Gucci: Strategy Analysis

In 1980s, Gucci had lost its appeal and became a tacky brand and was also in deep financial crisis. But Tom Ford raised Gucci from dead and found out the company’s leading status and maintains

The case study Preserve the Luxury or Extend the Brand presents a fictional dilemma, based on a real company, faced by Chateau de Vallois, a prestigious and famous wine-producing estate in the Bordeaux region of France. De Vallois is a family owned and run business; part owners are Gaspard de Sauveterre - a 75-year old majority owner, and equal partial owners: Francois de Sauveterre – Gaspard’s son and the chateau’s CEO , and Claire de Valhubert – Garspard’s granddaughter. De Vallois had fallen into a slow decline under its previous owner, but Gaspard along with Jean-Paul Oudineaux, his estate manager, had restored the chateau and since then de Vallois had been steadily profitable

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

For 50 years, Ralph Lauren 's reputation and distinctive image have been consistently developed across an expanding number of products, brands and international markets. However, in 2015, they reported a 5.3% drop in revenue from June 2014 to June 2015 (O 'Brien, 2015), and since then, the shares began a downward trend.

As the brand name of Nike continue to soar, other companies in the industry; learning from the success Nike has experienced, start focusing more on brand development to keep up with the increasing levels of competition. These companies resort to brand maintenance, which has become the main target in this industry due to product differentiation made by Nike. Nike, being market-advantaged, produces an extensive range of products, through which it gains a balanced level of profits. This has influenced rival companies to initiate a new range of products in their businesses too. Previously these companies had high risks of failing in business, if their single products did not appeal to the market. Due to the impact of Nike’s business strategy, the other companies are also enlarging their product range,

We can also leverage the strength and popularity of the Gucci brand to gain distribution for the smaller names, much like how LVMH leveraged Louis Vuitton’s popularity. By holding off of new acquisitions, Gucci can learn to handle the four brands they currently have before adding extra brands.

Gucci utilizes the differentiation business strategy, as the brand itself promotes premium quality. They are known for their high end leather products and the red and green striped webbing with the GG logo. The company is in no way price-sensitive and caters to the affluent through customization, genuine leather, premium quality, and exceptional customer service. Gucci’s customer base is more than willing

The rapid success of Under Armour is not a mistake. The company dominates the performance apparel category. According to Founder Kevin Plank, “The mission of Under Armour is to make technically advanced products that are engineered with superior fabric construction, to provide proven innovation available to the masses-aimed at making athletes perform better” (UnderArmour.com). Under Armour uses many marketing initiatives including athlete endorsement, product placement, and popular culture which illustrates the success of Under Armour.

In the fashion industry, fashion brands are highly associated with branding, because of the intensive competitive fashion markets. Moreover, fashion brands are self-expressing to some extent (Carroll, 2008). Building creative brand image is important for the fashion brands. In addition, Carroll (2008) said that social responsibility and potential risks are the two aspects related to the fashion brands. Just as

Quick response of Zara leads it to be successful in the fashion clothing industry. Zara adopts international strategy for its operation. With vertical integration, it benefits Zara in cost aspect, however, it involves some risks. Due to our anaylysis on Zara’s operations, some of the recommendations are made to facilitate its further improvements.

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

The clothing brands, Gucci and BAPE, are two very well known brands. With both being heavy hitters in contemporary fashion industry due to endorsement and references from popular figures in modern media. They are both some of the most well established clothing brands with each having their own unique appeal given to them, with each respective brand having a significant impact in some way, shape, or form. Though the brands are very different in many ways they do have similarities; each brand has a history behind them, has an impact in the fashion industry, and shows your social status.

Her transformation of Burberry had become a text book example of how to transform a business that other luxury brands are sometimes said to be “doing a Burberry” (Financial Times 2004). In 2005 Angela Ahrendts, replaced Bravo as Chief Executive who made changes to Burberry product line by making checks more stable and by focusing more on higher-margin products like handbags and perfumes (Friedman 2011).

However, in Gucci marketing plan, there were many risks involved with the “star design strategy” as this marketing strategy definitely gives instant success by boosting sales and rebuilding the reputation main asset for luxury brands like Gucci, but the risk involved is high for the company to forecast the effect on the brand image in the absence of star-design.

This report examines the strategic management of the international iconic fashion company- Prada. In this report we conduct an analysis of the external and internal environments and identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the Prada. The key issues identified in the environment analysis is the Prada’s future market especially China. The report reviews the financial and non-financial objectives of the company’s strategies and their affects for the stakeholders. Prada is engaging in their attempts to achieve their objectives. The strategic