Dolce & Gabbana's Formative Feedback Presentation

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 it. – This shows that Dolce and Gabbana were clearly inspired by a deep respect and love for Women. Another fact was they were able to work with major artists and their tours including Beyoncé, Madonna and Missy Elliot. Over the years, D&G have lost consumers over the racist ads they created, the offensive comments which angered a lot of consumers and celebrities and so on. Competitors have also affected the brand heavily as many have focused on social media and reaching out to the younger audience. D&G are still a luxury brand, however, with the brands they are competing against, they don’t stand out in terms of marketing. For instance, Gucci has managed to post relevant content which engages their younger demographic.


Slide 3: 

Over the Christmas holidays I have created a D&G survey through ‘SurveyMonkey’. The purpose of this was to find out people’s thoughts and opinions on D&G, and to understand from their perspective why they think the brand’s competitors are doing well… and to also see what they think makes a brand successful and what advices they would give to D&G.

For what makes the brand successful… many have said:

• Appeal to younger generation
• Social media 
• Brand’s identity/Originality 
• Open minded – by including everyone in their brand
• Show NO discrimination of any type 
• Good advertising communication 
• Good ethics 

And for what D&G should do to improve… others have said:

• Do something different to what they have shown to the public… show what the brand actually stands for 
• Think about the new generation 
• Improve reputation 
• Market better 
• Focus on positive things, make people feel welcomed
• Change their attitude to society 

With the feedback I have received, I am able to suggest ways in which the brand could improve on. The majority of the people have mentioned that the brand should improve on the marketing and the social media side of it and to widen their demographics. Therefore, rather than focus on changing the brand’s identity as it is not the main issue, I will focus on ways in which the brand can communicate through social media to their consumers.


Slide 4: 

Through my research, I also created the SWOT and PESTEL Analysis to help me understand the brand’s strengths and weaknesses, and to go through the things they have done which affected these results. Such as, for example… D&G have a great brand identity, but the way they have acted in the recent controversy, gave them a bad reputation which lost a lot of Chinese consumers. This is a major issue because most of the luxury brands are sold to the Chinese consumers, therefore, all brands rely on the Chinese Market. In the SWOT analysis, in the opportunites section, I’ve mentioned way in which they could improve. Examples are to focus on Social Media and expand the market. By creating new concept on Social Media, the brand is able to reach out to the younger demographic. Obviously, we have the threats, such as D&G’s competitors. They have successfully to gain a younger demographic by presenting a strong brand identity/images and creating new designs which follow the current trend.


Slide 5: 

Here is my recommendation for future strategy for the brand:

To improve the marketing side of it, D&G should create new concepts in which engage a larger/new market. For example, they should aim to reach out to younger demographics as they are the ones who are exposed to luxury brands (which is due to the trends in streetwear).

In order to do this, they must understand:

• WHAT the younger generation are inspired by (like music, art, beauty, lifestyle, fashion, culture)
• WHO they are inspired by (artists, influencers, celebrities, YouTubers) 
• And HOW they are exposed to it: like social medias including YouTube and Instagram. … as it will help the brand be more aware of their consumers and how they can use this information to their advantage. 

Reflecting on their past success such as the collaborations with artist, celebrities and influencers etc. has helped me develop an idea that can gain attention from the new generation which is MUSIC. The music industry has now become very competitive; with the rise of Korean Pop culture it has changed the way music is presented. K-pop has affected the industry massively due to the creativeness in the music, concepts, choreography, fashion and just the overall visuals of the music video. Because of this, many artists have started to create more powerful visuals in their music videos such as Ariana Grande’s; ‘God is a Woman’, ‘No Tears Left To Cry’, ‘Breathin’, ‘Thank U, Next’, and her recent ‘7 rings’ video. YouTube is a platform where the majority of the population go to, which is a way for artists, youtubers, and influencers to gain millions of views and supporters. So, if Dolce & Gabbana collaborate with major artists, their market will grow as fans, especially K-pop fans (I have noticed), have fan accounts in which have their favourite artist’s fashion and even finding out what brands they are.


Slide 6: 

3 Individual Elements:

1. This shows their brands true identity in which I don’t want to take the original image away from the brand. Because this is the reason to what makes them the brand that they are. Instead I decided to focus on changes that can be made such as their marketing side of it. 
2. Again, this has helped me to understand their meaning of brand and that they do have their own strong brand identity/image, therefore, it is not something I would like to take away from their original roots. However, I do want to add a bit of a twist to the style which can improve on their brand… by bringing a new concept which is the music aspect of it. 
3. This past success story has led me to look into the music side of it. By collaborating with more music artists, the brand will most likely be exposed to new ideas and discover new concepts for their upcoming products/designs/clothing which allows them to gain more attention to their new market: the younger generation. 

Here is a feedback from my presentation: