Giorgio Armani Brand - Essay Example

 Introduction Giorgio Armani was started in 1975. The designer developed apparel and clothing with a sense of beauty, aesthetics, and luxury – which impressed the elite group, royal families, Hollywood stars and highly influential women. For more than 30 years, the Giorgio Armani brand has remained successful (Armani 2011). Sub-brands have been developed under the umbrella brand, with the intention to cater for the different needs of their target market sentiments. Through the strategy, the brand has grown to become one among the strongest luxury-fashion brands of the world. The brand’s marketing strategy has been effective, as it has been marketed to emerging markets like China, where there is a strong uptake for premium, luxury fashion products. This paper will discuss the brand architecture of Giorgio Armani, and present a brand extension model (Armani 2011). Detailed findings SWOT Analysis for Giorgio Armani Strengths The brand’s personality-based and uniquely designed products, which are among the best, globally The brand’s unique design, which helps differentiate it from competitors The characteristic feature of the clothes and apparel, which are hand stitched compared to the ordinary machine-stitched products The brand’s presence among international sports players and teams These areas identify the policies and the formulas employed for the brand which gives it an edge in brand positioning and recognition. Giorgio Armani has a ready-to-wear and a couture line, which increases their presence among average income consumers (Profit Magazin 2008). Weaknesses of Brand PETA activists do not support the outlook of the brand, which resulted in the development of a negative image The brand’s limited global market presence, compared to other global apparel brands Opportunity of Brand The brand’s coverage can be extended to cover the bottom of the market pyramid A larger part of the workforce is young, which increases their capacity to explore and design attractive and powerful products The brand’s ability to expand globally and to penetrate through tie-ups and the launch of new brand stores globally Threats The brand’s dominant coverage of a small upper-premium class market segment The brands slow uptake in picking up on life style brand The brand’s duplicity: fake products of the brand are traded at very low prices, in the lower market segments Giorgio Armani’s brand position Unlike the usual branding processes employed by entrepreneurs in the consumer products industry, the fashion and luxury branding of Giorgio Armani is highly personality-based and unique. The designs of the brand are founded on the founder’s personality. This is evident from the critical role of design in the fashion and luxury apparel positioning of the brand. The personal style of Giorgio Armani is crucial in the development and the marketing of the brand. The designer’s style is grounded on product differentiation, which is communicated in a tangible and visual manner (Profit Magazine 2008; Galloni 2012). Through this strategy, and brand positioning outlook, the brand has cultivated a sense of luxury, beauty and aesthetics. These brand values appeal to the elite and prominent personalities. The brand has a number of sub brands under the umbrella of Giorgio Armani, which were launched to cater for the differentiated needs of the market segments covered by the brand. The sub-brands include Armani Collezioni, Emporio Armani, Armani Exchange and Armani Jeans among others (CNN 2006). Brand’s Target Audience The target audience of the Giorgio Armani brand includes men and women. The products offered within the different lines for men include shoes, clothes, watches, eyewear, fragrances and home furnishings. The products offered to female consumers include shoes, clothing, bags, eyewear, cosmetics and home furnishings. The target audience for the varied lines offered by the brand is different: the signature Armani suits line targets consumers between the ages 35 and 50, while Armani Collezioni targets the lower income consumer that wants to use high quality products from the brand (Profit Magazine 2008). The Emporio Armani line targets the younger consumers, those between 25 and 35 years of age; Armani Jeans targets the less economically-established group between the ages of 18 and 30, who require fashionable products (Giorgio Armani 2011). Giorgio Armani’s brand architecture Giorgio Armani, most probably due to its global popularity among the fashion conscious elites in society as well as the celebrities’ market segment, has adopted a number of steps towards extending the brand. As of 2008, the brand architecture of Giorgio Armani includes a corporate brand and a number of sub-brands. The different sub-brands were developed to cater to the needs of different sets of market segments, which are differentiated by price, colour, style and brand name preferences (Giorgio Armani 2011). The target customers for the different sub-brands are also set to represent the varied price and the class of the products offered within the line. In the brand’s portfolio there is the signature Giorgio Armani sub-brand, which is the major apparels collection (Profit Magazine 2008). This line offers Oscar gowns and the brand’s signature Armani suits. The products within this line fall under the ultra-premium price and classes, which is distinguished from the others by the considerably high prices and the associated product quality. This line is fundamentally targeted at customers in the age group between 35 and 50 years (CNN 2006). The second sub-brand is Armani Collezioni, which marked the brand’s entry into a lower target market. This line serves the market segment that seeks to wear Armani apparel, but is not able to purchase the more expensive premium class signature line. The target market for this line includes the consumers of premium level apparel, but who prefer to expand the products that are present within their product portfolios (Profit Magazine 2008). The Armani Collezioni line requires a price level of about 80 percent of the prices required for the main signature line; it offers the target customers an excellent, quality line of fashionable products. Emporio Armani is a Giorgio Armani line, targeted at the young professional class market, which falls between the 25 – 35 years age group. Due to the varied preferences of this age group, the products within this