Co-branding strategies for luxury fashion brands : Missoni for Target

Missoni is a luxury Italian knitwear brand that partnered with Target in September 2011 releasing a large, one off, mass-market collection that ranged from apparel to home wares. The collaboration received extensive media coverage and was consequently extremely sought after. The online sales site crashed within hours of opening while shelves were cleared in stores minutes after trading began. Within hours more than 40000 items from the collection were posted for sale online at greatly inflated prices. Evaluation of the case study revealed that sales of the Missoni collection increased following the collaboration and the value of the publicity generated at estimated US$100 million. The lack of available stock, despite the enormous hype created, reinforced Missoni’s luxury image. Missoni was able to gain massive awareness of the brand despite not employing any of its own communication channels in the promotion of the collaboration. However the co-branded collaboration was distinctively Missoni, potentially inciting comparison and confusion with the signature line. Nevertheless, this study shows that co-branding strategies can offer a viable opportunity for luxury brands to increase their market share, while they maintain their market position.

Parents as co-researchers at home: Using an observational method to document young children’s use of technology

This paper discusses the use of observational video recordings to document young children’s use of technology in their homes. Although observational research practices have been used for decades, often with video-based techniques, the participant group in this study (i.e., very young children) and the setting (i.e., private homes), provide a rich space for exploring the benefits and limitations of qualitative observation. The data gathered in this study point to a number of key decisions and issues that researchers must face in designing observational research, particularly where non-researchers (in this case, parents) act as surrogates for the researcher at the data collection stage. The involvement of parents and children as research videographers in the home resulted in very rich and detailed data about children’s use of technology in their daily lives. However, limitations noted in the dataset (e.g., image quality) provide important guidance for researchers developing projects using similar methods in future. The paper provides recommendations for future observational designs in similar settings and/or with similar participant groups.

Co-adaptive environments : investigation into computer and network enhanced adaptable, sustainable and participatory environments

This paper presents research in response to environmental concerns we face today. In a search for a better method to manage spaces and building resources consumed excessively through traditional top-down architectural solutions, the research began by speculating that the building spaces and resources can be managed by designing architectural systems that encourage a bottom-up approach. In other words, this research investigates how to design systems that encourage occupants and users of buildings to actively understand, manage and customise their own spaces. Specific attention is paid to the participation of building users because no matter how sophisticated the system is, the building will become as wasteful as conventional buildings if users cannot, or do not want to, utilise the system effectively. The research is still in its early stages. The intension of this paper is to provide a background to the issue, discuss researches and projects relevant to, but not necessarily about, architecture, and introduce a number of hypothesis and investigations to realise adaptable, participatory and sustainable environments for users.

Maiden, Joseph

Joseph Henry Maiden was born in London in 1859 and sailed for Australia in 1880, where he lived for the remainder of his life. He was an ardent Australian nationalist, and like many immigrants of this time, remained proud of his British heritage. His sweetheart, Eliza Jane Hammond, followed him to Australia in 1883. They married in Kew the day after she made port in Melbourne, and together in Sydney they raised five children. [1] During the first phase of his career Maiden presided over the Technological Museum of Sydney from 1882 to 1896. In the second phase, he was the director of the Sydney Botanic Gardens from 1896 to 1924. There he managed a whole complex of parks including the Domain,Centennial Park and the Governor's residences, a state nursery at Campbelltown and a scientific institution, the National Herbarium of New South Wales, devoted to botany. A short time after his retirement, he died at his home in Turramurra in 1925...

Co-creative media : theorising digital storytelling as a platform for researching and developing participatory culture

This paper considers the question, ‘what is co-creative media, and why is it a useful idea in social media research’? The term ‘co-creative media’ is now used by Creative Industries researchers at QUT to describe their digital storytelling practices. Digital storytelling is a set of collaborative digital media production techniques that have been used to facilitate social participation in numerous Australian and international contexts. Digital storytelling has been adapted by Creative Industries researchers at QUT as a platform for researching the potential of vernacular creativity in a variety of contexts, including social inclusion of marginalized and disadvantaged groups; inclusion in public histories of narratives that might be overlooked; and articulation of voices that otherwise remain silent in the formulation of social and economic development strategies. The adaption of digital storytelling to different contexts has been shaped by the reflexive, recursive, and pragmatic requirements of action research. Amongst other things, this activity draws attention to the agency of researchers in facilitating these kinds of participatory media processes and outcomes. This discussion serves to problematise concepts of participatory media by introducing the term ‘co-creative media’ and differentiating these from other social media production practices.