Consumer Behaviour-Midterm Project

7/27/2019 Consumer Behaviour-Midterm Project

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CONSUMER BAHAVIOUR

MIDTERM PROJECT

PRODUCT CATEGORY: HERMES VS. GUCCI HANDBAGS

Student: Anja Bulajic

Both Gucci and Hermes are among most successful fashion houses in the world

specialized in producing luxury goods items from leather goods, clothes and

accessories to jewellery , decor, perfumes, having long history, and clear

identities.

In order to fully understand and define the target consumer of each of the two

brands within handbags product category, I'll elaborate on marketing activities,

production details and the philosophy behind these brands.

To begin with, Hermes company, in this case Hermes bags are considered by

many

to be the last true luxury goods in the fashion industry. The reason behind such a

strong reputation lies in the fact that they are made of finest leather and fabrics,

sewed by hand and in order to buy one, in needs to be ordered. The bags on

display

in the boutiques just present the options. In reality, it is required to wait several

months while it is made to the customer's specifications. Moreover, Hermes

handbag is not made to become an 'it' bag. Most of the designs have been

unchanged for almost a century, are timeless, don't bear ostentatious logos thus



conveying uniqueness, simplicity and refinement. Hermes is still one of the rare

luxury companies which are run like a small, intimate business despite the fact

that

it could become a multibillion-dollar company easily through increasing production

to eliminate waiting lists and sell bags ready-made in the store.

Furthermore, marketing activities are carefully controlled, subtle, just as the

image

of the brand itself. Visiting a company's website was, for me, a totally unexpected

experience. It is designed in a simple, unpretentious manner, with a humorous

drawings, very playful and approachable, which is not to be expected if we take

into

the consideration websites of the competitors. The emphasis is placed on the

goods,

clearly showing how each bag looks like from inside out, which are the materials

used, and the price in a very clean, tastefully created way. Also, such a marketing

strategy makes sense and appeals to me very much as it is so far from everything

one would expect, and that's what makes the whole experience memorable. Their

consumer is clearly targeted and it is high class, old money, who trust the brand

already and are likely to understand the brand's marketing strategy in a right way.

Simply, they can afford themselves to be unpretentious and discreet and identify

themselves with such an image of the brand. Old money people are raised and

grown up in wealth, are accustomed to it and don't feel the need to demonstrate

it



to the society. Their status is not a matter of discussion. Additionally, they

concentrate more on excellence in quality, design, use of precious materials,

craftsmanship, recognize the value of made-to-order product.

The target customer, apart from being old rich, is a woman, aged 30-60, a

heiress,

aristocrat, both single or married or perhaps a woman who has a highly

successful, well paid job, values aesthetics and is motivated by need for power,

uniqueness. As for the lifestyle, she is a believer, loyal customer, mostly

conservative, conventional, who knows that for an average price of 6 000$ gets

the

promise of a high quality product which is a classic, timeless. Furthermore, she

travels a lot to exclusive, exotic destinations, plays tennis or golf, attends art

exhibitions, goes to theatre, is well-educated and well-read, but prefers to keep

her

life personal as much as possible and doesn't enjoy over exposure or places,

people,

that are considered to be trendy. Her life is structured around family, close friends

and like-minded people.

Gucci, on the other hand, although being a renowned fashion company has a

completely different brand identity, marketing activities and target consumer.

It is an Italian brand, part of the Gucci Group, owned by French company



PPR. It was found in Florence in 1921. As for the handbags product category, the

production is high-tech. In addition to that ,the image of the bag is worked on by a

team in London, Paris and Milan on a three-dimensional computer. Unlike at

Hermes, where artisans study the skins and try to figure out the best way to cut

them, at Gucci the computer makes a map. Handbags are sewn on machines and

produced in 2 to 3 hours with the craftsman working on twenty bags at a time- 5

times as many as at Hermes. Bacci's studio( Gucci's handbag craftsman) only

produces 250 bags a month because it did the most demanding design with the

best

quality skins. Bacci also managed subsupplier who did another 2000 bags a

month.

When we talk about advertising activities, Gucci uses controversial, provocative,

aggressive techniques thus pushing the message and the product relentlessly.

Some

of their advertisements were even banned by advertising standards and being

awarded by others at the same time. It's website is modern, shiny, flamboyant,

provocative, offering the possibility to view and purchase products online.

Furthermore, the stores are located on exclusive locations and window displays

communicate the same image described regarding the website.

