Bottega Veneta Is The New "Celine"?

In the face of LVMH's accelerating run, Gucci's parent company, Kai Yun group, had to intensify its counterattack.

According to the fashion business news, the Bottega Veneta, the luxury brand of Kai Yun group, has quietly changed the brand Logo from the front serif fonts to the coarser branding in the latest 2019 autumn and winter advertising blockbuster. This makes the brand name more prominent and enhances the consumer's memory of the brand. What it means is that in June of this year, Gucci also used coarser fonts in the new "double G" Logo.

It is reported that the Bottega Veneta2019 autumn and winter blockbuster is jointly built by the brand creative director Daniel Lee and the photographer Tyrone Lebon. The background is a golden super sports car hanging in the air. In introducing the postmodern idea and style, it also explores the contrast between people and machines, aiming at highlighting the brand new brand new vision, such as "strength" and "sexy", so as to attract more young consumers.

Although Bottega Veneta did not formally respond to the replacement of the brand Logo, there was an industry earlier saying that the younger generation growing up in the Internet age is more familiar with the standardized font than the ancient handwritten and the serif typefaces of the print media era. At the same time, simplified Logo can more easily adapt to brand printing on social media, shopping bags, billboards and other platforms, and expand its influence.

Bottega Veneta, founded in 1966, has been favored by some luxury consumers for its low-key design and high-end quality. Even the Cabat handbag, which sells for nearly 80 thousand of the price, has not seen any obvious brand Logo. Its unique leather weaving process is the best "business card". Some analysts pointed out that Bottega Veneta, which always used "low-key nobility" as its selling point, made such a subversive act at this time, which means that the brand is redefining itself and continuing to innovate.

The turning point occurred in June last year. With the trend of fashion going back to 1980 and 1990s, Logo, the most visually reflecting icon of brand image, is becoming more and more important in today's highly visually oriented and easily distracted consumer's information world.

According to the fashion business express, at least 7 luxury brands have changed their brand Logo in the past two years. Besides Gucci, luxury brands such as Fendi, DIOR and Burberry have also started a new article on Logo. The new CEO Bartolomeo Rongone and Daniel Lee naturally will not ignore this trend.

Compared with the previous creative director Tomas Maier, the new line of Daniel Lee, now 33 years old, does not blindly extend the brand logo weaving elements. Instead, it aims to wake up consumers' perception of Bottega Veneta through the new design, such as sharp cutting, large area plain coloring, bright color, super large handbags, etc., to create a new memory point for the brand, positioning the target audience in independent female consumers, and complementing the young consumers who are targeted by Gucci.

Last August, Bottega Veneta announced that the 00 star will become a spokesman for the Asia Pacific region, revealing the ambitions of brand younger and the Asia Pacific market. On the other hand, from the latest series of Daniel Lee, the design of men's wear with sports function style has great potential to conquer young consumer groups, which brings more possibilities to Bottega Veneta.

What it means is that the design of Daniel Lee was once referred to as the shadow of LVMH's brand Celine, which is closely related to the personal experience of Daniel Lee. After graduating from the central Saint Martin Institute of art and design, he worked for Maison Margiela, Balenciaga and Donna Karan brand, and joined the Celine formally in 2012. She is one of the right-hand helpers of Phoebe Philo, the original creative director of Celine.

Therefore, after Bottega Veneta announces the appointment of Daniel Lee, there is an analysis and speculation that this is a retaliation made by Kai Yun group to LVMH Hedi Slimane, which aims to attract the loyal consumers accumulated by Phoebe Philo during the period of Celine.

It has to be mentioned that Bottega Veneta became the only losing brand in Kai Yun in 2018. Sales fell by 3.4% to 1 billion 109 million euros. According to the fashion business express data, sales of Bottega Veneta in the first half of this year still did not improve, and continued to fall 3.8% to 549 million euros. However, in the financial report, Kai Yun group emphasized that the products of Daniel Lee have begun to gain positive feedback in the market. The second quarter sales of the same store have increased 0.8% under the stimulation of the new series of products, and the operating profit is about 100 million euro.

In addition, Daniel Lee's special POUCH handbag and ARCO handbag are becoming new explosions under the popularity of big KOL and stars, but the proportion is not high in the whole, and they often break the goods. What is even more surprising is that the POUCH handbag with no knitting elements has been selected as the global fashion search platform. The ten most popular list of female consumer favorite products released in the second quarter of is fifth, while Bottega Veneta has climbed 8 places in the popular brand ranking.

In order to better explore the market potential, Kai Yun Group continued to shuffle the executives. In June this year, it announced that Bartolomeo Rongone, a former executive of LVMH's brand Fendi, was the new chief executive officer of Bottega Veneta. The Claus-Dietrich Lahrs, who took office in September 2016, decided to quit because of personal reasons. Bartolomeo Rongone will also join the Executive Committee of Kai Yun group and report to group CEO Fran ois-Henri Pinault.

According to public information, the 48 year old Bartolomeo Rongone joined the Fendi of LVMH in 2001, and joined in 2012, another luxury brand Saint Laurent of Kai Yun group as chief operating officer, with rich experience in luxury brand retail management.

