Brand analysis

The company was a groundbreaker in the Jeans market introducing the concept of “luxury denim for the streets which awakened the fashion world towards both functional & symbolic nature of Jeans”.

G-star was founded in 1989 in the Netherlands as Gap Star but changed its name after going global. In 1996, G-Star was the first brand to unleash a "Raw Denim" style of jeans, completely untreated and straight out of the factory. After this, the number "96" has been sewn into numerous G-Star products as a mark of respect for the year that the signature "Raw Denim" was introduced.

The products launched were jeans and men’s wear. Currently, the brand has expanded into Womenswear market & also has a product extension in footwears.

The brand specializes in making RAW denim. This is an unwashed, untreated denim in which all jeans start out as after being constructed. G-star is highly influenced by military clothing, inspiration of their designs come from vintage military apparel bought around the world. Some examples include special cell phone pockets, and zippered arm pockets on jackets.

The Jeans and urban clothing industry has many competitors: Diesel, Levi’s, Replay, Acupuncture, Wrangler, Lee, Energie, Gas, Paul Frank, Miss Sixty, Calvin Klein.

More specifically, with the new revival of stylish jeans many brands have joined the jeans wave such as Seven for All Mankind, Blue Cult, True Religion, Chip & Pepper, Earnest Sewn, Citizen of Humanity, Rock and Republic, Stitch’s and Yanuk.

Even though G-star Raw started as a jeans apparel brand and the fact that denim is still very present in every season they are not perceived as a jeans only brand anymore. In this sense now they are regarded more as a urban fashion brand.

Among all this brands and clothing companies that target the casual fashionable youth the ones that can be considered more direct competence for G-star are Energie and Diesel. They manufacture very edgy collections, most of them based on jeans but also extending them to tops, shirts and jackets.

Energie is an Italian based company that focusing its collection on denim, it provides other clothing alternatives, not so stylish and designed but also appealing to a casual youth.

Diesel is also brand of italian origin. It is well-known worldwide brand, that was started as a denim brand but now famous for urban lifestyle.

Font Style Brand is using the type of sans serif font in upper case Logo application G-star has an image type displayed either inside or around the logo. Color G-Star is mainly known by the white logo against denim grey backgrounds, all very colorless. Associated words G-Star adds the word “raw” to extend their brand to try to portray themselves as a brand that is only about the produce, about the raw denim and that there is no candy on top of it in a form of advertisement or other fashion attributes.

G-Star may change their ads every collection but the art direction of the ads stays the same: models posing in motion and pictured details of the clothes. A very simple and traditional approach to clothing advertisement. They shoot models again a urban background and all standing on asphalt and being very street and macho.

Traditional use of photography in mosaic

Absence of text on the website

G-Star frame on comparison has a stress on being cool, arrogant, hot and good looking and not looking at anyone else. Their tag line “raw” referring both at the plain construction of its clothes, looking very simple and neutral and the neutral advertisements where they announce “just the product” (being false this assertion as well, because the clothes appear on models and this models act). The supposed coolness of the brand with the models and fashion pose and its rawness characterize themselves almost as a street fashion brand with the coolness of the catwalk and the freshness of the street style.

The brand has followed a differentiated market positioning strategy by focusing on a narrow market segment. The brand refers to the upper end of the middle market by positioning itself as a premium high street brand.

As for audience brand has always addressed to the fashion leaders & innovators who can relate to the innovative values of the brand.

The company G – Star has a turnover of more than $1 billion and the brand is sold to its customers from about 5,860 points of sale in 70 countries apart from the online sales & mobile applications (IPhone)

“New brands like G Star, Seven for All Mankind, Juicy Jeans, Miss Sixty, Rock and Republic and Hug have been performing particularly well as they further expand the edges of the jeans market by offering designer fashion or ethically manufactured products.” (Mintel 2007)

The identity of the brand has been reciprocated in the tagline of the brand – “Just the Product”.

The perceived quality of the products is a place where G–Star never compromises & the brand awareness is spread through the detailed specifications of the product & the innovations carried out in the style, wash, cut & fabrics.

The brand has mainly used development of promotional alliances as a marketing communication tool to communicate to its customers indulging mainly in inter-industrial partnerships for marketing promotions. • The core value of the brand is always a product itself, that’s why they choose celebrities very carefully, only those who truly can send the right message & represent their products. • The brand had a promotional campaign in 2007 featuring Alexandra Maria Lara (The Reader) and Toby Kebbell (RocknRolla), stars of the 2007 cult music film Control, and was shot by the film's rock photographer-director, Anton Corbijn to promote & highlight the “Rock & Roll” ties of the brand & their products. • G–Star’s known for its unexpected combinations, but they are rarely as surprising as the juxtaposition of Hollywood beauty with chess Grandmaster brains in the new advertising campaign. The brand selected Liv Tyler and Magnus Carlsen as its brand ambassadors to represent the brand.

• RAW Defender: The collaboration which saw Land Rover’s most hardcore vehicle fitted out to a unique G-Star specification was a result of the shared aesthetic of supreme functionality & fit – for purpose construction provided by both the brands in their individual products • RAW CANNONNDALE: It is a top line bike stripped down to its purest form incorporating high quality materials, supreme functionality, clean aesthetics & subtle design which stress out the unique features of both Cannondale & G–Star.

• MARC NEWSON: The collections with supremely technical & high quality garments have been extremely successful for both the brand & the designer. The collaboration began in 2003 & has been continued since then. The collection accents Marc’s experience of designing in a wide range of disciplines from bicycle to concept of car & restaurants or even the interiors of private & commercial jets. • ZHANG DA & QIU HAO: Both designers are based in China. They were given a G–Star Arc jeans to customize, this project was a part of “ARC ART programme”. • ANTON CORBIJN: The innovative promotional campaigns by the ace professional photographer have given the brand the much needed freshness & edge in the communications & promotions.

• Influence on customers emotions (involvement)

• Win-win-win for collaborations

• New markets

•Strong competitors with great communication strategy (Diesel ads)

• Customers emotions are not involved

• Some collaborations had great press attention but not connection with customers

•Focus on the product

•Effective communication

•Brand collaboration

•Different communication channels

•Innovations

Strengths Weaknesses

Opportunities Threads