Balmain Branding Report

18004196 Fashion Branding Theory BA Fashion Marketing

CONTENTS

TA B L E O F

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11

BEHIND BALMAIN

1

THE BRAND

9

POSITIONING

17

#BALMAINARMY

23

GLOBAL SCOPE

29

RETAIL BRAND EXPERIENCE

37

BRAND COMMUNICATION

43

BRAND ETHICS

53

BRAND EVALUATION

55

BIBLIOGRAPHY

57

APPENDIX

59

BEHIND BALMAIN

1945, the year the French brand Balmain was founded

by Pierre Balmain. This same year, Monsieur Balmain held his first runway show at his salon in rue Francois 1er. This show essentially brought the Balmain brand to the forefront of fashion during this World War 2 era. In divergence to the utilitarian style of the time, Monsieur Balmain created a hyper-femenine DNA for the house which embodied opulence though lavishly embroidered fabrics, nipped-in waists, and longer, fuller silhouette. Balmain developed his aesthetic from his degree in architecture. During his reign, some of the most fashionable women of the 1950’s and 1960’s wore Balmain, including Katharine Hepburn, Vivien Leigh, Marlene Dietrich, and Queen Sirikit of Thailand.

Pierre Balmain was the sole owner and designer of the brand until his death in 1982. Since then, the house has been under a variety of designers such as; Erik Mortensen, Herve Pierre, Oscar De La Renta, Laurent Mercier, and Christophe Decarnin. In 2011 Oliver Rousteign took the reigns as Balmain’s new designer at the young age of 24.

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01

2

Balmain PS 20 3

KEY PERSONNn EL

Pierre Balmain Founder

OLIVER ROUSTEING

JEAN-JACQUES GUÉVEL

Creative Director

CEO of Balmain

Baptiste Auzéau

TXAMPI DIZ

MAYHOOLA

Balmain Chief Financial Officer

Balmain Chief Marketing Officer

Qatari investment company that owns 100% of Balmain’s shares

4

Christopher Decarnin becomes Balmain’s Creative Director.

Decarnin introduced flashy garments and focused on evening wear essentially creating the age of ‘Balmania”.

This era brought loyal celebrities to the brand such as Kanye West, David Beckham, and Christopher Celine Dion.

Decarnin

Pierre Balmain Launches first fragrence ‘Jolie Madame’

1982

2005

House of Balmain founded by Pierre Balmain

Erik Mortenden took over as head designer after Pierre Balmain’s death

2009

1949 1993

Oscar De La Renta becomes first American to be creative director of a Parsian Fashion House

5

2011

Oliver Rousteign becomes Balmain’s creative director at the age of 24

1945

successfully introduced menswear to the house

Balm annou its of Facebo Instag acco

20

2020

Balmain redesigns its logo

2013

2016

Balmain announces its Hair Coture product line

012

2015 Balmain releases its collaboratin with retail store H&M

Balmain announced that their new owner will be Mayhoola Investments

main unces fficial ook and gram ounts

Balmain collaborates with Beyonce for her Cochella performance

Oliver Rousteing debuts the houses first accessory line

2018

Kylie Jenner named Artistic Director of Makeup for the Spring-Summer 2020 Runway Collection 2017

2019

Balmain announces lipstick collaboration with L’Oreal

Capsul makeup collection with Kylie Jenner announced

Balmain launches capsul collection with Victoria Secret

6

7

Balmain x Puma #JOINTHEFIGHT 8

THE BRAND

Balmain is essentially a brand that represents democracy, diversity, and power. All seen not only through the clothing but among the way in which the brand has built its architecture. Starting with the name ‘Balmain’ this is not only the founder, Pierre Balmain’s, last name but is insinuates the brands French heritage. This French name also automatically associates Balmain with exquisite French craftsmanship, couture, and luxury. These elements are also shown through the old and new logos; both being simple yet unique and luxurious feeling.

