Gucci in 2019 is almost a 100-years–old (98 to be precise), and yet it continues to be one of the hottest brands around for everyone from teenagers and millennials to a more matured audience who have had a long and beautiful relationship with the luxury designer brand.
It’s true that there are older brands out there, with Hermes being the oldest, but very few of them have managed to stay as relevant as Gucci is today, especially for women.
Gucci Won Over the Millennials, Young Adults and the Teenagers
Gucci had always been popular with women more than men, but it is astounding how the brand actually managed to change its primary target audience’s age group to stay relevant and boost sales!
Roughly £4 billion was spent on Gucci by millennials in 2018 alone, which is a number that accounts for about 62% of all sales made by the premium brand last year. On the other hand, young adults and teenagers are the fastest–growing target audience for the brand now.
Given that all of these <35 age groups are now Gucci’s primary target audience, it means that the company’s connection to thenew, fashionable audience is a long term one, made early and set in motion to last for decades in the future.
Gucci Was One of the First Premium Brands to Adopt Modern Technology
As Marco Bizzarri, CEO of Gucci has clearly stated himself, Gucci was among the first to adopt the latest technology in production, marketing, and sales. Today, it is possible for us to browse through the top collection of Gucci sneakers or heels from our smartphones and laptops because the company knew when the time to move forward was here.
Balancing Fashion: Nostalgia and Trend
Gucci has not taken the route of completely abandoning the foundations on which the company was built, but neither has it remained rooted in the past. Therein lies the beauty of Gucci and also the reason why women of all ages have something to choose from their collection, always.
To truly understand what we are discussing here, go through this perfect collection of Gucci sneakers on SSENSE. On one hand, there is a nostalgic, timeless appeal that comes with a pair of White GG Screeners, while on the other, we have an over-the-top, radical design on the Off-White Strawberry Rhyton Gucci Sneakers. The wide collection from SSENSE further highlights Gucci’s willingness to balance modern fashion trends with classic values the brand is known for, by putting the trendy White Flashtrek Chunky Gucci sneakers in sharp contrast with the Classic White Ace; they are both great Gucci sneakers, but each pair appeals to two completely different sets of audience.
Although Bizzarri was the one to make widescale production and meeting customer demands possible, it was AlessandroMichele who managed to do something that needed to be done, but no creative director of Gucci before him was willing to do; he adopted modern fashion and the current audience by opening up the brand’s designs beyond its earlier conservative and out-of-date limitations. Women, in particular, and most of the target audience, in general, found the change refreshing, which in effect saved Gucci and turned it around to once again become one of the most successful designer brands today.