ean

ra

DepA B

d fne

Adam Smith's concept of the invisible hand profoundly

way with no explicit agreements between actors and which, at

outcomes (Joyce, 2001).

1999; Polhemus, 1994). Yet, in spite of such fragmentation,new styles are consistently affirmed season after season(Davis, 1994) in ways that have a striking resemblance withthe standard setting processes in technological innovation

Industrial Marketing Managementinfluenced the way we think about markets. The father ofeconomics used the expression with reference to the fact thatindividuals striving to maximize their private interests end upsupporting the public interest, even if they do not intend to norare they even aware of doing so. According to Smith, the terminvisible hand was not intended as a metaphor: being aprofoundly religious man, he believed in a benevolent Godwho created human beings with a nature that guided them tohappiness (Joyce, 2001). Through semantic migration, theterm is nowadays employed in a more general sense to refer toprocesses whose outcomes are produced in a decentralized

This paper is about one process, the fashion cycle, whichseems to affirm itself thanks to an invisible hand thatcoordinates countless agents. In the past, fashion used to bea highly centralized industry where new trends were diffusedfrom a single location, Paris, where the collections presentedby a small network of couturier became the trends thateverybody in the world imitated. Nowadays, this process hasbecome decentralized. Fashion originates from many sourcesand is profoundly influenced by popular culture, celebritiesand consumers themselves who, in many cases, inspiredesigners in the development of their collections (Crane,viewed and (ii) addressing the role of self-interested theorists, i.e. marketers who theorize about the market and its functioning in ways that areself-beneficial. Our paper also has implications for trade fair literature, which is mostly concerned with individual exhibitors' value appropriationstrategies. The case of Premire Vision shows that trade fairs may be considered as collective marketing instruments, thus highlighting theimportance of organizers' value creation strategies. 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Concertation; Market forms; Market practices; Postmodernism; Trade fairs

1. Introduction the same time, are not intentional, meaning that the actors'aims are neither coordinated nor identical with the actualIn this paper, we use ethnographic methods to describe the market making activities of Premire Vision, Paris, the leading trade fair in theclothing fabric industry. Through collective action and powerful representational practices, Premire Vision's exhibitors affirm their styleinnovation and position themselves as trend setters. Our study extends the emerging literature on market forms and marketing practices by (i)introducing a different lens, based on the ideas of postmodern theorists, through which the nature of representation in industrial markets may beRepresenting markets: Thby French and Itali

Diego Rinallo a,, Fa Bocconi University, Business Management

b Bocconi University, Business Management Department and SD

Received 19 July 2005; received in reviseAvailable onli

Abstract Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 02 5836 3719; fax: +39 02 5836 3791.E-mail addresses: diego.rinallo@unibocconi.it (D. Rinallo),

francesca.golfetto@unibocconi.it (F. Golfetto).1 Tel.: +39 02 5836 3706; fax: +39 02 5836 3791.

0019-8501/$ - see front matter 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.doi:10.1016/j.indmarman.2006.05.015shaping of fashion trendsfabric companies

ncesca Golfetto b,1

artment, Via Filippetti 9, 20122 Milan, Italyocconi School of Business, Via Filippetti 9, 20122 Milan, Italy

orm 4 April 2006; accepted 1 May 200628 July 2006

35 (2006) 856869(Cappetta, Cillo, & Ponti, submitted for publication; Golfetto,2004). To industry insiders, the fact that individual enterprisesworking separately tend to produce similar innovations is

natural and taken for granted, since the inspirational ideas are

D. Rinallo, F. Golfetto / Industrial Markein the air.2 Not surprisingly, early fashion theorists (Blumer,1969; Laver, 1933) suggested that fashion trends affirmedthemselves in a spontaneous and uncoordinated way inaccordance with the Zeitgeist, i.e. the spirit of the ageprevailing at a given moment. A more careful analysis,however, suggests that what seems natural and is taken forgranted is, in fact, the result of intentional and coordinatedefforts by actors who through collective, focused actions havebeen able to shape the fashion industry and its paths ofinnovation.

In this paper, we use ethnographic methods to describe andinterpret the activities of a network of companies who throughefforts and investments over a long period of time affirm theirinnovations in style as the prevailing fashion of a givenmoment. Some readers may be surprised to discover that suchactors are neither designers nor fashion companies. Our studydeals with fabric producers, i.e. the upstream suppliers thattwice a year provide fashion companies with innovative,stylish fabrics. In the fashion supply chain, the fabric sectoris a central locus of innovation, and the companies studiedhave collectively developed the ability to define trends and,hence, provide significant inputs to the companies anddesigners that are commonly believed to drive the fashionprocess. These fabric companies are mainly market leadersfrom France and Italy which dominate the fabric for the finefashion industry worldwide despite the greater than ever pricecompetition from East Asian producers. Their competitiveadvantage, we argue, lies in their collective action, mediatedand coordinated by trade associations, which aims to representfuture trends in fashion. Through a skillful representation offashion trends, these marketers symbolically position them-selves as trend setters and can consequently benefit frompremium prices with respect to competitors that are consideredimitators.

The term used by the companies we have studied to definetheir collective action is concertation. In political science,the term usually refers to processes where the major interestgroups are brought together and encouraged to conclude aseries of bargains about their future behavior, which will havethe effect of moving economic events along the desired path(Shonfield, 1965: p. 231). While the concept was developed inthe context of industrial relations to refer to the bargainingactivities of government, employers and trade unions overwages and labor regulation, it may also apply to the collectiveaction of organizations that collaborate to defend the interestsof a specific industry even without any significant interventionby state agencies (Molina & Rhodes, 2002). In the presentcase, concertation is about future innovative behaviors, itdoes not involve state agencies, it occurs at an internationallevel and is centered on the activities of a number of majortrade fairs. We have found that these events establish acommon ground for co-operation, provide visibility for the2 Here and elsewhere, emic expressions and terms employed by ourinformants are placed in quotation marks. See the Methods section for moredetails.innovations presented by their exhibitors and legitimate suchinnovations as the benchmark to which all other companies inthe industry will adhere. In particular, we focus on the networkof companies grouped around Premire Vision, Paris, theleading trade fair for fabric manufacturers targeting the fashionclothing industry.

The main purpose of this paper is to describe theconcertation mechanism as it has developed over the lastthirty years. In so doing, we intend to contribute to theemerging debate on market forms and marketing practices(Araujo, 2004; Kjellberg & Helgesson, in press, 2006-thisissue). We agree with Kjellberg and Helgesson (in press) onthe need to consider seriously the role of representation in themaking of markets, and to this end we use the case of Pre-mire Vision to illustrate the socially constructed nature of thelink between the representation and its referent or, in semioticterminology, the signifier and the signified. Our argument goesbeyond the idea that market actors may represent markets inways that are beneficial to themselves. We rather emphasize,in accordance with postmodern theorists such as Guy Debord(1983), Umberto Eco (1986) and Jean Baudrillard (1994), thesupremacy of representations over the phenomena they standfor. As skillfully described by Firat (1992: p. 81), a prevalenttendency in postmodern societies is the dominance of thehype over the concrete, the virtual over the actualtheimaginary over the material and the image over the product.Put differently, the relationship between market representa-tions and actual markets in a postmodern world is reversed: itis the market that adjusts to representations and not vice versa,as will be evident after our description of the concertationmechanism at work in Premire Vision. While these ideas nowhave currency among mainstream marketing scholars andconsumer researchers, postmodern thinking is yet to beaddressed in detail by business to business marketing scholars(Cova & Salle, 2003; Gomez Arias & Bello Acebron, 2001).In developing the concept of hyperreal representations, weextend our understanding of industrial buyer behavior andpropose that buyers, at least to some extent, may be similar toconsumers in their reliance on simulations and representedrealities.

