Resumen

GARCIA BARRIGA, María. Identity and change management in the fashion industry. Rev. panam. comun. [online]. 2023, vol.5, n.1, pp.99-106.  Epub 08-Sep-2023. ISSN 2683-2208.  https://doi.org/10.21555/rpc.v5i1.2870.

Existing theories about the dynamics of fashion revolve around the decline and disappearance of some products and the birth of new ones (Rogers, 1962), but does this really happen? Do fashion products and their message completely disappear when their life cycle is complete? Do these models fit within the current reality oriented towards the circular economy and the progress of artificial intelligence? Fashion can not only be understood as a visual message (Barthes, 1983) in the form of color and texture that communicates the true or false identity of the wearer; but, as an interdisciplinary and multifaceted field that it is (Kaiser, 2012) it can filter from a business perspective like a “river that never stops flowing” (Stone, 2008) at the edge of a market ecosystem whose brands develop individual identities. (Aaker, 1997) that represents a collective or social identity (Simmel, 1971) to build and maintain its value through a visual object in the mind of the consumer. Unlike other disciplines, the identity of fashion brands is made up of a system of attributes in constant transformation (Collins & Porras, 1994) and, therefore, the coherent and consistent change in the attributes of identification and differentiation (Saviolo, 2000) of a brand must be managed in motion, not through a static system anchored to a specific time and space (Kapferer, 2008), based on the programmed obsolescence of clothing items (Rogers, 1962), as the that we have known so far. This theoretical reflection aims to deepen the way in which we are approaching the product life cycle in fashion brands and is a “call to action”, as proposed by Wanik & Bazaki, (2023), on the need for new models of diffusion of innovations and product development in the fashion industry.

Palabras llave : fashion retailing; branding; corporate identity; innovation models; life cycle product’s design.