Salvatore Ferragamo

Paris, summer 2011

José Rodrigo Ruiz Hinojosa
Management of Luxury Brands
Brand analysis of: Salvatore Ferragamo

Table of contents
Executive Summary…………………………………………………………….. 3
Introduction………………………………………………………………………. 3
History…………………………………………………………………………….. 4
Values and Strategy…………………………………………………………….. 5
Structure of Salvatore Ferragamo Italia S.p.A……………………………….. 6Production……………………………………………………………………….. 7
Brand Managing………………………………………………………………… 8
Salvatore Ferragamo in Mexico……………………………………………….. 10
Advertising Campaign………………………………………………………….. 11
Conclusion………………………………………………………………………. 12
Bibliography………………………………………………………………….….. 13

Executive Summary

The objective of the present report is to show how Salvatore Ferragamo aims to keep on being one of the most popular luxurybrands on this segment using different strategies such as core values from the founder, quality hand labor, proper information technologies and control on the opening of the stores to adapt the distribution channels and the supply chain according to the demand.

It’s important to look back to the history of this specific brand, since Salvatore Ferragamo is directly the main pillar of today’swomen’s shoes and fashion trends, and as well as for the ideals and basis of in what he thought when starting to make shoes to fulfill especial needs.

Also, a brief explanation of how it entered to a relatively emerging market for luxury goods such as Mexico, and own comments on the development of that market since it opened the first store and how the Mexican market has reacted to the offer of atrendy luxury brand on fashion and leather goods.

Introduction

Ferragamo Italia knows the value of style, fashion and comfort. It has a wide range of luxury products, clothing and accessories such as belts, ties, handbags and scarves

Salvatore Ferragamo was a creative genius of the twentieth century footwear. His shoes are works of art that suggest intriguing analogies between architecture,design, art and lifestyles. His target is the public ABC1, especially men and women aged 30 to 40 years.

He liked to call himself a shoemaker, a craftsman. And he was called the “showmaker to the stars” among his most faithful clients. His construction techniques handmade led to what today we know as normal regarding fashion shoes. His contribution is a very important input into the currentdesigns concerning about style and comfort.His work was not only considered as designs but, as if they were sculptures, modeled directly on wood representing the shape of the feet of his famous clients: movie stars, members of the nobility and royalty. The aesthetic development was based on technical and construction expertise and devotion to the craft itself.

Although he never drew personally, healways had a team of draftsmen responsible for making projects to scale, or three-dimensional models of their shoes transverse cuts, reflecting their propensity to patent ideas with a potential to be mass-produced, as would an industrial designer.

Not only Ferragamo's creations are exceptional, his life was also extraordinary and can be read as the plot of a movie, in which a lifelong dreambecomes reality

History

His shoe calling came at an early age. At 16, after being apprenticed to the local shoemaker and a luxury shoe store in Naples, decided to reach out to their brothers in America. To Ferragamo, the main motivation was to learn. He realized that in America, where modern footwear industry had a few years, his career could reach a projection that would have been impossiblein Italy. After arriving in New York, moved to Boston and got a job in a factory that made thousands of shoes for signing Queen Quality. Salvatore was impressed by the efficiency of U.S. industry, but not the final product. He saw the mass produced shoes were pretty good, compared with those produced on average in the country, but were heavy and clumsy in terms of style and...