Jeans Brand Diesel Is 40 Years Old. How To Keep Young And Fresh?

For fashion brands, it is difficult not to be young for a while but to remain young and fresh for a long time.

When he was a teenager, Renzo Rosso, a young town born in Italy, designed his first pair of jeans in a textile course. The low waist jeans were exaggerated, unlike any of the monotonous jeans at that time, and ignited the entrepreneurial idea that Renzo Rosso wanted to subvert the cowboy industry.

In 1978, Diesel was born.

The word "Diesel", originally intended for diesel, was the most notable new energy and oil substitute in the 70s of last century, and Renzo Rosso's fashion brand Diesel was also naturally injected into the traditional blood.

The original monotonous and ordinary jeans were rebuilt in the Renzo Rosso, and the market was unique with its luxuriant complexity and complicated process. The price band was greatly promoted to become the first brand to luxury the cowboy.

Renzo Rosso received a fashion headline interview during his recent trip to Shanghai. When talking about the original brand, he said, "when I first started cowboy business, very few people at first understood what I was doing.

Interestingly, though it was hard to understand at the beginning, my product was very popular with fashion people, and then began to become more and more accepted and more successful as snowballs.

Over the next 40 years, jeans have been greatly expanded both in business and in fashion design.

Calvin Klein brings American pop culture and sexy elements into jeans, Levi's, Lee and other brands make jeans into the "uniform" and lifestyle of young people, while Diesel's success through luxury cowboy is constantly being copied.

The fashion has come and gone, and when jeans are quickly recognized and consumed, becoming a more common everyday dress, this category has experienced unexpected cooling.

But with its unique positioning, Diesel maintained its market dominance, and at the same time, by expanding the window of cowboy fashion, it expanded into a fashionable fashion brand that could match many historic Italy family brands in 40 years. Renzo Rosso created its own fashion empire OTB group through a strategic layout.

In 2000, after buying Staff International, a clothing manufacturer holding multiple brand production and distribution licenses, Renzo Rosso established the Only The Brave group. It officially expanded from a single brand business to a multi brand group, and acquired a majority stake in high-end fashion brands such as Maison Margiela, Viktor&Rolf, Marni and Margiela. In 2013, it officially renamed the group.

The group also founded Brave Kid, an agent manufacturer for children's clothing in 2011.

"When I founded Diesel and got on the right track, I started looking for more beautiful things, but cowboys and sportswear businesses had their ceilings and couldn't become more luxuries.

Diesel has become our business card, and its price band has been relatively fixed.

But from the perspective of the group, we still want to be a place in the luxury industry, because luxury can stimulate people's desire.

So the OTB group behind Diesel has also become a very unique industry case in the luxury fashion industry.

Ordinary consumers rarely realize that Diesel, the main style of rebellious young people, belongs to a group of high fashion brands such as Maison Margiela, Marni and Viktor&Rolf.

The latter three positions even occupy the commanding heights in the field of high fashion. In the words of Renzo Rosso, Maison Margiela is the "top diamond in Pyramid" in the fashion industry.

In the industry view, the layout of Renzo Rosso is also a wonderful move.

Through today's brand portfolio, OTB group attracts consumers from different circles, taking into account multiple price areas and style positioning.

The best form of brand combination is not the superposition of scale, but the synergy effect.

To a certain extent, the group's high fashion brand has elevated the position of OTB group in the luxury industry, which also exerts a subtle influence on Diesel's luxury cowboy positioning.

Of course, apart from the vision of Renzo Rosso at the macro level, Diesel's subversion of the modern brand management mode in the past 40 years is the key to keeping the brand alive.

As the core of OTB group, Diesel, under the guidance of Renzo Rosso and creative director Andrea Rosso, has built itself into a lifestyle brand, expanding its products in various categories. The main way is to expand the product line with the cooperation of industry leaders, such as launching watches and jewelry with Fossil group, cooperating with Marcolin group, and collaborating with L'OREAL group in perfume line.

But in the creation of lifestyle brand, Diesel has grasped the spiritual core of contemporary young people's Deconstruction of common sense, love irony and advocated relaxation of life attitude, and thus launched a marketing way that embodies their values.

Since the late 80s, when many fashion brands focused on clothes in the advertising blockbuster, Diesel began to redefine fashion advertisements, decided not to let costumes become the protagonists of advertisements, but focused on creating a satirical social documentary photography.

In 1988, Diesel advertising won many famous global advertising awards.

And then the 1992 "How-To:Guides For Successful Living" Promo film ridiculed the traditional advertisement in 50s and 60s of last century, and this slogan has become the most famous slogan of Diesel so far.