At this point, Bottega Veneta, whether creative or management, comes from LVMH, a new chapter. Some analysts believe that Kai Yun group's intention to replicate Gucci in Bottega Veneta is to accelerate the layout of high-end luxury goods, and the giant's ambition to surpass LVMH is still fermenting.

Since last year, the war between LVMH and Kai Yun group has been escalating, and the fuse is the most vigorous Gucci.

First, Fran C ois-Henri Pinault said that "Louis Vuitton" should be eliminated. Gucci CEO Marco Bizzarri also said it would achieve the target of $10 billion in annual sales of Gucci as soon as possible. In June last year, Gucci suddenly announced its show in Paris, which was held on the same day with LVMH's Dior, which directly fired the war into LVMH's base area.

In addition to Gucci, Kai Yun group also fostered the two quasi Gucci of Saint Laurent and Balenciaga, in order to make the second tier brand contribute more sales to the group while avoiding the risk of Gucci's disgrace. Analysts once predicted that if LVMH could not effectively block the pace of Gucci, the number one luxury brand position would give way to Gucci in five years, according to Gucci's quarterly average growth rate of 20% over the LVMH leather sector.

The signal transmitted by the Bottega Veneta makes the situation more complicated. Under the market situation of oligopoly confrontation, Bottega Veneta, as the only luxury brand of Kai Yun group, must quickly reverse the situation and consolidate the second echelon of Kai Yun group, otherwise it will become the weakness of the group.

Bernard Arnault, chairman and chief executive of LVMH, once told foreign media about the competition of competitors such as Kai Yun group in the past ten years, and thought they would not succeed. After a fierce and positive confrontation in the past year, LVMH has succeeded in widening its gap with Kai Yun group this year.

According to fashion business news, the LVMH fashion leather Department, which includes Louis Vuitton and Dior two trump cards, has re overtaken Gucci, which benefited from the performance of Louis Vuitton and Dior. Sales in the first half of the year rose by 21% to 10 billion 425 million euros, and the number of double-digit growth has been recorded for 11 consecutive quarters. The revenue of the Department in the first half of the year has exceeded 10 billion euros for the first time, reaching a record high.

The first half sales of Kai Yun group rose 18.8% to 7 billion 638 million euros compared with the same period last year, 26.8% slower than the same period last year. Gucci also began to decline, which is different from the full speed running in 2017 and 2018. The sales growth in the first half of this year continued to slow down, only 19.8% increased to 4 billion 617 million euros, the 44% increase in the same period last year, and the sales growth in the second quarter slowed to 12.7%, less than 35% in the same period last year, the lowest growth rate in three years.

Despite the early forecast of Kai Yun group, in October last year, it indicated that the slowdown of the brand after the explosive growth of revenue was a normal phenomenon, but analysts in Reuters and Bloomberg both pointed out that Gucci's growth slowed down faster than expected. In the past six months, Gucci's hot search index on Baidu has dropped 30%, while the search index for LV has risen 13%, according to fashion business express.

At the same time, Fendi, Celine and Loewe under the LVMH fashion leather Department also encircle Gucci in many ways.

Among them, Italy luxury brand Fendi has been accelerating the process of its younger generation, collaborating with celebrities such as Xu Weizhou and Wang Jiaer. In May, the first fashion show for men and women was held in Shanghai. It was opened by the actor and singer Xu Weizhou, who had 11 million 360 thousand fans in micro-blog, for two consecutive days. (extended reading: depth |Fendi how to successfully create explosive effect?)

Fendi then joined Tencent to launch the first WeChat game in the fashion industry. With Xu Weizhou as the protagonist, the brand's historical culture and WeChat's understanding of scientific and technological knowledge are integrated. Through the game, the core concept of "Fun fun" brand FENDI FF logo is transmitted to users, and the spirit and value of the brand are understood in the game interaction.

Hedi Slimane's Celine has now officially entered the field of men's wear, and has opened independent stores in major cities such as Paris and Tokyo since the beginning of this year. Celine's original handbag team was transferred to Loewe, a luxury brand in Spain, and the new product was selling well. To the surprise of the industry, LVMH decided to launch a new luxury brand Fenty with Rihanna, which has nearly 80 million fans in social media such as Instagram.

Some people have pointed out that with the increasingly fierce competition between the head luxury brands and the vigilance of LVMH, the challenge of the new round of innovation of the group is undoubtedly more arduous.

But at least Daniel Lee Bottega Veneta under the helm is gradually exploring new roads, and the center of gravity has also jumped out of the shackles of leather handbags and transferred to a wider range of garments, accessories and lifestyle products. It is reported that the consumers who love the Daniel Lee design have set up a new account named "newbottega", especially on Instagram. The number of fans has reached 34 thousand, which should not be underestimated.

Today's fashion industry has become an extremely brutal market. The game between business and design will be a barrier that Bottega Veneta can't get around. When the fashion industry falls into a high speed cycle that nobody can control, the eco chain, including the luxury group, is exhausted by the normal operation of the commercial machine. In order to lose the future, the luxury group has to choose to make the necessary sacrifices, and the director of innovation has become the key to leveraging change.

Some commentators believe that it is too early to say whether Bottega Veneta is going to rebuild a Celine, but it is obvious that Bottega Veneta is urgently needed to become a brand of Kai Yun group.