Armani Brand Analysis and Recommendations

This assignment delves into a comprehensive analysis of the Armani brand, examining its internal strengths and weaknesses as well as external opportunities and threats using the SWOT framework. The analysis explores Armani's successful brand positioning in the luxury segment, its challenges in expanding to new markets like China and India, and the impact of consumer preferences and competition. Based on the findings, the assignment offers recommendations for Armani to enhance its product offerings, leverage technology for marketing, and prioritize customer satisfaction to maintain its competitive edge.

1. BRAND OVERVIEW
What is the brand’s owner?
Giorgio Armani is the brand owner if the Armani which was founded in 1975. He was born in
Italy on 11th July, 1934 and pursued his career in designing. He is known as the pioneer of red
carpet fashion.
What is the brand’s inventory?
Armani serves in varieties of products which includes watches, perfumes, shoes, leather goods,
apparels, cosmetics, glasses, accessories and interiors for home as well.
What is the brand’s history?
Armani is a private company headquartered in Milan, Italy serving across the globe. Armani
was founded in 1975 and it serves the millions of customers in maintaining their prestigious
image in the fashion industry (Merlo, 2011).
What is the brand’s promise?
The brand basically focuses on three aspects i.e. class, quality and exclusivity (Martin roll,
2016). Armani also focuses on “affordable luxury” concept. “Quality standards” is one of the
important factor the brand promises to their customers (Ghuwalewala, 2014).

What is the brand’s story?
The brand Armani was put under the famous designer “Giorgio Armani”. In 1964, he started his
career in fashion industry as a window dresser and learnt the depth knowledge about the fabric
and materials. But then he left the company and started his own business in 1975. Today,
Armani has become one of the most respected and reputed brand in fashion industry which
highlights the luxury aspect of an individual (Stanford, 2014).
List five human “brand personality” traits that describe how the brand is viewed in the market.
BRAND PERSONALITY TRAITS
1 The first brand personality trait is” luxury” as the brand Armani itself denotes the view of
luxury and happiness in the minds of customers.
2 The second trait is “Relationship” which includes trust, quality and value of the product and
Armani genuinely fulfills these factors.
3 The third trait is “personality” which comprises od confident, mature and stylish nature of a
human. Armani is the brand which suits the person with a great personality.
4 The fourth trait is “self-image” which contain the uniqueness and fashionable features in it
and when it comes to the brand Armani, it reflects the word “unique”.
5 The fifth trait is “iconic” because it is one of the elite brand in the society which is
affordable by the luxury segments of people and also reflects the success.

2. BRAND POSITION
What are the products/services offered under this brand?
Armani offers a huge variety of products and services. The products offered under this brand are
shoes, bags, accessories, perfumes, apparels, glasses, watches, cosmetics, home interiors and
leather products as well. Moreover, all the sections are gain subdivided into different categories
according to age group, gender and preferences (Nordstrom, 2018).
What are the brand sub names, logos, symbols, characters, slogans, jingles, packaging, etc. (Use
visuals only for logos, symbols, etc.)
Giorgio Armani, Emporio Armani, Armani Collezioni, Armani Jeans, Armani Exchange,
Armani Junior, Armani/Casa, Armani/Dolci, Armani/Fiori, Armani/Hotels are the sub names of
the brand Armani (Ishihara,2017).
“The difference between the style and fashion is quality” and “It’s all about good taste” are the
famous quotes said by Giorgio Armani.
Armani offers a luxury packaging of the products within the box and the brand name mentioned
over it.

List the following:
1 Brand associations: when the word Armani is heard, the work luxury is automatically
attached to it because the brand associate comfort and lush in the minds of customers.
2 Approximate brand value: In 2012, Armani was listed as the third most valuable Italian
brand with 4.6 billion U.S. dollars value (Statistics portal, 2018).

3 Brand market share: 1% online market share is owned by Armani.
4 Brand distribution: They sell their products online as well as offline. They also have retail
outlets where customers walk in and buy products where online platform is also provided to
the customers where products reaches to their hand.
3. BRAND METRICS
Identify the brand’s awareness in the marketplace.
It create brand awareness in the market by promoting their products in fashion shows, cat walk
presentations, exhibitions and boutiques with the famous celebrities endorsing them.
Who are the brands main competitors?
Louis Vuitton: revenue of €35.7 billion with 9.5 % of online market share.
Prada: revenue of 3.55 billion euros with 1.1 % of online market share.
Burberry: revenue of 2.5 billion GBP with of 4.2 % of online market share.
4. BRAND RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS

