Ch. 12-Services and Nonprofit Organization Marketing

Givenchy's products are finely and carefully crafted with great attention to detail while using the highest quality materials. These are found is every single one of their products. Although they don't let you see how the items are produced, customers can only believe that the maison will live up to their name. Why do people spend outrageous amount of cash on a item from Givenchy when they can probably find something way cheaper in H&M? Well that is like comparing a BMW to a Jeep. The customer ultimately knows the quality before the purchase. 

Why do high end brands strive for so long? They feed off of peoples insecurities; fashion itself feeds off insecurities. Some people that buy Givenchy products love the items and are amazed by the quality. However they just can't have enough, they will buy another one. Could it be the quality? Maybe it can. Since most sales for Givenchy are made online and the consumer get their knowledge off the description, communication with service workers become less. Which means that the products overweigh services. Even though services have greater heterogeneity over products, which Givenchy understands. They make up for that part by often exceeding customer expectations and offering the best possible customer experience. Givenchy's customers expect the highest quality work delivered in a timely manner, which is what Cartier does. 

One thing that all fashion brand have to face is the end of each season. During the end they must place all their clothing on huge sales. This is done to get rid of the items and minimize losses. Some stores may have 40% off or even 80% off. Can you imagine Givenchy products going on 80% off? I cannot, well I don't have to because they don't. Products only go on sale for Givenchy is when the product is being sold through a different retailer than Givenchy itself. So what do Givenchy do with the left over clothing in their main stores? They collect items in all available sizes in a big warehouse and let the employees buy them at a very low price, even at cost! These items are often kept for a very long time until they decide to effectively destroy them. While it may seem like a crazy move, it's actually a well thought business decision. Every Luxury brand items are considered luxury for their scarcity. By destroying the remaining, you control the demand and your goods won't flood the market and end up in places that will affect the brand. 

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Ch. 11- Developing and Managing Products

The brand Givenchy has become today can only be described in one word, which is unique or avant garde in French. If Givenchy didn't have anything special, why would people buy their items at such an outrageous price? I agree price tags on luxurious item are unjustified by just the material. Givenchy can do that because the now how to manage their products. They know that their customers will buy it due to the hype and demand for such trendy items. Fashion brand feed off of these trends created by the people. This means that a lot of brands will try to produce items that the customers want. Creating a huge competition for Givenchy. So what does the Givenchy brand do? They experiment with fashion, they try to create items that will set a trend. The marketing team for Givenchy often get celebrities to promote new styles and whatnot. With such a huge loyal customer base, they are safe to experiment on new items and try for flashier styles, or even basic styles. And with prices placed so high, customers often like to flaunt want they purchase on social media. This allows Givenchy to see whenever or not the item that they produce can continue to sell.

Kobe Bryant in a Givenchy tee and blazer

Show off???? (The Bag)

Ch. 8 - Segmenting and Targeting Markets

With Givenchy's philosophy being elegance with simplicity, the brand was definitely geared towards professional, elegant women back in the 1960s. However, now with a larger line of more formal attire and hefty prices, it can be seen that the brand is geared towards the middle class. Consumers range from the late 20's-30's since they are the ones with the money to spend on the products. However, Givenchy has recently tried to become more popular with the younger generation. By experimenting with unique pieces, graphic prints, and using celebrities to be the face of Givenchy. The brand has definitely widened their demographic. Now this is just the people they sell to. To put them on the larger scale of world wide, they do a very good job of targeting the consumers. You may think that items sold in Asia will be more Asian cultured, and items sold in Africa is more African cultured. That is untrue, because Givenchy is a brand know for their pieces. And no matter where the items are sold, the item will always be the same that is sold everywhere. Givenchy is Givenchy because of the consumers. They know that the item they are getting isn't the same as the ones they get from Walmart or H&M. By having customers like this, Givenchy can always experiment with unique designs. But of course the maison wouldn't do anything to make their pieces unreasonable. The consumers that buy Givenchy most likely have the mindset of "You pay for what you get" and if Givenchy's quality doesn't match with the price, they will lose a large group of people.

Example of younger audience

Ch. 15- Marketing Communications

Givenchy is a brand establish upon the idea of high luxury, elegance, precision and extravagance. Being that most of their customer has already known or heard of their amazing quality, feedback is unnecessary. Their way of sending the message that their products are only the best quality is by their unique advertisements. Givenchy's advertisement only appear in high end fashion magazines as well as websites. Some customer may not know of Givenchy's superb quality through these avant-garde ads. As to how the retailers communicate with the customer is pretty straight forward. Since Givenchy is a high end brand, it is only right that all of their clothing being put out are sold in luxurious stores. If you have ever been to Bergdorf Goodman or even Mr.Porters in NYC, you will see that their customer service is in par with the items they sell, elegant and finesse. This goes for a lot of the stores that carry high end clothing. Their workers are expected to communicate well with the customers.

Givenchy F/W 2015 Ad

Chapter 10: Product Concepts

Givenchy is one of the worlds leading high end fashion brand. Loyal customers are always willing to drop a lot of cash in order to get the product. Givenchy’s target audience is mostly younger customers who seek the most pioneering fashion design. Although Givenchy products aren't limited, they are special. The special part about them is the quality they put into their items. Their authentic items can never be replicated due to the details and patchwork. One thing that gray market producers have trouble making is the logo "GIVENCHY" on the tag of all products. Which is just one of many way to differentiated fake and real. Clothing is just one of the many things that Givenchy produce. They range from cosmetics, perfumes, and many different accessories. These things are often packaged into a glossy box emblem-ed with the Givenchy logo, different from the logo on the tags of clothing.

Top is AUTHENTIC, bottom is FAKE

The infamous logo

Ch. 17 - Personal Selling and Sales Management

Givenchy was not always as famous as it was today. The founder Hubert de Givenchy had to work with Cristobal Balenciaga, the founder of the luxurious brand Balenciaga. Together they presented their collection in New York during a charity gala. In those days, the selling process mattered more than the product itself, but with all the changes and innovations, things have changed.But those days are long gone when consumers had to visit these shows to purchase a piece. Personal selling and sales management are crucial to a companies success but in the luxury market things operate a little differently. Givenchy is a luxury apparel brand, so their approach to sales and sales management will be a bit modified to fit their particular target consumer. 

As far as the sales management go, luxury brands like Givenchy usually depend on media publications to make allow their consumers to do their own research before even making a final decision. So as a result consumers value things more than they value service, making management a lot easier. The people want nice things more than they want nice service. Luxury products, like other products are part of the media many consumers consume, which is where people learn about and decide what they want to buy. That is why many luxury brands are working with the internet’s best retailers.

Ch. 16 - Advertising, Public Relations and Sales Promotion

Givenchy is a company known not only for their amazing quality in fabrics, but also a unique avant garde style. Which translate to new and unusual experimental ideas. This is applied to their clothing as well as their fashion shows. To promote their sales they do the most extraordinary things. For their Fall/Winter 2014 collection, Riccardo Tisci used a full basketball court as a runway to present his collection. The collections theme was sportswear but not only that, some of the pieces were made from high quality basketball skins. Givenchy implements a mix of advertising strategies to boost their company image. Their ads can be found in fashion blogs or any fashion related news topic. Their unique sales lies in the fact that many famous celebrity wear their clothing. Some like Beyonce and Jay Z would get their pieces custom made to fit the occasion.

Givenchy F/W 2014 Basketball Themed Showcase

Beyonce and Jay Z in Givenchy