Our study also contributes to trade fair literature. Trade fairshave mostly been investigated from the individual exhibitor'spoint of view with the prime intention of providing managerialinsight into how to improve returns on investments (Borghini,Golfetto, & Rinallo, 2003; Munuera & Ruiz, 1999). However,since trade fairs bring together in the same location most of theprincipal actors in the field, they may be consideredimpermanent representations of the markets to which theyrefer (and which they help to construct socially). The case ofPremire Vision highlights the role trade fair organizers mayplay in the creation of value for exhibitors, a perspective thathas only very recently started to appear in the specialistliterature (see Borghini, Golfetto, & Rinallo, submitted forpublication; Golfetto & Mazursky, 2004).

857ting Management 35 (2006) 856869The paper is organized as follows. First, we develop ourtheoretical framework by reviewing and extending the recentliterature on market forms and marketing practices, by

discussing the nature of representation in postmodern societyand theory and deriving implications for market making. Aftera brief methodological note, we provide some industrybackground to describe the supply chain in the fashionclothing industry and contextualize the study. We thenillustrate the Premire Vision case and define the concerta-tion process from the point of view of industry insiders. Inthe Discussion section, we take an external look at ourresearch findings in order to contribute to the literature onmarket forms and marketing practices. We conclude byhighlighting the theoretical contributions of the paper andthe implications for future research.

The debate on representation and its nature dates back toGreek philosophy and the opposing views on artistic depictions

858 D. Rinallo, F. Golfetto / Industrial Marketing Management 35 (2006) 8568692. Theoretical framework: representation in a postmodernworld

Various recent contributions (Araujo, 2004; Kjellberg &Helgesson, in press, 2006-this issue) have initiated anacademic debate on the performativity3 of market theories,i.e. the possibility that the theoretical understanding of marketsmay indeed contribute to the shaping of market forms andpractices. Authors have noted that the literature has focused onthe performativity of the disciplines of economics and financialeconomics (e.g., Callon, 1998; MacKenzie, 2003, 2004) andhighlighted the dearth of research on the performativity ofmarketing theories. To stimulate scholarly contributions in thisdirection, Kjellberg and Helgesson (in press) proposed aconceptual vocabulary for the study of markets and identifiedthree linked subcategories of market practices (pp. 45): (i)exchange practices, which include all activities related tospecific economic exchanges; (ii) representational practices,which refer to activities that contribute to depict markets and/or how they work; (iii) normative practices, which refer toactivities that contribute to establish guidelines for how amarket should be (re)shaped or work according to some (groupof) actor(s). In this paper, we are particularly interested inexamining (and extending) Kjellberg and Helgesson's (inpress) ideas on representational practices. The authors highlightthe importance of representations in the making of markets.Representations, they argue, are strictly linked to performativity,since the making of representations contributes to the shaping ofrepresented phenomena.4

3 The notion of performativity was developed by the feminist theorist JudithButler on the basis of Lacanian psychoanalysis, phenomenology, structuralanthropology and speech-act theory. Performativity refers to the assertion thatsocial reality is not given but is continually recreated through repeated discursivepractices (Butler, 1990). In Butler's writings, performativity is referred to gender,which is performed through a repetition of acts that mirror dominant, sociallyconstructed differences between men and women. For an illustration of thedifferent kinds of performativity and the use of the notion in economic sociology,see Kjellberg and Helgesson (in press, 2006-this issue).4 In their more recent contribution, Kjellberg and Helgesson (2006-this issue)

framed their ideas on representation and performativity departing from thephilosophy of science, i.e. by assuming that there is no radical gap between theworld of ideas and the world out there (p. 4). We share their critique of modernist

standpoints on the nature of knowledge and reality. In this paper, however, we haveadopted a different perspective inspired by postmodern theory rather than empiricalstudies of science.held by Aristotle and Plato (Childers, 1995). Aristotle's idea ofmimesis, i.e. the art imitates nature argument, supported afavorable view of representations as being necessary for learningand an important medium through which human beings canaccess the real. Plato, on the other hand, distrusted representa-tions. He considered the world revealed by senses a poorimitation of the realm of pure forms and, as well expressed in theallegory of the cave described in book VII of his Republic,believed representations could lead human beings to mistakemere appearances for reality. However, both men agreed on thepresupposition that a true reality exists and may somehow beaccessed if not with the senses, at least through pure intellect. Inthe light of these antecedents, the philosophical debate onsensory and internal representations continued during themedieval period (Lagerlund, 2004) and later influenced theproject of modernity with its effort to develop rational science,universal laws, absolute truths and, through the accumulation ofobjective knowledge, overthrow the irrationality of myth andreligion (Brown, 1993: p. 20).

Since the late 1960s, however, the modernist faith inscientific progress and the ultimate search for truth have beenhighly criticized by postmodern theorists5 who have proposedmany concepts that are relevant for our discussion of repre-sentation. The concept of spectacle, as developed by theFrench theorist Guy Debord (1983), refers to a societyorganized around the production and consumption of imagesand staged events. In Debord's own words (1983: section 18),the spectacle is a tendency to make one see the world bymeans of various specialized mediations. Seduced by thespectacle's hypnotic qualities, individuals become spectatorspassively involved in the consumption of images rather than inthe active production of their own lives. In a related vein, othertheorists (Baudrillard, 1994; Eco, 1986) have introduced theidea of hyperreality. Umberto Eco (1986) defines hyperrealityas a world of absolute fakes, in which imitations do notmerely reproduce reality, but try to improve on it. Hyperrealityis epitomized by the two absolute fake cities, Disneylandand Disney World, which do not even pretend to imitatereality, where everything is brighter, bigger, more beautifuland entertaining than in ordinary life, to such an extent that thelatter may become disappointing. Jean Baudrillard (1994)explains hyperreality with reference to the concepts of simu-lacra and simulation. According to Baudrillard, representationis based on the equivalence between the sign and the real and,from this standpoint, one could interpret simulation as falserepresentation. Reality is in fact much more complex than this.Simulations are based on other simulations and therefore it isnot possible to identify where the real ends and the simulationbegins. The concept of simulacra refers to these layers ofsimulation. In successive phases of a process Baudrillard terms5 For a discussion of postmodernism and its relevance for the practice andtheory of marketing, see, among others, Brown (1993, 1997), Cova (1996),Firat and Shultz (1997), Firat, Dholakia, and Venkatesh (1995).

rkethe procession of simulacra, simulations are built upon othersimulations, until the difference between true and false collapsesand simulacra are indistinguishable from the real.

