Brunello Cucinelli announced 1.1B EUD in sales in 2023.
Five years ahead of their 2019 10-year plan. Putting it in our sights for another brand comparison!
The main headline here – a 10-year plan. How many brands truly have this in place? Guardrails setting the direction and goals for a period longer than most CEO tenures – perhaps there’s something to it.
We will compare Loro Piana (LP), Brunello Cucinelli (BC), and Zegna due to their high-end positioning (with Zegna perhaps a little lower versus the other two), strong global growth numbers (bucking the market trend) and alignment to men’s fashion.
The numbers we know
Loro Piana helped drive the first 3Q growth rate for LVMH Fashion & Leather Goods at +11%, Brunello Cucinelli hit 1.1B EUD as mentioned above, and Zegna (inc. Thom Browne, Inc. and TOM FORD FASHION) registered a 23.8% increase in revenue in the first half of 2023, along with a doubling of their profit.
Marketing
🎩 Weibo - Zegna current sits at around 685k followers on Weibo with over 3M engagements and 8M UGC posts, larger than both LP (30k fol./600k eng./197k UGC) and BC (16k fol./83k eng./42k UGC).
🎩 RED – LP has the most followers at 21k after only opening their official account in May 2023. BC sits a little behind with 17k and Zegna with 11k – however Zegna only opened in August and their growth rate looks to outpace that of LP – suggested by their engagement per post figure of 272 versus 77 for LP and 68 for BC.
🎩 Douyin – Douyin is BC’s strongest platform, with a 55k fol./95k eng since the launch in Sept 2023 (with huge rises in December 2023). Zegna (38k fol./270k eng.) is not far behind. LP has yet to open on the channel.
eCommerce
👔 Since the launch of BC’s TMall flagship store in March 2023, we are left with only LP who is not on the channel (perhaps not for long though).
👔 Zegna has been undergoing a transition since the start of 2022 – with the 6.18 festival in 2022 the last time it offered discounts - Zegna’s TMall listings moved from a low of 5,447 RMB (during 6.18 2022) to the current figure of 10,915 RMB.
👔 BC averaged 11,699 RMB across 455 products in March 2023, to 14,212 RMB across 765 products in January 2024.
👔 From a category perspective – BC generates 80% of its revenue from clothing and 10% from Shoes. Zegna has more diversity with 57% from clothing, 20% from Shoes and 19% from Accessories.
👔 Top Products – Zegna’s top product during 2023 was the Triple Stitch sneaker – synonymous with Kieran Culkin after their campaign – clocking in at 8,400 RMB. BC – the Never-ending Stories Cashmere Sweater at 7,420 RMB currently.
There still exists a sense of optimism of strong growth in this segment. Keeping an eye on price increases, as well as the potential for Loro Piana to enter the Tmall or Douyin ecosystems may reveal shifting opportunities in the segment.
