Customer Experience in the Fashion Industry: A Case Study of Gucci

This document explores the customer experience in the fashion industry, with a specific focus on Gucci. It discusses the brand's history, its position in the market, and its key customers. The document also examines the attitudes of customers towards the brand and its customer services. Furthermore, it assesses the manifestations of customer experience through an audit and critically evaluates these against theories and models. Finally, the document provides recommendations for improving customer experience in the fashion industry.

Customer Experience

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Discuss what the brand is and its position in market..................................................................1
Key customers by frequency of usage and by key demographics..............................................2
Attitude of customers which they use in order to define the brand and customer services........3
Statements which customers use in order to identify the about their beliefs and organisational
culture underpins these statements..............................................................................................3
Audit for the manifestations of customer of brand which they carried out................................4
Critically assess these against theories and models....................................................................6
Recommendations for the improvement of customer experience...............................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Customer experience is the product regarding the interaction among the company and
customer over the duration of relationship. For this, the interaction is classified among three
sections which is the journey of customer, brand touchpoints to interact with customer and the
environment of customer experience (Lemon and Verhoef, 2016). For this, positive customer
experience is important in order to achieve success and growth for business because if customers
are happy they tends to become loyal and help in boosting revenues. To carry forward this report,
Gucci is considered which is a luxury brand of fashion based in Florence, Italy. Its product lines
include shoes, handbags, accessories and so on. Gucci was founded by Guccio Gucci in 1921 and
under the direction of Aldo Gucci, it became the well known brand in world. The report is going
to cover the brand itself and how it offer the services to their customers in order to deliver best
experience.
MAIN BODY
Discuss what the brand is and its position in market
Gucci was developed in 1921 by Guccio Gucci in Tuscany and the whole Gucci family
was ousted from the capital of company by 1993. Moreover, in 2019 Gucci operated in around
487 stores for 17,157 employees and also tends to generate 9.628 billion in sales. Along with
this, Gucci is the subsidiary of French luxury group Kering. After the crisis in 1980s, brand also
tends to revived with the challenging props and became an iconic “Geek-Chic” brand. Away
with this, Gucci claims its its origins which are rooted to the merchant city of Florence and also
tends to enhance experience and luxurious travelling lifestyles.
Boston Consultancy Group (BCG) Matrix:
Putting Gucci as the stars with the high industry tends to deal with proper development
rate and high relative piece of the effective position of make up and handbags are set as the
DOGS. In terms of this, the BCG matrix recommends to Gucci to put more in stars and also
stripping their make up and handbags. Considering this, the turnover also prominently
diminished due to the auctioning of brands and suspending exercises. Moreover, in 1921 Guccio
Gucci bought his shop where he sold his imported leather luggage and also opened a small
workshop to have his own leather goods that are made by local craftsman. Furthermore,
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turnovers expanded over the recent years and it happen due to the smooth running of company
and the expense of deals that have diminished and also consider the overall revenues.
Key customers by frequency of usage and by key demographics
In regard of this, customers plays an important role in each company and also consider
the importance to make them more satisfy with their products and services by offering its help in
order to achieve growth and success in market area (Bolton and et. al., 2018). Moreover, it is
identified that with the help of STP model an entity is capable to achieve prominent vision
regarding the valuable customer and also develop its products and marketing strategies. It is also
significant for the top level management of Gucci in order to examine the demographics to target
the right market that helps in achieving suitable position. The STP of Gucci is mentioned as
under: Segmentation: It prominently categorise the overall market into various segments
regarding their needs and features. It is classified on the grounds of behaviour,
demographics, geographic and so on. In terms of Gucci, they tends to segment their
market on the basis of demographic considering the gender, age, income, occupation and
so on. Targeting: For this, company tends to decide their segment as they need to target
potential market in order to earn profit and also sustain in market for longer period of
time (McColl-Kennedy and et. al., 2019). In terms of Gucci, their target people tends to
belong from rich and business class and also those who are more concerned about fashion
and current trends as it helps in improving the productivity and performance of company.
Along with this, their target market tends to consider the age group which is around 20-
45 as at this age people are more conscious regards their looks and fashion,
 Positioning: It takes place after prominently target the overall market which is decided
by company. It refers as developing the effective mind set of people towards the brand
regarding their profitability and effective performance that tends to enhance at the market
area (Homburg, Jozić and Kuehnl, 2017). In terms of Gucci, they tends to use social
media applications like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and other in terms of promoting
their brand within the market. Along with this, it is helpful for company to reach towards
the large number of customers and also improve their customer base with the vision of
more profit margin.
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By considering the above discussion, it is identified that it is significant for company to
conduct proper market segmentation as it is useful in order to target potential customers and also
maintain their position in market in an effective way. It is also identified that it directly
influence the behaviour and attitude of customers as it is important regarding the positioning of
product according to the profile of brand as it helps in developing the positive behaviour of
customers and high acceptance that are offered in market.