The above mentioned concepts have been employed bymarketing scholars to reflect on the nature of markets andcustomer experiences. The hyperreal, it is argued, is a feature oftoday's consumer society. Not surprisingly, many examples ofhyperreality from different origins are grounded in consumerexperiences (Firat et al., 1995). In b2b marketing and industrialbuyer behavior research, postmodern ideas on representationhave only recently begun to appear, possibly because of a longheld perception of industrial buyers as rational and professionalactors much less prone than consumers to seduction byspectacles and simulations. Gomez Arias and Bello Acebron(2001), however, claim that the conditions of postmodernity arealso widespread in industrial markets. The authors suggest thatthe confusion between fantasy and reality that is the hallmark ofhyperreality is very common both in brand and corporate imagemanagement practices and in new product developmentactivities. Long before new products and services are launchedon the market, they argue, the parties involved (often a dyad or anetwork of companies) have to share dreams and unleash theirimagination.

Although supported only by anecdotal evidence, these ideasresonate with other contributions which while not expresslyfocused on industrial markets do not exclude these contextsfrom their scope. Managerial bestsellers in the so calledexperientiality field (Schmitt, 1999; Pine and Gilmore, 1999)suggest that the spectacularization of promotional activities maylead to competitive advantage even with regard to industrialpurchasers. Lampel (1998) employed historical case studies toshow that radical innovators often employ what he terms tech-nological dramas that are designed to influence constituenciessuch as sponsors, investors, buyers, and competitors long beforetheir innovations are marketable. Clark and Mangham (2004)noted the diffusion of an entire new industry of corporatetheatre consultancies, whose business consists in the creationof live events (e.g. conferences, annual general meetings, tradefair participations, product launches) that involve the deploy-ment of dramatists, actors, directors, set designers, lightingspecialists and musicians to put on performances in front of anaudience.

To conclude, postmodern ideas on the nature of representa-tion have much to offer the nascent debate on market forms andpractices and, more generally, to business to business marketingscholarship. If hyperreality and the other conditions ofpostmodernity are as diffused in industrial markets as suggestedby Gomez Arias and Bello Acebron (2001), managerial advicebased on a modernist approach to research may completely missthe point. By reassessing the lenses through which we look atmarketing phenomena, we may significantly increase themanagerial relevance of our research.

3. Methods

D. Rinallo, F. Golfetto / Industrial MaThe data and interpretations presented in the present paperderive from an extensive field investigation of Premire Visionand the European fabric industry conducted in the period20022004. To capture the complexities of the concertationprocess, we employed an ethnographic approach (Arnould &Wallendorf, 1994) mainly based on participant observation aswell as directive and non-directive interviews. While uncom-mon in business to business marketing research, ethnographicmethods have long been employed by consumer cultureresearchers to investigate specific typologies of markets andmarket forms (e.g. consumer trade fairs, Pealoza, 2000, 2001;flea markets and swap meets, Belk, 1998; Sherry, 1990).Recent studies in business to business marketing have takeninspiration from these developments in consumer research andadopted similar methods to investigate exhibitor and visitorinteraction in professional trade shows (Borghini, Golfetto, &Rinallo, 2004, submitted for publication). Ethnographicmethods, we argue, are well suited for the study of marketforms and market practices.

In more detail (but very briefly), ethnographic research(Arnould & Wallendorf, 1994): (i) is characterized by thesystematic collection of data and recording of human action innatural settings; (ii) involves extended, experiential participa-tion by researchers in the contexts to be studied; (iii) producesinterpretations of behaviors that the subjects investigated findplausible; (iv) incorporates multiple sources of data to generatevarying perspectives on the phenomena studied. In the courseof the present study, data gathering activities includedinterviews with the trade associations involved in theconcertation mechanism, together with participant observa-tion of the many backstage events organized to coordinateactivities before Premire Vision is held, such as meetings andworkshops to explain the new trends to exhibitors. However,most of the field activities involved participant observation ofthe trade fair itself in different editions, during which fieldnotes, photographs, and videos were used to document theinteractions between and among visitors and exhibitors.Directive and non-directive interviews with informants werecarried out during Premire Vision. Additional interviewswere realized at other events for the fabric industry, in order toinclude in our analysis (and thus avoid bias in the researchfindings) the perceptions of those companies which do notparticipate in the concertation process or do not visit Pre-mire Vision. Overall, 95 interviews ranging from 10 to90 minutes in length were conducted with informants.Secondary data and artifacts, including trend documentation,Premire Vision press releases and official pictures, exhibitorbrochures, fabric samples, etc., were also collected.

Overall, the verbatim interview transcripts and field notesof our observations ran to over 350 pages and included richnarratives and anecdotes from informants, together with visualmaterial (hundreds of pictures of trade fair stands and trendareas; hours of videos of visitor behavior in trend areas). Thematerial was separately analyzed by the authors, following thelogical operations and phases typical of qualitative analysis(Spiggle, 1994), whereby previous readings of texts inform

859ting Management 35 (2006) 856869later readings, while later assessment permits the researcher toidentify patterns in the data not identified in the initialanalysis.

to face severe problems of modularity tied to both consumerbehavior (clothes and accessories are bought and used together byconsumers) and the fragmentation and non-integrated nature ofthe fashion industry supply chain. Innovation cannot occur in avacuum. To avoid the risk of deviant innovations that do not fitwith the prevailing trends at a given moment, companies have toconsider both consumers' future tastes and the innovation effortsof upstream and downstream partners and producers of comple-mentary products when preparing their own collections. For ex-ample, a fabric firmwill have to decide whether its range of colors

rketing Management 35 (2006) 856869The result of these analyses is an illustration of the con-certation mechanism as it is seen by the participating actors,i.e. an insider view. In ethnography, this first-level typologyof research findings would be defined an emic account thatreflects informants' viewpoints. Our second-level researchfindings, reported in the discussion section, consist of an eticaccount of concertation which reflects our viewpoint as mar-keting scholars. The distinction between emic and etic accountsof cultural systems, first proposed by Pike (1967), is related tothe difference between analysis and interpretation proposed bymethodologists of qualitative data (Spiggle, 1994). By relyingon these two activities of inference, which are related but distinct,we have been able to achieve a theoretical generalization of emicresearch findings which go beyond their local significance.

4. Background: innovation in the fabric for fine fashionclothing

In the fashion clothing industry, innovation mostly regardsstyle rather than technical features (e.g. creativity in cut, colorsand relative combinations, patterns, fabrics and their proces-sing and finishing), which when embodied in clothing willsatisfy symbolic functions, allowing consumers to expressindividual identities and signal social status. As previouslynoted, contrary to the widespread belief that innovation infashion style is mainly created by a few celebrity designersworking in the isolation of genius, the fabric sector is a centrallocus of innovation in the fashion supply chain. In most cases,designers could not provide clothes with an aspect thatconsumers associate with dominant cultural trends (e.g.attention to natural environment) if their suppliers did nothave the technical ability and consumer market awareness toproduce yarns and fabrics that incorporate creative solutions inline with those trends. Only under these conditions, is itpossible to exploit such yarns/fabrics to produce garments with,say, the raw and natural aspect sought in current trends. Inother words, designers are inspired by upstream creativitywhich is aligned with consumer values and with what theywant to express through their clothes. This means that fabricproducers have to somehow anticipate consumer needs in orderto develop solutions that complement the core competence ofdesigners and clothing companies in creating fashionablefinal products.

