Designer Collaboration Marketing Plays

"German-born Karl Lagerfeld had moved to the fashion capital Paris in his twenties, where he became known for his innovative haute couture creations. This refers to the absolute pinnacle of exclusive fashion, clothes worn by the fashion elite and the very richest. The idea of a single mother being able to afford to wear Lagerfeld was unthinkable. But H&M breaks new ground in its philosophy of fashion at the lowest price when it starts a collaboration with Karl Lagerfeld, who designs a collection for H&M at prices that are a mere pittance compared to what they would have cost on Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris."

"In Stockholm, a gigantic billboard featuring Madonna in her own H&M-designed clothes is put up, covering an entire facade at Stureplan. The combination of Madonna, sex, and cheap designer clothes creates chaos as customers queue early in the morning and nearly fight over the clothes. The opening at the flagship store on Hamngatan in Stockholm is like nothing else. The first ten customers receive a trench coat with Madonna's autograph. The collection consists of about thirty garments and ten accessories. A dress costs 300 kronor and the trench coat 800 kronor."

"After Lagerfeld's criticism, Madonna's collection is sold in larger editions, although it is still limited. The designer collaborations are not meant to take up more than a small share of H&M's total sales. Instead, it's about marketing that can be worth several billion in terms of media exposure. "H&M is a bit everyday like that, but now it's been spruced up a bit," says a customer to SVT and means that she herself has changed her opinion about H&M through the Madonna collaboration. Once the global stars have attracted customers to the store, H&M can also sell its basic goods, socks, underwear, t-shirts, which have been manufactured long in advance in huge editions with much higher profit margins than the special collections."