Brand Analysis
Yves Saint Laurent (YSL), or Saint Laurent, is a French brand currently part of the Kering group. This luxury brand produces women’s and men’s clothing, accessories, perfumes, and cosmetics (Kering, 2023b). The brand’s current strategy is to expand its presence, which occurs by opening brand stores around the world and capturing new markets.
The history of the brand and its creator, Yves Saint Laurent, is of great importance for the identity of YSL. The vision for the houses in the Kering group is creativity and diversity, contributing to the success of sustainable and influential luxury (Kering, 2023b). Thus, a creative approach, a combination of innovation and tradition, and a look into the future are the key characteristics of YSL.
Recent Success
YSL has been able to achieve clear brand recognition in the luxury sector. 2022 was a period in which the brand recorded stable growth with a total revenue of 3,300 million euros, recording a 31% increase compared to the previous reporting period (Kering, 2023a). Currently, it is the second most successful brand in the Kering group, overtaking only Gucci in terms of financial performance (Kering, 2023b). A cautious entry into the Asian market has helped to strengthen its presence, even though most of the sales come from Europe and North America (Li, 2022). The brand recovered from the challenging pandemic and managed to record even greater profits, and the chosen strategy for expansion was a success for the company.
Recent Failure
Since YSL is a luxury brand, the leading resource on which the company’s success depends is brand-loyal customers. The primary failure that the brand has faced in recent years is the lack of quality control over operations in online sales and remote offline stores (Studente & Cattaneo, 2023). This problem, which affected customers’ brand perception, arose during the pandemic (Studente & Cattaneo, 2023). Customers’ complaints concern poor product quality and long delivery times (Cabigiosu, 2020a). However, given the recent successful financial performance, YSL overcame this problem, mainly due to maintaining a loyal customer base.
Sustainability Actions
Sustainability is one of YSL’s key principles, and the brand has shown systematic development for several decades due to this. Actions include supply chain sustainability, sustainable manufacturing, and store sustainability (YSL, no date). Upholding human rights, being ethically driven, paying attention to environmental issues, and moving towards greener production are crucial to achieving sustainability (YSL, no date). YSL’s sustainability strategy aligns with the principles that a modern corporation needs to uphold.
Strategy for the Future
YSL’s products are iconic and recognizable, but a company of this size always needs to develop a detailed strategy that will allow it to stay true to its vision in the future. YSL’s long-term strategy is based on the 4P mix marketing, which includes product, price, location, and promotion (Li, 2022). The brand’s future product strategy will include expanding the presented line by focusing on related products, mainly clothing and accessories (Li, 2022).
The brand’s pricing strategy will remain unchanged, focusing on luxury customers who guarantee a stable profit margin. Regarding location, YSL’s future strategy will include continued cautious expansion into eastern markets (Cabigiosu, 2020b). The distribution channel through online services will also increase due to the growing demand for this type of sales (Pang et al., 2022). The promotion strategy for YSL will remain the same: predominantly video advertising via social media and visual merchandising at physical locations. Thus, the company will continue to adhere to the already developed strategic principles, expanding the product line and representation.
Current Situation
Currently, YSL is one of the most successful brands in the Kering group. YSL continues pursuing a brand identity and cautious strategies to ensure sustainable growth. The basis for successful development is maintaining the brand’s aesthetics for decades, regardless of the requirements of new generations of customers (Cabigiosu, 2020b). YSL is betting on an elegant aesthetic that refers to traditional rather than short-term fashion.
Leather goods, bags, and accessories make up the largest share of the brand’s profits (Li, 2022). The emphasis on the local market remains relevant, as sales in the European and North American regions are the highest (Li, 2022). An incremental, sustainable development strategy focusing on cautious development in new products and geographic areas drives YSL’s ongoing success.
The Consumer Profile
The YSL consumer profile is similar to that of other luxury brands. YSL’s target consumers appreciate and follow fashion and the latest trends (Mohr et al., 2020). The buyers of the brand’s products are young and middle-aged people between 20 and 50 years old, men and women, mostly educated, who are characterized by high purchasing power (Halwani, 2021). These people appreciate the traditional style and impressive history of the brand.
The primary consumers of the brand’s products are loyal regular customers, which the brand uses to capture the largest market share (Figueiredo & Eiriz, 2021). YSL’s buyers belong to the middle and upper strata of society. They are inelastic to price changes. The brand occupies an elite premium market based on the income of the key consumers.
Market Analysis
YSL products can be divided into ready-to-wear clothes, footwear, and leather products, including bags, accessories, cosmetics, and perfumes. Bags account for 70% of worldwide trade turnover (Li, 2022). The global luxury handbag market reached more than 62 billion US dollars in 2020, with an annual growth of more than 5% expected in the next five years (Donzé, 2023).
The market is highly competitive, with regular entry of new players in the form of luxury brands. The main driver of market growth is growing incomes in developed and developing countries. Brand awareness is also a driving force in the market.
The increase also influences the market’s growth in the number of working women and the consolidation of precise positioning of luxury bags as an integral status accessory. The leather segment occupies the largest share of the luxury bag market (Li, 2022). This segment is predicted to grow more slowly than synthetics as more people worldwide consciously choose to avoid animal products.
The largest share of luxury handbags is still sold offline due to increased brand presence, as illustrated by the YSL example (Li, 2022). At the same time, the online distribution channel is expected to register the fastest average annual growth rate. The largest market share, more than 30%, falls to the European market (Li, 2022). Overall, the luxury goods market is projected to grow due to higher revenues, increased brand awareness, and increased visibility.
Reference List
Cabigiosu, A. (2020a) ‘A comparative analysis: Gucci, Saint Laurent, Balenciaga and Bottega Veneta’, in Cabigiosu, A. (eds.) Digitalization in the Luxury Fashion Industry. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 203-236. Web.
Cabigiosu, A. (2020b) ‘An overview of the luxury fashion industry’ in Cabigiosu, A. (eds.) Digitalization in the Luxury Fashion Industry. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 9-31. Web.
Donzé, P. Y. (2023) Selling Europe to the world: The rise of the luxury fashion industry, 1980-2020. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Figueiredo, J. and Eiriz, V. (2021) ‘Fragrances’ luxury brand extension: Consumer behavior and influences’, EuroMed Journal of Business, 16(2), pp. 241-258. Web.
Halwani, L. (2021) ‘Heritage luxury brands: Insight into consumer motivations across different age groups’, Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 24(2), pp. 161-179. Web.
Kering (2023a) Press release: 2022 full year results. Web.
Kering (2023b) Who we are. Talent. Web.
Li, M. (2022) ‘The research on the brand marketing strategy of Yves Saint Laurent’, Journal of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences, 5(1), pp.12-21. Web.
Studente, S. and Cattaneo, E. eds. (2023) Contemporary issues in luxury brand management. London: Taylor & Francis.
Mohr, I., Fuxman, L. and Mahmoud, A. B. (2022) ‘A triple-trickle theory for sustainable fashion adoption: The rise of a luxury trend’, Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal, 26(4), pp. 640-660. Web.
Pang, W., Ko, J., Kim, S. J. and Ko, E. (2022) ‘Impact of COVID-19 pandemic upon fashion consumer behavior: Focus on mass and luxury products’, Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, 34(10), pp. 2149-2164. Web.
YSL (no date) Sustainability standards. Saint Laurent. Web.