Exploring Advertising Equity in Fashion Advertising

Advertising equity is a newly introduced construct in advertising theory that demonstrates that consumers seek out advertisements from specific brands because they perceive those brands' ads to be worth their time. This study is the first to explore how fashion brands can build advertising equity with consumers regardless of different preferred processing styles. Qualitative interviews with women who love fashion and read fashion magazines were conducted to identify sources of advertising equity. Three routes to advertising equity were uncovered: (a) brand equity, (b) borrowed equity, and (c) style equity. The implications for future research in advertising scholarship and practice are discussed.