GUCCI

Company: Kering

Brand value: US$9,259 million

Headquarter city: Scandicci, Florence

Industry: Luxury – fashion, leather goods,

Year formed: 1921

The Gucci brand was formed by Guccio Gucci, who became fascinated by the luxurious luggage used by upmarket travellers in the luxury hotels where he worked in Paris and London. He set about designing premium-quality luggage, other leather goods, fashion and accessories, and created what is now a truly global brand representing not just quality craftsmanship but also elegance, romance and eclectic influences. Gucci has around 300 directly operated stores around the world, and an increasing focus on online sales, which have become a growing part of the business. In 2015, a new creative director, Alessandro Michele, was appointed, with a new vision focused on innovation, digital communication and sales, and catering to millennial consumers. The brand has a rich heritage but also what it describes as a “wholly modern approach to fashion”. Under Michele, Gucci’s flagship store on Milan’s Via Montenapoleone has been completely refitted, and the brand has used Gucci.com and innovative partnerships on social media to make the brand relevant to new generations of consumers. Advertising focuses heavily on online, along with television, print and outdoor. Ads tend to have a dreamlike quality to them and close with a hashtag related to the product or season advertised rather than a brand tagline. The video ad for the 2017 launch of the Bloom fragrance, for instance, follows three young women as they drink tea in a room seemingly full of growing flowers, then swim fully clothed in a flower-filled lake in the rain. Since 1999, Gucci has been owned by the French luxury goods group Kering, which is listed on the Euronext Paris exchange.