Semester 1: Dolce & Gabbana Brand Positioning Analysis Report

This report provides a detailed analysis of Dolce & Gabbana's brand positioning, examining its current status as a luxury fashion house and its target market, which includes individuals aged 30-50, particularly women. The report explores the company's unique product designs, collaborations, and marketing strategies. It addresses the significant brand crisis stemming from a controversial advertisement in China, which led to boycotts and a decline in brand value. The report investigates the positioning of Dolce & Gabbana relative to competitors like Gucci and Versace, highlighting points of parity and difference. Furthermore, it discusses strategies for rebuilding the brand's image with a limited budget, including leveraging influencer marketing, offering price reductions, and utilizing social media. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of adapting to market changes and managing brand reputation effectively.

BUSINESS BRANDING

TABLE OF CONTENTS
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Positioning of Dolce and Gabbana .............................................................................................4
Explaining the Development of a new brand positioning...........................................................5
Strategies for Rebuilding Brand Positioning of D&G with limited Budget-..............................6
.........................................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

MAIN BODY
Dolce & Gabbana is an Italian fashion industry and house which is situated in Milan, Italy. The
company deals in various products that includes perfumes, cosmetics, footwear, watches,
sunglasses and handbags (Nastiti, Syavaranti and Aruman, 2021). The reason to chose this brand
is it have unique products as compared to other companies it watches that have unique designs as
which is not comparable with any other firms. It clothing have attracted large number of
customers and celebrity who loves to wear its clothes. The company is also partnered with
different firms that are Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Citroen and Martini. All the products that are
made by the company are regarding the sparking trends and the business is known as the Sicilian
culture for its style. The reason behind choosing this brand is that it very common towards all the
company because of his brand issues that was faced in the year 2018. Also, company promote
their brands by using websites, televisions and different social media sites. The company have
their stores across forty countries and have headquarters at Italy.
The issue was regarding the advertisement that was done in china (Dolce & Gabbana fiasco
shows importance, risks of China market.2021). The advertisement were regarding promoting
shanghai runway show. The video was related to the lady who was wearing the dress the cocktail
dress of Dolce and Gabbana and was trying to eat pizza and noodles with chopsticks.
The ad have resulted in sexist, dis-restful and stereotypical for the Chinese people, models and
the government. The biggest was that all the sited and retailers have stopped using the products
of Dolce and Gabbana to save their reputations. Within the 24 hours company have removed the
advertisement but on the other hand one of the person have taken the screenshot of that and have
put it on its social media site and page. In that the person of D& G was calling the china country
with the name of poop emojis that have resulted as the big insult of the country. By the facts of
Dolce and Gabbana company the nbcnews have covered and identified all the information of the
issues that was faced by the company in the year later both the CO and manager of the company
have made the video regarding apologizing the china regarding the boycott of the advertisements
that have insulted the culture of china. This advertisement have resulted in bad performance of
the company and have also resulted in great lose.
Their were so many review on the celebrity Selena Gomez that she is ugly because the company
have around 1.6 million followees in their Instagram page. By the media it was also known they

their were so many celebrities who have blast regarding the boycott of the show and later the
show was also cancelled. There was also the information about the people who were cutting the
clothes of Dolce and Gabbana and burning it also they were picking up the chopsticks and
rubbish it. This have resulted in bad reputation of the company all the position of the company
have been resulted in declining way. The people have stopped buying the products from the
Dolce and Gabbana.
Positioning of Dolce and Gabbana
The current positioning if Dolce and Gabbana is their innovative, elegant, unique and modern
luxury products with high quality (Jung ,and et.al., 2020). The target market of Dolce and
Gabbana is the individuals which are mainly aged between thirty to fifty years and especially
they give importance to women because their products are mainly for girls. All the products of
the company have high income and all of them are made of fashion conscious. Later on the
company have styled the products for the age group which are now targeted markets of Dolce
and Gabbana who are innovators, trendsetters and the people want to do irony in fashion and
want to enjoy fashion. The products of Gucci are based on supreme quality that are very high in
price. The brand have also worked with so many famous personality which are known by every
individual in the world. The brand of Dolce and Gabbana is very trendy and elegant. They adopt
premium pricing strategy. The key competitors of Dolce and Gabbana are Gucci, versace and
Christian dior. Gucci is the main competitor of the company as they believe in trying new things
that were not thought about any other companies.
The point of parity of Dolce and Gabbana is their diffusion line of the brand. And all the
products that are served under the company are manufactured at binda and naloni group. As per
the point of different Gucci is different form Dolce and Gabbana because it dresses involves
cultures, trends in fashions and taste preference and serves dresses for all genders but as
comparison of Dolce and Gabbana that serves only to women. The Gucci is famous for it unique
elements and creating the demands of its customers (Tripathi, 2020). The competitors are mainly
defined as powerful, accomplished and seduction. On the comparison with the versace they are
known for their colours and symbolic flashy prints that are very stylish as compared to the other
companies. They serve colourful, luxurious collection which includes animal skin motifs, mix
barrique prints and bondage style leather and slits. On the other hand Dolce and Gabbana do not
make the clothes and other products in very printed design. versace also serves the clothes and

