With a brand like Gucci, you have to give something that belongs to beautiful Italian culture in terms of craftsmanship and materials.
-Alessandro Michele
Gucci – the brand originating in Florence, Italy and founded in 1920 by Guccio Gucci. With the first store opening in 1921 on Via Vigna Nuova and then later on Via del Parione, The House of Gucci was born. Gucci specialised in leather and accessories, inspired by his days working within luxury hospitality at the Savoy, London. The first signature Gucci print is invented, using new imported materials as opposed to leather goods, as a result of political rifts in Italy.In 1930s An equestrian-inspired line launches with resounding success leading Guccio Gucci to create his unique horse bit icon. In 1951 Gucci’s son Rodolfo opens the first store in Milan, on Via Montenapoleone. The signature red and green becomes the hallmark colours of Gucci.
Gucci is the most successful company from Italy, and Italy’s biggest-selling clothing brand. The sales are made through 278 directly operated stores worldwide, several dozens of franchises, and upscale department stores.
Today In this blog I am going to talk about
1.Gucci’s Branding and Market Strategies
2.About the first Gucci Store
3.Top 6 Biggest stores of Gucci
4.Gucci’s First Concept Store
5.My experience at a Gucci store
Gucci’s Branding Strategies
Gucci, is regarded as the world’s biggest-selling and most recognizable Italian brand. Founded in 1921 in Florence by Guccio Gucci, the brand is widely known for its high-quality, luxury products, which include clothes, shoes, handbags, sunglasses and other accessories.
Creating products for women, men and children, Gucci is today considered a brand of luxury and innovation, rather than tradition or affordability and is today valued at $6.4 billion.
So here are a few Marketing Lessons from Gucci
Expand your Target Audience
Gucci’s primary target market has always been high income, high status, middle-aged businessmen and women. However in the late 1980s/early 1990s, the brand went on to incorporate a ‘trendy’ brand in addition to its more mature line, designed to appeal to a younger audience.
The purpose of the campaign was to reignite international interest in this brand and prevent it from becoming associated with one specific generation. As a result of the campaign, Gucci went on to accelerate its international appeal and reach out to an even wider audience. It is now regarded as a brand that has successfully matured with aristocratic lines – instead of becoming boring.
Care about your Customers
Today, Gucci operates in 450 stores across the globe including franchise stores, duty free boutiques, leading department stores and speciality stores. In addition to repositioning its brand to appeal to a wider audience, Gucci also tailored its lines of products to ensure they perfectly matched the tastes of their customers. To do this, the brand performed in-depth market research about its client base in order to establish their ambitions, tastes and needs. As such, they were able to create products that matched the exact needs of their clients.
Adopt a Range of Marketing Techniques
Gucci is also unafraid to embrace technological changes and has been seen across a range of marketing platforms including social media, online advertising, organic search engine and offline promotion. As any successful business will tell you, it has never been more important to keep up with the ever-changing marketing stratosphere while also remembering that traditional approaches remain effective.
Focus on Brand Positioning & Strategic Orientation
Gucci is also renowned for its very strong brand image that focuses on sophistication, high-class, high-quality and innovation. As a product leader, it is a strategically orientated brand that successfully appeals to its customers’ self-worth, prestige, status and image.
Code of Business Conduct
Finally, Gucci is committed to maintaining a consistent brand strategy that focuses on exclusivity, appeal, prestige and quality. Despite adopting modern marketing techniques such as social media marketing and online marketing, the brand still remains committed to its values.
Brand Gucci tends to cater to the high –end market and for this purpose; they have set up outlets that provide relaxing environment that create a responsive attachment between the customer and the brand. The services provided by the employees are outstanding and their channel of distribution is very selective making the customers feel special. All its stores are located in expensive and high profile street locations that are exclusive and distinguished. These whereabouts help in appealing the customers that belong to the elite group. The décor of every outlet is unique with classic tastes, the interiors are visually appealing, and henceit helps in creating a comfortable atmosphere. The displays on the windows are very provocative and the sales persons are dressed smartly in all black. The consumers are able to browse in these stores at their leisure in comforting and professional settings.
Now let’s move to the First ever Gucci Store
Patterns is a word used as much in descriptions of fashion as those of life. All lives, upon reflection, fall into certain patterns—their inexplicable recurrence begins to form a life story, an identity. Gucci, the Florentine brand launched as a store of fine leather goods in 1921 by Guccio Gucci, has had a century-old pattern of enviable success followed by crisis after crisis. Infamy due to family disputes in the 1980s and early 1990s, a sell-out to non-family owners, followed by blazing fame during designer Tom Ford’s reign as creative director from 1994-2004, then the high-profile exits of its top brass, followed by creative and commercial resurrections.
Taking reference from the pictures and according to my Observation it was pretty clear that the facade consisted of the Name of the Brand.It was a closed single Window Display which had one of the unique shoes and bags made by Gucci himself. My observations were on the basis of the few pictures I got access to.
Top 6 Gucci Store In The World
1. New York, the US
The ultimate winner and architectural wonder in the heart of Manhattan, Gucci’s flagship store is a global shopping destination. This store spreads on incredible 46,000 square feet; a three store complex of luxurious and spacious shopping paradise. As a leading retail location in New York, this gigantic shop is the Biggest Gucci Store in the World.Designed in the distinctive Gucci style, that represents simplicity and luxury at the same time, this store is a fantastic place to visit in New York even if you’re not into shopping. Private areas, huge jewelry store on the top, and separate entrances to the certain sections of the store are some of the qualities worth mentioning.