Fabric collections present both technical and creative content.Technical content is mostly provided by upstream actors (e.g.textile machinery producers, chemical component companies)and is equally available to most competitors. Consequently, itcannot be a source of competitive advantage. To differentiate theirgoods, fabric producers therefore vary their biannual collectionsin terms of color (e.g. ruby or clay furrow), structure (e.g.jacquard, satin, chiffon), aspect (e.g. structured, light, washed out,opaque), touch (e.g. soft, warm, fluid, compact), decoration (e.g.arabesque, cashmere, irregular stripes) or treatment (e.g. burntout, washed, gummy coating). These highly differentiated

860 D. Rinallo, F. Golfetto / Industrial Maelements are deliberately designed to invest finished goods withcultural meanings that will be valued by consumers. However, inthe development of their new collections, fabric companies havewill mesh with that realized by knitwear, velvet and other semi-finished textile manufacturers, as well as by its competitors.Furthermore, all semi-finished textile products will have to fitin with the style and cut that will be prevalent in clothing.Finally, the purchaser's sense of compatibility has to be takeninto account, since consumers will combine clothing with ac-cessories (e.g. shoes, bags) to express their identity and, at thesame time, signal membership of specific reference groups.This means that, as in technological innovation, standards areneeded to reduce uncertainty in innovation to the benefit of allfirms in the system.6

Although modularity/compatibility problems are not uniqueto this setting, fabric companies have to face additional chal-lenges if they want to thrive or even just survive. Firstly, thefabric industry is very disintegrated and fragmented, countingnumerous companies within each of the specialized phases ofthe supply chain.7 Moreover, most of these companies are smalland medium sized enterprises (Eurostat, 2004) that very oftenoperate within industrial districts. In Italy, for example, the mainindustrial districts specialized in fabrics and other textileproducts are located in the areas of Prato, Biella, Como, andVarese. In such a situation, even the market leaders lack theresources and skills needed to establish independently their owninnovative solutions as the dominant design. Secondly, asfabrics are linked to the fashion system, the innovation cycle isvery rapid, with seasonal collections launched (at least) onceevery six months. Thirdly, the new products have to be pre-sented far in advance of consumer purchase; fabric producershad to present their proposals for the 2004/2005 fall/winterclothing collections to their customers (clothing producers) inSeptember 2003, i.e. 12 months before final products wereavailable in shops. Thus, since consumer tastes are ever-changing, new product development activities are unavoidablyrisky, and created a latent need for some form of fashion forecast

6 Cappetta et al. (submitted for publication) have recently highlighted thesimilarity between style innovation in fashion and the patterns of technologicalinnovation described by Abernathy and Utterback (1978) and Anderson andTushman (1990). Also in fashion, innovation cycles include both phases ofradical and incremental innovation, with phases of great ferment (where manynew styles are proposed) followed by the selection of dominant designs.However, because of the symbolic properties of fashion goods with respect toconsumers' need for distinction, the dominant design co-exists with marketniches for products which are radically different but still highly appreciated bysome consumers. For example, Chanel tailleurs or Armani tuxedoes are classicsthat do not vary with seasonal fashions.

7 Overall, there are almost 170,000 companies in the EU-15 textile and

clothing industry, most of which are located in Italy and France (Source:Euratex on Eurostat data).

that, as we will see in the section that follows, was at the base ofPremire Vision's fortunes.

5. Premire Vision and the concertation mechanism

5.1. The history of Premire Vision

Vision's network, in spite of the fierce competition amongproducers from Italy and France.

In terms of both objective data (i.e. space hired, number ofexhibitors and number of visitors) and the subjective rankattributed by operators in the field, Premire Vision is the topevent in the industry. Its high levels of internationalization (fromboth the exhibitor and visitor standpoint) means that it is pri-marily dedicated to international exchanges (Cermes-Bocconi,2005). Numerous informants explained that visiting PremireVision is a learning expedition, whose value resides in inspi-ration and awareness of fashion trends. In contrast, most of theother trade fairs around the world fulfill a commercial function,providing information of a more operational nature linked tospecific purchasing processes. This means that those companiesadmitted as exhibitors at Premire Vision are usually consideredthe industry innovators, with the consequent implications interms of reputation and, frequently, premium price.

Table 1Premire Vision: key facts

Organizer Premire Vision Le Salon s.a.(supported by French textile trade association)

Dates (2004) Spring/Summer collections: Feb. 1215Autumn/Winter collections: Sept. 2124

Space hired (2002) 41,016 sq. m.Exhibitors (2002) 775 (77% foreign)Visitors (2002) 32,634 (77% foreign)

Source: Authors' analysis of data from the Organizer.

861D. Rinallo, F. Golfetto / Industrial Marketing Management 35 (2006) 856869Premire Vision is the most important trade fair in theclothing fabric industry (see Table 1 for key facts). Its originsdate back to 1973 as a joint promotion undertaken by 15 Lyonweavers who decided to present their fabric collections at theInternational Textile Centre in Paris. It was only in 1976 that theidea of trend concertation was established. The weaversdecided to meet together before the Salon to propose a synthesisof seasonal color and fabric trends, paving the way for acoherence in the textile offer (Premire Vision, 2003). In theyears that followed, the co-operative effort was extended toproducers of other types of fabric both from France and otherEuropean Countries. Italian companies constitute the majorityof Premire Vision's exhibitors: in the February 2004 fair, 339of the 706 exhibitors were Italian, while only 137 French. Thegreater number of Italian exhibitors is due to the fragmentationof the Italian textile industry. Nevertheless, this fragmentationleads to a greater variety in the products offered. Without thepresence of Italian exhibitors, Premire Vision could hardlysustain its primacy as the world leader in fabric innovation. Thisis why Italian companies were soon admitted to PremireFig. 1. Premire Vision: pattern of geoTo ensure its positioning as an informative trade fair, thecompanies wishing to exhibit at Premire Vision must meetcertain quality criteria to ensure that the overall informationalcontent of the event is maintained. The criteria employed toselect companies include product quality and creativity, as wellas financial health. In other words, candidate exhibitors mustdemonstrate that they are innovators rather than imitators andprove that their presence will benefit visitors. By restrictingaccess to potential exhibitors (and thus reducing the fair'sturnover) on the basis of quality and innovativeness criteria,Premire Vision represents its exhibitors as the more sophisti-cated and fashionable part of the supply market, so providingthem with a competitive advantage linked to the fact that theyare perceived as the best producers.