Attitude of customers which they use in order to define the brand and customer services
Customers and their viewpoint plays an important role within the fashion industry as
company need to develop products according to the needs and requirements of customers and
also identify their attitude which is developed according to the availability within the market and
also offer same services and products (Kandampully, Zhang and Jaakkola, 2018). For this, the
target audience of Gucci renowned the oldest brand regarding the fashion industry in order to
serve within various markets and also hold multiple subsidiaries to rich class people and society.
Moreover, attitude of these target audience towards the fashion brand in terms of availing
prominent services for experiencing comfort and good looks as per their demand and material. In
addition to this, people tends to attracted by providing separate offers including extra benefits,
discounts, better customer experience and so on that tends to retain and attract customers for the
longer period of time. Gucci also offer these services in terms of developing the effective
position in market by making healthy terms with their customers.
Few of these effects put negative influence on the mindset of customers and also tends to
attract customers at the high prices by offer effective services because they believe that all of
these services are of the higher quality (Stein and Ramaseshan, 2016). Along with this, the
regular efforts makes them to lose interest towards the brand and for long time benefits these
offerings are beneficial in terms of providing best services to their customers and also keep them
satisfied with the quality and services. It makes them long lasting towards the purchasing
decision, behaviour and attitude of customers.
Statements which customers use in order to identify the about their beliefs and organisational
culture underpins these statements
Customer service plays a vital role in the company which is useful in order to retain
within the market for the longer period of time and also improve the market performance of
company. It is also significant for Gucci to offer quality to their customers on time as it helps in
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attracting and retaining them for longer period of time which is useful in making effective
position of brand and its position in market (Organizational Culture, 2019). The top
management of Gucci tends to put emphasis on offer good quality services to their customers
and also consider their expectations as it tends to believe that customers are the king and asset
for company which is useful in achieving higher growth and success. In terms of Gucci,
company tends to follow several factors in terms of offering quality services that are mentioned
as underneath:
 It is identified that company has the website and other applications that include all the
prominent information regarding its products and services. Moreover, customers also
tends to ask for the queries on their websites and also put emphasis on solving queries
frequently (Jain, Aagja and Bagdare, 2017). Moreover, company also offer its services
for 24*7 to their potential customers which is useful in developing positive mindset
towards the products of brand.
 Gucci also offer customisation and personalised options to their customers by which they
can reserve for their bookings as per the requirements. It tends to attract the large number
of customers towards the brand that put positive impact on the profitability of company.
 In modern times, each and every brand is going digital and make effective use of online
platform and social media applications in terms of advertising their brand and also make
aware regarding its services to the huge customers (Roy and et. al., 2017). Additionally,
by using social medial applications Gucci helps in terms of gaining its insight regarding
customer reviews by offering services to them that is helpful in making prominent
improvement by offering high customer experience.
Therefore, it is identified that company tends to opt market culture within the
organisation that tends to develop suitable dynamics of the competition and helpful in achieving
positive outcome. For this, the goal of company is to offer effective services that satisfy the
requirements of customers and tends to retain them for longer period of time. It is helpful for
company as it make employees more flexible that helps in dealing with prominent changes that
occur in market and also provide quality services to their potential customers as per the trends in
market area.
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Audit for the manifestations of customer of brand which they carried out
The prominent objective of organising brand audit is useful in achieving effective
understanding regarding the accurate position of brand in comparison to its competitors and
efficiency. Additionally, it is helpful for company in order to gain vision regarding the brand
about its strengths and weaknesses which is helpful in making prominent development and
improvement in effective way (Bilgihan, Kandampully and Zhang, 2016). It is helpful for Gucci
to know regarding the brand promise to customer manifest continuously that tends to cross all
the touch points for the specific brand. Moreover, touchpoints refers to any place in which
customers come into the contact with the specific brand. It takes place by the several medium
considering the social media, face to face meeting, online website and many more. In terms of
Gucci, they make effective use of customer experience with the help of excellence model as it is
helpful to carry out the audit in order to gain effective vision regarding he customer service that
is delivered for the satisfaction of customers. The effective model consider six pillars that are
mentioned as: Personalisation: It tends to analyse the most of the valuable factor for the most
prominent experiences. It tends to include the prominent demonstration for company in
terms of understanding the customer expectations and needs that will accept all these
experiences respectively (Ren and et. al., 2016). In terms of Gucci, it is identified that
they offer personalised services to their customers and also focus on fulfilling the needs
by offering the effective service and quality. This also helpful for company in order to
make healthy relations and connection with customers and tends to retain them for longer
period of time. Integrity: It depicts the stage which is significant for company in terms of fulfilling the
promises that are developed by the customers as it useful in order to develop trust of their
potential customers towards the brand. In relation with Gucci, it is identified that
company tends to make sure that they fulfil the requirements and promises of customer
by helping them which is the difficult situation and tends to develop trust which is in the
mind of customers. Resolution: It depicts that the poor experience can be turn into huge as if company tends
to accept mistakes and apologise for it (Hwang and Seo, 2016). It is identified that Gucci
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opt this procedure in terms of getting their customers back and also apologise to them for
their mistake and other acts in order to get successful solution to their customers. Time and effort: It is important to the company to develop effective process in terms of
declining the efforts of customers. In the context of Gucci, they make effective use of the
services which are provided by company through online platform which include 24*7
services which is more convenient for people to shop according to their time. Empathy: This factor depicts that it is important to develop empathy among customers as
it helpful for Gucci to develop healthy relation with customers in order to gain
understanding regarding how customer feel and think about the brand.