Today, Balmain stays true to the original image of the brand by Pierre Balmain. He believed that “dressmaking is the architecture of movement” (Seaman and Rhodes, n.d.). His vision was to beautify the world like an architect, a vision that Oliver continues to carry out today through creating a more democratic brand.

Developed in 1992 by Jean-Noel Kapferer (Jackson and Shaw, 2010), the brand identity prism is used to represent the essential aspects of a brand that should establish and maintain the brand essence. Depicted in Figure 1, is the prism adapted to Balmain’s internal and external brand aspects.

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02

Physique

Personality

Couture French craftsmanship Embellishments Modern

Powerful Independant culturally aware Unique

Relationship

Culture

Elite Community Cultural Expertise

French Elite Simple Elegance Revolution

Reflection

Self-image A strong, independent and confident

Elite men and women with a bold taste in fashion

Apart of an exclusive social class

Picture of Receiver

Figure 1, Balmain Brand Identity Prism

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Internalization

Externalization

Picture of Sender

POTENTIAL PRODUCT AUGMENTED PRODUCT EXPECTED PRODUCT

Excellent Craftsmanship

Quality Tailoring

Fair Return Policy

French Style Tailoring Limited Availability Online Customer Support 11

Combining Luxury and Wearable Technology

Figure 2, Balmain Five Product Levels

Exceptional Packaging

Quality clothing that fulfills the desire for prestige and belonging

Package Tracking

Core Benifit

Balmain Blason/ Logo

Garments Made With Sustainable Fabrics

GENERIC PRODUCT

5 PRODUCT LEVELS

Developed by Jean-Noel Kapferer in the 1960’s, the five product levels displays the levels of needs customers have for a product.

The model is based on the three ways in which customers attach value to various products: Customer Need, Customer Want, and Customer Demand. Depicted is the five levels based on Balmain’s products.

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Balmain x Akoni #WONDERBOY #BALMAINEYEWEAR #BYAKONI 16

POSITIONING

The positioning of the brands depicted is based on the exclusivity of each brand and the style of clothing; whether edgy and urban or classic and contemporary. As evident on the map, Balmain is positioned to be within the same range of exclusivity as its direct competitors however, the style of clothing is more edgy and urban. Essentially, this means that Balmain is more experimental and bold with their design choices compared to the more classic silhouettes that Chanel produces.

This distinct style of Balmain which usually includes gold medallions, buttons and symbols, the brands unique blaison, ornament, and tassels creates this french house’s point of differentiation among its direct competitors.

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03

Figure 3, Balmain Positioning Map

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Unique Selling Proposition

luxury, authentic French Reinterpreting divine

Beauty and class with

Offering a full range of

tailoring yet trendy

feminity through

a timeless yet modern

luxury products while

elegance and

status symbol

staying true to the brands

sophistication

Persona

original heritage

Luxury, authentic

French, seduction,

Urban, craftsmanship,

Love for romanticism,

French tailoring yet

quality tailoring

trendy

modernity, and

trendy

Promotion Efforts

Social Media Presence

Product Diversification

feminism

Social media,

Early promotion in

Print, social media, and

Print, social media, and

ad campaigns,

films, social media,

television advertising.

television advertising

collaborations with other

print media

No sales/discounts

Holds sales/discounts

brands and celebrities

No sales/ discounts

Instagram Followers: 10.5 Million

Instagram Followers: 14.1 Million

Instagram Followers: 36.8 Million

Instagram Followers: 29.6 Million

Twitter Followers: 561K

Twitter Followers: 1.03 Million

Twitter Followers: 7.4 Million

Twitter Followers: 8.1 Million

You-tube Views: 11.4 Million

You-tube Views: 3.7 Million

You-tube Views: 326 Million

You-tube Views: 395.6 Million

Along with clothing

Along with clothing

Along with clothing

Along with clothing Dior

Balmain specializes in

Givenchy sells

Louis Vuitton specialize

specializes in leather

footwear, jewelry, and

beauty products and

in jewelry, eye-

goods, accessories,

handbags, and hair

accessories.

wear luggage, and

footwear, fragrance,

handbags.

make-up, and skincare

products

products.