An analysis of the geographical patterns of inclusion amongPremire Vision's exhibitors illustrates this logic (see Fig. 1).The original 15 weavers from 1973 soon invited other Frenchand Western European companies to join the process. It waspreviously suggested that the presence of Italian companies wasinstrumental in establishing a critical mass of exhibitors andgraphical inclusion (19732002).

cer

rketing Management 35 (2006) 856869product variety to attract international buyers. The recentdecision to open Premire Vision to the best non-westernproducers may be seen as an extension of this idea. Currently,the trade fair includes among its exhibitors companies fromcountries that are traditionally associated with low cost, massmarket products (e.g. Turkey, Taiwan) and tend to be consideredimitators of western companies' creativity. This kind of patternof inclusion should not be taken for granted in the case of tradefairs backed by national trade associations. In such situations, aprotectionist attitude among organizers is not uncommon,resulting in high entry barriers for foreign companies (Golfetto,2004). Similar patterns of inclusion have not emerged in otherEuropean trade fairs in the fabric industry (Rinallo, Golfetto, &Gibbert, 2006).

5.2. The concertation mechanism

The concertation process comprises several phases, eachof which involves a differentiated set of actors (see Fig. 2 for astylized model of the overall process). Trend forecasting, i.e.the identification of future trends in consumer society, isrealized by Premire Vision several months before the trade fair

Fig. 2. The con

862 D. Rinallo, F. Golfetto / Industrial Matakes place. Although it may appear a rather esoteric activity,trend forecasting is nowadays a fairly institutionalized process.The creative experts engaged in trend forecasting usually spenda considerable amount of time in the observation of street styleand travel around the world in an activity often defined as coolhunting, the identification of consumption patterns in specificsubcultures that in the experts' opinion anticipate the directionsin which society as a whole will move. Since 1997, this activityhas been carried out on a global level through the establishmentof an International Observatory that aims to identify theemerging social trends likely to have an impact the textile andfashion industries. The analyses of Premires Vision's Obser-vatory in Europe, North and South America and Asia are carriedout by a broad network of specialists including architects,designers, trend forecasters, experts in new technologies,sociologists and anthropologists.

Subsequently, implications in terms of new fashion productsand fabrics are derived from the observed social trends. In otherwords, emerging trends in society are translated into new ideasfor fabrics and clothing. For example, as a result of the affir-mation of social values taking account of the world's ecologicalproblems, products, colors and designs that respect or evokethese principles are increasingly appreciated by consumers. Thisis the case, for example, of raw materials that do not harm theenvironment, natural colors and simpler clothing styles. Similar-ly, in the aftermath of the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001,many consumers felt that the world had become a less secureplace, and conspicuous consumption was no longer consideredappropriate. Consequently, clothing (and fabrics) had to fit witha consumer desire for safety, which meant less blatantly luxuri-ous products.

Six months before Premire Vision, the trends identified bythese experts are validated during concertation meetings,which are a way to bring together in the same place and at thesame time representatives of all phases of the fragmented anddisintegrated clothing supply chain. At the concertationtables, representatives and members of trade associations inthe fabric industry, in upstream and downstream markets (e.g.,fiber and yarn producers, textile finishing and printingcompanies, fashion designers, clothing producers, etc.) and incomplementary products (accessory producers) all have a seat

tation process.and the right to express their opinion on the future trends thatwill be pursued collectively. In addition, the leading companies(those that are able to launch their own trends) are involved forthe specific contribution that they may provide to theconcertation process. In this phase, an important role is alsoplayed by the bureaux de style (style bureaus), i.e. companiesspecializing in trend forecasting.8 For these organizations,being part of the group of experts that set trends is consideredprestigious, and they often mention this role in their promo-tional activities. During concertation meetings, the trendsidentified by Premire Vision's experts are communicated andcompared with those forecast individually by the invited parties.

8 Style bureaux, which emerged in France in the mid-1980s, are small-sizedorganizations specialized mainly in the production and sale of information onfashion trends which is gathered together in the so-called cahier de tendance(Guercini & Rafagni, 2003), typically representing trends in terms of bothcolors and concepts. Style bureaux often carry out consultancy activities fortextile companies, thus helping the latter to interpret such trends and toincorporate them into their new collections.

These meetings serve, then, to create a consensual agreementamong all relevant actors of what will become the commontrends. Thus, the meetings reduce variety in new collections,while increasing compatibility on the purchaser side.

Once this process is complete, the trends identified arecommunicated in ad hoc workshops to all firms selected asexhibitors. Documents synthesizing the directions for innova-tion (e.g., color cards, trend books, CD-ROM) are distributedfor reference during the development of new collections in thefollowing months. Color tones are specified very precisely bymeans of the Pantone color system with which a color can beselected and specified by assembling creative palettes andconceptual color schemes. On the other hand, the conceptsunderlying the trends are communicated with the use of meta-phors and suggestive pictures which aim to inspire rather thancommunicate in a precise way. One of the experts we inter-viewed described this way of presenting trends by saying wemake a lot of poetry, here. For example, one of the trendsidentified by Premire Vision experts for the Spring/Summer2005 collection was Vitamin 05. The many elements compris-ing the trends were described with expressions such as enrich-

best represent the new trends in particularly creative ways (seePicture 1). There are many such areas, each designed to highlightgeneral trends or specific aspects (e.g. trends in particular typesof fabric, such as linen, wool, silk, or in knitwear).

Visitors greatly appreciate these areas (which give acomprehensive idea of developments over a limited period oftime), to which they dedicate the initial part of a trade fair visit,often spending several hours or even the entire first day. Forsome, the trends areas are the only part of Premire Vision theyever visit. In these areas, visitors seek inspiration for their newproduct development activities, new potential suppliers andconfirmation of the creativeness and competence of their presentbusiness partners. The information search process in the trendareas has a physical, embodied nature, i.e. it involves handlingand inspecting fabric samples with attention, in order to imaginenew clothing products that could be realized with these fabrics.At present, virtual searches (based on online catalogs andpictures of fabrics) do not provide the same depth of information,because of the often tacit nature of what the buyer is seeking (seealso Golfetto, 2003). For most visitors, then, the actual visit isconsidered imperative: they need to touch and feel the fabrics

863D. Rinallo, F. Golfetto / Industrial Marketing Management 35 (2006) 856869ing fabrics with vitamins, playing with colors, joking aroundwith futility, poking fun at severity, greedily tasting the delightsof the ephemeral, and touching the essential. Visual repre-sentations of such trends are similarly suggestive and evocative.

During Premire Vision, exhibitors present their collection tovisitors (potential buyers) from all over the world. Now, thepredictions have come true. Although exceptions are possible,exhibitors' new collections are generally in line with the con-certed trends and, more importantly, with consumers' emergingsensibilities. In specially equipped areas created with the help ofexperts in visual communication, Premire Vision presents theforecast trends to visitors through samples of the fabrics thatPicture 1. Premire Vision: snapshots fand patterns constituting the new trends, take notes for later useand, most importantly, experience the ideas for innovation thatare stimulated through this interaction (see Picture 2).

