“Armani: Which strategy to relaunch the growth of an Italian luxury group” Cas CCMP, novembre 2018.

Tossan V., Croze F. – Cas CCMP, novembre 2018.

The Armani brand was born in 1975, from an alliance between Giorgio Armani and his partner and companion Sergio Galeotti.  At first, they produce ready-to-wear for men. The first distribution lines appear in 1979, Giorgio Armani Le Collezione and Mani.

In 1981, Armani creates two younger and more accessible lines: the Emporio Armani line and the AJ/Armani Jeans line. The first Emporio store opens in Milan in 1981.

Then comes a succession of clothing lines, each more luxurious and elegant than the next.  Armani dresses movie stars, including Gwyneth Paltrow, Jodie Foster or Richard Gere.

In 1991, a more popular line than Emporio Armani comes out, namely the A/X Armani Exchange line.

It is also at the beginning of the 80’s that he signs his first perfumes, in a partnership with L’Oréal. Besides its clothing and perfume lines, the Armani brand chooses to diversify its activities and launches into the field of cosmetics, accessories and jewelry, not forgetting a home furnishings line and a first restaurant in 1989.

In the years 2000’s, the company spreads out its activities into heterogeneous sectors such as art of living, sport, the food industry (Armani caffé, Armani Dolci…) or else the hotel industry with its first hotel in Dubai in 2010.

Throughout the years, the group has gone for a vertical integration process, by producing internally rather than relying on licensed partners.

The idea to open an Armani department store comes up in 2000, and the designer opens it at 31 Via Manzoni in Milan. It distributes the Emporio Armani, Armani Jeans et Armani Casa brands. It also provides a Nobu café, a bookshop, and a flower corner. Other Armani department stores have appeared in Hong Kong, in Munich and in Shanghai.

Each Armani brand has its own visual identity which includes the designer’s name. The colors being used are black and white.

Following a turnover backslide in 2016 , the Armani Group announced its decision to implement a simplification of its brand portfolio. Thus, the Emporio Armani brand will absorb the Armani Collezioni and Armani Jeans labels, while the luxury collections will be gathered under the Giorgio Armani name, and the younger and more accessible lines under the name A|X Armani Exchange. These three brands will stand next to the Haute couture GA Privé et Armani Casa brands. Giorgio Armani reckons that this repositioning « should help the customers distributing the brand to sell and display the collections. There was too much confusion with so many collections. Times are changing and we should evolve »

« Emporio Armani will become a « think tank » confides Giorgio Armani to WWD . We are rethinking our stores. I don’t believe in categories being strictly separated, jackets in one place, skirts in another, pants in yet another. According to the designer, the objective is to serve a different public by showing them different lines within one single space. « The consumers want to relish their buying experience. They want to be entertained. We have to keep in mind the meaning of the word Emporio. It must be a mall.

The students are asked to:

1. Establish the Armani Group’s diagnosis
2. To specify the action levers for a successful strategy; this question entails to identify the levers the company has selected to reposition itself on a very competitive market and to define complementary actions to ensure the success of this strategy
3. Define the positioning of each brand of the new 2018 strategy and place each of them on the luxury brands’mapping which they have to create
4. Analyse the advantages and the drawbacks of the new multi-brand strategy chosen by the group