Fashion Marketing & Management 1

I had difficult time trying to pick a front cover and the entire theme for my brand report. Initially, I wanted to use a black background as I find that I work well with a darker background. I was also considering using a rose or flower themed background as it represents D&G. I later on tried to change the background by lowering the saturation, changing the red rose colour to a more darker Burgundy colour so it wouldn't stand out too much. For layout, I tried to make the back of the picture blurred by using Gaussian Blur Tool at 7.0 and then added lines around it to add Moree details. It was quite hard place other pictures onto a flower background because each image I've used had a different theme and colour, therefore it didn't match well; there was too much going on. In the end, I chose to use an off-white colour with a creamy colour in the centre to add a bit of warmth to my cover. I included lines as I always use lines to add extra detail to things. In my opinion,...

For my Proposed Brand Market Position & Competitors, I would picture the brand to do similar content to Gucci meaning in the way they market and engage the audience. Adding in one of D&G's patterns conveys that they should keep their style and brand identity and just add in new things for their concepts instead of removing it. I've selected pictures of Kris Wu and G-Dragon collaborating with Burberry and Chanel to show that this is what D&G are aiming for; getting these well-known East-Asian artists to widen their target market.

For my Proposed Consumer Demographics, I mentioned that they should aim for younger generations and specifically in Asia like China and Japan. There are many fashion-forwarded people in Japan, therefore, if D&G want to enter the Asian Market, they should reconsider their products and designs. Again, I wouldn't say they need to necessarily change the brand's design completely, but I believe they could alter some of their styles to what these consumers prefer. I also included Sehun from EXO (K-pop Group) as D&G will be aiming at K-pop groups. Overall, the brand can still keep their current consumer demographic, but, they could potentially expand that market by creating a new line of clothing for them.

For my Proposed Social Media/Influencer Marketing/Marketing Mix (Other Brand Communications) Mood Board, I included the most popular K-pop groups now such as BTS and BLACKPINK and Tiffany Young (from Girl's Generation). These idols are known to have the biggest fandom in the world which would be a great collaboration for D&G as they can engage the younger asian audiences. I added Cameron Dallas and others as I think they should also continue to use influencers for their brand. As I have said before, Dolce & Gabbana should keep their designs and clothing because it gives them a strong brand image, however, it would be nice to see a slight change in the clothing to fit the younger audiences. Finally, the social media icons means that the brand should work on their social media accounts. I did them in a different size with YouTube being the biggest as it means that the brand should focus on improving their YouTube as it is the most used.

Dolce & Gabbana's social media contains all of their new campaigns, behind-the-scenes of the fashion shows, photoshoots, products, celebrities etc. Although these posts are interesting, it becomes very repetitive, especially when the brand hasn't come up with a completely new concept that can engage new audience. The company has managed to regularly post on social media especially on platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and partly YouTube. Dolce & Gabbana has gained 19.7 million followers on Instagram with 8,159 posts consisting of new collection, campaigns, D&G celebrities, runway shows, behind the scene of fashion shows videos and so on. For Facebook, the brand has over 11 million likes and followers, and in Twitter, 5.2 million followers with 15.7k tweets (D&G Social Media. Last Visited Feb 20, 2019). For audiences to keep up-to-date with D&G, they uploaded same posts and captions on all of their social media. Out of all their social ...

Kris Wu – is a Chinese-Canadian singer, actor and model who was a former member of EXO. The singer had several fashion collaborations. Back in 2016, Burberry announced Wu’s runway debut at Burberry’s Fall 2016 Men’s Show in London. He was selected as their global ambassador which made him the first Asian person as the face of the brand. It was later stated that Burberry partnership with Wu was a huge success. The brand had a rapid growth in sales and awareness with the Chinese consumers due to Wu’s campaign. G-Dragon – is a South Korean singer-songwriter, rapper, record producer, entrepreneur and fashion icon, who is known as the leader of K-pop group, BIGBANG. Being one of the biggest fashion icons in the K-pop industry, the artist became Chanel’s new brand ambassador back in 2016. The artist appeared in a series of highly contrasting Polariods, showing off the two-tone derby shoes from the 2016/17 Cruise collection. (Goh, 2016). In 2017, GD was also starred in the Chanel’...

During 2016, South Korean band, BIGBANG, known as “Kings of K-pop”, opened ticket sales for their 10th anniversary Seoul concert which over 2 million Chinese fans bought the tickets. Back in May 2018, another South Korean band, BTS, took K-pop to another level when they won against popular artists such as Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber with an award for ‘Best Social Artist’ at the BBMAs. Later in November 2018, BTS was also invited to perform at AMA’s as well as making an appearance on many popular interviewing shows such as Ellen and The Late Late Show with James Corden. Recently this year, the group earned their very first Grammy recognition at the upcoming 61st Annual Grammy Awards. They were nominated for ‘best recording package’ with the BTS' Love Yourself: Tear album, which hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in May. The band was not the first or only K-pop group to make an impact internationally. Over the past decade, artists and bands like PSY, BIGBANG, 2NE1, Girls’ Ge...

