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Versace Apologize, What Does The Brand Do To Become The Second D&G?

2019/8/13 12:56:00 2

D&G

Yang Mi, who became the spokesman for Versace two months ago, announced the termination of his spokesperson's identity in the early hours of yesterday morning, in protest against the Italy luxury brand's practice of separately listing Hongkong and Macao in a T-shirt in China.

Yang Mi's Jiaxing studio issued a statement saying: "China's territorial integrity and sovereignty are sacred and inviolable", and has issued a letter of "rescission of the agreement" to Versace. Yang Mi has also deleted the contents related to Versace on his personal account.

For the rapid response of the Yang Mi team, the Versace brand also issued an apology to its official micro-blog on micro-blog's work for more than ten minutes, reiterating its "love for China and resolutely respecting the sovereignty of the Chinese territory". It has been under the official sales channel of Versace in July 24th and destroyed this T-shirt and related products in July 24th. The Chinese netizens, who are angry with each other, are still calling for the brand to stop apologizing for "China's special offer" and ask the brand to issue an apology statement in overseas social media.

Around half past six p.m. Beijing time on Sunday, Versace and brand creative director Donatella Versace respectively issued an apology on their brand official and personal Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. "I am deeply sorry for the recent mistake made by our company, and now the change time is being discussed in the social media. I have always respected China's national sovereignty, which is why we want to apologize for this mistake and its adverse effects, "the statement said.

Although Versace's apology is prompt, prompt and sincere, people in the industry generally believe that after such an event, the crisis of public opinion that the brand will encounter will bring about irreversible impact on the brand. "In recent years, nationalism has been on the rise, and every link in the fashion industry needs to emphasize a dimension of thinking, that is, whether the decision, this product and this marketing will lead to a public opinion crisis related to nationalism," Xu Yue, editor in chief of the Joyce Xu, commented.

On micro-blog, the famous fashion history bloomer Luo Mei Sheng also believes that the occurrence of such storms is, in essence, that luxury brands do not really care about the Chinese market. "The Chinese market, which they did not care about, is growing up at the naked eye. People who used to be just a kind of element used to be silent" now begin to express their dissatisfaction. This conflict should continue in the future. Luo Mei Sheng commented. "Ironically, the diversity advocated by the west is not pleasant to experience."

The controversial T-shirt, priced at 2180 yuan, and a similar style of sweater, designed a list of cities and their respective countries on the back, such as Milan, Rome, Italy, Berlin, Germany, Beijing and Shanghai, but Hongkong and Macao are listed in the national format. Although Versace has already been operating on its own channels, the men's T-shirt versions are still on sale at retail channels such as Matchesfashion, which cannot be controlled by brands.

As a luxury brand bought by us luxury goods group Capri last year, Versace appointed Yang Mi two months ago as a brand spokesperson, trying to further attract younger generation of Chinese consumers. Yang Mi previously served as the first global spokesperson for Michael Kors, and the "Queen of goods" also boosted the brand's influence and sales performance in the Chinese market.

It is reported that Versace has about 300 stores worldwide, with the largest number in mainland China, reaching 116. The occurrence of public opinion crisis and the loss of Yang Mi will affect Versace's performance. The Quarterly Bulletin released by Capri on Friday showed that Versace earned $207 million in the first quarter of June, exceeding Wall Street analysts' expectations, with double-digit sales growth in the same quarter and a 8 to 196 increase in stores. However, the brand still recorded a loss of $3 million in the first quarter, and its operating profit margin dropped by 1.4%.

But after the crisis of public opinion, whether the brand can reestablish its image in the public mind is still unknown. Before that, Versace, which relied on the highlight of the Italian fashion style and the younger marketing, has always been a good image in the minds of the mass consumers. According to the early report of consulting firm Crisp, Versace ranked third among the most popular luxury brands in social media, second only to Chanel and LouisVuitton.

The Versace incident took place less than a year after last year's Italy luxury brand Dolce & Gabbana's "insult to China" incident. Last November, Dolce & Gabbana exposed the scandal of creative director "insulting China" before the big show in Shanghai. Not only was the Shanghai big show forced to be canceled, but Star King Jun Kai and Di Ali Gerba immediately terminated their cooperation with the brand. Recently, the Dolce & Gabanna, which has shown good publicity to Chinese consumers on the eve of the heat of the Seventh Festival, has stimulated netizens to further condemn.

It is obvious that more and more brands should realize that it is difficult to revive the brand after the crisis of public opinion in order to survive in the Chinese market which accounts for nearly 1/3 of the global luxury market. Therefore, the brand should also think deeply about its localization strategy, whether it is product design or social media communication.

In terms of extension, whether Versace is suspected to list Hongkong Macao as a state, Dolce & Gabanna insult Hua, or Kim Kardashian's body building clothing brand Kimono is suspected of "cultural appropriation" of Japanese Geisha tradition, but it is actually a "low-level mistake" committed at the design and marketing level.

But behind the incident is a bigger worry. It is a big problem for the multi ethnic groups to participate in the luxury design team, and the lack of diversity in the overall management of the group. Although Gucci, Prada and Chanel have recently appointed diversified leaders and committees and made more commitments, they are more worried about the boycott of African Americans and their related groups. The cultural differences between the larger and more complex Asian people are still missing in the multiple issue. It is hard to imagine that in those big brands that contributed more than 1/3 or even half of China's brands, there were few Chinese or Asian people in its board of directors and top executives. In the industry, only one of LVMH is also the first Asian to be the chief executive of the Fred brand of Charles Leung, a Chinese Hongkong native. Jin Keyu, an economist, appointed its independent director.

In other words, in the context of the European and American context, the brand should also include the Chinese market, especially at the beginning and the highest decision of product design.

This is a more far-reaching and extensive problem. Considering the lack of people's general understanding of China in the western context, they seldom lack a real understanding of such a storm. Under the apology of Versace Instagram, many overseas netizens commented that the brand is a big deal. @superflatt commented, "I didn't expect them to make a mountain out of a molehill because of the design mistakes of a T-shirt. It's crazy! " @ _chleowpatra_ says, "Chinese people have to complain about everything." But if Chinese consumers never give voice and let these real "diversification" problems be exposed, there will always be another event like D&G and this time.

Source: BOF Author: Denni Hu

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