Gucci: The Sustainability and Innovation in the Fashion Industry

Gucci is an Italian fashion brand has nearly 100 years history in this luxury industry. It is now achieving the vision to become the leading luxury fashion house in the world with more than 13$ billion brand value. Not only succeed in its main corporate activities to bring their value through craftsmanship, this brand also is loved by its philosophy of sustainability. For Gucci, Social Responsibility is an important part of their global strategy and they want to be the leader of luxury brands to promote sustainability. This is the key point in our suggested project for the brand to engage to the innovation of new materials for apparel, one step further to enter the futuric and high technological industry to pursue its mission.

History

Gucci was founded by Guccio Gucci in Florence, Tuscany, in 1921, now it comes from strength to strength to become a leading name in fashion and leather across the world. Guccio Gucci was the son of a humble Italian leather maker and he desired to achieve a life better than his father. After he had experience about leather and the revolution in this luxury fashion industry during the time he was a hotel worker at Savoy hotel (London), he came back Florence to open The house of Gucci in 1921, when he was 40 years old. With the help of his three sons, Gucci soon expanded the brand by opening up additional stores in Milan and Rome, marked the success of his business.

By the 1950s, Gucci had established itself as a premier luxury brand. His sons, Aldo and Rodolfo Gucci further firstly expanded the company's horizons into global in 1953 by establishing offices in New York City, anchored by the luxurious Savoy Plaza Hotel. Two weeks after this event, Guccio Gucci passed away. The company prospered through the 1970s, but the 1980s were marked by internal family disputes that brought Gucci to the brink of disaster. The company faced issues regarding family arguments, tax evasion, poor management, all which affected the company reputation and profit. In 1990, Tom Ford was hired by current director and promoted to the position of creative director in 1994. He was the important person of Gucci in that period, not only for his revolution in design of ready-to-wear collections, but also for his contribution in the process of decision-making to acquire some fashion brands as Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche, Bottega Veneta, Boucheron, Sergio Rossi, and, in part-ownership with Stella McCartney, Alexander McQueen and Balenciaga to build Gucci house.

In 2003, The French conglomerate Pinault-Printemps-Redoute (now Kering group) gained ownership of 60 percent of the Gucci Group’s stock, became the holding group of Gucci house. December 12, 2014, Marco Bizzarri was appointed as the CEO of the brand and he appointed Alessandro Michele to be Gucci's creative director in 2015. Then Michele reintroduced the company's double-G logo and helped Gucci marked a significant growth of 12% of revenue in 2016. From that date, Gucci has a constant significant growth annually and states its high position among the leading brands of global luxury fashion industry.

Identity

Double GG logo: Today, the Gucci logo has become synonymous of luxury and sophistication and is still immediately recognizable by anyone. Aldo Gucci, one of Guccio’s three sons, joined The House of Gucci in 1933 and he was the one who designed the actual logo. The official logo also has the Gucci name spelled clearly out above the double-G emblem, ensuring the reorganization of the logo and showcasing the importance of the brand’s name. The logo of two interlocking G’s was adopted around 1960s, as a sweet homage to the founder, Guccio Gucci.

And while the “G” logo is no-doubt considered one of the most recognizable “classic” logos in the world, the iconic green and red stripes have also become synonymous with the luxury house. When you see this colorway, you know it is there for one of the world’s most successful brands. The signature can speak for the brand even without the double G logo.

Products

At the beginning, Gucci's stores featured such finely crafted leather accessories as handbags, shoes, and his iconic ornamented loafer as well as silks and knitwear in a signature pattern. In 1940s when leather was in short supply as a result of the League of Nations’ embargo on Italy’s Fascist dictatorship and due to the war. Gucci used alternatives usually linen and bamboo - then Gucci Bamboo bag was born. In 1947, an artisan created a bag shaped like a saddle with handles made by bamboo. This is one of the most popular and iconic creations of the brand’s history.