As you now know, Dolce & Gabbana's racist controversy that happened on 19th November 2018, caused a temporarily loss of the Asian market, China to be specific, therefore, D&G need to find ways to gain them back. Referring back to the PESTEL analysis, D&G, like any other brands, deeply rely on the Chinese market as most luxury products are bought from the Chinese people. As I have already suggested the idea of using music to expand their target market, I believe the idea could be more developed by introducing the collaboration between D&G and Korean-pop (K-pop) music Industry. Not only will they engage younger consumers, but they could possibly gain the Chinese/Asian market back. Today, fashion has “entered a new era where the street and luxury intersect” due to the “rise of premium streetwear brands like Vetements, Supreme and Kanye West’s Yeezy line, and the youthful ready-to-wear collections of luxury labels such as Gucci, Fendi and Burberry” (Tai, 2018...

For my recommendation, I thought of an idea to connect with the younger audience is to collaborate with music artists. This idea came from D&G’s success stories of how they worked with major artists like Beyoncé, Madonna, Missy Elliot and Kylie Minogue and also from myself and others; the thing that inspires the most is music. On the Campaign website, 'should brands collaborate more with music artists?', Lucien Boyer mentioned, "For us, music is a major pert of communication because music inspires positive emotion, it ignites fashion but it can also help brands create meaningful stories that generate experiences, content and social engagements". This suggests that music is a great way to connect with the younger generation and help build a relationship between the brand and their future target market. It creates a better image for the brand when they create content that consumers can relate and inspire to. "Fashion and music are very similar in many w...

Dolce & Gabbana had the potential to grow but because of the controversies, the challenges against other brands and the lack of connection with the younger generation, has caused the brand to fall back down. For this reason, I recommend that in order to improve D&G, they first need to focus on expanding their target market to a younger audience through social media. In this generation, everyone revolves around technology; every one of us depend on our phones and tablets. Technology has become part of a lifestyle as it is a way for us to communicate and connect with people. On the Pew Research Center website about ‘Millennials stand out for their technology use, but older generations also embrace digital life’, it stated that “More than nine-in-ten Millennials (92%) own smartphones, compared with 85% of Gen Xers (ages 38 to 53), 67% of Baby Boomers (ages 54 to 72) and 30% of the Silent Generation (ages 73 to 90).” In addition, according to their data, the “Millennials (85%) sa...

As there were not Dolce & Gabbana stores available, I tried searching online for any stores (like Harvey Nichols) near home that had a Dolce & Gabbana section. I managed to find a store called ‘Fenwick’ in Newcastle, however, there wasn’t a D&G section in the Newcastle one. Fortunately, I was able to find a place near by called Cruise Fashion, an outlet store, where they sold all kinds of luxury brands. Although there weren’t any D&G products in Fenwick, there were other brands like Burberry, Michael Kors, Tommy Hilfiger, Ted Baker, Moschino, Calvin Klein etc., I observed the department store to see what brands or products people were going for and who were they. Quite a few were looking at bags and trying on heels/shoes. Most of them were generally in their early 30s to 50s. As I was looking around in Fenwick, I noticed a group of Chinese students around in their early 20s to mid 20s wearing mostly Gucci shoes, sweater, jacket and bag. This proves how popular the brand...

My Dolce & Gabbana Presentation: Slide 1:  Looking at all 6 brands that we were given at the beginning of the module, I have chosen to focus Dolce & Gabbana for my brand marketing report. Dolce & Gabbana have their own distinctive style which creates a strong brand identity for them. Their styles are often romantic, elegant, classic modern, with unique/intricate designs, followed by a Sicilian touch. Unfortunately, due to the controversies they have had throughout the year has damaged the brand’s image. Being a luxury brand, they are supposed to be more aware of the society’s views and current trends. As a brand on today’s market/fashion scene, they should act more inline or more aware of societal norms – e.g. respect other cultures, religion and so on. Slide 2:  D&G have had its past success stories such as their very first collection known as “Real Women” in 1985, which they had friends to help instead of hiring models as they could not afford i...

Here is a my marketing mix table: References:  Bhasin. H. June 10, 2018 of Published. Marketing mix of Dolce and Gabbana. https://www.marketing91.com/marketing-mix-of-dolce-and-gabbana/

First of all, what I have noticed in D&G’s website is that it’s quite well organised. All of the websites like clothing, beauty, jewellery, perfume, makeup and watches have very contrasting, bold colours displayed which creates a mood/emotion to engage the audiences. Because of the layout of the website, everything seems very pleasing to look at. Products:  Dolce & Gabbana has a wide range of products for its consumers. This included well fitted, intricate design suits for businessmen, elegant flowery patterned dresses for women who preferred classy styles. The most expensive bag costs £5,750 and the lowest price at £365; most of their handbags were at the price of £1,100 to £3,650 and was made from calf skin. The majority of their products were very business-like and aimed mostly towards the older generation. The brand has slightly moved to a more fashion forward design with a combination of military khaki colours and uniforms with street styles ...