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puck news.com
Gucci’s New Messenger
Gucci, for its part, can’t wait to turn a corner and exit this morass. Earlier this week, the brand announced new hires in its marketing and communications division. As I predicted two weeks ago, the change puts Givenchy’s Valérie Leberichel in charge of the department. Incoming C.E.O. Stefano Cantino seems to be working overtime to streamline the business, which already had a complex setup before Sabato De Sarno entered the picture. However, it became more chaotic when he brought in his people, who overlapped with Gucci’s people, which made it even harder to get things done. Or at least done properly.Runway shows aside, one of the most challenging aspects of the De Sarno era has been the communications and marketing strategy rollout. Things started strong with a few great campaigns that were shot long before he ever showed a collection, but then quickly became muddled. De Sarno did far too many interviews, and was positioned by the brand as a star (complete with his own documentary) when they should have let the industry anoint him, instead.
Of course, the real challenge for Gucci is bigger than De Sarno. As Cantino knows from his formative experience running marketing and communications at Louis Vuitton, leather goods are a practically inexhaustible resource for consumers. (Indeed, Louis Vuitton generates more revenue annually than all of Kering.) Gucci already generates more than half its revenue from leather goods, but there’s room to grow and leverage those recurring revenue opportunities. Chairman and C.E.O. François-Henri Pinault has made it clear that his leadership team believes Gucci could and should be the Louis Vuitton of his group.
The problem with this theory, inevitably, is that Tom Ford turned Gucci into a fashion house in the ’90s. During that same period, Jacobs and Martin Margiela were additive at Louis Vuitton and Hermès, respectively, but Ford overwhelmed Gucci, and his influence and legacy were compounded during the Alessandro Michele era. (He, too, overwhelmed the brand.) People want real flair from Gucci, but part of Cantino’s job will be to impart a sense of fashion into the offerings while also establishing it as the first stop for handbags, luggage, wallets, belts, etcetera.
Not easy. Of course, all of this could be derailed if Donald Trump decides to enforce tariffs on the damn things.
