Unveiling the Secrets Behind Iconic Marketing Strategy of Chanel

Updated on: Aug 7, 2023

In this blog, we will examine the Marketing Strategy of Chanel and the reasons behind its progress and success. We will gain insights into their competitor’s, marketing mix, marketing strategy, marketing campaigns, and digital marketing presence.

Before we begin, let us get a quick overview and gather mindful things about Chanel.

About Chanel

Marketing strategy of Chanel

The luxuries French fashion label Chanel is well-known for its ready-to-wear and haute couture apparel collections, as well as other high-end items including watches, fragrances, handbags, sunglasses, and luxury jewellery. The brand is popular throughout the world and is worn as a sign of wealth and elite by members of the upper class.

It was established in 1909 by Gabrielle Chanel, better known as Coco Chanel, and was groundbreaking in terms of its designs since it liberated women of the 20th century from the corseted dresses they were donning and allowed them to wear clothes that were more at ease and aesthetically pleasing.

Over 20,000 working individuals are employed by the organization worldwide.

Digital Marketing Academic Challenge 2024 - DMAC

Competitors Of Chanel

Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Burberry, Dior, and other high-end fashion brands are among Chanel’s main rivals in this market.

1) Louis Vuitton 

Marketing strategy of Chanel

Louis Vuitton Malletier is a French luxury fashion house, also known as Louis Vuitton, established in 1854. The majority of the brand’s goods, including ready-to-wear, shoes, perfumes, watches, jewellery, accessories, sunglasses, and books, bear the LV monogram. It is one of the top international fashion houses. It offers its goods through upscale department stores, and through independent shops. It also offers goods online.

2) Gucci

Marketing strategy of Chanel

Gucci is a high-end, luxurious fashion brand having its headquarters in Florence. Handbags, ready-to-wear, shoes, accessories, and home décor are among its product categories. It also licences its name and trademark to Coty, Inc. for fragrance and cosmetics under the Gucci Beauty banner.

Guccio Gucci founded Gucci in Florence, in 1921. Under the leadership of Aldo Gucci (Guccio’s son), Gucci became a household name and symbolized the Italian Dolce Vita.

3) Burberry

Marketing strategy of Chanel

Thomas Burberry founded the Burberry Group plc, a British luxury fashion house with its headquarters in London, England, in 1856. Currently, it creates and sells ready-to-wear items like footwear, leather accessories, and trench coats—for which it is well known.

4) Dior

Marketing strategy of Chanel

Commonly referred to as Dior (stylized DIOR), Christian Dior SE is a French international luxury fashion house that is controlled and directed by French businessman Bernard Arnault, who also serves as the CEO of LVMH. Dior has 59.01% of the voting rights and 42.36% of the shares in LVMH.

Christian Dior, a French fashion designer, established the business in 1946. Only footwear and apparel sold under this brand are exclusive to Dior retail locations. The Christian Dior Couture division manages haute couture. Since 2023, Delphine Arnault is the CEO of Christian Dior Couture.

Marketing Strategy of Chanel

The marketing strategy of Chanel is a set of actions or tactics that a company uses to promote itself in the market. The marketing strategy of Chanel depends on the 4Ps which are Price, Product, Promotion, and Place.

Product Strategy of Chanel

The product strategy in the marketing strategy of Chanel is as follows:

Chanel targets affluent consumers. As a high-end luxury premium category brand, Chanel provides a variety of clothing items. Although most of Chanel’s goods are marketed towards women, the company also offers a line of cologne and scents for males. The following are the product categories in its marketing mix:

– Fashion: Ready-to-wear clothing, handbags, and haute couture

– Jewellery: Jewellery and watches

– Fragrance: colognes and perfumes

– Other: Sunglasses, Skincare, and Makeup

Marketing strategy of Chanel

Source: logomyway.com

Chanel’s goods enjoy widespread recognition among affluent consumers, including well-known Hollywood stars and others.

Because any minor flaw could seriously harm the reputation of the high-end luxury brand, Chanel places a premium on product quality. Many people with extensive experience in various fields produce the goods.

Chanel avoids mass production and instead creates limited editions of its goods, particularly in the fashion apparel and fine jewellery markets. The business is renowned for its straightforward, chic items manufactured from pricey and precious raw materials. Black and Beige are the most likely used pastel colours in its clothing range. The Chanel suit, No. 5 de Chanel perfume, and the little black dress are a few of its notable goods. The business has vowed to refrain from producing anything made of fur or skin in order to protect the environment.

Price/Pricing Strategy of Chanel

The price plan used in the marketing strategy of Chanel is as follows:

Since the opening of the first Chanel store, the company has catered to the fashion requirements of upper-class aristocrats who value indulgence and satisfying the thirst for finer goods.

The same specialised and wealthy customer base continues to be its target market. Chanel uses an extortionate pricing strategy for its marketing mix as a result, yet most of the time the prices are justifiable because-

  • Chanel items are made from unique and excellent raw materials.
  • The finished goods exhibit style and elegance and are of the highest quality.
  • The target market is affluent and so willing to pay
  • Given how highly coveted the Chanel brand is, even upper-middle-class people will spend money to buy a Chanel item since it will elevate their social standing.

Different pricing techniques are used by Chanel’s various product categories; for instance, Haute Couture is highly priced in the high-end market.

