Fashion retailing and consumers in the digital age: E-semiotics and the Co-creation of luxury brand narratives on instagram

This study examines how consumers co-create luxury brand identity through symbolic interactions on Instagram and how these impact consumer perceptions and brand love. The study addresses a gap in understanding around how e-semiotic processes could be involved in brand co-creation in digital contexts. To achieve this, the study applies a pragmatist philosophy and a mixed-methods approach with four sequential stages. Data collection included in-depth semi-structured interviews with 32 participants, 24 participants from six focus groups, content analysis of luxury brands’ Instagram posts, and quantitative testing with a sample of 342 survey respondents. The results highlight that textual and visual utterances on Instagram become antecedents of engagement, prompting e-semiotic interpretations of meanings attached to the luxury brand. These include craft, elegance, sustainability and art. These perceptions, classified as Monarchic Identity, Sophisticated Aura and Prestige Continuum arise from these meanings, and in turn enhance cocreated brand identity and strengthen brand love. The research takes semiotic theory into the digital realm, incorporating co-creation and emotional engagement in the conceptualization of brand identity creation. The qualitative data stemming from interviews, focus groups and a content analysis informed the quantitative construct that was tested using structural equation modelling (SEM) for both theoretical soundness and empirical strength. Managerially, it provides takeaways that will enable luxury brands to apply the symbolic affordances of Instagram to create genuine engagement and build stronger consumer-brand ties.