line are offered in different colours and style, while at the same time maintaining the signature name, Armani (Giorgio Armani 2011). The brand offers fashionable designs, which are preferred by the target market. Armani Jeans is among the low class of Armani Apparel. This line offers the value segment among the lower class target customers, like the value drawn from the signature line to the customers of the premium market class (Mackenzie 2004). The line is targeted to the less established economic class of the young between the ages of 18 and 30 years. The collection offers the target consumers a trendy, yet highly luxurious and fashionable line of clothing and apparel (Profit Magazine 2008). The A/X Armani Exchange line is the sub-brand of licensed retail chains, where the products within the offering of the brand are offered. The line, basically serves as the definitive testimony, about the reach and the power of the Armani brand. Through the provision of the wide range of the accessories and the apparels of the brand, the stores offer the consumers of the Armani brand, a complete experience of the luxurious, fashionable products (Profit Magazine 2008). At these retail outlets, the varied product lines and the fashionable clothing classes are available, which allows the customers to compare the different products, and where necessary contrast the varied profiles before closing their purchase deals. Through the stores, the company exposes to its premium and economy consumers, the opportunity to evaluate the fashionable products from other lines (Rajagopal and Romulo 2004). The Brand Architecture of Giorgio Armani Brand Recommendations for Giorgio Armani From a review of the different sub-brands of Giorgio Armani, different target consumer groups are served. These groups include the youth (18-30 years), young adults (25-35), and older adults (35-50). This shows that the brand has not expanded to include a sub-brand that specialises in the delivery of staff and uniforms for schools, companies, colleges, security institutions and other forces, including national militaries. This leads to the conclusion that the Giorgio Armani management can expand the brand’s architecture, by including a line for staff and school uniforms. The new line will meet the uniform needs of school children, including elementary and uniformed higher learning institutions, including uniformed medical schools. The line will also pursue the contracts of security institutions and national militaries, where its line of specialty will be the designing and the development of innovative uniform designs (Age range, dependent on focus group – adult or young). Due to its classy and unique appeal to this important consumer segment, Giorgio Armani should expand its lines of apparel in order to tap into this market, which remains highly potential due to the growing need of trendy wear in various sectors. An expansions strategy that focuses on the launching of the Armani Uniforms line will help the brand capture the clothing and apparel purchases that meet the needs of students, organizations in need of staff uniforms, security institutions and national militaries. Some of the clothes to be included in the line include navy clothing, military training uniforms, graduation gowns, school uniforms, custom-school bags, school shoes and school graduation gowns. Through the sale of all these lines of clothing and products, the company will increase their sales levels by a big amount, which will increase the profitability of the company (Taylor and William 2002). The benefit from the extension is that, it will not require major expenditure in plant replacement or investing in new machines, as the production of the products for the new line can be produced using the available infrastructure. However, they will need to recruit employees who are skilled in the new areas. Through the launch of the new line, the company will enter new market sectors, including that of school uniforms and military uniforms – where there is a high potential for market around the globe (Swaminathan, Richard and Srinivas 2001; Klink and Daniel 2001). The target audience for the new line will include students, staff members and security officials. The New Brand Architecture for Giorgio Armani Conclusion Giorgio Armani is a clothing and apparel brand, which is guided by the creative outlook of the founder, Giorgio Armani. The brand is globally associated to a sense of luxury, beauty and class, and has gained global coverage. The SWOT analysis of Giorgio Armani identified different brand strengths like its unique design. The brands position in the fashion industry is evident through the creative inspiration of the founder. The target audience for the brand includes men and women of different age groups. The brand architecture includes six sub-brands. The brand extension of Giorgio Armani could include a uniforms clothing line, which will serve the needs of schools, staff and military uniform needs. Appendix 1: Giorgio Armani’s Brand Architecture Map Colour Coding for the Brand’s Architecture Map Master Brand Strategic Brand Subsidiary Brand Bibliography List Armani., 2011. Company Info: Company Overview. Armani Press, [online] Available at: [Accessed 23 Mar. 2013]. CNN., 2006. Q & A: Giorgio Armani. CNN, [online] Available at: [Accessed 23 Mar. 2013]. Galloni, A.,2012. The future of Armani. Wall Street Journal, [online] Available at: [Accessed 23 Mar. 2013]. Giorgio Armani., 2011. Giorgio Armani 2011 Annual Report. Behance, [online] Available at: [Accessed 23 Mar. 2013]. Klink, R. and Daniel, C., 2001. Threats to External Validity of Brand Extension Research. Journal of Marketing Research, 38, pp.326-335. Mackenzie, S., 2004. The gentle touch. The Guardian, [online] Available at: [Accessed 23 Mar. 2013]. Profit Magazine, 2008. Management Giants: Giorgio Armani. Profit Magazine, [online] Available at: [Accessed 23 Mar. 2013]. Rajagopal, M. and Romulo, S., 2004. Conceptual analysis of brand architecture and relationships within product categories. Journal of Brand Management, pp.233–247. Swaminathan, V., Richard, J. and Srinivas, K., 2001. The Impact of Brand Extension Introduction on Choice. Journal of Marketing, 65, pp.1-15. Taylor, V., and William, O., 2002. The Effects of Price on Brand Extension Evaluations: The Moderating Role of Extension Similarity. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 30, pp.131-141. Read More