – A Spanish luxury fashion house established in 1846, and Loewe is well-known for its creative, innovative craftsmanship and leather products. The product-line including handbags, ready-to-wear clothing, and accessories. Also, Loewe is part of the LVMH Group.

Gucci is a luxury fashion brand founded in Florence, Italy, in 1921. It is famous for its leather goods, handbags, ready-to-wear clothing, shoes, etc. For example, the double G logo, sans-serif typeface with repeating link-like patterns, red and green stripes, and horse-bit hardware look are very recognizable.

Luxury brands are typically associated with timeless, sophisticated, and streamlined designs. Yet, luxury fashion brands have been partnering with famous cartoon characters to create limited-edition fashion goods in a growing trend.

For instance, the Howl’s Moving Castle X Loewe collection was inspired by the 2D fantasy film that was animated by Studio Ghibli.

In the following sections, we will take a closer look at Studio Ghibli and see what other films Loewe has collaborated with this studio.

Studio Ghibli X Loewe

Luxury Brand Loewe teamed up with Howl's Moving Castle Pop-up Store
Loewe X Howl’s Moving Castle Pop-up Store COURTESY

Howl’s Moving Castle was directed by Yamazaki and produced by Toshio Suzuki. It was released on November 20, 2004, in Japan. According to Ghibli Wiki, the film grossed $24 million worldwide. Hayao Miyazaki co-founded Studio Ghibli in 1985 and directed and produced numerous famous animated films. For example, such as Laputa (1986), My Neighbour Totoro (1988), and Spirited Away (2001). Above all, this is the third collaboration between Studio Ghibli and Loewe. Following collections inspired by Spirited Away and My Neighbour Totoro.

Let’s take a virtual tour by watching the limited-time Howl’s Moving Castle x Loewe pop-up store at LOEWE Omotesando, Tokyo, Japan.

Another successful co-branding example will be the Doraemon x Gucci collection in 2021, which coincided with Doraemon’s 50th anniversary and Gucci’s 100th anniversary.

Luxury Brand Gucci collaboration with Doraemon
Doraemon X Gucci Pop-up at Plaza 66, ShangHai, China 2021. COURTESY

There are four reasons why luxury brands have been successful in teaming with cartoon characters:

  1. Fulfilling Psychological Needs

Nostalgic and well-known characters evoke strong emotional connections with consumers. Not to mention, those cartoon characters are tie-ins with childhood memories, beloved characters, fantasy plots, and scene design. In addition, co-branding allows the two brands to be creative and bring these elements together. The co-branding also deliver an exclusive and meaningful product to the customers.

  1. Reaching a New Demographic

The classic logos and brand recognition are a huge part of how consumers become interested in the brand design. However, co-branding allows both brands to expand beyond their existing customer bases. Most importantly, the collaboration of vivid and playful cartoon characters breaks down the barrier between younger consumers and sophisticated luxury brand profiles. In other words, this helps in increasing brand visibility and attracting new customers.

  1. Capitalizing on High Brand Equity

Taking Studio Ghibli X Loewe as an example, the demographics of Studio Ghibli fans are in a wide range worldwide. In fact, the brand itself massively attracts an audience of all ages. More, the imaginative and fantasy dream of Ghibli World is a timeless brand in and of itself. Therefore, both Studio Ghibli and Loewe have loyal fan bases, and it can be easier to achieve market acceptance and financial performance through a co-branding strategy.

  1. Boosting Brand Recognition Through Retail Pop-up Therapy

Imagine entering a brick-and-mortar store and seeing your favourite cartoon character appealing to a café, a pop-up store event, and how exciting that could be. At the pop-up, customers not only do they get to visually see their favourite characters, but they can also participate in a physically interactive experience by trying on products and taking photos.

Hence, this exclusive retail experience enhances brand recognition and provides a high level of spiritual satisfaction for consumers.

Conclusion

Lastly, co-branding between luxury brands and cartoon characters is a rising trend that is here to stay. As a result, the power of the brands’ collaboration helps to increase their visibility and attention among the audience, and it is a new way for consumers to recognize brands in a fun and joyful way.

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