When I told my partner how much I paid for my Gucci bag, he immediately asked: “Why is Gucci so expensive?!”
Known for its double G logo, Gucci is an Italian luxury fashion company and one of the most popular brands in the world right now.
Gucci is expensive thanks to the brand’s rich heritage and smart business strategy. The Italian brand combines unique elements of design and clever marketing to create consumer desire and high demand. But there’s much more than that…
Gucci bags have a rich history with royals, politicians, heads of state, and movie stars, a history that confers the Italian label with a unique sense of prestige, status, and desirability.
Nowadays, Gucci is hailed as a high-end designer brand name that confers the wearer’s instant social status.
In this article, I’ll detail how Gucci has become one of the most expensive labels in the world right now.
1. Gucci’s Origin, History, And Heritage
The foundation for the ‘House of Gucci’ was laid in 1921, in Florence, Italy, by Guccio Gucci.
Guccio worked with high-end brands in London – such as the Savoy Hotel – and wanted to create a similar Italian company infused with the flavor of the English aristocracy.
Back in Italy, Guccio embarked on creating iconic designs, all inspired by the British nobility of those times.
For example, the horse detail, seen in various pieces across the label’s luxury products, is a homage to the brand’s early days.
In those times, aristocrats were wearing a lot of equestrian gear and other similar fashion accessories.
The horse feature was placed on Gucci’s iconic loafer, which now occupies a place in the Costume Institute at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.
2. The Brand Image Of Wealthy People
According to the brand’s marketing ads, Gucci is a brand that charges “as much as people are willing to pay.”
Like other luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton, Gucci’s products are equally expensive, and there are reasons for that.
First, Gucci does not target or cater to all buyers but only selects categories of consumers.
As is the case of most labels selling luxury items, the high price becomes a form of client selectivity.
Second, Gucci banks on a strategy that allows the upper class to emphasize their status and prestige.
For example, Gucci’s logo suggests that the brand’s buyers have good taste, are high class, and have a strong financial background.
3. Gucci Global Brand Recognition
How did Gucci build such a reputation?
Just like Louis Vuitton, Gucci is one of the most famous brands in the world right now, with a brand reputation that goes beyond fashion.
The brand’s target audience can be found in music, the auto industry, make-up, and furniture buyers.
Various components combine to create a brand reputation, such as design, manufacturing, and marketing.
Gucci’s material choice, rare elements of design, and production quality reflect high-quality products and beautiful accessories of high desirability.
Accordingly, the brand charges high prices as it grants additional value to its customers.
As a top-class Italian designer, Gucci uses only high-quality raw materials and high production methods.
Also, Gucci employs leading talents and top fashion designers to create pieces that never go out of style.
4. Gucci = Clientelle Exclusivity
Why is Gucci worth so much?
Not everyone can afford to buy Gucci, which alone confers the brand a sense of sophistication, status, and prestige.
Bernard Arnault, the founder of Louis Vuitton, once said:
“Any fine luxury item or collectable piece is worth only as much as the buyer is willing to pay.”
The same applies to Gucci’s expensive products:
While some customers cannot wrap their minds around the fact that a Gucci pair of sunglasses can top over $500, loyal brand fans don’t mind the high prices.
If Gucci’s products were budget-priced, the usual clientele would stop buying the brand to losing exclusivity.
A Gucci logo suggests that the owner has good taste, solid financial standing, and demands the best.
5. Gucci Celebrity Brand Ambassadors
Certain essential elements combine to build value in a product, and Gucci is no exception.
Apart from the ones discussed above, Gucci looked at royalty and celebrities to give the brand a good start.
As the brand continued to grow, Gucci invited some of the finest artists to design their wares and create more brand recognition and consumer demand.
For example, Grace Kelly requested to make herself a Gucci silk scarf.
As wealthy clientele established their preference for the brand, it began to set a precedent.
Customers wanted and could afford the best that any craftsman or artisan had to offer.
Thankfully, Gucci fulfilled their needs and preferences for high-quality and aesthetically pleasing goods.
The Italian leather manufacturer also paid close attention to fan demands who asked to have replica articles as seen in movies or songs.
Replicas, but with the brand’s logo and rich heritage.
6. Gucci Clever PR And Marketing
As Alber Elbaz, designer for fashion house Lanvin, once said:
“It is so much work. Doing a collection is almost like creating a vaccine. Once you create the one vaccine, then you can duplicate for nine dollars and ninety-nine cents. But see if you can create it for nine dollars and ninety-nine cents. The answer is no.”
