Abstract
British cycling company Rapha presents itself as a premium brand offering high quality apparel, concierge travel services, boutique ‘clubhouses’ and beautiful publications. Since 2004, it has enjoyed year-on-year growth and in 2016 sales increased almost 30% to £63 million (Wood 2017). This chapter critiques how we can know that and know how (Roberts and Armitage in Critical Luxury Studies: Art, Design, Media, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 2016) Rapha is a luxury brand—contrary to its labelling as ‘premium’—and how this can be established through socio-cultural sense-making of the brand offerings, through critical textual analysis. This chapter interrogates how Rapha has developed a luxurious ‘storyworld’ (Abbott in The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2008) and charts how story strands of luxury are woven through its material artefacts, texts and environments, acting as a symbolic ‘red thread’ that cohesively binds the brand together.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Abbott, H. Porter, 2008. The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Barthes, Roland. 1957. Mythologies. Translated from French by R. Howard and A. Lavers, 2013. New York: Hill and Wang.
Berry, Christopher J. 1994. The Idea of Luxury: A Conceptual and Historical Investigation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bull, Andy. 2013. Brand Journalism. Oxon: Routledge.
BOF Team. 2017. “Building a Luxury Group Isn’t Easy.” Business of Fashion, 28 April. https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/this-week-in-fashion/building-a-luxury-group-isnt-easy. Accessed on 1 June 2017.
Bourdieu, Pierre. [1979] 1996. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. London: Routledge.
Business of Fashion and McKinsey & Company. 2016. “The State of Fashion 2017.” https://images.businessoffashion.com/site/uploads/2016/11/The_State_of_Fashion_2017.pdf. Accessed on 5 April 2017.
Butz, David, and Kathryn Besio. 2009. “Autoethnography.” Geography Compass 3 (5): 1660–1674.
De Barnier, Virginie, Sandrine Falcy, and Pierre Valette-Florence. 2012. “Do Consumers Perceive Three Levels of Luxury? A Comparison of Accessible, Intermediate and Inaccessible Luxury Brands.” Journal of Brand Management 19 (7): 623–636.
Evans, Dave, and Jake McKee. 2010. Social Media Marketing: The Next Generation of Business Engagement. Indianapolis: Wiley.
Evrard, Yves, and Elyette Roux. 2005. Culture vs Luxury: The Paradoxes of Democratisation. Puyricard: CEROG.
Gould, Stephen J. 1991. “The Self-Manipulation of My Pervasive, Perceived Vital Energy Through Product Use: An Introspective-Praxis Perspective.” Journal of Consumer Research 18 (2): 194–207. http://www.academia.edu/7533291/The_Self-Manipulation_of_My_Pervasive_Perceived_Vital_Energy_through_Product_Use_An_Introspective-Praxis_Perspective. Accessed on 20 August 2017.
Google. 2017. Available at https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=rapha&oq=rapha&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i60l5.2458j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8. Accessed on 4 July 2017.
Investing. 2017. “Currency Converter.” Investing.com [Online]. https://uk.investing.com/currencies/gbp-usd-converter. Accessed on 3 July 2017.
Jones, Steve. 1999. “Studying the Net.” In Doing Internet Research: Critical Issues and Methods for Examining the Net, edited by Steve Jones, 1–27. London: Sage.
Kapferer, Jean-Noël. 1997. “Managing Luxury Brands.” Journal of Brand Management 4 (4): 251–259.
Kapferer, Jean-Noël, and Vincent Bastien. 2012. The Luxury Strategy: Break the Rules of Marketing to Build Luxury Brands. London: Kogan Page.
Lakhani, Dave. 2008. Subliminal Persuasion: Influence and Marketing Secrets They Don’t Want You to Know. New Jersey: Wiley.
Lindsey, Joe. 2017. “Rapha Bought by Walmart Heirs; Here’s How the Brand Might Change.” Bicycling. http://www.bicycling.com/bikes-gear/rapha-bought-by-walmart-heirs-heres-how-the-brand-might-change. Accessed on 17 August 2017.
Marion, Gilles. 2000. Objets et marques de luxe. In Le Luxe, edited by O. Assouly, 293–317. Paris: Regard.
Merriam-Webster. 2017. “Athleisure.” https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/athleisure. Accessed on 4 July 2017.
Mottram, Simon. 2017. “D&AD President’s Lecture,” London, 11 January.
Ng, E. 2016. “Condé Nast Future Luxury 2016 Key Takeaways’ Report.” WGSN. Published on: 27 April 2016. http://library.northumbria.ac.uk/home. Accessed on 27 June 2017.
Oxford University Press. 2017a. Oxford Dictionaries. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/emporium. Accessed on 24 September 2017.
Oxford University Press. 2017b. Oxford Dictionaries. London: Oxford University Press. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/premium. Accessed on 4 July 2017.
Oxford University Press. 2017c. Oxford Dictionaries. London: Oxford University Press. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/chapter. Accessed on 5 July 2017.
Pine II, B. Joseph, and James H. Gilmore. 2007. Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want. Available at https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=VpTSBgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=authenticity+what+consumers+really+want&ots=45OsHP4Wnz&sig=SYBgk1yBcXrUcSb_2iUw1rkqAZc#v=onepage&q=authenticity%20what%20consumers%20really%20want&f=false. Accessed on 19 August 2017.
