Case Study : The Competitive Strategy Of Gucci

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.

One of the most successful clothing brands in the world, Polo Ralph Lauren has built its success around more than just its line of luxurious designer clothes, but the company is one of the top marketing designers also. It was awarded “ Luxury Brand of the Year” in 2010 by the Luxury Daily. A company that was founded by a man named Ralph Lifchitz, better known as Ralph Lauren of the Bronx, New York in 1968. Since the age of 12, Lauren’s had a strong appeal and taste for looking classy. He would spend the money he earned working with his father after school, purchasing expensive suites. In his latter years, while working for a company called A. Rivetz & Co., Lauren began designing wide ties, the beginning of what latter evolved into the

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.

The differentiation strategy aims at creating a service that is unique. The key is to be viewed as valuable by the customer. According to Porter corporations should not focus their corporate energy into being better than their competitors, instead, try to be different. Benchmarking the competitor can result in what Porter describes as the competitive convergence, where, to the customer, everyone looks like everyone else. For”Broadway’s Café” to stay competitive in 21st century their strategy should be about performing different activities from rivals or similar activities differently.

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

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.

In Marco Gianni Shoes’ case, basically, the owners did not have any marketing strategy. Because in order to create a marketing strategy, there are four necessary aspects that must be considered.

Similarly, both companies had a product differentiation strategy, with the aim of being distinctly set apart from their competitors by the viewing market. However, different elements of this strategy were focused on by the firms. For instance,

The Burberry brand founded in 1856 was a well-established luxury brand by 1920. Its iconic-checkered pattern was worn by celebrities, politicians and royalty. Along with being associated to quality and luxury, Burberry was also known for its durability, allowing it to maintain a niche within the luxury-clothing market. After being acquired by the great universal stores the Burberry brand was heavily licensed with little control maintained over its licensing terms. The lack of control over brand quality and distribution resulted in inconsistent quality and brand association, diluting both the brand name, value proposition, as well as its reputation.

Gucci, an Italian fashion business, has gained a luxurious reputation over the years. The firm was first created in 1947, becoming later one of the strongest fashion worldwide companies. The brand’s style is fine and peculiar and subtle. In March 2017, The company launched #TFWGucci campaign with the purpose to engage more with the audience and at the same time to promote the newest version of watches just been released. Alessandro Michele was under the direction of the creative thinking in the called “meme project”. His main focus was to relate the Internet culture of the day with the product and great value that anxiously Gucci had to offer.

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.

One of the most successful Italian fashion and leather brand, Gucci belongs to French Company Kering and is named after its founder Guccio Gucci. Founded in Florence in 1921, Gucci has since then shot up to fame owing to its high-end luxury fashion and leather products. It operates through directly operated stores across the world and also the products are wholesaled through franchise or upscale departmental stores. The number of directly operated stores is more than 450 and the company was able to generate revenue of over $4.5 billion in sales in 2013. The brand itself is valued at over $12 billion USD (Alice Chan, 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.

Luxury industry has always been the core aspect of a project that usually goes beyond production of just clothes or foot-wear. Luxury bags industry has also been ventured into though with some weaknesses, opportunities, strengths and threats just like any other fashion and luxury industry on the ‘trendiness’ dimension. The business had created its reputation on definitive designs in elegant styles, since its main customers are older women who approve of quality over fashion. From when it was first found, Coach’s business strategy on product is centered towards production of timeless, classic pieces. The argument in support of this

For Gucci itself, they are now focusing more on customers’ ages between 20 and 40. They have been changing from Timeless Design to more fashionable design as their customers are likely to change their models every season.