Figure 3, Luxury Brand Competitor Analysis 19

Competitor Analysis The luxury apparel market has many highly exclusive competitors; with its barriers of entry being relatively high.

When conducting competitor research for Balmain, it was evident that the brands main competitors include Givenchy, Louis Vuitton, and Dior. Depicted in Figure 3, each of Balmain’s direct competitors analyzed based on their unique selling proposition, persona, pomotional efforts, social media following, and product diversification.

social media presence and product diversification, however, the brand has the most commercialized promotinal efforts.

In comparision to its more established competitors, Balmain also has the least reconizable logo. Based on a survey conducted, only 58% of respondents reconized the Balmain logo compared to 97% reconizing Dior, 68% reconizing Givenchy, and 90% reconizing Louis Vuitton (Balmain Consumer Survey, 2020).

Based on the comparison, Balmain is relatively behind its competitors in terms of

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OLIVER ROUSTEING

“What is the Balmain girl? It’s a woman who knows what she wants and is going to express it.”

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Balmain x Beyonce #Beychella 22

#BALMAINARMY Within the past few years, Balmain had essentially moved from a strategy of differentiated micromarketing to a more concentrated niche marketing; with the intention to target multiple segmentations. Due to this, the brand has been able to segment their market using geo-demographics, psychographics, and purchasing behaviour segmentations. Balmain uses these segmentations to develop products and campaigns to target not only the affluent elite class but upper middle class individuals who aspire to this elite lifestyle or in his words, his #BalmainArmy.

Some prominent figures apart of the #BalmainArmy include: Beyonce, Rihanna, Shailene Woodley, Darren Criss, Tracee Ellis Ross, Kanye West, and Jourdan Dunn.

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04

SEGMENTATION

Geo-demographics

Psychographics

Purchasing Behaviour

• 25-35

• ‘Affluent Achievers’ apart

• User occasion: Red Carpet, Gala’s, Dinners

of the elite social class • Female & Male

(Acorn.caci.co.uk, n.d.).

• The Balmain customer lives

• Well educated

in a metropolitan city such as New York, London, Los

• Traveling is a lifestyle

Angeles, or Paris Very Social and has an • Stage of Family: Young

influential circle of friends

without children

• Passion for the fashion • Income : £100,000 / year + industry • Occupation: High level executive, Celebrities, Entrepreneurs

• Appreciation for couture and craftsmanship

Figure 4, Balmain Customer Segmentation 24

• Benifits wanted: High Quality, feeling of empowerment, Differentiation, Extravagance • Loyalty level: Regular monthly purchaser • Not a follower of trends, but rather stand out

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WHITNEY EVERMORE 26 Years Old Entrepreneur And Social Media Influencer Single Habits: Meditating

Working out

Reading self-improvement books

Likes:

Traveling often

Blogging

Attending fashion shows/ events

Shopping 27

Whitney is a successful self-made millionaire. She made her fortune through her social media community of over 500k followers (who she calls her #lovers) and her successful interior design business. When she is not busy with work, she enjoys traveling, reading, and attending fashion shows/ events. Currently she lives in New York City but often travels to Los Angeles, California due to her second office being there. Due to this she owns penthouses in both New York and Los Angeles; she also drives a Bentley Continental to get around LA. Whitney is an award winning interior designer, having designed many celebrity homes and even entire office buildings. Due to this she is often invited to Red Carpet events. When she is on a red carpet, she prefers wearing brands that will allow her to stand out among the crowd and that will make her empowered within her femininity. This is why she is a loyal customer to Balmain and apart of the #BalmainArmy

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GLOBAL SCOPE

Today, the luxury goods market is predicted to grow to €1.3 trillion by 2025 (Saunter, 2019). Based on Balmain’s business model, it is considered to be a brand that has gone global gradually.

Being a fashion house that has a strong French heritage, it took strategic planning and time to create the newly global brand we know today.