It should be noted that together with buyers and productdesigners from clothing companies, Premire Vision also attractsnumerous atypical visitors (Borghini et al., 2004) whosepresence eventually contributes to making the establishment ofconcerted trends more rapid and effective. From the exhibitors'point of view, atypical visitors can be defined as:

competitors: fabric producers (both from Western and emerg-ing countries) not admitted to the concertation process. Inrom the color, linen and silk areas.

t Pr

rketing Management 35 (2006) 856869general, they seek to obtain competitive intelligence andinspiration for their own new product developments.

suppliers and producers of related products: these companiesvisit the trend areas of the two trade fairs to learn about futurefashion trends and to align their own innovative efforts cor-respondingly. In the case of suppliers (e.g. yarn or textilemachinery producers), this means understanding how theircustomers use the products they are supplying and discoveringways to improve these products. Producers in related industries(e.g. shoe and bag manufacturers) aim to increase the com-patibility of their new products with trends in the clothingindustry in terms of color, pattern, etc.

professionals from other industries: Premire Vision is alsovisited by many professionals and service providers, includingdesigners from other industries (e.g. cosmetic, automotive,home furnishing), advertising agencies, market research firms.For these visitors, who tend to spend most of their time in thetrends areas, Premire Vision is a routine but valuable activityto discover in advance the newest trends in color and fabricsthat will be confirmed by fashion designers and clothingcompanies in the next six months and available in the shopsone year later. These trends also represent Premire Vision's

Picture 2. Visitor behavior a

864 D. Rinallo, F. Golfetto / Industrial Maauthoritative view on the evolution of consumer society,explaining why professionals not interested in fashion per seare also attracted by the trade fair.

journalists: journalists working for specialized media tend toprovide substantial visibility in their articles to the trendsidentified by Premire Vision. In this, they are helped by themedia subsidies provided by the trade fair itself. As a result,news about these trends are also spread to people in the fieldunable to visit the event in person.

The presence of large numbers of these atypical targets isprimarily due to the high level of information externalities(Borghini et al., 2004) provided by Premire Vision to upstream,downstream, and collateral industries. In this sense, the trade fairis an occasion when the usually fragmented textile-clothing sup-ply chain is unified and the various, dispersed actors broughttogether. For exhibitors, the presence of atypical targets meansthat the concerted trends receive worldwide visibility and recog-nition, and their collections are immediately imitated. Someexhibitors claim that with digital cameras and e-mail, and despitethe fact that photography is explicitly forbidden within the fair,companies from China or other emerging countries may startproduction of imitations of the new fabrics presented at Pre-mire Vision even before the event finishes. Exhibitors use a rangeof tactics to hinder such imitation, including not showing productsin the window displays of the stand (Rinallo & Borghini, 2003);presenting fake new products in the displays to divert com-petitors, admitting only selected visitors known to the sales forceto prevent access to competitors acting as customers. For otherexhibitors, however, imitation is the price of glory that has to bepaid for being at the forefront of innovation, as the leaders arealways imitated. In any case, for most exhibitors, the gains inreputation are worth the risks of imitation.

Ironically, imitation by competitors helps to create a criticalmass of products aligned with the trends, so making theirdiffusion even faster. Through the able exploitation of theirreputation as trend setters, Italian and French textile producers(with the help of carefully selected foreign firms), can quicklyestablish the designs they have collectively identified andproposed and so secure a first mover advantage9.

emire Vision's trend areas.6. Discussion

In this section, we provide an etic account of concertation.In other words, we distance ourselves from an insider view andlook again at emic research findings from our own perspective asscholars. The lenses we have employed to look at concertationare the theoretical understanding of representation based on apostmodern standpoint, the literature on market forms and mar-keting practices, and extant trade fair literature. By setting ourresearch findings on a much broader stage, we seek a theoreticalgeneralization beyond their local significance.

9 One may ask to what extent these outcomes were intentional. Arguably, theoriginal 15 Lyon weavers did not envisage the eventual consequences of theirtrend concertation efforts. Nowadays, however, concertation is widelyperceived by participating companies as a means to differentiate their productsfrom competitors. To use the words of one of our informants, Premire Visionis a great marketing communication enterprise, that, as a matter of fact, putsItalian and French producers in a higher position with respect to the rest of theworld.

and across industries, on the basis of the competence, strategicvision and ownership structure of organizers and the typologiesof products put on display. However, the fact that at least sometrade fairs may configure, rather than simply reflect, the markets

865rketing Management 35 (2006) 8568696.1. Trade fairs as journeys in hyperreality

Trade fairs may be considered staged events whose purposeis to represent markets. Current literature regards trade fairs asparticularly effective information sources in the central phasesof the purchasing process when alternative solutions, suppliers,and products are evaluated (Gopalakrishna & Lilien, 1995).Thus, the greater the number of exhibitors present, the moreindustrial buyers will find a trade fair informative. In mathe-matical terms, the number of exhibitors able to fulfill a specificinformative need present at a given trade fair defines its poten-tial effectiveness. Similarly, the managerial advice given toorganizers is to design shows by selecting exhibitors on thebasis of the information needs of specific demand segments(Golfetto, 2004). In this sense, Premire Vision is a represen-tation of the upper end of the fabric market, and the pattern ofinclusion of non-European exhibitors mentioned above (seeagain Fig. 2) is in accordance with the organizer's desire tomaintain the fair's position as an informative event.

However, this view of trade fairs as more or less representativemirrors of markets existing out there is only a part of the story.Even though they are less impressive than themed park or retailenvironments, and attract visitors for professional rather thanleisure reasons, we contend that trade fairs are hyperrealrepresentations of the markets they refer to and which, throughtheir market making activities, they help to construct socially. Atleast during the initial phases of their internationalization process,the vivid memories of experiences during trade fairs constitute forsuppliers (exhibitors) a mental representation of the manygeographically and culturally distant markets in which theyoperate. A parallel point can be made for customers (visitors):their trade fair experiences shape their representation of themarket, its developments and its leading protagonists. In thisrespect, industrial customers appear to be similar to consumers intheir reliance on staged events and representations to make senseof a chaotic reality. The ordered series of exhibitor stands withtheir changeable geography, the maps and catalogs provided bythe organizers, and the sense of familiarity among long term,returning visitors are all distinguishing features of actual businessjourneys in hyperreality. As in consumer landscapes, then, theimage also reigns over reality at professional trade fairs. Toparaphrase Umberto Eco (1986), besides Art, History and Nature,the theme of hyperreal reproduction also involves Business.

Of course, in every industry, other actors, such as specializedmedia, trade associations, individual companies, consultanciesand public authorities, will disseminate competing representa-tions of the market. However, there are differences betweentrade fairs and advertisements, news, consultancy reports, mar-ket research or governmental reports. Only trade fairs bringtogether all relevant actors into a physical reality that can beexperienced with all the senses, allowing interaction in a contextin which an actor the organizer can influence individual andcollective sense making. By designing visitors' paths and ex-hibitors' layout and by creating spectacular trend areas, trade fair

D. Rinallo, F. Golfetto / Industrial Maorganizers may create engaging experiences with long lastingeffects. Our point, here, is not that all trade fairs may have similarimpacts. Considerable differences exist among trade fairs withinthey are embedded in is significant and calls for further researchabout the role of trade fair organizers in the making of markets.

