Gucci: How a Museum-Worthy Brand Ended Up Feeling Mall-Adjacent
Jeremy Merrell Williams
I Launch & Scale Premium Brands with a laser focus on Customer Acquisition and Brand Management. Luxury | Beauty | Fashion | Tech are our playground. Let’s elevate your vision. DM me. Let's go. ????
From Fashion’s Apex to Discount Rack Drama
Gucci is supposed to be that brand that makes you want to live larger than life, where everything is avant-garde, adventurous, and edgy. Alessandro Michele was the mad hatter behind that vision, serving up the Marmont bag, Princetown slippers, and the Dionysus bag that made every aspiring fashionista drool. Gucci was dripping with maximalist chic, leading the conversation around fashion. But like a pop song played one too many times, the hits lost their flavor. The designs became overexposed, the trends fizzled out, and suddenly, the brand was struggling to keep its groove.
Sales nosedived, especially in Asia, with a gut-punching 20% drop. For a brand that's supposed to be museum-worthy, Gucci looked more like a department store clearance section. This wasn’t just a Michele issue; it was a Kering issue. They were so focused on cashing in on the hype that they let Gucci become a slave to fast fashion, chasing trends rather than cementing timelessness.
When Kering’s Bets on Gucci Became a Gamble
Kering’s dependence on Gucci is the classic case of putting all your eggs in one high-fashion basket. Half of the conglomerate’s profits hinge on Gucci, which means if Gucci sneezes, Kering catches a cold. Compare this to LVMH, where Louis Vuitton makes up a chunk of their sales but isn’t the whole story. With that diversified portfolio, Bernard Arnault’s crew can weather market turbulence, unlike Kering.
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Francois-Henri Pinault likes to play it cool, giving his brands space to do their thing. But the downside of this laissez-faire attitude showed up when Balenciaga landed in hot water over a controversial ad campaign. While Arnault meticulously checks every single stitch in LVMH’s kingdom, Pinault’s more hands-off approach means his brands are left to their own devices. Plus, the Pinault family’s recent foray into Creative Artists Agency (CAA) feels like a distraction. Maybe they should've focused on steadying Gucci's ship first.
Sabato De Sarno’s Mandate: Save Gucci or Go Down Trying
After Michele dipped over creative differences, Sabato De Sarno slid into the creative director chair with a more understated vibe. His designs are a strategic shift from Michele’s technicolor dreamcoat maximalism. It’s part of Pinault’s grand plan to reimagine Gucci as a true luxury player, but this pivot feels like walking a tightrope over a pit of hungry influencers. Can De Sarno really reinvent Gucci’s aesthetic while keeping its hypebeasts satisfied?
This is where De Sarno has to thread the needle between exclusivity and accessibility, giving Gucci that timeless shine without losing its cutting-edge street cred. A more refined, polished image is great, but it can’t feel like it’s been sanitized of that bohemian cool that made the younger crowd obsess over it in the first place. Gucci’s playing a marathon game here, but if they don’t get this pivot right, the whole brand might stumble.
What Startups Can Learn from Gucci’s Glow-Up Gamble
Gucci’s journey is a masterclass in understanding the fine line between chasing trends and nurturing timelessness. For startups and small brands, blending hype with legacy is the secret sauce that can help you secure both a fervent fandom and sustained relevance in this ever-evolving fashion world.
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5 个月luxury fashion Hello, do you need logo designs for your luxury fashion business? you can check this? https://www.fiverr.com/s/kLLQQjw
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6 个月Well said! To add a little Gucci is not the only House to have made this passive mistake. In my opinion MCM has run its course. Once they started adding pink (please) and other colors it was Just Over! I’m not sure anyone can hold up to the timelessness of a Chanel, a Lady Dior, and maybe Louis Vuitton simply because they are almost indestructible. I could go on forever. Lol This was an amazing article! #JeremyMerrellWilliams #luxuryhandbags #guccivchanel
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6 个月For startups, the lesson is clear: stay true to your brand while evolving thoughtfully.#FashionBusiness #BrandStrategy Are you balancing hype with legacy in your business? #StartupLessons #Gucci #LuxuryFashion
Digital Marketing Specialist | Digital Marketing Certified | Social Media Marketing | Copywriting | Content Strategy | SEO | Leveraging online presence with tailor-made solutions.
6 个月Great advice!
I Am Not A Yes Woman. I Do Say Yes To New Opportunities.
6 个月To add, a lot of these so-called higher and brands underestimate social media. When you have people on TikTok and Instagram, making fun of runaway shows where the models are wearing hefty trash bags and passing them off as dresses and underwear. As a brand I would be afraid of that. I would be afraid that the statement I making is not interpreted correctly. As a brand I would want to know who is my audience now in 2024. And do they understand what we’re trying to portray. As a consumer, when I look at these social media clips that leave me in absolute stitches because people are in their kitchens and bathrooms, wearing brooms as sleeves and dust pans as hats, my interpretation of the brand message is we don’t care what we put out into the market. And we don’t care who buys it and who doesn’t. As a consumer, my interpretation of that brand is we have money to burn and waste and as a consumer you matter not. So their should be no surprise that Gucci is feeling like a mall-adjacent brand. They are out here, looking like fashion, nova, ugly stepchild.??