Additive manufacturing in premium brands: The potential for competitive differentiation and strategic marketing management

Although additive manufacturing technologies have attracted considerable attention within the broader Industry 4.0 ecosystem, existing literature predominantly examines them through operational and engineering-oriented perspectives, leaving their strategic marketing implications comparatively underexplored. This study addresses that gap by examining how additive manufacturing technologies are integrated into competitive differentiation and strategic positioning processes within premium industries. A qualitative multiple case study design was adopted, and corporate and independent industry documents related to Porsche, Bugatti, and Chanel were analyzed through thematic coding interpreted within the VRIO framework. The findings indicate that additive manufacturing contributes to differentiation-oriented positioning through personalization, engineering prestige, aesthetic innovation, and agile value creation, whereas sustainability-related narratives remain largely aspirational rather than empirically substantiated in the analyzed materials. Strategic significance does not emerge from technological infrastructure alone, but from how firms organizationally embed these capabilities within broader branding and value creation systems. The study contributes a conceptual framework explaining how digitally integrated production technologies may support competitive differentiation within premium market environments.