Marketing Report First Draft

1. Executive Summary

This marketing report will explore and analysis the current state of the luxury fashion brand Dolce & Gabbana, while also suggesting recommendations to help the brand improve during a time where it is beginning to decline. Throughout the report there will be relevant, insightful and considered research that will all come together to form a comprehensive evaluation of the brands current market condition, alongside any external and internal factors halting the growth of the brand. 

In order to thoroughly investigate the brand both primary and secondary research in the form of qualitative and quantitative data was collected. This included online articles, statistics, interviews, SWOT and PESTLE analysis’, social media studies and consumer investigations. Together, the research gather will tell a story of the current situation of Dolce & Gabbana and see weaknesses were they can improve.

Overall, the research highlighted that Dolce & Gabbana is struggling to keep up with their other major competitors who are currently dominating the industry, and this may be due to these other brands being more appealing and thus strengthening their relationship with a younger demographic - Millennials and Generation Z. Currently, D&G are using their luxurious and decadent clothing to target a more older and wealthier demographic, whereas brands such as Gucci are connecting more with a younger generation, thus lies an opportunity for the brand to expand their demographic by continuing to use influencers and celebrities to reach a new audience.

The recommendations made come from the reflection of the state of Dolce & Gabbana; it is only from the weaknesses and strengths that they can improve and begin to once again dominate the fashion industry. 

2. Introduction 

Since Dolce & Gabbana founded itself as a luxury brand in 1985, they have stayed at the forefront of the high fashion industry. Yet, over the past number of years, the brand has began to drop behind many of its competitors. This report will explore some reasons for this slight decline through analysing the brand's economic state, consumer demographic, their social media and influencer marketing and competitors. 

The thorough exploration into the brand where it currently stands, will help to highlight what problems the brand may be facing. As the world of fashion continues to evolve, is Dolce & Gabbana failing to keep up with ever changing industry? As a brand which sticks closely to its original Italian roots, perhaps it may be time for the D&G to expand its visions to the reach a new market. 

This is just one of the recommendations that have been made in order to stop Dolce & Gabbana from entering a decline. The many different forms of research and analysis that have gone into the report, has opened a range of paths to how the brand can improve. The strengths and weaknesses that have been highlighted throughout this marketing report, has helped to see which are the most important sections of Dolce & Gabbana that need to be improved upon. For example. a major strength of D&G, is their influencer marketing. They were one of the first brands to cast only influencers and celebrities for their Fall 2017 Menswear show. This brought a large amount of engagement to the brand, from not only their main more older and wealthier consumers, but also a new wave of younger millennials, many who look up to many of the influencers who walked in this show. If Dolce & Gabbana continue with their use of influencer marketing, they will continue to have support from a much wider consumer demographic. 

This brand marketing report will use in depth research to help understand more about Dolce & Gabbana and also highlight a number of recommendations that can be used to overcome some of the current problems that the brand is facing.

3. Macro Economic Analysis 

Similar too many over brands, Dolce & Gabbana’s economic performance often has depended on the state of the economy as a whole. A detailed PESTLE analysis based around the brand, has indicated that fluctuations in the economy, also results in fluctuations on the brand, whether that be a rise or fall in sales, or being able to make new products and the quality of their campaigns and runway shows. Thus, this will always affect the amount of money that Dolce & Gabbana will make as a brand. 

Nevertheless, for Dolce & Gabbana, there was been an overall increase in their annual revenue since 2011. In the six years, Dolce & Gabbana's revenue increased by 659.47 million Euros, from 331.8 million in 2011 to 991.27 million in 2017. Furthermore, the brand's revenue from sales also increased 1.18 to 1.3 billion in 2017, this particularly being from retail sales which rose from 7.1% to 769 million. Overall, this indicated that Dolce & Gabbana has had an extremely strong economic performance, which will hopefully continue to strengthen each year.

Despite this, the PESTLE analysis also brought alight the economic consequences of negative publicity on a brand. For Dolce & Gabbana, their controversies can also effect their sales. A Business of Fashion article stated "according to Bain & Company’s latest report on the luxury market, Chinese consumers account for an estimated 33 percent of global luxury goods spend, a share that is likely to hit 46 percent by 2025". The future of a large amount of D&G's market heavily depends on the support of China and thus can hurt their string of strong economic performances. 

4. Brand Market Position 

Dolce & Gabbana have always had a strong market position, with their attachment to their brand image which consistently appeals to D&G's target consumers. A SWOT analysis of Dolce & Gabbana highlighted that their brand image was one of their strengths. It has allowed the brand to transcend through the through the fashion industry with their sleek, sophisticated and decadent clothing, while also being known to a wider demographic, including those who may not follow fashion or be a Dole & Gabbana consumer. 

Nevertheless, Dolce & Gabbana's continuous use of social media marketing strengthens their position. The brand continues to work and be supported by influencers and celebrities and therefore are able to reach new consumer markets through targeting those whom support the influencers Dolce & Gabbana use. D&G have collaborated on campaigns with influencers such as Luca Sabbat and Cameron Dallas; major models who are working to change the societal views on plus sized women such as Ashley Graham and major artists like Cardi B, who wear outfits designed by Dolce & Gabbana on tour. This social media and influencer marketing gives a large amount of exposure to the brand, thus allowing them to access new consumers, while also maintaining their strong brand market position. 

