Brand analysis of Gucci: the brand’s positioning, audience, current product trends, and challenges
Gucci identifies itself as a luxury fashion brand producing clothes, footwear, and accessories. Although it already has an established image of a high-end fashion brand, the company continues to change, experiment, and bring new styles and combinations of influences to its products. The brand claims its “culture of creativity and innovation” (“Letter to Shareholders” 2) to be one of their fundamental characteristics. Other aspects of the brand listed in the self-description are that it is “eclectic, contemporary, [and] romantic” (“About Gucci” par. 1). An important component of the brand’s positioning is its association with celebrities who wear Gucci clothes to publicity events as well as in their everyday lives.
Although Gucci has recently undertaken several campaigns aimed at young people (Ali par. 1), its target audience is rather defined by income than by any other criteria like age, gender, or marital status. Since the brand does not provide any discounts to its customers, it can be concluded that the target audience consists of high-income individuals who do not need financial incentives. An important aspect of Gucci’s marketing is helping the brand’s customers demonstrate their high social status, as well as express their individuality. That is why Gucci attracts many celebrities to advertising the brand’s merchandise.
The style of the recent Gucci collection is described by critics as a combination of classic Italian art, street culture of the 1970s and 1980s, and French couture (Mower par. 1). Fall-winter items are colorful, eclectic, vintage, and informal. The mixture of chic and rebellious themes is to appeal to younger people.
The main challenge that can be recognized is the current economic situation that creates difficulties for all luxury brands. Also, there are modern-day social trends that are threats to the popularity of Gucci. Since its establishment, the brand has been associated with leather products. In recent collections, fur, ivory, and other animal products were used. With the growing social opposition to the use of such materials in fashion, Gucci may experience a decrease in the customer pool.
Recommendations
Within past year, Gucci has been successful both financially and in terms of branding and communications. Among all the brands that are part of Kering, Gucci not only gained the largest profit, but also grew in terms of financial performance compared to previous years much more than it had been predicted by critics (Thompson par. 3). However, there are always opportunities for growth, development, and improvement. Based on the analysis of merchandise and marketing, three major recommendations can be offered to Gucci: to continue the innovative strategy, to promote the image as a responsible business, and to widen the distribution channels.
First of all, Gucci would benefit from further creative innovation. It should be recognized that the recent success of Gucci, which critics responded to stating that Gucci was “cool again” (Brinded par. 1), was due to the appointment of Alessandro Michele as the Creative Director. Michele adopted new themes and styles to the collections he created for Gucci, which reignited the consumers’ interest and made the fashion designer an influential figure. If a company has a business model that is developed well enough to benefit from innovation, the company should further support innovative initiatives (Teece 191). Therefore, Gucci should not concentrate on its achievements and established styles but focus on further creative experiments as they prove to promote the brand.
Second, the company should invest in maintaining and developing the reputation of a responsible business. As the present-day economic situation may reduce the customer pool for luxury brands, Gucci should be interested in attracting new audiences. A way to do so is to promote the image of a company that cares about its customers, society, and the environment. Within recent years, Gucci has been involved in different kinds of charity, as well as increasing environmental friendliness of their manufacturing. Such activities, as well as corporate social responsibility efforts, should not only gain loyalty in existing customers but also attract new ones.
Finally, Gucci can benefit significantly from developing its existing distribution channels and creating new ones. One of the key existing distribution channels of Gucci are directly operated stores, which represent an appropriate and beneficial distribution model for a luxury brand, but can also be regarded as not flexible enough. In the modern world, a business should pay attention to online purchasing opportunities. Not in every country where Gucci merchandise is distributed, online shopping for it is available. Gucci should try to fix it without damaging its reputation of a high-end brand, which means preserving its image of not being available to everyone.
Based on the analysis of history, marketing, performance, and strategies of Gucci, it can be recommended that the company continues its successful creative innovations, builds a favorable image of responsibility, and explores broader distribution opportunities. These recommendations pursue maintaining the positive response from critics, creating stronger connections with established customers, attracting new customers, promoting a positive image, and increasing availability. Achieving these objectives will translate into higher sales and higher profit.
Works Cited
About Gucci2016. Web.
Ali, Sanzida. Gucci Consumer Targeting. n.d. Web.
Brinded, Lianna. “Gucci Is Cool Again.”Business Insider. 2016. Web.
Letter to Shareholders 2016. Web.
Mower, Sarah. “Fall 2016 Ready-to-Wear: Gucci.”Vogue. 2016. Web.
Teece, David J. “Business Models, Business Strategy and Innovation.” Long Range Planning 43.2 (2010): 172-194. Print.
Thompson, Adam. “Kering Sales Jump as Gucci Brand Shines.”Financial Times. 2016. Web.