Finally, in contrast with postmodern theorists (Debord, 1983;Eco, 1986), our research findings do not support the view thathyperreal and spectacular representations place individuals in aposition of passivity. Industrial buyers actively construct theirexperiences during trade fair visits much like consumers inthemed park and retail experiences (e.g., Pealoza, 1999; Sherryet al., 2001). While organizers and exhibitors try to imposepreferred behaviors and interpretations, visitors make sense ofthe hyperreal environment in often unpredictable ways. As atconsumer trade fairs (Pealoza, 2000, 2001), meaning is alsoconstructed at business events through the interaction betweenmarketers and customers.

6.2. Concertation as a progression of simulations

In Kjellberg and Helgesson's (in press) framework, con-certation is based on a set of normative and representationalpractices (see Fig. 3). Premire Vision's normative legitimacytowards its exhibitors depends on the consensual nature of theconcertation process which is supported by national tradeassociations representing their members' interests. Normativepressures towards adoption of the trends are also fostered by theworkshops in which the trends are communicated to all selectedexhibitors. These workshops have a ritual nature, encouragingsolidarity among participants, and similarly to the rituals studiedby anthropologists (e.g., Durkheim, 1995), they reinforce socialties among network members and communitas, e.g. the sense ofbelonging to the same community of innovating companies.10

However, normative pressures towards conformity only playa role within the boundaries of Premire Vision's network. Evenwithin such boundaries, they are backed by powerful represen-tational practices centered on artifacts that act as physicalembodiments of the trends identified in the concertationprocess. Initially, trends exist as cognitive representations heldby cool hunters, experts and market leaders. During the firstphase of the concertation process (see again Fig. 2), these innerrepresentations are shared with the help of artifacts such asPowerPoint presentations, pictures, poetry. Once agreement isreached, new and more tangible representations are created forexhibitors (videos, color cards, trend books, etc.). Exhibitors usethese representations to create the samples that will representtheir new collections. During Premire Vision, representationshave a concrete nature, since they are visible to (and touchableby) all visitors. In this sense, trends areas are powerful artifacts in

10 It is worth noting that not all exhibitors align themselves to the trendsidentified by Premire Vision. However, these are exceptions that only regardthose few companies with a strong brand image and design capabilities that arein a position to differentiate their products from those of their rivals. For the

other exhibitors, Premire Vision trends are not perceived as an undesiredinfluence over patterns of innovations, but rather as precious, highlyappreciated inputs that complement individual creative efforts.

rma

rketing Management 35 (2006) 856869which customers may physically experience the concertedtrends. Visitors will return to their offices and factories withfabric samples, pictures and documents that synthesize thetrends. Those who have not physically attended the trade fair willlearn about the trends from their media representations.

This process closely resembles the procession of simulationsdescribed by Baudrillard (1994). During Premire Vision, visi-tors have access to representations (fabric samples, trend areas)of representations (video, color cards, trend books) of represen-tations (PowerPoint presentations, pictures, poetic metaphors) ofrepresentations (cognitive schemas of new trends in consumersociety) of representations (specific events or phenomena thatoriginate such cognitive schemas). Media representations of thetrends just add another ring to this chain. Trend concertation isthus performative: the trends presented during Premire Visionand backed by the trade fair's powerful representational prac-tices will in due time migrate to designers' catwalks, clothingshops and, eventually, to consumers' wardrobes.

Moreover, the idea that trends in consumer society may beidentified or forecast is questionable. Trend forecast/identifica-

Fig. 3. Concertation as a set of no

866 D. Rinallo, F. Golfetto / Industrial Mation is proposed as a rational activity, carried out by legitimateprofessional and scientific experts (cool hunters, sociologists,anthropologists). In other words, Premire Vision promotes theidea that novel developments in society exist and that expertscan somehow (by intuition or trained observation) spot them.On the other hand, an environment as complex and dynamic aspostmodern consumer society cannot be analyzed, it can only beinterpreted. Concertation may be characterized as a categoryof interpretive behavior based on enactment (Daft & Weick,1984; Smircich & Stubbart, 1985), where organizations and theenvironment are co-created through social interaction. Trendforecasting cannot be considered the discovery of correcttrends in an existing society out there, but rather as the selec-tion of some and the rejection of others among the manypossible alternatives. Put in a different way, the trends that areenacted reside more in the cognitive representations shared andharmonized among those who sit at the concertation tablesthan in some external environment. Daft and Weick (1984:p. 287) suggested that [t]he interpretation may shape theenvironment more than the environment shapes the interpreta-tion. Much like the new product development activitiesdescribed by Gomez Arias and Bello Acebron (2001) and thehistorical technological dramas reported by Lampel (1998),representations of new fashion trends come long before theactual new collections that incorporate such trends.

6.3. Market theories and self-interested market theorists

The case of Premire Vision shows that those actors whohave the power to represent markets have the power to affect itand may do so in ways that are self-beneficial. While Kjellbergand Helgesson (in press) do address this point, overall theirpaper appears to be mostly concerned with the performativity ofmarketing theories. Furthermore, while often interested in themanagerial relevance of their research findings, scholars usuallydo not seek to influence actively the behaviors of the subjectsthey study11. In other words, the performativity of the markettheories proposed by economists, financial economists andmarketing scholars is, in most cases, an unintended conse-quence of theory building and testing. Besides communities of

tive and representational practices.scholars, marketing phenomena are also theorized by actorsoutside academe, e.g. journalists, professional experts andmarketers themselves. The concertation mechanism may beseen as a means through which the network of companiescentered on Premire Vision provides visibility to their theoriesabout the fabric and fashion markets and supports the accep-tance of these beliefs by other theorists and market actors, suchas the specialized media, customers, professional experts andother marketers. These pragmatic theories are intentionallyperformative, since they do intend to affect the reality theypretend to describe. As a consequence, it is no an exaggerationto refer to the actors involved as self-interested theorists.12

The case of Premire Vision also shows that the ability totheorize about and represent markets in general is not equallydistributed among market actors. Not all marketers are in the

11 Unless, of course, they are carrying out action research interventions.12 We borrow this expression from Rao and Sivakumar (1999), who employ itto refer to security analysts. We extend its use to marketers and other marketactors that intervene in the representation of markets.

rkeposition to allow their theories to be promoted. The concept ofsymbolic capital proposed by Pierre Bourdieu (1986, 1989) isuseful in making sense of the differences between market actorsin their ability to let their voices be heard. According to theFrench sociologist, capital comes in many forms (economic,cultural, social and symbolic) that may be converted from oneform to another. Symbolic capital is the power granted to thosewho have obtained sufficient recognition to impose recogni-tion (Bourdieu, 1989: p. 23). In a business context, symboliccapital may be considered as the value of a firm's ability toaffirm its own vision of reality and its own position in thatreality as the one considered acceptable and legitimate by othercompetitors, suppliers, customers, shareholders, and all theother stake-holders (Perrone, 1997: p. 19). Over the years,Premire Vision's original 15 weavers have employed theireconomic, cultural and social capital (investment in trend fore-casting, specific know how, relations with other innovatingcompanies and media) to accumulate symbolic capital andestablish their legitimacy as trend setters. With time, this legit-imacy has been extended to other marketers as they have beenaccepted into the Premire Vision network.