With the recent purchase of Balmain by Mayhoola Quatari Investment group, Balmain has been able to exploit its opportunities and not only expand its accessories lines but, expand into the growing Chinese luxury market. Oliver Rousteing’s strategy for Balmain is globalization and democratization through the tools of Instagram and collaborations with fast fashion brands; such as H&M.

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Increased Social Media Presence Offering more accessible items such as t-shirts, jeans, and handbags

Collaborating with celebrities and fast fashion brands

MARKET PENETRATION

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

MARKET DEVELOPMENT

DIVERSIFICATION

Balmain currently has 16 storefronts (Balmain, 2020) across the world with plans to expand into the Chinese luxury market by joining Alibaba’s Tmall Luxury Pavilion in 2019 (Alibabagroup.com, 2019).

Balmain Hair Couture products, tools, and accessories

Increasing Risk

Figure 5, Balmain Ansoff Matrix 30

PROFITS AND GROWTH MARKETS Balmain’s financial records are not made public since the brand is privately owned by Mayhoola Quatari Investments. Despite this, it is evident that Balmain has grown in profits significantly since its filing for bankruptcy protection in 2004. Since Oliver Rousteign has taken on the role of Creative Director, it has been rumored that the brands sales have boosted to ₏121.5 million in 2015 (Sherman, 2016).

In 2016, former CEO, Massimo Piombini, declined to report sales figures. Mayhoola Quatari Investments is also the owner of Valentino, whose sales have been able to grow to 1.11 billion euros within four years, with Balmain under the same investment group it is apparent through various factors of growth such as; the expansion of accessories, penetration into the luxury Chinese market, and the opening of flagship stores all over the world, that Balmain is at a steady growth rate today and is increases its profits each year.

Figure 6, Balmain Sales By Gender BALMAIN SALES BY GENDER

Wo m e n s w e a r

Menswear

10

20

30

40

50

Pe r c e n t a g e o f S a l e s

31

60

70

80

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Balmain Flagship Stores by City

Asia Europe North America

4 Store Locations:

4 Store Locations: Florida, USA New York, USA California, USA

Paris, France

London, UK Milan, Italy

Figure 7, Balmain Flagship Store Locations By City 33

20 Store Locations Tokyo, Japan Hong Kong, Japan Osaka, Japan Beijing, China Shanghai, China Macao, China Dubai, UAE Singapore, Malaysia

CHANNELS OF DISTRIBUTION

With the rise in emphasis on Millenial and Generation Z shoppers, Balmain has decided to reinvent its distribution strategy. Former CEO, Massimo Piombini, realized that the initial point of contact between consumers and brands have gone from retail stores to now being online. With this in mind, Balmain is now distributing through not only its retail stores and Balmain.com but through third party retailers that offer equal brand visibility and digital experiences to its customers; this includes Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. In the Luxurynsight x FashionNetwork podcast, Piombini describes this as ‘selective wholesale distribution’, he predicts that by 2021, Balmain’s distribution will be split 60% third party wholesale and 20% retail ( Luxurynsight x FashionNetwork, 2019) As depicted in the figure , Balmain has flagship stores within three continents; all in prime retail cities. Balmain is also sold in 250 multibrand retail stores across the world such as: Harrods, Nordstrom, and Saks Fifth Avenue. The brands strategy of using both flagship stores in prime locations coupled with wholesaling to multibrand retailers, allows Balmain extend its reach across the globe and offer its customers multiple physical touchpoints on each continent.

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Oliver Rousteing

“FREEDOM IS THE KEY. BE YOURSELF, BE FREE.”

Monogram Campaign #BALMAINSS19 36

RETAIL BRAND EXPERIENCE Balmain is a brand that understands the importance of their customers’ overall experience. Based on a survey I conducted, 64% of respondents purchase most of their clothhing/ accessories in store (Balmain Consumer Survey, 2020). This means it is crucial for brands to equally focus on online and physical retail experiences.

There is a uniformity of ease and minimalism across all of the brands direct touch points within the flagship store, concessions, online, and its app. The information presented within the retail marketing mix is based on an interview conducted with Puma, Blamain flagship, and Balmain Selfridges concession employees (see appendix A for full transcripts).