 Expectations: It is the most important factor for Gucci to retain in market and fight for
their survival in order to meet as per the need of customers. It is identified that the
manager of make sure that the high quality services are offered to their customers by
undertaking their needs that are timely fulfilled in an effective manner (Keiningham and
et. al., 2020). It is helpful for company in order to enhance the number of loyal
customers.
Critically assess these against theories and models
McKinsey is an effective framework that put emphasis on the 7 major factors of company
in terms of gaining knowledge and effectiveness for the operations of company in terms of
attaining goals and objectives. Its factors are mentioned as: Strategy of Gucci is to attract people and positioning in market potentially which is very
strong in order to achieve competitive advantage by continuously offer products to their
regular guests. Structure of Gucci include the matrix which is hybrid in its way of working and also
tends to combines features through functional and divisional structure that is required due
to diverse portfolio of Gucci. System is allied with the structure of company as the decisions are made by the
management undertaking the headquartered as all the departments tends to develop their
action plan to make future decisions (Trivedi, 2019). Style depicts that the top management of Gucci for the smooth running and operations
tends to persuade for the two way and flexible communication as everyone tends to kept
informed in terms of being engaged within the operations for higher efficiency.
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 Staff is quite diverse of Gucci as it is the multinational organisation that has global
presence and due to this, staff tends to include huge number of hired individual from the
local communities undertaking the effective skills. Skills consider the manpower of Gucci that is varied in nature as organisation has
different operations by which they tends to appoint specialists for the knowledge and
skills.
 Shared Value depicts the culture of company in which the management and its
employees are more comfortable with each other by representing the power of prominent
terms and actions by accomplishing goals (Bolton and et. al., 2018).
Recommendations for the improvement of customer experience
 It is recommended to the higher authority of Gucci to offer training program to their
employees as it is helpful in order to enhance the skills and competence of workers by
which they can offer effective quality products and services.
 It is also suggested that the managers of Gucci tends to offer 24*7 services in their stores
as well which is useful offering frequent services to their customers. It is also helpful for
company in order to develop positive mindset of customers towards the brand in terms of
enhancing the performance level of company.
 Moreover, the managers of Gucci can take feedback from their customers for the
improvement in their products and services for better improvement and image of
company.
CONCLUSION
By considering the above discussion, it is identified that customer experience is important
in company as it helpful in order to gain high growth and success. Meanwhile negative customer
experience tends to decline the brand image of company. Organisations tends to put emphasis on
offering effective quality and customer experience that is useful in increasing the number of
customer and also enhances the brand. Moreover, undertaking the six dimensions customer
experience tends to offer effective products and services in market to increase the market share
and performance.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bilgihan, A., Kandampully, J. and Zhang, T.C., 2016. Towards a unified customer experience in
online shopping environments. International Journal of Quality and Service Sciences.
Bolton, R.N and et. al., 2018. Customer experience challenges: bringing together digital,
physical and social realms. Journal of Service Management.
Homburg, C., Jozić, D. and Kuehnl, C., 2017. Customer experience management: toward
implementing an evolving marketing concept. Journal of the Academy of Marketing
Science, 45(3), pp.377-401.
Hwang, J. and Seo, S., 2016. A critical review of research on customer experience
management. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.
Jain, R., Aagja, J. and Bagdare, S., 2017. Customer experience–a review and research
agenda. Journal of Service Theory and Practice.
Kandampully, J., Zhang, T.C. and Jaakkola, E., 2018. Customer experience management in
hospitality. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.
Keiningham, T and et. al., 2020. Customer experience driven business model
innovation. Journal of Business Research, 116, pp.431-440.
Lemon, K.N. and Verhoef, P.C., 2016. Understanding customer experience throughout the
customer journey. Journal of marketing, 80(6), pp.69-96.
McColl-Kennedy, J.R and et. al., 2019. Gaining customer experience insights that
matter. Journal of Service Research, 22(1), pp.8-26.
Ren, L and et. al., 2016. Exploring customer experience with budget hotels: Dimensionality and
satisfaction. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 52, pp.13-23.
Roy, S.K and et. al., 2017. Constituents and consequences of smart customer experience in
retailing. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 124, pp.257-270.
Stein, A. and Ramaseshan, B., 2016. Towards the identification of customer experience touch
point elements. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 30, pp.8-19.
Trivedi, J., 2019. Examining the customer experience of using banking Chatbots and its impact
on brand love: the moderating role of perceived risk. Journal of internet
Commerce, 18(1), pp.91-111.
Online:
Organizational Culture. 2019. [Online]. Available through <https://www.runmeetly.com/four-
types-organizational-culture>
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