Jackie Onassis Kennedy chose a gorgeous little hobo as a staple only to have the silhouette renamed the “Jackie” bag in her honor. The Jackie bag still remains one of the most sought after classic Gucci items. As the 1960s rolled through, monogram mania set in and the signature interlocking GGs were strewn across handbags, luggage and clothing, cementing its place as one of the most identifiable designer logos of all time. In 1932 Guccio created the first loafer shoe with a gilded snaffle. Every pairs of horsebit loafers is handmade in Florence. In 2013, Gucci celebrated loafer 60 years old. Like hermes, the first clients of Gucci were the horse riding aristocratic fraternity who come to the designer in search of quality fashionable equestrian gear.

Gucci now iconic flora Print silk scarf was originally made for Grace Kelly. This kind of scarf wasn’t named after the stars. Grace Kelly visited Rome’s via Monte Napoleone store in 1965. And Rodolfo asked artist Victorio Gennairo to create an original silk scarf with a floral pattern as a gift to mark that occasion. After that, there is a recent update by brand artist Christ Knight as a part of crew collection and iterations of the iconic design still be found for sale. 1970s The first Gucci perfume is created. Nowadays, Gucci perfume is licensed for Coty. 1980s Thanks to Tom ford, Gucci ready-to-wear collection was shown for the first time at the Florentine fashion shows with great success. AT the present, besides accessories, apparel, hard luxury, fragrance and cosmetic, Gucci has entered house decor segmented industry.

Finance

As of December 31, 2018, Gucci operated 540 stores globally, including 229 stores in emerging markets. Gucci delivered an excellent performance in 2018. Listed at the 39th position in Business week Magazine’s top 100 global brands, Gucci holds the value of approximately 13 millions $ in 2018. Gucci’s revenue topped the €8 billion mark in 2018, reaching €8,285 million. This represents a year- on- year jump of 33.4% as reported and 36.9% based on comparable exchange rates. All of the brand’s main markets reported robust growth during the year. North America has an increase of 43.6%, take over the first position of growth speed from European market. North America was also by far the highest performing region in terms of online sales, which increased over 60%.

In Japan, in-store sales advanced by an impressive 35.7% on a comparable basis, led by the recovery in tourist numbers seen since the second half of 2017, especially for Chinese tourists, as well as domestic market share gains. In emerging markets, revenue increased at 42.7%, with all regions contributing to this excellent performance, including Asia- Pacific, where revenue surged 45.0%. Strong sales momentum with Chinese customers drove very solid growth in Mainland China as well as significant revenue increases in the region’s other markets. In Western Europe, there was an increase in revenue at 28.5% for the region overall. [Annual report 2018, Kering group]

Sustainability

Gucci become the partner of UNICEF in 2005. Gucci stores worldwide donate a percentage of the sales for special collections made specifically for UNICEF to go toward the United Nations Children's Fund. Moreover, for the empowerment for girls and women, Gucci launched the 'Chime for Change' campaign in February 2013. Until now, Gucci has funded over 210 projects in 81 countries through this initiative. [1] In line with Kering’s long- lasting commitment to sustainability and innovation, and the introduction of the “Culture of Purpose” ten- year sustainability plan, Gucci launched Gucci Equilibrium, a new portal designed to promote and broadcast the brand’s perspective on environmental and social impact change, and portal connecting people, planet and purpose [Annual report 2018, Kering group]

Technology and Innovation

Providing a study into luxury fashion consumer preferences, the 2018 Gartner L2 reports reveal fashion marque Gucci as the leader in the world of digital and social media. Thanks to a perfect blending of site functionality, a seamless shopping experience, integrated content and robust search and navigation, the brand was declared the Top Genius brand for the third year in a row. Gucci was the first to invest in top-tier site functionality and build on a strong shopping experience through integrated content, robust search and navigation, and aesthetically pleasing product pages. To drive customer satisfaction, the Italian brand has built a Facebook-integrated chatbot and it also launched scannable adverts. For its spring 2018 campaign, Gucci developed in-store augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) installations, which allowed consumers to become a part of the campaign. Since 2017, Gucci remains the most visible brand across e-tailers, scoring higher that multi-brand retail sites such as Farfetch and Net-a-Porter [2]