Contemporary issues in branding

Résumé du document

This paper will first analyze the Giorgio Armani brands in relation to contemporary branding theories and models and secondly consider the future for the Armani brand focusing on the potential areas for development over the next 5-10 years. Since 1979, Armani has designed and developed many sub-brands in clothing including Emporio Armani, Armani Collezioni, Armani Juniors, and Armani Jeans. It also has extended its brand to different product categories including accessories, watches, glasses, cosmetics, fragrances, jewellery, cakes and flowers… Armani has also extended its operations into different services for example the Armani hotel resorts and cafés, which has enabled diversification and expansion into different market segments.

The Italian fashion house has become one of the strongest and most respected luxury brands in the world with a value of around 3 billion Euros. Today, Armani employs 5000 workers in 13 factories located in 5 continents and 500 stores in 46 countries.
The Armani brand stands for superior design and “haute couture” in luxury products worldwide. Giorgio Armani understands what is needed to create an elegant and desirable product: “To create something exceptional, your mind-set must be relentlessly focused on the smallest detail”. Giorgio Armani has been one of the most influential stylists of the last years, breaking the boundaries of masculine and feminine by creating neutral style. The Armani brand reflects the unique personality and image of Giorgio Armani himself; he is the only shareholder of the company. Its success has therefore been largely due to the talent, effort and initiative of its creator.

Extraits

[...] T. Montaner and José M. Pina Extending the brand: controllable drivers of feedback effects, Journal of Product & Brand Management. Emerald Group Publishing Limited. The Economist Should luxury-goods firms go into the hotel business? Milan: From the print edition [online], February 26th 2004. Available http://www.economist.com/node/2461859>. Accessed November 25th U. Okonkwo Luxury fashion branding: trends, tactics, techniques, 1st Edition. [...]

[...] Analysing the brand identity and strategy has shown how Giorgio Armani has managed to build a strong brand based on his personality and how he has been able to gain increased and sustained profits from extensions, diversification and brand equity. As a global brand and having outstanding strategies, his future developments into growing markets are promising. As Giorgio says: world is changing and so is fashion”. In the future, Giorgio Armani should be cautious regarding the chosen successor and when extending his brands. [...]

[...] The following model describes the brand architecture of Armani. Throughout this model we can see that Armani operates in many different market segments which cater for specific needs. However, some consumers could misunderstand the architecture because the differences between brands aren't always clear. For example, the difference between Giorgio Armani and Armani Private is not easily apparent, both are expensive and “haute couture”. This point is very important; indeed the customer really needs to understand the differences between the brands not to get confused and clear on which Armani brand he is wearing and why. [...]

[...] In this festival, Armani put together an exhibition based on water. This was a well oriented strategy from the designer because most of his collections take their roots from the theme of water (Acqua Di Gio ) As we saw previously with Samsung, Mercedes and Reebok, Giorgio has used co-branding to build up his strategy of extension to provide a competitive advantage. According to Uché Okonkwo (2007), co-branding is a new approach which illustrates the departure of luxury brands from the core single-brand strategy. [...]

[...] ACNielsen Breaking news, Giorgio Armani and Gucci the “world's most coveted” fashion brands: ACNielsen [pdf]. Available at: . Accessed in December. Adidas group Giorgio Armani S.p.A. and Reebok International Ltd. announce new global alliance, Milan - January [online] Available at Alessandra Galloni and Christina Passariello Armani's one-man brand: Designer ponders future of empire. The Wall Street Journal [online], Tuesday, April Available at: Accessed end of November Bang Media Giorgio Armani says genius won't take over label. Sundaily [online], 7th of December. [...]