Depicted in Figure 8 is Balmain’s instore and online touchpoints. These are essentially the way in which the brand interacts and communicates to its customers both digitally and physically.

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06

Purchase

Post-purchase

Instagram Account

Customer Support

Returns support online & via telephone

Email Marketing

Balmain.com Email Confirmation

Digital Campaigns

Paypal & Visa payment options

Online Touch Points

Pre-purchase

Email Billing Receipt

Word of Mouth Worldwide shipping

In-store Touch Points

Balmain App Pre-purchase

Purchase

Post-purchase

Instagram Account

White and black French themed interior

In-store returns

Store Window Display

Professional sales associates with product knowledge

Social Media #BalmainLondon Spacious minimalist fitting rooms

Figure 8, Balmain Online and In-store touch-points 38

Minimalistic Balmain shopping bag

Item carefully wrapped by sales associate

RETAIL MARKETING MIX People

Presentation

Store Image

The employees inside of the In the city of London Flagship store were different Balmain has one flagship The presentation for both in many aspects from the store in Mayfair and is sold the Flagship store and the concession sales associate. in many concessions such Selfridges concession were Inside of the flagship store, as Selridges and Harrods. relatively similar in design. there were two employees With mayfair being the most Both have a white and black working, one being the affluent area in London, this color palette with gold manager and the other being location is a reflection of accents and marble table a sales associate. Based on an Balmain’s target audience tops. However, inside of the interview I conducted with and their lifestyle. concession, the products were the sales associate, both of placed in twos compared to the employees working were the flagship where products French (Balmain Flagship were only placed once.

Store Interview, 2020). This may have been an intentional placement by the brand in order to stay true to Balmain’s French heritage.

Inside the Selfridges concession however, there was one employee working for not only the Balmain concession but Rick Owens and when asking questions about the Balmain product lines, she did not have much product knowledge because she does not work directly for Balmain 39

Price

Balmain, being a luxury brand, has a pricing strategy that reflects the the perception of the brand by the consumer; this is value based pricing.

Promotion

Place

Inside of the Balmain Flagship The brand’s London flagship store store and its concession is located in the Mayfair area. store in Selfridges, there Balmain’s London flagship store is are no promotional tools open from 10 am to influence consumer 6:30 pm Monday - Friday and is closed on Sunday’s. Each of its purchasing decisions. Based stores have a different closing and on an interview I conducted opening time to accommodate the with the sales associate, area in which its located. the flagship store does not Flagship Store directly promote any of the brands campaigns however, Inside of Balmain’s flagship store, the newest collections are its most recent collection is on displayed directly in the front of the store (Balmain Flagship display; Balmain X Pumba; with its older collections placed in the back Store Interview, 2020). of the store. Based on an interview conducted, any items not in stock, the sales associate is able to order from other Balmain boutiques or concessions (Balmain Flagship Store Interview, 2020).

Selfridges Concession and Puma Store Based on interviews conducted, the Balmain X Puma collection was never stocked in either the Carnaby Street Puma location nor the Balmain concession inside of Selfridges (Puma Store Interview, 2020; Selfridges Balmain Concession Interview, 2020)

Figure 9, Balmain Retail Marketing Mix 40

Oliver Rousteing

“IT’S GOING TO BE THE DEFINITION OF THE ARMY SNEAKER, A TRUE MILITARY SNEAKER.”

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Balmain Sneakers Campaign 42

BRAND COMMUNICATION Balmain’s overall promotional mix consists of advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations, and direct marketing tools. In order to create a cohesive message among all if their platforms, the brand has adopted the concept of integrated marketing communications (IMC), using it alongside their promotional mix.

Like many luxury brands, Balmain does not utilize paid promotional activities such as Instagram ads, sponsored posts, or advertorials. Oliver Rousteing is adamin on using organic digital tools to promote the brand, such as his Instagram and the Balmain official Instagram account.

