March 3, 2006
stella mccartney wobbles on the catwalk
Oh, the joys of starting a global fashion brand. From The Times (London):
Pressure increases on the designer to make her label profitable.
It is no secret within the fashion industry that Stella McCartney has been given until next year to break even by Gucci Group, the company that owns 50 per cent of her business. So have the other, smaller brands under the Gucci umbrella, including Alexander McQueen and Boucheron, the jeweller.
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McCartney
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4 Responses to “stella mccartney wobbles on the catwalk”
Sure.… I wouldn;t knock Stella too much — the NY & London stores are as much about brand experience as sales. And the effect: brand desire. Would an English Cut H&M line sell out in every H&M store in the world in about 12 hours? Even if it was profitable from day 1.
“The NY & London stores are as much about brand experience as sales.“
Puts all the Money into the front end. The back end gets made in China. Hello, Commodity Feedback Loop!
Sounds like an expensive way to go about it to me. Especially for the customer.
A clue to the answer to Stella’s difficulties lies in your previous entry, “pull” not push. English Cut pulls, hence profitability. Pull vs push has greater implications than just marketing– it’s the culture of the entire organization of which marketing is one part. It’s called “lean production”; pull, not push is the major tenet. Follow Toyota, not GM –and on a smaller scale, emulate Thomas, not Stella.
The comparison is not completely fair.
The difference is in the scale and you have to compare apples to apples.
When you have an big guy like Gucci group investing in your company, the turnover and results expected are a lot bigger than the number you can get with a small business and therefore they’ll be merciless even with a great brand if there’s no return of the investment.
Anyway the way you and your partner manage the marketin (g) of english cut is great.
Cheers