The subversion of the advertising form has become the brand tradition that Diesel has followed so far, making the brand advertising blockbuster win many awards such as the Cannes international creativity Festival.

In 1995, the brand launched the "Kissing Sailor:War Is Over" advertising blockbuster shot by the famous photographer David LaChapelle, who ridiculed the victory kiss of the classic photos. Today, this creative method is already the precursor of the weird form of meme, which is now popular in Instagram and Twitter.

In 2008, Diesel launched a limited edition of jeans for the 30th anniversary commemorative event, which was sold at a low price of $30 and sold out in a few hours.

The marketing method of extremely low price plus limit can still arouse the attention of young consumers after 10 years.

Long before the social media was popular, Diesel's advertising slogans were frequent.

In 2010, Diesel launched the "Be Stupid" (keep stupid) advertisement.

The "Go With the Flaw" launched in 2017 (imperfect, with different lives) is a ridicule for the proverb "Go With the Flow" (let nature take its course).

As a continuation of this advertising campaign, in February 2018, Diesel also launched the "Go With The Fake" cottage shop, selling all kinds of misspelled "DEISEL" logo T-shirts in the shop, waiting for unsuspecting consumers to go shopping.

The whole process of the cottage store has been filmed, but Renzo Rosso is not to satirize the customers who shop, but rather to those who are brave enough to risk their pursuit of their own unique style.

He said, "counterfeit culture always exists, but we want to pay tribute to those who accept their imperfections, especially those who can wear whatever they like, because relaxation is the prevailing fashion."

In October 2017, Renzo Rosso appeared in person and took a video, saying that the position of the brand CEO is currently vacant, and the stool of the position is also idle. Therefore, a Chair Executive Officer will be searched through Facebook. He stressed that the most important candidate for the position is to be good at sitting.

Interested people can upload GIF or video to display their skills on the official Facebook page of Diesel, and the winner will have the opportunity to hold a week's "CEO" at Diesel headquarters.

"Without satirical humor, life would be too boring.

This is part of the brand lifestyle and is part of myself, "Renzo Rosso told fashion headlines.

So far, Diesel is still focusing on this humorous and focus on young people's values.

2019 spring and summer propaganda theme Make Your Way, The Successful Way is also an extension of #ForSuccessfulLiving#, the Chinese plation is "dare to live and dare to live."

The brand observed that today's young people's desire and pressure for so-called "success" and "perfect life" are increasing day by day under the guidance of the inherent thinking of success.

Then, it is pointed out that success is never only possible. It is not necessary to keep silent, and to look at the real self from the heart, and dare to pursue the inner dream and live a wonderful life.

In addition, the "high light moment" in the history of Diesel brand marketing also includes, in 2008, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the brand establishment, Diesel held 17 parties in 24 hours worldwide and conducted live webcast.

The Diesel XXX thematic publicity campaign has thoroughly demonstrated how Diesel can "organize a successful party".

The Diesel XXX theme party video has recorded more than 20 million hits, making it one of the most successful viral activities ever.

At the same time, the brand also accurately capture the rise of sustainable fashion and moral fashion.

In the spring of 2013, Diesel advanced with the Edun brand, launched a series of fashion beyond Africa and dressed by a new generation of creative talents in Africa. This series inspired by African inspiration is all produced in Africa, using the top CCI cotton produced in Uganda.

In the past Shanghai fashion week, Diesel worked with the tiger LABELHOOD pioneer Fashion Festival, and set up a brand exclusive live experience D:SPACE BY DIESEL in the new landmark art area Shanghai oil tank Art Center.

The brand is co operating with the famous designer and founder of XANDER ZHOU, limited to offer the joint venture series of #DIESEL X ZHOUXIANGYU#, while the young artist Chen Tianzhuo has created the art of avant-garde installation.

The latest brand tannin ambassador, Wang Linkai, and other young pioneers also visited this experience space.

In fact, when people look back at the development history of Diesel, they often have a brand-new understanding of Renzo Rosso. He not only magnified her personality into Diesel brand, but used the excellent foresight and business instinct to accurately capture the characteristics and spiritual core of the youth group.

In almost every important public speech, including the theme forum held by LABELHOOD, "How To Make Your Way The Successful Way", he stressed: "I am not a designer, but I know the needs of consumers."

Renzo Rosso said in an exclusive interview, "marketing is the only way for the brand to survive and thrive.

In the past, Diesel would do a lot of advertising and publicity. In 90s, the brand needed to put a lot of advertisements in magazines or roadside. What we have to do now is to show our attitude in social media and digital channels, and all contents will be digitalized.

