Apparel Marketing: Gucci How to Save Brands

Gucci, the legendary brand of Florence, Italy, is known for its fashion and expensive clothes, and it once fell into a trough. In the seventies and eighties of the 20th century, due to improper management, Gucci brand lost its former glory, often appearing in many waste products, and even appeared in the market "Gucci" brand toilet paper, although most of this situation was not authorized by the company. After experiencing what may be the biggest salvation effort of all time, Gucci regained its leading position and respected status. Now, this brand is still adored by fashionable people.

Lack of management of the decline in brand value

In 1921, Guccio Gucci, who had witnessed in the first half of the century the transition to social life in London, opened his own leather factory in Florence, hometown. This factory has produced and sold suitcases, handbags, harnesses and other products before and after the factory, and its scale has gradually expanded due to the high quality of the products. Gucci thinks that if his product can establish a high-end consumer goods image, the company may be able to benefit more from it. So he carefully designed the factory's business plan. In 1937, Gucci opened a larger processing plant on the banks of the Arno River in central Italy. At this time, Gucci's products have adopted a unified trademark - a pattern that incorporates horses, horse bits and stirrups. A year later, Gucci opened a store in Rome and began to promote his products in the bustling areas of the city.

After Mussolini came to power, Italy was involved in the war, and Guqiao did not stop the factory. On the contrary, he let his sons - Aldo, Vasco, Hugo and Rudolph - start intervening in the company. Operating. After the war, Italian-style fashion items became popular all over the world, and Gucci also produced a number of classic products, such as bamboo bags, etc. These products were favored by stars such as Grace Kelly.

During this period, Rudolph opened his own store in Milan. In 1953, one year after Guccio's death, Rudolph opened another new store in Manhattan. During this period, the company replaced the trademark with a closed capital G with red and green trim. The choice of red and green is because these two colors are just the main colors on the Italian flag, and the company deliberately highlights the brand features made in Italy. In the 1960s, Gucci Group's expansion speed was just as rapid as that of the popular jet aircraft. Its branches opened in London, Paris, Chicago, Tokyo and Hong Kong, and they spread all over the world, and their followers became more and more famous. Including Elizabeth Taylor, Maria Callas, Audrey Hepburn and other superstars.

But in the 1970s, as Rudolph and Aldo competed for control over the business, the Gucci brand began to decline. Many unscrupulous franchise agreements and brand expansion plans pushed Gucci into the mass market and even appeared. In stalls on street vendors.

In the ensuing time, the main energy of the third-generation descendant of the Gucci family, Maurizio, was put on the outside of the company. Soler, then president of the Gucci Group, took the opportunity to bring the Gucci USA branch and others. Local business gradually streamlined. Those terrible licensing agreements have been discontinued and anti-piracy operations that have been ongoing have been gradually upgraded. The steady rise in sales and profits of the company was mainly attributable to the increase in sales in Japan and the countries around the Pacific Rim. The upstarts in these areas are very popular with European luxury goods.

Although Soller’s success at that time could not be compared with his subsequent achievements, it is undoubtedly a great attraction for market players who are seeking to invest in undervalued brands at that time. In 1987, Investcorp, a pro-Arab Arab-backed company, acquired 50% of Gucci’s shares from Ador and his family. However, this respected and well-funded group did not immediately allow Gucci to embark on the road to career development.

In fiscal year 1993, Gucci Group suffered a loss of US$32.3 million. In the second year, the company continued to lose money, creditors flocked and employees’ salaries were owed. "In 1993, the company was almost bankrupt. Investcorp was almost desperate, but it was suffering from the incompetence. They had to acquire the full amount of Gucci shares held by Maurizio," Soller said.

Investcorp’s takeover action resulted in the acquisition of all the previously uncontrolled shares. After that, it began to persuade Soller to leave New York to serve as the company’s chief operating officer at Gucci’s headquarters in Florence. Soller said: "They let me go to serve ... and said to me: Although you are a U.S. citizen, you are born in Italy after all. Why don't you want to go back to the motherland and see if there is any development? So, I will When I came to Italy, the company was in a mess. There was a lot of internal turmoil in the company, but everyone seemed to come back. I knew all these things and I knew this company very well. After all, I have been working here for many years. So I clearly know that How to deal with this situation."

Soon after, the company appointed a new CEO: Tom Ford, the Texas designer, who has worked for Gucci since 1990. Since then, Ford has begun to lead the world's most famous brand, to rejuvenate.