BOC Brands: Gucci

www.guardian.co.uk

The retail field is an ultra competitive field in which it is estimated that over 40,000 products and brands are created every year. There  are situations where luxury brands fall out of favor with consumers due to over-saturation, bad designs, and bad quality. Life cycles for luxury brand can include consistent success, loss of luxury status, going out of business, and then there is the story of Gucci. The luxury brand Gucci experienced success for many decades but eventually lost its luster due to a combination of several factors. The wealthy consumer was no longer purchasing Gucci even though the quality was never in question, and designs were not ridiculously off of what was trending at the time.  The luxury brand reached a point in which many industry professionals predicted the company would go out of business. Under the direction of Tom Ford, the company adopted a new philosophy.  Gucci believed that "in the luxury industry depends on defining a meaning for a brand that can make owning a piece of it feel unique and valuable" (The story of Gucci, Jess Cartner Morley). Under the former management of Tom Ford and current creative director Frida Giannini, the company has been revitalized and has continued to see growth and increased market share. The company has been reborn and now connects to a slightly  younger consumer segment. The problem with the company is that the designs were not what consumers wanted. With the loss of Tom Ford, the company lost a bit of fashion innovation but they have not lost their creative vision. Recently Gucci designs have been a tribute to their former success and to their customers. "Gucci lovers will vote en masse for this collection — an ode to power women not executed with such vigor since the 1980s, but with a 21st-century focus on craft and embellishment" (Gucci Votes for a Power Woman, Suzy Menkes). The style of their new fashions have continued to develop a connection with consumers. The current designs have been so popular that a famous writer has come out and admitted to an addiction to the brand. "This winter I took a tour of Milan's Fashion Week (all expenses paid by Gucci, in appreciation of my many, many purchases), where I spent tens of thousands more and began to seriously grapple, once and for all, with a compulsion that could cost me more than just my life savings" (My Gucci Addiction, Buzz Bissinger). The rave reviews for the company continue to flow with no sign of slowing down.  The recent show "was an orgy of gorgeousness, inspired by the refined elegance of the palazzo principessas in Gucci’s heyday" (Gucci's Orgy of Gorgeousness, Suzy Menkes). "The evening clothes were offered as full-on sexy, with a touch of the femme fatale film star in the embellished gowns, again cut away at the chest — a vote for a woman’s right to display her charms" (Gucci Votes for a Power Woman, Suzy Menkes).