On the contrary, there are many weakness of Dolce & Gabbana, which may jeopardize their brand market position. One of these weaknesses being the controversies caused by the owners and creative directors, Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce. In the past, Dolce & Gabbana have been involved in controversies that have led to backlash against the brand. Some of these controversies have included homophobic comments about same sex couples and calling IVF babies synthetic, racist comments about China after they released an insensitive advertisement targeting the major Chinese market and sexism due to some of their past campaigns being portrayed as gang rape. All of these controversies have also lead to the loss of celebrity supporters and consumers, something that have major consequences for their brand market position. 

Nevertheless, there is still opportunities for Dolce & Gabbana to advance their current position in the market. By following in the footsteps of their fellow competitors, Dolce & Gabbana could try to expand their consumer and geographical consumer demographics. The engagement of new demographics can allow Dolce & Gabbana to uphold and perhaps even rise past their current brand position. 

5. Competitors 

As a luxury fashion house, Dolce & Gabbana has many competitors in the world of luxury fashion. The brand continues to ooz decadence and opulence through their products. Nevertheless, one of the largest threats to Dolce & Gabbana is their competitors. Although there has not been a noticeable decline in the brands business, the growth of the brand is starting to become stagnant. This is in comparison to Dolce & Gabbana's competitors, who are continuing to rise through despite the ever changing industry. An example of this is Gucci, as the revenue of the fellow Italian brand had a sharp increase of 51.97 million Euros between 2016 and 2017, which could be due to the success of the brands new creative director Alessandro Michele who joined Gucci in 2015. The increase for Gucci juxtaposes Dolce & Gabbana's slight fall in turnovers, as they had a decline of 7.19 million Euros also between 2016 and 2017. 

Gucci, among with other competitors such as Louis Vuitton, Balenciaga and Saint Laurent are continuing to drive the luxury fashion industry, with many of their campaigns and runways being posted around the internet, and even becoming viral, e.g. Gucci FW 2018 show. 

The map positioning map visually compares where Dolce & Gabbana stands amongst their competitors through their price range and how heritage orientated the fashion brands are. With more and more brands beginning to develop with the technological changes and the evolving industry. Is the fact that brand is perhaps too closely linked to their origins, the reason why they may be the onset of falling behind their competitors?

6. Consumer Demographic 

Research was gathered in order to create a consumer profile that represented the overall Dolce & Gabbana consumer. Similarly too many other luxury brands, Dolce & Gabbana's most common consumers are often affluent. 

Through browsing the Dolce & Gabbana website for products and prices, it is obvious that a consumer has a larger income in order for them to purchase many of the products. The most expensive items on the website was a watch: £27, 500, earrings: £17, 500 and a coat costing £7, 900. However, juxtaposing this was Dolce & Gabbana's accessories. The price of these, although still perhaps expensive, is much more accessible for the general people. A wallet only costing £155. As well as this, Dolce & Gabbana do have sales on their website, therefore people can wait for products to be reduced and then buy them at a cheaper price. This therefore highlights that the brands clothing and jewellery are perhaps targeted at a demographic with a larger income. 

Furthermore, looking through Dolce & Gabbana's tagged Instagram posts creates a public profile of the generalised consumer. Although there was many spam posts, there was posts from a mix of middle aged and millennial people posting their Dolce & Gabbana purchase. This is an initial insight to the consumers of the brands, as this creates a surface image of the typical Dolce & Gabbana consumers. Some D&G tagged were created by European women, with many being Eastern European,  mixed with the occasional male. Often, Dolce & Gabbana was not the only designer brand that was tagged, thus indicating that Dolce & Gabbana consumers often buy from other luxury clothing brands and then one can again infer that many of these people have high earning jobs, which allows them to have a disposable income.

By looking at the models that Dolce & Gabbana was using in their runway shows and campaigns, it indicates how inclusive they are as a brand. The runways show that there was a wide range of models such older men and women, millennials, generation z and children - plus size and slim, and of different ethnicities, being included. Thus highlighting that the use of a diverse cast shows that Dolce & Gabbana are trying to reach a wide demographic. Supporting this, Dolce & Gabbana's use of celebrities and influencers is appealing to a younger demographic, as many younger people often feel a connection to these influencers, meaning that they are more likely to buy into the brand if there are recognisable influencers and celebrities included. 

Overall, the research gathered shows that Dolce & Gabbana have a wide age range that buy from the brand. Nevertheless, the majority of consumers are by more middle aged women buying from the western market. 

Above shows the first draft of my marketing report that I wrote and the feedback I was given. Although, the feedback was positive, there was parts of my report that could be improved in order to make it reach my best potential.
The feedback suggested that I add more statistics in to the report to backup the statements that have been made and then make sure that I in text reference all of the research that I include. Another suggestion was to include infographics for competitors, to visually show what the competitors are doing in comparison to Dolce & Gabbana.
A major change that needed to be made was the Consumer Demographic section. This was something that I had struggled with in the moodboards and again when going to write this section. The feedback suggested that I could 'consider age, disposable income, location, lifestyle and work" and also create a consumer profile. This can all now be seen within my finished brand marketing report.
To make the easier for me to understand and to highlight what needed to be changed, I annotated the feedback page with points that I needed to change, while also adding any extra parts that needed to be added to the marketing report such as page numbers, that had not ben put into the feedback but brought up in a lecture.