The target consumer is aspirational, one that feels the need to be identified with

the logo, the brand itself. Handbags, as 'entrance products' to luxury brand are



an adequate choice for such a consumer because almost everyone nowadays can

afford to have a luxury brand handbag. Also, it is visible on the body and gives a

wearer the chance to publicly declare his/her status or aspirations. In this way,

marketers count on the irrational side of each human being and target towards

experiential marketing. The key is to engage customers in a memorable

experience

around the product, developing a relationship with a customer, creating an affinity

with them. Gucci handbags, in my opinion, are targeted both at the rich and the

masses. As far as masses are concerned, it could be a woman aged 25-40, who

aspires to be a part of a jet-set, celebrity lifestyle, adores the actress chosen to be

a

new ambassador of the Gucci brand and needs a proof of personal value through

identification with her, or simply to show to the society or to her environment that

she is doing well in life. She would save for buying a Gucci handbag, has an

averagly

paid jobs, goes out with her boyfriend or girlfriends to trendy places, wears trendy

clothes, listen to trendy music etc. She is motivated by a hedonic need which is

subjective, personal, and in the most cases aimed at self confidence boost.

Another type of target consumer could be the nouveaux riches, for whom buying

the Gucci handbag would mean investing in logo, recognition, power, prestige,

they

so much strive for. She is also aged 25-40, married or not, and wants to have

everything that money can buy. Most probably goes to places, destinations,



proposed by popular culture, listen to the trendy music, wears trendy designer

clothes, watches reality shows, reads celebrity lifestyle magazines etc. Status,

and

demonstration of status is of utmost importance for her along with having fun

while

shopping.

The Hermes and Gucci customers are similar, in my opinion, regarding general

expectations we usually link with luxury goods items. The promise of quality, that

both type of consumers rely on, excellence in production, design, the value of

final product and why that particular price stands behind the product. In addition

to

that, both product groups are targeted at women, who are, as it happens to be

proven, still the major target for fashion industry, especially handbags and small

leather goods. Moreover, the shared characteristic of any luxury brand and

what all of them concentrate on, is the importance of the irrational within the

consumer's mind, as luxury sells products that are not targeted at our basic

human needs. It is tremendously demanding task to sell something that you

wouldn't normally need, something that is more intangible than tangible.

As far as differences of the two brands consumer's are concerned, they

significantly

outnumber similarities. The most obvious difference is the one between the



philosophy of the two brands, production, business and marketing strategy,

values.

The Hermes consumer would probably never buy Gucci bag, because the identity

of

Gucci is not one that old rich people could relate to. The uniqueness, perfection,

hours of sewing a bag by hand, refinement and simplicity is an identity which

attracts this kind of people to Hermes. A truly luxurious experience which doesn't

lie in showing off the logo. Also, the other way around, Gucci customer wouldn't

buy a Hermes bag, or she would rather choose Gucci bag than the one from

Hermes

because her main purpose is demonstrating a status to the society, belonging to

the

tribe. Furthermore, other differences are related to the target customer's lifestyle,

motivation, values, demographics and psychographics which determine our

shopping decisions.

To my view, both of the companies are doing successfully within their chosen

target

consumer group. As for Hermes, it is a conscious decision to work as a small

fashion

house, targeted only at high class customers, without having plans to grow too

much. It is that secret ingredient which gives appeal to the company, and because

of that it will never lose its identity. On the other hand, profit margins at Gucci are



high, advertising messages provocative and aggressive, productions is based on

assembly line, which could be an image of success for the moment, but perhaps

not

the best long term solution. Identity is what keeps a luxury brand being luxurious.

When growing too much, business is taking the risk of losing it.

Hermes as a brand, and a whole product range appeals to me personally very

much,

and I wouldn't make any changes to the way they run the business. But, if I take

Gucci into consideration, I would definitely pay closer attention to the companies’

growth, and try to maintain the luxury aura around the brand. Regarding

marketing,

being controversial and provocative is part of their image, and I wouldn't change

that radically, but would for sure put an emphasis on marketing in an intelligently

provocative way, with a deeper message, rather than being controversial at any

cost and only for the sake of publicity.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Michael R. Solomon, Gary Bamossy, Soren Askegaard and Margaret K. Hogg

Consumer Behaviour a European Perspective:Prentice Hall, 1999

Thomas, Dana. Deluxe: How luxury lost its luster: Penguin Books, 2008

Consumer Behaviour-Midterm Project

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