But the ultimate goal of the two way is communication. If the brand does not show itself, and consumers can't see your uniqueness, they will not buy your product.

In other words, Diesel not only captured the opportunities of cowboy business, but also changed the way of modern brand management and became the earliest brand of young people in terms of values and marketing methods.

In this regard, Virgil Abloh, Supreme and other "new idols" wrapped in social media and marketing methods do not bring more substance to convey the spirit of young people. This is also due to the fact that young people's psychology has not changed significantly in the past 40 years.

However, when the real young people's market is rising and the market competition is more and more intense, Diesel has to take the past experience and move along with the new competitors.

The difficulty of short term pformation is not high, but few young brands can do so, and Diesel has been almost smooth sailing for decades.

Last month, Diesel Diesel USA Inc., an American distributor, filed for bankruptcy protection, which was mainly affected by such factors as increasing losses, sharp decline in sales and Internet fraud.

Since 1995, Diesel USA has been the sole distributor of Diesel products in the United States, but its sales plunged 53% to 104 million dollars last year, and recorded a loss for six consecutive years.

The company plans to close some of the 28 stores, and will focus on more profitable stores and improve product lines in the next three years.

At the same time, Diesel is also experiencing personnel turmoil, and Diesel CEO Marco Agnolin has resigned in March 28th.

Previously, Diesel CEO and creative director Nicola Formichetti has left, and analysts say the brand will face more turbulence.

The instability of the global retail environment has also had a real impact on the OTB group's performance.

In 2017, group sales fell 2.4% to 1 billion 520 million euros, and sales in 2018 will be announced this month.

Renzo Rosso has revealed exclusively to the group's 2018 financial situation to fashion headlines.

He said that 2018 was not a very ideal fiscal year for the group, and Diesel reduced the 350 million euro's poor distributor channel.

"This figure may be the worst performance in my lifetime, but from 2019 to 2021, we launched the three year plan and implemented it smoothly."

But he stressed that other brands still performed well, especially Masion Margiela, which showed excellent performance, recorded double-digit growth, and Marni also had excellent performance.

Renzo Rosso acknowledges that the pition period is now a restarting period, and the group target customer group has shifted to the millennial generation, but the pformation is very difficult because the high price positioning and product style are no longer compatible with the new generation of consumers.

But he is optimistic about the future. "We still have a favorable position. Many opinion leaders, bloggers and stars are wearing our clothes. Now for Diesel, it is a great moment, and it will climb higher and higher."

"Don't forget, it's a 40 year old brand," he stressed.

To understand the ideas of young people around the world, Diesel, like many other Italy brands, is paying more and more attention to the market outside Europe. This trip to China is obviously an important opportunity for Renzo Rosso.

"I think a brand must have a global view, but at the same time, we must consider localization, integrate into the local market, and have a deep understanding of different regions and different groups."

In Shanghai, Renzo Rosso visited many different shops in the city centre. He paid particular attention to those local brand new shops because they represented the preferences of young people in China.

"Although we are an international brand, we are also approaching the mainland in practice."

He was surprised by the popularity of mobile payment, and the pace of urban life had made him feel that he had to speed up his pace, or he would be left behind by the times.

The new easterly wind is blowing.

Market research shows that jeans are getting damp, which means that Diesel will have second golden opportunities.

Euro forecast that the American jeans market will be warmer in the past 5 years, and that the composite annual growth rate of American jeans sales from 2018 to 2023 is only 1%, but higher than that of 2013 to 2018.

According to the latest just-style report, sales of the global jeans retail market last year was about $57 billion 300 million, and by 2023, it will achieve $60 billion 90 million, mainly due to the strong growth of consumer demand in developing countries.

The report also predicts that the United States will continue to be the world's largest market for jeans, while China will be the second largest.

Mordor Intelligence data from research institutions show that the jeans market is expected to grow at a rate of 6.7% from 2018 to 2023.

The cowboy market is full of legendary brands that hope to continue in 70 and 80s.

Vans parent VF group has officially split Wrangler and Lee denim business and established Kontoor Brands Inc. and submitted IPO application on the New York stock exchange.

Another American clothing brand Guess has begun to target the cowboy business and will focus on cowboy business again.

Gap group's cash cow Old Navy will be listed independently, valued at up to 8 billion U.S. dollars, the brand's cheap jeans have been popular among consumers.

Even if the market is crowded, in the new round of market competition, Diesel, which is born with the attitude of young people, still occupies an advantageous position. It has the inherent advanced nature in brand values. This is the way to grasp the contemporary brand, but how to continuously gain the driving force for innovation is the key to the brand's continuation of the youth attitude to the next 40 years.