other products for all the age group which the important point of difference as compared to
Dolce and Gabbana. Also, the perfume's collection of versace are known by everyone that no one
can compete their fragrance they are unique and good. Both the company do not make high
amount of heat perfumes but are good at making cold weathers scents. As compared to other
brands the company have different fashion channels but they are especially for the iPhones users.
Also, the company have the strategy to communicate their customers in real life by using these
apps.
Explaining the Development of a new brand positioning.
Brand positioning is related to process by which the marketers will be planning for creating the
image in the mind of customers by different methods that are regarding product, organization
and brand. It is the heart for making the market strategy in the companies.
The current brand positioning can be different in following ways:
 The current position of the company can be changed by promoting their consumer and
product feature. They can create their products in two attributes also they can change
their price so that all the levels of people can buy their products.
 They can also set their brand as per the characteristics and benefits that are offered by
their competitors.
 They can also use different pricing strategy for positing themselves and get the focus of
the customer's by comparing the brands at competitive price.
The elements that are maintained by the Dolce and Gabbana is their uniqueness which is not
compared by any other company. The position of the company is very high end luxury brand.
They have also made themselves in the form of unconventional and authentic. The company can
also male new target segments, brand name, can also launch new products that are made for all
the age groups. Positioning refers to the specific commodity price-performance collection
offered by a retail mercantile establishment that are related to encouraging target markets on the
other hand it has resulted in shooing on that outlet. The elements the company should changed
that are regarding their products that are served for only women. They can also use their current
positioning that are related to competitor, customers and channels. They can also start
manufacturing the products that can be used for all the genders and all the age groups people.
They can also make the strategy plans that are related to online delivery of their products.
Company can also promote themselves by using different methods that are not only by social

media but they can use advertisement on televisions and newspapers. The company can also
make product differentiation by making unique design and new techniques. They can also solve
the problems that are related to customers pain by making them more clear about their products
by solve all the queries that are faced by them
Strategies for Rebuilding Brand Positioning of D&G with limited Budget-
Company's brand value is decrease due to the wrong advertising and value of the firm has
effect very badly. Manager of the company need to develop the strategies that will recreate the
brand image with limited budget. Brand image is reduce due to one negative advertisement it can
be rebuilt with giving more consideration to advertising. Some basic strategies are that will help
company for rebuilding are as follows-
Advertising with Influencer- Company can approach the public celebrity that has more
fan following and ability to attract mass gathering. Company need to create an advertisement that
will highlighted the company's main achievement and USP(Unit Selling Product). With the help
of influencer/celebrity it will impact more public and create brand building (Nastiti, Syavaranti
and Aruman, 2021). It would mostly focus on the positive point and need to highlight the
innovation on that company is working. From the voice and visual of celebrate public may look
for the current advertisement not on the wrong one. Company need to advertised mostly on
holding and online advertisement that will grab more attraction rather than newspaper and TV in
current situation people are more related with online.
Price Reduction- It will not be the cost effective function for company, however it will
help to rebuilding the brand image. In this manager need to reduce the price USP product that are
t-shirts, sun glasses and shoes. Company need to reduce the price for short term period that will
help in rebuilding brand name in public. In can be reduced the profit margin for initial period but
have big impact moreover, people will attract with brand again because of discounts. It also will
create satisfaction in the customers mind and provide mouth publicity for the company. Any
brand that want to rebuild image most effective tool is mouth publicity that have zero cost. This
has much influence just to their friends, and colleagues are recommending they will not look for
further research. It increases sales and brand value no other strategy is effective for rebuilding.
Social Media- In the current era social media has big influenced positive as well as
negative. It plays a big role for value creation of brand, company mostly focused and target of
youth. And they always look for the social media handle before buying any product. D&G as

discussed need to appoint celebrity that influence youth with their social medial plan form people
will follow them. They also attract with same brand and want to use it will create positive mind
set toward the brand and ultimately lead for rebuilding the position in the market. Targeted
audience on the social media will not only the youth however, these are the future advertisement
platform so company have opportunity to create so need classification according to user and their
age for better positioning (Tripathi, 2020). D&G may highlight their achievement and product
that make them successful, they also advertised their discount and price reduction policy in
effective manner to attract more public.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Barron, L., 2019. The Return of the Celebrity Fashion Muse: Brand Endorsement, Creative
Inspiration and Celebrity-Influenced Design Communication. Fashion Theory, pp.1-20.
Basdemir, H. D., 2019. Scattering of plane waves by a rational half-plane between DNG
media. Optik. 179. pp.47-53.
Hoque, A., and et.al., 2020. SNG and DNG meta-absorber with fractional absorption band for
sensing application. Scientific reports. 10(1). pp.1-17.
Islam, S. S., Khan, M.S. and Faruque, M.R.I., 2020. Design and analysis of modified-split-H-
shaped DNG metamaterial for microwave application. Materials Research Express.
6(12). p.125808.
Jung, Y.,and et.al., 2020. Smartphone-based lateral flow imaging system for detection of food-
borne bacteria E. coli O157: H7. Journal of microbiological methods. 168. p.105800.
Kizgin, H., and et.al., 2020. The impact of social media on consumer acculturation: Current
challenges, opportunities, and an agenda for research and practice. International Journal
of Information Management. 51. p.102026.
Nastiti, D. M., Syavaranti, N. and Aruman, A.E., 2021. The Effect of Corporate Re-branding on
Purchase Intention through The Brand Image of PT Pelita Air Service. Journal of
Consumer Sciences. 6(1). pp.40-61.
Tripathi, D., 2020. Marketing Strategies for Branding and Interactive Advertising through
Telecommunication. Journal of Accounting, Finance & Marketing Technology. 1(2).
pp.6-17.
Online
Dolce & Gabbana fiasco shows importance, risks of China market.2021. [Online]. Available
through: <https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/dolce-gabbana-fiasco-shows-
importance-risks-china-market-n940706>
Rebranding: Crisis Recovery and Brand Rebuild. 2021. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.personadesign.ie/rebranding-crisis-recovery-and-brand-rebuild/>.