2023-11-06 06:24:40
“Super unpopular opinion: I like Desigual’s clothes.” “At what point do I like Desigual’s clothes, holy god.” These two tweets of anonymous users are just the latest sign that something is changing in what was once the fourth largest fashion company in Spain. The company has undertaken its umpteenth turnaround to become molar, and the networks, for now, support it. The return of aesthetics dosmilerawith diversity as a rising value among the younger generations and some symptoms of exhaustion among the most fashionable mainstream They are some of the keys to the new life chula of the Spanish company.
The brand has in its favor its own discourse and a clear personality, linked to fashion, art and creativity., which is now back in fashion. That identity is already in the very origins of the company: its name was born from an idea by Isabel Coixet; Their first logo, the Humans, was scribbled by Peret, and the first store was designed by Tonet Sunyer.
In the 2000s, the explosion came: in the first decade of the new millennium, Desigual was the brand for which Adriana Lima and Bella Hadid (who debuted at New York Fashion Week with the Catalan brand) walked, and which It sneaked into the news with provocative marketing campaigns. The culmination was the entry in 2014 of the French fund Eurazeo and the dream of billing one billion euros. It was the last year of glory.
“Doing things differently does not mean doing them ‘off industry’,” says Jan Rivera
After years of declining sales and with the brand off the radar of the firms cool, the company undertook its latest relaunch plan in 2019, but the pandemic and changes in the team slowed its implementation. Until now.
“It has changed the zeitgeist”says Jan Rivera, who joined Desigual in 2021 as image and content director. “It is time to reconnect with this essence of Desigual of being an innovative brand, with its own point of view, that seeks to be a cultural reference,” says the executive, who previously worked at Massimo Dutti and Mango, where he was image director. .
The ‘target’
One of the keys to the new plan, started in 2019, is to reach younger customers. Going from being the brand of “modern” teachers to being the brand of the most cool. “They always associate Desigual with the English teacher, but she reminds me more of an art teacher in New York, who is brutal,” says Rivera. The company is focused on a client between 25 and 40 years old, which they internally call expresionistlinked to art, fashion and culture.
Rivera insists that it is about recovering the brand’s original customer, taking advantage of the fact that the values it defends, such as diversity and happiness, are once again trending. “Desigual has always been surrounded by a group of creative people, the divine leftthe Catalan movement…With an energy linked to celebrating life and using fashion as a tool of vibrant expression,” recalls the executive.
“These values fit very well with current trends; and Desigual’s own aesthetic is also back in fashion, with the trend dosmilera and the return of fashion new age”says Rivera.
The logo
The shift in which Desigual is now immersed began in 2019. The most visible symptom of the change was the renewal of the logo (which was turned upside down, with a mirror effect), announced with great fanfare after the incorporation of Guillem Gallego as director of marketing.
After Gallego’s departure in 2022, the logo returned to its original form, but Rivera downplays its importance. “We put it back on the right side for practicality, because operationally it was very complicated, but it shouldn’t be news: Desigual is going to do this type of thing constantly,” says Rivera, who emphasizes that the current strategy is “continuous” with the one launched in 2019.
“If I had to say something that we have changed, it is bringing the brand closer to fashion. and not so much to streetwear: because if you dedicate yourself to this sector you always have to have a point of aspiration,” he explains.
“Doing things differently does not mean doing them off industry -summarizes-; Picasso already said it, to paint very well you first have to do it like a three-year-old child, the basic rules of the sector apply to everything.”
Marketing: TikTok, community and laughing at yourself
Another change has been marketing: the company has recovered actions from its golden age, such as the one that invites customers to go to a store in their underwear and take two free items of clothing that they can wear over them, and has laughed at itself to connect with the new generation on TikTok with videos that collect tweets from anonymous people who admit that, for the first time, they like Desigual clothing.
“I was a little reluctant to play this game, but transforming criticism into something positive is easier than doing it with something that people don’t care about“, summarizes Rivera. “The cool thing about all this is that it’s not that we say that before we were tacky and now we’re not, it’s that people say it naturally,” he says.
Desigual has turned to TikTok to connect with its target, but without forgetting aspirationality
TiktTok has been key in this strategy, but Rivera points out that Instagram continues to be the base. “TikTok is more authentic, and Instagram more aspirationalthat double role is what we have to play, but we have to know how to do it very well,” he explains.
“We cannot forget that we are selling clothing in the fashion segment. mid marketand to do it we need the brand to be desired and aspirationalmake elevated fashion communication,” he adds.
These actions are complemented by a renewed commitment to influencerscontent creators and artists who help convey the new positioning and who constitute the audience the company wants to address.
“You have to have a community around you that understands the brand, but also an internal team that is completely in tune with your proposal; When that happens, things work better and everything works,” summarizes Rivera, who underlines the key role that company founder and owner Thomas Meyer continues to playwho serves as creative director.
Between the niche and the ‘mainstream’
The ultimate key to this turn is to get out of the niche and reach a broader audience to gain size again. “We are not a niche brand,” summarizes Rivera, who also links it to a change in attitude towards fashion.
“There is no longer any fear of saying that you like Desigual, because the way of consuming fashion has changed,” he explains. “We have spent many years of overbuying, imposed trends and little identity; Today being different is normal,” she says.
The acid test will be the results account. The company ended the 2022 financial year with a turnover of 379 million euros, compared to 371 million the previous year. 2021 (with the low comparable base due to the pandemic) had been the first year of growth since 2014. The net result in 2022 stood at three million euros, 15% more, despite the fact that the company accelerated its investments.
The group currently operates around 370 single-brand stores. and presence in 104 countries through ten sales channels. In total, the company, based in Barcelona and led by Alberto Ojinaga as general director, employs 2,500 people.
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