Marketing Strategies
Brand Overview
Chanel S.A. is a Paris-based fashion house founded by Gabrielle Coco
Chanel in 1909 (Samule, 2011). Chanel is recognized as one of the world’s
most valuable and established brand, which specializes in luxury goods,
such as haute couture, handbags, perfumery, cosmetics and so forth
(Samule, 2011). The company is currently owned by Alain Wertheimer and
Gerard Wertheimer, the great-grandsons of the early (1924) Chanel partner
Pierre Wertheimer (Samule, 2011).
Featured by its iconic items, the “little black dress”, the Chanel No.5
perfume and the Chanel suit, it is a brand that interprets simplicity,
sophistication, liberation and anticipation. At the center of the brand’s
identity, its late couturier Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel plays a central role in
establishing the brand DNA elements and its core values. Being an
adventurous avant-garde in experimenting different fashion styles, Coco
created new dressing styles and revolutionized the fashion industry by
using the basic elements to incorporate elegance, originality and class
(Samule, 2011). Through ceaseless efforts across a century, Chanel
ventured into different areas of the fashion industry and gradually became
one of the most important global leaders in the luxury industry.
Chanel’s enduring success is not only attributed to its rich legacy, but also
to the company’s astute evaluation of the markets and its ability to adopt
pertinent marketing strategies. Due to its artfully built campaigns to appeal
to different consumer segments, it is named the Luxury Marketer of the
Year by Luxury daily in 2013 (Luxury daily, 2013). Targeting high-income
women from 23 to 80, Chanel takes advantage of celebrity endorsement as
part of the most transparent strategies in their campaigns. Celebrities
including Nicole Kidman, Blake Lively, Keira Knightly, Audrey Tatou, Kritin
Stuart, are closely associated with the brand image by creating ideal
identification for a wide range of consumer segments. As for digital media
campaigns, the brand demonstrates its competiveness by combining its
dynamic creativity with the stellar heritage. While playing with a variety of
digital elements, it enhances interaction with customers and strengthens its
core brand identity with powerful storytelling. As a consequence, the
company saw an increase of revenues in all categories in 2013 and opened
nine new beauty boutiques (Forbes, 2014).
Conclusion
The analysis of Chanel’s Internet-based marketing efforts has revealed that
Chanel adopts the leading social media platforms as tools only to
broadcast its marketing campaigns. However, given that social media
platforms have great potential as conversational platforms, the brand can
extend its value proposition online by adding interactive elements to their
existing communication tools. While being a leader in content marketing
online and offline, Chanel should place more emphasis on engaging its
customers through social media platforms and establishing more solid
relationship with its customers.
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