Luxury Brand Moncler: Sustainability Challenges and Solutions

This report presents a case study of the luxury brand Moncler, examining its sustainability challenges and brand reputation. The report focuses on a recent controversy involving racial representation in its product line and its impact on the company. It analyzes Moncler's brand overview, the issues faced, and provides strategic recommendations for improving its sustainability practices, including avoiding controversial representations, investing in social research, improving communication, and focusing on cruelty-free manufacturing. The report emphasizes the importance of aligning the brand's actions with its sustainability goals to maintain its image and connect effectively with consumers. It also highlights the need for employee training to manage crises and promote a more sustainable work culture.

Running head: WORLD OF LUXURY: A CASE STUDY OF MONCLER
WORLD OF LUXURY: A CASE STUDY OF MONCLER
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WORLD OF LUXURY: A CASE STUDY OF MONCLER
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Brand Overview.........................................................................................................................2
Recent Issue faced in Sustainability...........................................................................................2
Recommendations......................................................................................................................3
Conclusions................................................................................................................................4
References..................................................................................................................................6

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WORLD OF LUXURY: A CASE STUDY OF MONCLER
Introduction
Luxury brand in retail are the epitome of quality with styles and are known as the
trend setter. Luxury clothing industry has a very few names that have their branding influence
all over the world. People interested in the luxury clothing are definitely familiar with the
name of Moncler. This brand is one of the most reputed luxury jacket manufacturer. This
report will talk about a recent issue that the company has faced and is trying to come up with
a solution. There would be a strategic recommendations part suggesting the betterment of the
brand.
Brand Overview
Moncler is an Italian Luxury clothing brand that manufactures the skiwear. The company was
founded on 1952 and the founders were André Vincent and René Ramillon. Later in 2003,
the Italian entrepreneur Remo Ruffinni brought the brand and listed the company in the stock
exchange by 2013. The products of Moncler is famous in western countries specifically and
has become a status symbol for its buyer. The annual revenue if the company was €1,420.1
million in 2018 (moncler.com, 2020).
Recent Issue faced in Sustainability
As a brand, Moncler has always given social reference to their corporate social
responsibilities a targeted the sustainable business practice. Sustainability is consisted of
finance, people and environment. The company report shows that environmental priorities
has been given special reference in the company. In spite of all these endeavours, the brand
was alleged of racial representation in their products. This controversy cast huge impact in
the company reputation. The company later resolved the matter by apologising to their
consumers of the misunderstanding.

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WORLD OF LUXURY: A CASE STUDY OF MONCLER
The main issues started when the company launched its new sports range with a face
of a Golliwog doll. The name of the collection was “FriendsWithYou art collective,” and it
has the logo that caused all the trouble. Most of the people found it offensive to use the logo
that represents a doll which has racial undertones. The golliwog dolls are censored in UK and
the brand used the same white –rimmed eyes and red lips of the infamous doll. The
consumers of this brand were offended for such and racial representation in the new jacket
collection. This is against the company sustainability issues as well. Social aspects play a
pivotal part in the sustainability business issues. The company might have high reputation in
the environmental sustainability but, at the same time it must not miss the social and
community sentiments associated with its brand reputation.
The gravity of the issue later compelled the company CEO to apologise for their
conduct. The company issued a formal apology for the misconception. In their apology they
cleared that the resemblance of the logo with the controversial doll was a mere coincident
while the face actually represents a friendly Penguin, Malfi. Malfi is known as the symbol of
universal friendship and that was the message the company is trying to convey through their
“FriendsWithYou” project. The overall impact of this controversy did influence the company
reputation and the whole collection of the jackets were a big fail in international market.
Recommendations
One can easily understand that the brand reputation was at stage as the company was
unable to deliver their message properly. This affected their sustainability issues as the
consumers were offended for the racial notes associated with the logo. It was a good decision
on behalf of the company to apologise for their mistake. The company can take certain steps
to avoid any such problems further.

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WORLD OF LUXURY: A CASE STUDY OF MONCLER
 First and foremost, the company need to avoid having any such representations in
their clothing that can evoke controversy. The sustainable business development is
one of the major objective of the company (Janssen, Vanhamme & Leblanc, 2017).
Therefore, they should try to invest more in their social research groups. The brand
can also try to have a team in their cell who will have all the researches in such
aspects before launching a range.
 Second thing is improved communication and consumer relations. The brand was not
been able to channelize the information in a right way to their consumers. Hence the
company has to increase their promotional campaigns (Pavione, Pezzetti & Matteo,
2016).
 To overcome the causalities of this controversies, the company need to concentrate
more in their sustainability and social responsibilities. Along with being a luxury
brand, the company can invest some part of their profit to the social causes (Li &
Leonas, 2019). There can be projects against racial discriminations all over the world
that the brand would promote and invest in.
 The work culture of the brand can be more sustainable at the same time. The
employees of the company can be trained to handle this type of crisis in future
(Olšanová, Cook & Zlatić, 2018). The first strategy would be to prevent such
problems and then the company structure need to be revised.
 Cruelty free manufacturing is another thing that the company need to take care of.
This is an important step towards sustainability for Moncler. As the company is facing
issues in managing sustainability, it has to take care of it as well.
Conclusions
Luxury brands are the trend setter and therefore, people have a very high notion about
these brands. Sustainability connects the people, environment and the company. Therefore,

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WORLD OF LUXURY: A CASE STUDY OF MONCLER
Moncler need to change their perspective s and strategies to have a more sustainable business
al together. Having more investments in the sustainability researches and improving the
workplace culture would be instrumental in achieving this goal. Again, promotions will help
the company to connect more effectively with people and increase brand loyalty.

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WORLD OF LUXURY: A CASE STUDY OF MONCLER
References
Janssen, C., Vanhamme, J., & Leblanc, S. (2017). Should luxury brands say it out loud?
Brand conspicuousness and consumer perceptions of responsible luxury. Journal of
Business Research, 77, 167-174.
Li, J., & Leonas, K. K. (2019). Trends of sustainable development among luxury industry. In
Sustainable Luxury (pp. 107-126). Springer, Singapore.
moncler.com (2020), Moncler, retrieved from: https://www.moncler.com/gb/
Olšanová, K., Cook, G., & Zlatić, M. (2018). Influence of Luxury Companies’ Corporate
Social Responsibility Activities on Consumer Purchase Intention: Development of a
Theoretical Framework. Central European Business Review, 7(3), 1-25.
Pavione, E., Pezzetti, R., & Matteo, D. A. (2016). Emerging competitive strategies in the
global luxury industry in the perspective of sustainable development: The case of
Kering Group. Management Dynamics in the Knowledge Economy, 4(2), 241-261.