Place & Distribution Strategy of Chanel

Chanel serves the upper-class high-end market, and its stores are typically found in luxurious areas. Given that the majority of potential customers travel there, it also has storefronts at airports. The boutiques are also found in lobbies of five-star luxury hotels. The stores are found in popular cities like New York, Amsterdam, Sydney, Cannes, Miami, Geneva, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Paris, Dubai, London and many more. 

Marketing strategy of Chanel

There are around 300 Chanel stores around the globe, with a distribution of 120 in North America, 90 in Asia, and 70 in Europe. There are counters for its skincare and fragrance products throughout upscale luxury malls. Chanel products are also available on its website and other online source.

Promotion & Advertising Strategy of Chanel

The following describes the promotional and advertising approach in the marketing strategy of Chanel:

Chanel runs advertisements for its items in upscale fashion publications like Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, Elle, etc. In addition to using elegant store designs and inventive mannequin usage to entice clients into their boutiques, Chanel also uses point-of-sale marketing. It also hires Hollywood actresses and supermodels to model for their brand, who in turn gain from Chanel’s brand value, resulting in a brand synergy between them. 

A lot of attention is drawn to Chanel when popular celebrities carry its accessories or wear its Haute Couture on the red carpets of award shows and film festivals. This attracts the attention of fashion magazine journalists and critics, who then mention the company and its products in publications like magazines, blog posts, newspapers, and television programmes. The company employs video material to market its product line and has an effective social media and digital marketing strategy. 

Marketing Campaigns of Chanel

Along with the promotion of products in various fashion publications, Chanel is leading with millions of followers across all its social media outlets. The brand’s product-focused films and images have an elite theme. The interaction they get is mostly a result of their content approach.

It has 2.27 million subscribers on YouTube, where it connects with clients primarily. According to the brand’s history, the main narrative that is emphasised across all of its marketing is a young woman who has gained her freedom. 

Along with videos of its Shows, Chanel’s content focuses on the tales rather than aggressively promoting its products, this helps them to establish trust. Chanel likely has the most interesting material with creative video clips starring people like Pharrell Williams and Keira Knightley. 

One of its projects is ‘Inside Chanel,’ which explores Coco Chanel’s life and times, covering everything from her early years to the colours she favoured to her musical influences.

Marketing strategy of Chanel

Another fantastic example is the short film “The Tale of a Fairy,” which is a tale about three wealthy but sad sisters told during a family gathering. It features the best Chanel outfits, of course, and is set against the lovely setting of a mansion in the south of France. 

Marketing strategy of Chanel

As another marketing strategy of Chanel, it recently unveiled a free virtual lipscanner app in addition to its cosmetics in department stores preferred by youthful consumers. One can use the app to select a colour from your surroundings, find a match in the catalogue, and virtually try it on. 

Marketing strategy of Chanel

Digital Marketing Academic Challenge 2024 - DMAC

Conclusion

Despite being 100 years old, Chanel continues to solidify its reputation as a sophisticated and contemporary brand. The crossing Cs of its logo is easily recognizable. Its choice of celebrities, which includes Penelope Cruz and Margot Robbie as brand ambassadors, continues to represent timeless fashion with a distinctive personality.

The Chanel brand honours its French heritage. Most importantly, it carries on Coco’s legacy of empowering women through fashion. Through the marketing strategy of Chanel, it has been able to combine the old and the new.

Hence, a proper marketing plan is very crucial for the success of the brand and it is necessary to educate oneself on digital marketing due to the escalating level of industry competitiveness. Check out IIDE’s 4 Month Digital Marketing Course if you want to learn how to achieve this. 

We hope you found this blog about the marketing strategy of Chanel to be both interesting and useful and that it gave you a clear understanding of the business. Check out our  Knowledge Portal for such incredible case studies if you enjoy reading marketing strategy analyses like The Marketing Strategy of Chanel.

What do you think about the marketing strategy of Chanel? share your thoughts in the comments below. Happy learning!

Share post via

Author's Note:

My name is Aditya Shastri and I have written this case study with the help of my students from IIDE's online digital marketing courses in India.

Practical assignments, case studies & simulations helped the students from this course present this analysis.

Building on this practical approach, we are now introducing a new dimension for our online digital marketing course learners - the Campus Immersion Experience.

If you found this case study helpful, please feel free to leave a comment below.

IIDE Course Recommendation

Post-Graduation in Digital Marketing & Strategy

Offline

Post-Graduation in Digital Marketing & Strategy

Post-Graduation Programme

11 Months

Placement Assistance

View Course
Advanced Online Digital Marketing Course

Hybrid

Advanced Online Digital Marketing Course

Certification Programme

4-6 Months

Exclusive Access to Bookmark

View Course
Digital Marketing Certification Courses

Online

10+ Digital Marketing Certification Courses

Certification Programme

7+ Hours

1-on-1 Mentorship

View Course
Q

Aditya Shastri

Lead Trainer & Head of Learning & Development at IIDE

Leads the Learning & Development segment at IIDE. He is a Content Marketing Expert and has trained 6000+ students and working professionals on various topics of Digital Marketing. He has been a guest speaker at prominent colleges in India including IIMs......[Read full bio]

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Related Posts

Q