Kering protects himself. The French luxury company, one of the largest operators in its sector, is in the process of creating a position to oversee and protect its brands just months after the Balenciaga scandalowned by the group, the company has confirmed during the presentation with analysts.
the new position will oversee the “security” of Kering firms, reviewing and questioning ad campaigns prior to launch. The group will also hire a new external communication agency to oversee the marketing and advertising areas and will expand the internal team to review the mood boards. The objective of the company is to improve your vision of how your communication actions are perceived by the general public.
François-Henri Pinault, CEO of Kering, has declared that the scandal has had “a great impact” on the sales of Balenciagaespecially in the United Kingdom, the Middle East and the United States.
“The impact of the controversy is mitigating, but continues to affect us and will do so until the end of the second quarter”, predicts the CEO of the group. “Balenciaga has a lot of work ahead of him to rehabilitate his image in the United States,” added the executive.
Kering has expanded the internal team to review the ‘moodboards’ of its campaigns and will hire a new external marketing agency
At the end of November, a Balenciaga ad campaign depicting children with stuffed animals wrapped in belts and chains associated with sexual practices put the Kering brand in the spotlight of public ridicule.
In the weeks after launch, some of the firm’s main ambassadors, such as Kim Kardashian and Gigi Hadid, questioned their relationship with Balenciaga and social networks, key to its communication strategy, turned against it, calling for the resignation of Demna Gvsalia, creative director since 2018. The campaign was quickly withdrawn and Balenciaga issued several statements about it, moving from externalizing blame to taking full responsibility for photographs.
Kering has ended the 2022 financial year with a growth in its sales of 15% and 14% in its net profit. These results “are not up to our ambitions and potential,” Pinault declared. Specifically, the company invoiced 20,351 million euros and its profit stood at 3,614 million euros. “Balenciaga has recorded an excellent yeardespite the difficulties in DecemberKering noted, though he did not elaborate.