2. Tokyo, Japan
This store was the first case when Gucci took over an entire building for the project creating the flagship store. It happened in the exclusive shopping district in Tokyo, one of the expensive locations in the city. Like in the other Gucci stores, the glass and natural materials shine brightly in contrast to bronze and dominant brown colors. The premium design spreads through the 8 floors, with each one being stylized differently, but in the Gucci’s characteristically luxurious environment. Elements like light rosewood, mohair upholstery, taupe marble as well as a thick-pile carpet contribute to the surrounding. Browsing the newest collections from Gucci has never been so comfortable and premium; almost 40,000 square feet of space is used to make this most prestigious store in the entire Tokyo.
3. Seoul, South Korea
Gold tubes and glass construction is just the beginning; interior side is where Gucci’s flagship store in Seoul shines even more. The flagship store in Seoul is massive; 32291 square feet of Gucci’s complex showcases pure luxurious style, magnificent design, and premium quality. The brand was on the rise in the Asian market in recent years, and this store was among the biggest contributors to the fact. The prestigious store is always busy; people from all over the world visit this store; every 9 seconds one sale happens. Warm luxurious materials and natural light are different from traditional organized fashion retail spaces, resulting in diverse and sales-driven successful ambient.
4. Milan, Italy
Milan is a fashion capital of the world; the world famous Fashion Week happens twice a year in Milan, housing every recognizable name in the world of fashion. Gucci is among the most represented and talked about brands on the Fashion Week. New Gucci Boutique in Via Monte Napoleone Street, the center of fashion in Milan, spans on 17222 square feet. The impressive shop is designed by the best of the best architects. Everything you might imagine from Gucci brand can be found here. Frida Giannini, the creative director of Gucci, is in charge of arrangement and avant-garde design of the store.
5. Moscow, Russia
Gucci expanded its influence in Russia recently, and they did it with style. The prestigious Petrovka Street in Moscow’s historic city center got its biggest Gucci store in 2014. Marble elements were used the most in designing and building the structure. Interior was designed by several top-notch interior designers, using a smoked mirror and bronze glass, reminiscent of the Art Deco era. Over 10760 square feet is the official interior area of Gucci’s flagship store in Moscow, where you can shop featured products from Gucci product lines. Both men and women fashion is covered, including complete collections “from head to toe” and lovely children’s collection
6. Gurgaon, India
This is recently opened mega-store, in the satellite city of Gurgaon, outside the capital of New Delhi. The massive store covers 4,220 feet, with collections for both men and women. People can find exclusive bags, shoes, belts, and wallets for a competitive price here, and admire the ambient of the mega-store. A grand exhibition was held during opening, showcasing iconic Gucci pieces worn by many celebrities; the scarf worn by Grace Kelly, dresses worn by Salma Hayek and Jessica Alba, and accessories worn by famous Indian actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan
GUCCI’S FIRST CONCEPT STORE
The vintage aspect of Gucci’s newest New York outpost stays loyal to the cast-iron architecture that characterizes Soho while the interior decorations pay tribute to creative director Alessandro Michele’s widely popular designs. The main change, however, is in the store operations. Gucci seeks to eliminate the cold undertones of its usual store by removing the security guards and the quiet sections for storing expensive jewellery. In its place is a cast of ambassadors trained to tell the Gucci story, thus, bridging the distance between the consumers and the brand. The new Soho store spans across nearly 10,000 square feet furnished with sofas for a homely touch to the original brickwork, wooden floors and tin ceiling. From Sneakers to dresses, the merchandise harmonizes democratically along with Alessandro Michele’s aesthetic for the store, promising to provide each customer with a unique shopping experience. A nod to the house practice of blending traditional with modern, Gucci Wooster debuts a 3D display installation playing host to creatives and film screening, immersing customers to the realm of Gucci. With the steep growth of E-commerce sites like Net-a-Porter and Farfetch driving almost 85 percent of luxury sales last year, it is apparent that Michele is taking an experiential spin on this retail store to give customers a reason to shop in-store rather than shopping online. The challenge now is to keep up with this passion project.
Gucci’s introduction to “experiential” retail is no panacea. With many other brands experimenting with innovative store concepts, Chief Executive Marco Bizzarri hints that the only breakthrough would be to create meaningful moments with the customers, where customers are encouraged to handle merchandise freely and enjoy themselves, even if they are not buying anything.
My Experience At A Gucci Store
So just this Summer Break I went to Mumbai with my family. Me and my mom happened to visit Gucci store we had the lovely Team at Gucci walk us through the interiors. The store with its central location is sure to attract a lot of people especially aspiration buyers and lead to impulse buys from those of us who visit Palladium regularly.As soon as you enter the first thing you notice is the Façade which was all gold and as they say “Gold is the magic word”. It was an open Window display with one of the most amazing bags and shoes kept with yellow spotlights on them. As soon as we entered I could notice a few elements like Balance and rhythm in the store. The store gave very high end Vibes. The window display was enough to attract my mom to enter the store. The different departments made it easy for us to shop. The team Gucci was there to assist us every time and the collection and display was so engaging that we ended up buying something instead of just coming out like that. The overall ambience was amazing. It was well organized and balanced. There was a section where I noticed colour blocking as in there were a few belts hanging and all were light pastel nudes and beige with a bright red in between.Gucci is one of the most fascinating stores I’ve even been to.
Thankyou.
Jitika Gauba 