Pine II, B. Joseph, and James H. Gilmore. 1998. “Welcome to the Experience Economy.” Harvard Business Review, July–August 1998, 97–105. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing.
Rapha. 2017a. “01 Company.” Rapha. http://pages.rapha.cc/about-rapha/company. Accessed on 5 July 2017.
Rapha. 2017b. “Flyweight.” Rapha. https://www.rapha.cc/it/en/shop/flyweight/category/flyweight-collection. Accessed on 11 July 2017.
Rapha. 2017c. “Brevet Collection.” Rapha. https://www.rapha.cc/it/en/shop/brevet/category/brevet. Accessed on 24 September 2017.
Rapha. 2017d. “Classic.” Rapha. https://www.rapha.cc/it/en/shop/classics-/category/trainingandracing. Accessed on 24 September 2017.
Rapha. 2017e. “Classic Jersey II.” Rapha. https://www.rapha.cc/gb/en/shop/classic-jersey-ii/product/CLJ04. Accessed on 3 July 2017.
Rapha. 2017f. “City.” Rapha. https://www.rapha.cc/it/en/shop/city/category/cityriding. Accessed on 3 July 2017.
Rapha. 2017g. “Premium Denim—Slim.” Rapha. https://www.rapha.cc/gb/en/shop/premium-denim—slim/product/DJO01. Accessed on 3 July 2017.
Rapha. 2017h. “RCC Membership—New Member.” Rapha. https://www.rapha.cc/gb/en/shop/-rcc-membership—new-member/product/RCM04XX. Accessed on 6 July 2017.
Rapha. 2017i. “Membership 2017.” Rapha. https://www.rapha.cc/it/en/rcc/membership. Accessed on 24 September 2017.
Rapha. 2017j. “RCC Terms & Conditions.” Rapha. http://pages.rapha.cc/rcc-terms-conditions. Accessed on 4 July 2017.
Rapha. 2017k. “RCC Chapters.” Rapha. https://www.rapha.cc/gb/en/rcc/chapters. Accessed on 4 July 2017.
Rapha. 2017l. “RCC Chapters London.” Rapha. https://www.rapha.cc/gb/en/rcc/chapters#rccldn. Accessed on 5 July 2017.
Rapha. 2017m. “London Soho.” Rapha. https://www.rapha.cc/it/en/clubhouses/londonsoho. Accessed on 6 July 2017.
Rapha. 2017n. “United States RCC Summit Boulder.” Rapha. https://www.rapha.cc/gb/en/shop/rcc-summit-boulder/travel/T1770. Accessed on 5 July 2017.
Rapha. 2017o. “Body Wash.” London: Rapha.
Reed‐Danahay, Deborah. 1997. “Introduction.” In Auto/Ethnography: Rewriting the Self and the Social, edited by D. Reed‐Danahay, 1–20. Oxford: Berg.
Ritzer, George. 2006. McDonaldization: The Reader. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.
Roberts, Joanne, and John Armitage. 2016. “Knowing Luxury: From Socio-cultural Value to Market Price?” In Critical Luxury Studies: Art, Design, Media, Ch. 2. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Robins, Rebecca. 2015. What Is Luxury in the Age of You [pdf]. Interbrand. http://interbrand.com/views/what-is-luxury-in-the-age-of-you. Accessed on 20 August 2017.
Rocamora, Agnès. 2016. “Online Luxury: Geographies of Production and Consumption and the Louis Vuitton Website.” In Critical Luxury Studies: Art, Design, Media, edited by J. Armitage and J. Roberts, 199–220. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Sheehan, Brian. 2010. Online Marketing. Lausanne: AVA Publishing.
Sherman, Lauren. 2016. “Is the New Luxury a Better You?” Business of Fashion, 5 May 2016. https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/intelligence/are-luxury-brands-ready-for-the-transformation-economy-wellness-health-direct-vision. Accessed on 17 August 2017.
Simmons, Annette. 2006. The Story Factor: Inspiration, Influence and Persuasion Through the Art of Storytelling. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Books.
Tesseras, Lucy. 2015. “Four Trends Changing the Definition of Luxury.” Marketing Week, 30 September. https://www.marketingweek.com/2015/09/30/four-trends-changing-the-definition-of-luxury/?nocache=true&adfesuccess=1. Accessed on 30 August 2017.
Vogelaar, Rijn. 2009. The Superpromoter: The Power of Enthusiasm. Translated from Dutch by P. De Wolff, 2011. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
Wood, Zoe. 2017. “Cycling Fashion Outfit Rapha Plots Route into the Fast Lane.” The Guardian, 2 May 2017. Available at https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/may/01/rapha-the-brand-thats-making-cycling-into-a-lifestyle. Accessed on 4 May 2017.
Woodside, Arch G. 2004. “Advancing from Subjective to Confirmatory Personal Introspection in Consumer Research.” Journal of Psychology and Marketing [e-journal] 21 (12): 987–1010. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mar.20034.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Glover, C. (2020). Rapha: Weaving Story Strands of Luxury. In: Cantista, I., Sádaba, T. (eds) Understanding Luxury Fashion. Palgrave Advances in Luxury. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25654-8_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25654-8_11
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-25653-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-25654-8
eBook Packages: Business and ManagementBusiness and Management (R0)