Identify research resources.
Bedeschi, 2017, Offshoring & reshoring the case of Giorgio Armani operations.
Frederiksen L, 2017, ‘A 10 Step Brand Development Strategy for Your Professional Services
Firm’, viewed on: 12th January, 2018. Available on:
https://hingemarketing.com/blog/story/a_10_step_brand_development_strategy_for_your_profe
ssion
Ghuwalewala A, 2014,’ Delivering on the brand is the key in luxury’, viewed on: 11th January,
2018. Available on: https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/229517/delivering-on-the-
brand-promise-is-key-in-luxury.html
Ishihara, M. and Zhang, Q., 2017. Balancing Exclusivity and Accessibility: Patterns of Brand
and Product Line Extension Strategies in the Fashion Luxury Industry. Luxury, 4(1), pp.31-57.
Martin roll, 2016, ‘Giorgio Armani – The Iconic Global Fashion Brand’, viewed on: 11th
January, 2018. Available on: https://martinroll.com/resources/articles/branding/giorgio-armani-
the-iconic-fashion-brand/
Merlo, E., 2011. Italian fashion business: achievements and challenges (1970s–2000s). Business
History, 53(3), pp.344-362.
Nordstrom, 2018, ‘Armani Collezioni’, viewed on: 11th January, 2018. Available on:
https://shop.nordstrom.com/c/armani-collezioni
Oborune, K., 2014. The" Mexx" Brand. Strategic Audit, SWOT Analysis and Brand
Rejuvenation Strategy.

Stanford .K, 2014, ‘The history of Armani’, viewed on: 11th January, 2018. Available on:
https://www.mainlinemenswear.co.uk/blog/2016/the-history-of-armani
Statistics portal, 2018,’ Brand value of the leading 20 most valuable Italian brands in 2012’,
viewed on 11th January, 2018. Available on: https://www.statista.com/statistics/235164/brand-
value-of-the-leading-20-most-valuable-italian-brands/
What is your analysis of the research undertaken on the brand?
After the completion of the research undertaken on the brand named “Armani”, it can be
analyzed that the brand reflect the confidence and royalty of the people. It targets and focuses
basically on luxury segments and it was named under the famous Italian designer ‘ Giorgio
Armani’ who deals in varieties of products like watches, perfumes, apparels, shoes and many
more categorizes under different segments according to preferences, age and gender. Moreover,
it can also be found that there are many competitors of Armani which are leading the fashion
industry as well.
SWOT Analysis
Conduct a SWOT analysis of the brand and identify key marketing challenges (Oborune, 2014)
Strengths
It has successfully built a strong relationship
with the reputed designers who designs
customized products to different customers
across the globe.
Weaknesses
While expanding their business in other
countries like china and India, Armani faces
the lack of experience problem and Armani
also faces the lack of brand awareness among
the customers where some of the people are
still aware of the brand.

It serves very effective and efficient supply
chain management process and created an
image of luxury products exclusively The bargaining power of very low when it
deals with the other designers.
Opportunities
Changing consumer preferences on the basis
of technology and demographics also enables
Armani to serve the customers with the hottest
trend.
Armani can expand it online platform and
serve across the globe with innovations and
new marketing strategy.
Threats
Consumer can substitute the Armani product
with the other brands due to high prices and
many fake products of Armani are sold by the
retailers which may create a problem for the
brand.
Logistic issues, fear of insecurities and fraud
cases and problems in dealing with the local
customers in other countries.
5. CONCLUSION
What are the research conclusions?
According to the research conducted, it can be concluded that the brand Armani itself reflects
confidence. Armani offers several categories of brand with the target to fulfill the luxury
segment needs. It promotes itself in magazines, events, cat walks presentations and known
fashion shows with famous celebrities as a brand ambassador. Moreover, Armani is also
creating a innovated platform where the customers can be less conscious about the higher

pricing strategy.
What are the SWOT conclusions?
From the above SWOT analysis of the brand Armani, it can be concluded that there are many
internal as well as external factors which affects the brand positively as well as negatively. New
competitors in the markets can be issue for the Armani where costumers may prefer other
products but then when it comes to target the luxury segments, Armani is the best option
proffered by the customers. Moreover, it should also diversify its digital platform and should
focus more top serve globally.
What are the recommendations from the audit?
From the above report conducted, it can be recommended that Armani should focus more on
enhancing its product while competing with the other famous brands like Gucci, Prada, Louis
Vuitton and many more. It should promote itself using new technologies in other different
countries like china and Indian market where the customers prefer hottest trends more. It should
also focus on the customer satisfaction where the customers should be free to provide feedback
and their feedback should be on highest priority.
What are the proposed method/methods of implementing the audit recommendations?
Research and identify the target clients: when Armani is focusing on promoting itself in new
countries, it should identify new customers first and then target them according to preferences
and demand.

Review brand: Armani being the luxury brand should review itself in terms of growth and
success by evaluating the strategies time to time (Frederiksen, 2017).
Feedback evaluation: since Armani serves the online platform for the customers where
customers are free to buy products online, they should be allowed to provide feedback on their
website and their feedback should be taken into highest priority.