Premire Vision's pattern of inclusion of new exhibitors fromcountries usually referred to as imitators is a manifestation of thissymbolic power. From a certain point of view, the official andhighly publicized admission of these companies to PremireVision is a rite of passage la Van Gennep (1960) which marksthe moment a worthy fabric company enters the communitas ofinnovators. At the same time, however, these operations can beunderstood as rites of institution (Bourdieu, 1990): they do notmark a before and an after so much as they differentiate (andelevate) the admitted companies from those that (will always)remain excluded. In other words, by granting Turkish or SouthAmerican companies the status of innovator, the network ofPremire Vision exhibitors theorize about the status ordering inthe fabric market. While asserting their role as innovators, theyimply that other companies in the industry are imitators.

7. Conclusion

In this paper, we have described the concertationmechanismimplemented by the network of companies centered around thetrade fairPremire Vision. We have interpreted this mechanism asa set of normative and representational practices that, literally,make markets. From many different points of view, our researchfindings can be seen as an additional illustration of the main ideasexpressed by Kjellberg and Helgesson's (in press): differentmarketing practices produce different market forms, and con-certation is indeed a peculiar set of practices, originated by thechallenges of the textile clothing supply chain, that produce adistinct market configuration. However, our paper also extendsKjellberg and Helgesson's (in press, 2006-this issue) theoreticalframework on market forms and practices in (i) introducing adifferent lens (based on postmodern theory) through which thenature of representation in industrial markets may be viewed and

D. Rinallo, F. Golfetto / Industrial Ma(ii) addressing the role of self-interested theorists, i.e. marketerswho theorize about the market and its functioning in waysbeneficial to them.Our readers may wonder about the external validity of thisconclusion. After all, we have provided a study of one trade fairthat caters for the needs of the clothing industry and may not beparticularly representative of industrial purchasing in general.People in the fashion business are part of a symbol-intensiveindustry and may be more susceptible to hyperreal representa-tions than buyers of more prosaic industrial goods and services.However, the literature on customer experience, technologicaltheater and technological drama does not differentiate muchbetween audiences: consumers, industrial buyers, investors andemployees are all considered equally susceptible to the seduc-tion and subtle influence of spectacular performances. Forconsultancies whose activities concern the supply of live eventsfor corporate audiences, the spectacularization of fabrics may beeasier and more appealing than, say, that of waste disposalservices or metal-working tooling machines, even if it is un-likely that they would refuse such customers.

We believe that the innovation at the basis of the success ofPremire Vision success does not reside in the simpleconcertation of fashion trends, but rather in the spectacularrepresentations of these trends through the design of visuallyappealing scenographies. As previously suggested, the idea ofbringing together relevant interest groups to coordinatecollective action has been studied by political scientists sincethe 1970s, and the literature on the affirmation of dominantdesign in technological innovation has also suggested thatpolitical alliances among producers rather than marketselection is one of the strategies in the quick affirmation ofdominant designs (Zaninotto, 1998). On the other hand, the ideaof making clothing fabrics spectacular was not obvious in the1970s. At that time, pieces of clothing were considered ratherplain products, and Premire Vision's idea to present them in anew way started a cultural revolution in the industry.

Our paper also addresses the position of self-interested theo-rists in the shaping of markets.While Kjellberg and Helgesson (inpress) acknowledge the role of different actors in the making ofmarkets, overall their paper focuses on the performativity ofmarket theories proposed by academic theorists. Although mar-keting scholars tend to address managerial implications, therecurring debate on the reduced practical relevance of researchfindings (e.g., Brennan & Ankers, 2004; Katsikeas, Robson, &Hulbert, 2004;McAlister, 2005) shows that this goal is not alwaysrealized. By taking explicit account of theorists that specificallyintend to shape markets, our paper complements Kjellberg andHelgesson's (in press) framework and suggests interestingimplications for marketers. We argue that the accumulation ofsymbolic capital may be a necessary antecedent for companiesthat intend to drive (rather than just suffer) the evolution of theirmarkets. Symbolic capital, as the Premire Vision case shows,may be accumulated by leveraging other forms of capital(economic, cultural, and social) and by engaging in symbolicactions that legitimize a marketer's authority to bestowrecognition on other market actors. Accumulation of symboliccapital is thereby distinct from, say, branding or public relations,

867ting Management 35 (2006) 856869even though these tools may also be employed for this purpose.Our research findings also have implications for the literature

on trade fairs. In reconceptualizing trade fairs as hyperreal

rkerepresentations of markets, the paper extends current researchthat has so far been mostly concerned with the way individualexhibitors may increase the returns on their investment(Borghini et al., 2003). Premire Vision shows that trade fairsmay be considered means of collective marketing that aggregatenetworks of marketers for promotional reasons. Metaphoricallyspeaking, trade fair organizers aremandala creators. A mandalais a symbolic representation of the Universe used in Hinduismand Buddhism as sacred art and as an aid to meditation(Monroy, 1999). One of the ritual practices of Tibetan Bud-dhism is mandala sand painting. Monks, often working ingroups, spend weeks placing millions of grains of colored sandinto a flat platform to create detailed geometrical patterns that,when finished, are ritually destroyed to signify the imperma-nence of all things that are part of the Buddhist canon.

Like mandala, trade fairs may be considered impermanentrepresentations of markets that need months or even years to beorganized properly and although they only last a few days havelong lasting consequences. Research is needed to explain ingreater detail the value generation strategies of trade fairorganizers as opposed to the value appropriation processes ofindividual exhibitors. Current research suggests that trade fairsshould be selected on the basis of their potential in terms ofprospect generation, but nothing is said on how trade fairorganizers can create better events. In this paper, we show thatconceiving trade fair organization as a collective market makingbusiness (with its implications in terms of exhibitor selectionand the creation of hyperreal spaces) may not only ensure thesuccess of a given trade fair, but may also have positiveexternalities for its exhibitors. However, this is just a first step.Further research is needed on the role of trade fair organizers invalue generation. We propose that when discussing trade fairresearch findings, scholars at least also address the managerialimplications for organizers.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the two anonymous Indus-trial Marketing Management reviewers for helpful comments.We are also grateful to Michael Gibbert, Hans Kjellberg andPaola Cillo, whose insightful suggestions aided the develop-ment of the present manuscript.

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Diego Rinallo is Assistant Professor of Marketing at Bocconi University inMilan, Italy. His research interests focus on the culture producing role ofmarketers in business to business and business to consumer settings.

Francesca Golfetto is Professor of Marketing at Bocconi University and SDABocconi School of Business in Milan, Italy. She is Co-Director of BocconiUniversity's Center of Researches on Markets and Industries. Her researchinterests focus on value creation and marketing communications in industrialmarkets. She has published on Harvard Business Review and the Journal ofBusiness Research.Golfetto, Francesca (2004). Fiere e Comunicazione: Strumenti per le Imprese e il

Representing markets: The shaping of fashion trends by French and Italian fabric companiesIntroductionTheoretical framework: representation in a postmodern worldMethodsBackground: innovation in the fabric for fine fashion clothingPremire Vision and the concertation mechanismThe history of Premire VisionThe concertation mechanism

DiscussionTrade fairs as journeys in hyperrealityConcertation as a progression of simulationsMarket theories and self-interested market theorists

ConclusionAcknowledgementsReferences