Brands such as Dolce & Gabbana and Gucci are shifting from their traditional marketing strategies. They are now taking Inspirations from youthful, savvy, cool, brands such as Supreme, Kith, Van’s and many other fashion conscious brands!
When I think of street wear brands the first few that spring to mind are: Supreme, Fear Of God, Kith, Vans, Bape and Off-White. The hype beast sports luxe Vibe.
The culture behind street wear style is more of a movement and lifestyle influenced by fashion, music, art as well as the diverse sub-culture trends in the millennial era. Collectives are formed through natural friendship. Projects are collaborated by cool individuals vibe together to create amazing content.
Gucci introduced a new watch collection and embarked on a #tfwgucci campaign to launch their new watches to retail. The collaborative meme project created by Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele, commissioned various artists to adapt meme features as a social media campaign around today’s sassy internet culture.
I was awakened by the ‘left wing’ approach for the watch campaign. Compared to their classic marketing strategy of sticking to ‘picturesque’ editorials, spectacular dreamy locations and using the most famous super models to grace the cover of Vogue and the many other reputable publications. This is a key example of a luxury brand tapping into the new normal forms of marketing that street wear brands have been using to connect to their customer and speak about the culture to the people within the culture.
Next we have Dolce & Gabbana renowned design for its classic Italian intricate design. Designer Stefano Gabbana announced that the brand was embarking on a new strategy to showcase their latest collections for during fall fashion week in Milan. #D&GMillenials – The theme was blasted all over my social media and all fashion online sites, you couldn’t miss it. Dolce & Gabbana’s Fall 2017 included millennial influencers, bloggers and many celebrity offspring in the modelling industry!
Again here we see another classic luxury fashion brand embracing culture relevant influencers who are the go-to creatives within the fashion, music and art industry. Not to mention today’s influencers who are now famous for being a cool creative.
Insight and Tips
- To sustain relevancy and be at the fore front of the industry to appeal to new consumers. Luxury brands are shifting from traditional marketing strategy and homing in on the emotional connection stemmed from young savvy, internet crazed and fashion conscious consumers.
- Some Luxury brands are finally understanding that they will not be seen as ‘cool’ if they are not working or collaborating with those who are the main voicers to the trendsetters of style. And they are seeing it’s not the super model it’s the young girl with a colt following that embodies dope style just because.
- You cannot only speak to customer base of class demographics aka (someone who can typically afford luxury). More young girls and boys are willing to safe and invest in their pieces which is an authentic consumers.
- ‘Bottom’ influencing the ‘top’ – Where grassroots and street style associated affordable brands are the leaders of birthing new trends and luxury brands are looking at their strategy and looks for inspiration.
Luxury brands such as, Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana are great examples of shifting their marketing strategy and moving with the times to stay relevant. This is very important for product brands, if you stay the same you lose out on new audiences and opportunities. A key learning is here – Keep up with the times or be prepared to get left behind!