Much of the brands publicity stems from its collaborations with high profile celebrities and brands. This includes Kylie Jenner, Cara Delevinge, H&M, and Beats. This allows the brand to spend minimal money on advertising and capitalize on the following of these high profile brands and celebrities.

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Balmain collaborates heavily with celebrities for not only campaigns but events as well which in turn gives them free publicity Vogue News Article Podcast Interviews

Balmain, just like

Earned

many other luxury brands, does not use

Media

paid media.

Shared

Paid

Media

Media

Balmain official app

Owned Media

Balmain.com

Balmain’s shared media is primarily

Email List

through Oliver’s instagram,

Hair Couture blog

Balmain’s Partnerships

Instagram, and Youtube.

United Negro College Fund RED Charity Balmain X Beats Balmain X Akoni Balmain X Puma

Figure 10, Balmain PESO Analysis 44

AWARENESS Balmain is able to grab the attention of its consumers by using high profile celebrities in their campaigns. For example; their Monogram and Pumba campaigns with Cara Delaveign, H&M x Balmain collaboration featuring Kendall Jenner, and their Wolves campaign featuring Kanye West and Kim Kardashian West.

INTEREST Interest is created through Balmain’s official Instagram account, Oliver Rousteing’s Instagram account, and the brands website, and their Youtube channel. All of these sources allow customers to access information about Balmain to ultimately create desire.

DESIRE Most of Balmain’s campaigns are selling a lifestyle of freedom, sexiness, and empowerment; all of which are also portrayed on their social media accounts. This essentially provokes their audience to desire to be apart of the #BalmainArmy.

Another way of creating desire, Balmain has hosted various exclusive events to announce the launch of collections. For example, A launch party was thrown to celebrate the launch of Balmain X Puma collaboration. Last June, Balmain also held a day long music festival with over 2,000 invitees.

ACTION Balmain is able to create a clear call to action through creating shoppable Instagram posts and recommending products in their email campaigns.

Figure 11, Balmain AIDA Framework 45

In all of their most recent campaigns, Balmain essentially uses a similar communication process for each. This linear process is depicted in Figure 11 through the AIDA framework.

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BALMAIN PROJECTS AND COLLABORATIONS BALMAIN X AKONI JANUARY 2020

BALMAIN X PUMA NOVEMBER 2019

BALMAIN BBUZZ BAG

BALMAIN MUSIC FESTIVAL

SEPTEMBER 2019

JUNE 2019

BALMAIN SNEAKERS

MONOGRAM CAMPAIGN FEBRUARY 2019

BALMAIN X BJORK

JULY 2019

APRIL 2019

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BALMAIN X MET BALL APRIL 2018

BALMAIN SAINTHONORE FEBRUARY 2019

The timeline below is a depiction of all of Balmain’s collaborations and projects. Each of were essentially carried out in the AIDA format shown in Figure 11. Balmain’s most successful collaboration to date is the Balmain X H&M project.

T MY CITY OF LIGHTS APRIL 2018

BALMAIN X BEYONCE APRIL 2018

BALMAIN X L’OREAL SEPTEMBER 2017

BALMAIN X VICTORIA SECRET

BALMAIN X MET BALL MAY 2016

BALMAIN X BEATS JULY 2017

NOVEMBER 2017

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BALMAIN X H&M MAY 2016

BALMAIN X OPERA de PARIS APRIL 2018

Balmain currently only has one brand extension which is their ‘Hair Couture’ line. This line has been apart of Balmain for over 40 years and is used by renowned runway stylists across the world. Depicted in Figure 12 is all of the products that this extension produces and sales. At the moment, these products are only available online.

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BRAND EXTENSION Balmain Paris

Hair Couture

Care & Styling

Hair Additions

Tools & Accessories

Shampoo

Clip-in Extensions

Styling Tools

Conditioner

Strand Extensions

Brushes

Treatments

Wigs

Combs

Hair Color

Tape Extensions

Extensions Aftercare Hair Moose

Figure 12, Balmain ‘Hair Couture’ Brand Extension 50

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BUSINESS ETHICS Balmain, being a brand that keeps most of its information private, does not have a transparent ethical policy. However, according to a podcast interview, Balmain former CEO Massimo Piombini, stated that the brand has recently created a new role within the brand; Head of Sustainability (Luxurynsight x FashionNetwork, 2019).