Marketing costs for a luxury fashion house are considerable.
According to Reuters, Gucci does not reveal its advertising spending.
However, LVMH, another luxury house and Gucci’s main rival, spent nearly $6.5 billion on marketing last year…
…which explains the $600 price tag on Gucci’s t-shirt or $500 for a pair of sunglasses.
Moreover, it was the brand’s marketing efforts that made it appealing to the younger generation, which is more inclined toward streetwear fashion styles.
Nowadays, the brand’s apparel and footwear are available on the most exclusive online stores, such as Farfetch, Net-a-porter, and GOAT.
7. Excellent Product Quality
So…Is Gucci worth the money?
As with any other luxury brand, Gucci also has a high overhead in business expenses:
Distribution, staffing, marketing, legalities, insurance, product launch shows, and trademarking.
There’s a lot that goes into the creation of each Gucci product to demand a higher selling price.
Apart from the overhead costs alone, the company pays obsessive attention to the quality of the materials it uses.
However, the results are impressive:
Gucci’s lines are timeless and in sync with current fashion trends.
The brand often sets the trends, so the label never goes out of style.
8. The Problem – Gucci Counterfeits
Gucci’s products are so in demand that a counterfeit industry exists around them.
And, it makes sense as boasting a $600 Gucci shirt puts the owner in the same league as celebrities.
Wearing Gucci also signals to folks that the owner is upper class and has the right to be seen at exclusive sites.
That’s why independent design manufacturers worldwide create knock-off versions of Gucci’s products.
However, while there’s crazy consumer demand for the brand’s products, only authentic Gucci products hold their value.
To avoid embarrassment and disappointment, always order from approved luxury stores.
Final Thoughts
Nowadays, Gucci is a luxury fashion house intricately tied with high society, celebrities, and top fashion designers.
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Gucci’s products are costly, and some buyers do not see the value or the reason behind the high price.
Yet, the label has loyal customers who demand the high price as a way of associating with celebrities and royals.
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After years of managing hundreds of fashion brands from London's office of a global retailer, Mandy has ventured into freelancing. Connected with several fashion retailers and media platforms in the US, Australia, and the UK, Mandy uses her expertise to consult for emerging fashion brands create top-notch content as an editorial strategist for several online publications.
Buying or wearing something just to show how wealthy and famous you are is disgusting. I could never respect anyone who wears it.
Isn’t that a bit of reverse snobbery? You mean to tell me you could not respect an ethical, educated, person of refinement and kindness because they wore a flashy piece of clothing?
These people don’t even give a thought to you, Do you know none of them personally; yet it seems like the nouveaux riche rent a space in your head so large that it brings you to revulsion. You are a silly, bitter woman.
This exchange reminds of the fox and the grapes fable lol
Most Gucci leather bags use a minimal amount of machine stitching, and are invariable made by skilled, professional crafts people out of excellent materials. (Gucci uses among the top 3% of leather in the world; and has had loyal suppliers for decades.) Gucci even bought a tannery in Scotland to produce their signature brindle boarskin to assure they had control over the specific and distinctive divots on the leather.
The loafers have hand sewn vamps, and a quality commensurate with what I would associate with about a $400 shoe. The extra expense is used to absorb marketing costs and, as discussed in the article, the cachet of owning the item.
There is no amount of quality that can go into a printed T-shirt that justifies the cost of $550 to some well over $1,000. Realizing this I still purchase them because they are fun, absurd, and if worn with ironic distance, a way of carrying off that you can have days where you don’t take yourself so seriously.
I was too young to see Gucci go through the mass production of those PVC bags they sold in shameless bulk. I bought my first pair of suede Gucci loafers when I was 14 back in 1993, and I’ve seen the store evolve from a luxury leather goods house, à la Hermès, into a store for obnoxious celebrities, and the aspirational middle classes, saving earnestly for a symbol of gravitas.
Love Gucci and many other Italian designer brands, I have lots of bags and shoes from them and yes, the brand is one of the most expensive luxury labels in the world right now but that’s also why I like them so much.
French fashion designers are the best, Italian brands are only copyists, nothing more.
People can wear whatever they want to wear, it is none of anybody’s business. It is their money, and with it, they can do whatever they wish to do.
I don’t like Gucci, it is just expensive
I like how exclusive it seems to own gucci stuff, thats i guess why its expensive, if you spend £2000 on a bag you will value it, itll be higher quality, can give you confidence & sweg, you will be drippin
Celebrities and the rich buying Gucci at high prices, then turning around and denouncing capitalism is the greatest irony.