All those who’ve been the witness of success, had once taken a risk in life, all those who’ve taken a calculated one engraved their names in the pages of history, while the rest have been swiped off completely. So goes the story of Saint Laurent clothing as well. Before being re-launched in the market, it was merely a footwear brand that hardly held any recognition in the market. But one single calculated risk now charts them in the top ten brands in the world and has paid them a fantastic return on the investment made. This ingenious rise and success of Saint Laurent can only be described as a meteoric one. Although their trotting steps in the market was a bit shaky, they’ve come up with their incendiary debut and have re-branded themselves successfully in the market.
While there has been a lot of talking in the market regarding the message that the brand has tried to spread all over their market, for the fashion experts, the focus has always been their products which is claimed to appeal a much diverse demographic than what the media and the fashion world expected. The biggest and the most crucial reason for the success of Saint Laurent has been their acceptability and over performance of all the categories in the market. There aren’t much luxury designers in the market, where the ready to wear items are as strong as the shoes or the bags.
They’ve been successful in creating a difference in the entire fashion world. There was a preconceived notion that all the dresses which are worn in the fashion shows on the ramps are not meant to be sold in the market. Saint Laurent has been successful to upend this idea with their luxury, yet super basic items like, the tailored Saint Laurent leather jackets, bikers, bombers, Denims, and many more which was what the market was continuously asking for. Hedi Slimane, who’s been the former creative director of Saint Laurent was successful in building up the casual wear product categories and have renewed the tailoring that the brand offered. As a result of this, Saint Laurent found business with denim tees, leather jackets and knitwear to account for almost a third of their sales. In a nutshell what he actually tried and became successful in doing was creating a category champion, which kept serving as the core of their business.
The key of any business is their consistency, and Saint Laurent has been successful in delivering their customers with thoroughly digestible fashion products. All their categories have been performing well, but the ready to wear products have been nothing short of incredible. Another key factor that worked for them is the communication. The smaller brands which had the disadvantage of their size, needed to stand out of their ability to innovate, in order to find a buzz in the industry. Saint Laurent has been able to achieve this by dedicating almost 7 percent of their revenue to advertising. This enabled them to outstand the rest of their competitors in the market and they kept bearing their flag of success triumphantly.
While some keep saying of their story of success, Hedi acted, and it took just three years for him to bring the brand in the market. While some believes in success, people like Hedi write them.
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