In the same interview, Piombini made it clear that Balmain is focusing on social sustainability rather than environmental.

Essentially creating a company culture that is diverse, inclusive, and democratic.

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08

» Collaboration with RED and the

» Lack of company ethical transparency » Collaboration with unsustainable fast

Negro College Fund » Oliver Rousteing’s emphasis on

fashion brands such as H&M and

diversity and inclusion

Puma

» Using models of all races and genders

» Usage of fur and leather for

» Accurate use of cultural references

production

» Collaboration with carbon neutral jewelry brand Diamond Foundry

Strengths

Weaknesses

Opportunities

Threats

» Growing demand for ethical

» Increasing demand for transparent

transparency

business models

» Using social media to show

» Globalization of sustainability

consumers production methods and

awareness » Increasing laws and regulations

company culture » Increased demand for brands that are

around employee rights and

diverse and inclusive

environmental sustainability

Figure 13, Balmain Ethical SWOT Analysis 54

BRAND EVALUATION

Balmain Augmented Reality App 55

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Today, Balmain is one of the fastest growing luxury brands. Just over the past four years, the brand has acquired a new owner, reintroduced its accessories line, returned to the world of couture, created a new app with virtual reality capabilities, amassed millions of Instagram followers, and worked with some of the most famous celebrities in the world. All in which can be accredited to their creative director, Oliver Rousteing and former CEO, Massimo Piombini. While Piombini was in the role of CEO, he had a vision to turn Balmain into the next half-billion-dollar fashion house. This vision coupled with Oliver’s mission to democratize the fashion world, has created not only a newly powerful brand but a digital movement that has propelled Balmain into a prosperous future.

THE FUTURE OF BALMAIN It is predicted that the future consumer of Balmain will soon shift from Millennials to Generation Z. According to a report done by WGSN, Gen Z will overtake Millennials in 2019 as the most populous generation. They are also predicted to make up 10% of the entire luxury market by 2025 (Saunter, 2019). This essentially means that the buying power and influence of Generation Z will increase and luxury brands must find a way to obtain their attention. According to a social media survey I conducted with mostly Generation Z respondents, 54% stated that they aspire to purchase Balmain one day (Balmain Consumer Survey, 2020). This essentially means that Balmain already has a large interest from this generation. With Balmain, being a brand that has successfully exploited social media and the digital world, reaching this consumer group should not be no issue.

However, this is a generation that values brands with a social impact and a message for change, and unless Balmain is able to become more transparent in its sustainable and ethical practices, the brand will have a difficult time connecting to these consumers. According to the same survey, 80% stated that they value brands that have a social impact and 65% stated that a brands ethical values influence their purchasing decisions (Balmain Consumer Survey, 2020). Adapting to these demands will be crucial for Balmain’s future success.

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Image References

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APPENDIX

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Appendix A

Sales Associate Interviews Interview Transcript January 2020 I- Interviewer SA- Sales Associate

Flagship Store Interview: I: Do you offer email sign-ups inside of the store?

SA: Yes, when a client makes a purchase, we are able to ask them for their email I: Does the store ever directly promote the various campaigns SA: No, we do not directly promote the campaigns I: is the this store able to order items from other stores for customers SA: We are able to order items from other Balmain boutiques and sometimes concessions Puma Interview: I: Do you all stock the Balmain X Puma Collection SA: No, we do not stock it in this store I: Do you know if an other Puma stores stock the collection SA: I believe that no Puma stores in London stock collection however, I believe that mainly stores in America stock it.

Selfridges Concession Interview: I: Do you all stock the Balmain X Puma collection?

SA: I do not work directly for Balmain, however, I have not seen the collection in stock

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Appendix B

Balmain Consumer Survey The following is a social media survey I conducted based on 74 respondents

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