Gucci Executive Summary

Gucci is one of the most powerful leaders in luxury fashion market. Gucci is founded by Guccio Gucci in 1921 in Florence, Italy. Now, Gucci is the part of Gucci Group and Pinault Printemps Recloute (PPR). The globalization of the fashion environment and boost in the western economies transform Gucci from a small Italian company in to large luxury fashion brand in global level.

Regarding elements of integrated strengths, brand logo and corporate colours are highly integrated across different channels. What’s more, message strategies and common image are integrated well which showing the same brand image to consumers. In media aspect, TV, print and internet are showing the consistency brand image. However, tagline is the weakest factor which is not coordinated in different channel and lack of effective. Furthermore, direct mail sometimes delivers wrong product messages to different target segments. Last but not least, Bonds did not pay enough attention on product packages and rarely use package to deliver message.

Gucci, a brand known for its quality, luxurious and royal association was confronted with strategic issues which made the company take notice of its strategy of expansion and brand personality. The company was not only having concerns with their product line but they were lacking unified corporate vision and strategy after its acquisition of some major names like YSL. Due to which they started having loophole in their luxurious goods market discipline. Strategic concern for the company was how does the brand image cascade down in the target market and how does it rejuvenate itself is a management lesson.

Gucci was founded in 1921 by Guccio Gucci. In 1938, Gucci expanded and a boutique was opened in Rome. Guccio was responsible for designing many of the company's products. In 1947, Gucci introduced the Bamboo handle handbag, which is still a company mainstay. During the 1950s, Gucci also developed the trademark striped webbing, which was derived from the saddle girth, and the suede moccasin with a metal horsebit. The Gucci group really said it all, Tom Ford, creative director and Domenico de sole, president and CEO, stood side by side facing the camera with eyes of steel. These two men had, in the first six months of 1999, been the centerpiece of one of most higly contested hostile takeover battles ever seen on the Europian

Most luxury brands have been family-owned or -controlled and, consequently, were single-brand firms for the most part. However, mergers and acquisitions have been growing in the industry, with LVMH leading the way. Our strategic recommendation is to follow LVMH’s lead and acquire a multitude of diverse companies to build the Gucci portfolio.

LVMH, known as Moët Hennessy • Louis Vuitton, is a French conglomerate and the largest producer of luxury goods in the world. LVMH was formed in 1987 with the merger of Moet et Chandon a champagne manufacturer, Hennessy a cognac manufacturer, and Louis Vuitton a fashion house.

Gucci is a luxury brand made in Florence, Italy in 1921 by Guccio Gucci. These luxury brands consist of fashion and leather goods. The company first started out as a family business. It was Gucci and his two sons who expanded the business and opened it as a company. The first store was opened in Rome and opened in 1938. The second store was opened in Milan and opened in 1951. In the beginning, most of the company’s customers were horseback riders, which is how the company came up with its signature logo. Gucci has become more innovational over the years with their products. Gucci is known for their handbags, women’s and men’s shoes, dress shirts, wallets, belts, fragrances, briefcases and accessories. Today, Gucci operates in about 550 stores and in over more than 30 countries.

Louis Vuitton is considered under the luxury goods industry. The luxury goods industry is a high profitable industry with low outside threat. There are only few large players in the industry and they server to the wealthiest people in the world. The luxury companies have high power to control the price so they have ability to grow sustainably.

Gucci is a well known, international luxury fashion brand which is easily recognizable with its famous icons such as the double G logo, horsebit and the red & green stripes (web) especially after Guccio’s sons succeeded in promoting the brand as luxury which attracted many rich customers. ( https://www.pearson.pl/wrap.php?data=files/sample_pages/INTELLIGENT%20BUSINESS/9780582848092.pdf )
Many of Guccio’s clients were horse-riding aristocrats, and their demand for riding gear led Gucci to develop its unique Horsebit icon which soon became the symbol of the fashion house.
In the mid-60s, Gucci adopted the legendary interlocking double G logo which was Aldo Gucci’s idea representing the initials of his father’s

Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy, a luxury goods provider is looking to expand their brand dominance in Asia. In order to expand successfully LVMH must evaluate challenges that may arise and get in the way of their successful expansion. In the Asian market, LVMH must deal with political and cultural uncertainties, the threat of counterfeit products, and the increased cost of products in Asia compared to France.

LVMH’s brand portfolio is a catalogue of the finest things money can buy. Arnault said, “A Star brand is timeless, modern, fast growing and highly profitable.”[iii] LVMH has positioned its brands strongly in the luxury segment offering more than 50 different brands under their five core competencies. LVMH has been successful through all of their various brands in their portfolio giving them each their independence and creativity. “LVMH is well known for leaving much operational and marketing freedom to the various brands it owns.”[iv] “LVMH has done an excellent job of brand positioning, says Ben Cavender, senior analyst at China Market Research Group. It has succeeded in securing the particularly enviable position of gaining a following among the top percentage of China’s wealthy. As the financial crisis stretches on, LVMH customers in China still have money to spend.[v] “LVMH’s brand imaging, which relies heavily on pushing its European heritage, is so successful that it has benefited other brands by proxy, says Paul French, one of the founders of Access Asia, a group dedicated to tracking regional consumer and marketing trends. “Everyone hangs on the coattails of Louis Vuitton’s brand imaging in China.”[vi]

In the cases analyzed, we might infer that during a period of economic difficulties companies had gone through deep discontinuity. As such, this determined the need for a turnaround to realign the companies’ strategies with the external and internal environment. These changes impacted the four companies analyzed previously.

Moët Hennessy • Louis Vuitton (LVMH) is a luxury goods conglomerate based in France. Bernard Arnault is the chairman and CEO. LVMH was formed in 1987 with the merger of Moët Hennessy and Louis Vuitton thus becoming the world leader of luxury products. LVMH is the only group present in all five major sectors of the luxury market – Wine and Spirits, Fashion and Leather Goods, Perfumes and Cosmetics, Watching and Jewelry, and Selective Retailing – with 70 distinguished houses total. They own 15 fashion & leather goods houses, 24 wine & spirit houses, 10 perfumes & cosmetics houses, 7 watches & jewelry houses, and 6 houses in selective retailing. LVMH is one of six companies that own over forty fashion brands. In 1999 LVMH started the watches and jewelry division of the brand. Additionally opening a New York headquarters around this same time. In 2000 the London based house opened and it was used as training center for group leaders. In July 2015 Jean Claude Biver, president of the watches division, stated the LVMH plans to launch watch to rival the Apple watch.

Modern marketing management works hard to resolve the common problems of consumption of products. The study of consumer behavior is therefore very significant in marketing in ensuring survivability of the firm. There is a lot of rivalry in every industry, and the company needs to be very innovative and recognize the latest tastes and the need for the consumers. The information gained in studying consumer behavior can be extremely crucial in helping to exploit the available market opportunities. This report analyzes the consumer behavior using two fashion apparel brands, Gucci and Gap. Gucci and Gap are international companies with their bases in different countries and continents. They have both been ranked in Forbes Global 2000 list of largest companies worldwide. The market segment of the two companies is different with Gucci targeting the wealthy folks (including children, youth and old people) and Gap targeting twenty-five to thirty-five middle-class consumer. Due to the difference in the nature of the products sold by the two brands, their consumers portray different kind of behavior. These different behaviors provide the fantastic scenario to analyze and understand consumer behavior.

Brand community is a customer-customer-brand triad. It reflects on a collection of brand-centric social group