The Case Study

Michelle Tompkins

Diesel is an Italian design company. The company was founded by Renzo Rosso in 1978,

beforehand he had begun to make his own clothes after graduating from textile school. He

had no experience in marketing and advertising, but has stated that they learnt much of their marketing techniques from the US, creativity

from Italy, and systems from Germany.Annual sales were approximately 1.2 billion

euros in 2005, and 1.3 billion in 2009.They are largely successful with the sales of

denim, however are also successful with accessories and children's wear (Diesel Kid). Production of their denim is mainly based in

Italy.The biggest store is located in Milan, Italy.

History Of The Brand

Brand Values“For Successful Living”

Written on their logo and many campaigns.

“Fun” , “Kick-ass” , “Awesome”These are some words used to describe the brand, The language

reflects the target audience.

Young fun work wear.

Make people feel different and provocative.

Rebel.

Keeping it real.

They believe you send a message by wearing their brand.

Clothing PyramidAt the top of the

pyramid is Diesel’s Black Gold brand, seen on celebrities and on the catwalk.

In the middle are Diesel’s

jeans, dresses, luggage.At the bottom of

the pyramid are their mass market products, such as

accessories, belts, umbrellas, key chains etc.

Product Life CycleDiesel is both a clothing and a lifestyle brand.

The Diesel Brand is in the Growth/maturity stage of the Product Life Cycle.

Their cash cow is almost certainly their jeans & denim sales.

The Diesel brand has been acknowledged for a long time now and there are other competitors out there.

Young adult audience, teenagers - 22 year olds.

The brand targets predominately males as when the brand begun it was inspired by the ‘working class man’, however in recent times

the brand targets both as both males and females are in their current campaigns and

ad’s.In the 80’s Diesel saw that teenagers/young adults had more disposable income and that most of their parents had been through the war and wanted them to have the luxuries

they never had.The target market are portrayed as fun-loving,

young, energetic and somewhat rebellious.

Target Audience

Diesel uses a model based on premium pricing. Diesel is far more a lifestyle than a clothing brand. Diesel has 3 sub brands, Diesel Black

Gold, priced higher to reflect the quality and brand identity. Diesel Kid is priced substantially cheaper as children’s clothes have no VAT,

however they are somewhat more expensive than unbranded children’s wear as they are buying into the image and the Diesel Kid

label on the clothing. Fifty Five Diesel (55DSL) is moderately priced and looks a lot more like street wear for teens. The price of Diesel's

products needs to reflect the substance and value of that experience. The pricing varies on the product. The denim jeans are priced quite

high to cover the costs of creating them.

Pricing Strategy

Diesel use a combination of print and TV to launch their campaigns.

The “Be Stupid” campaign is one of the most recognised.

“Portraits for successful Living” is their latest campaign.

“Kids in Italia” is an upcoming campaign for 2012.

All strategies aim to introduce customers to a lifestyle of new, experimental experiences.

You don’t pay a premium price for Diesel jeans because they are a premium in quality. You

pay a premium price because the campaigns suggest that the jeans and the brand fit in with and even encourage the portrayed lifestyle of

fun-loving carefree etc.

Marketing and Campaign Strategy

Diesel is an Italian based company, but distribute worldwide.

The biggest store is located in Milan, Italy.

You can buy online at store.diesel.com, also available on other sites and stores such as asos.com and TK Maxx.

They will be opening 55DSL stores across the globe in 2012.

Place/Distribution

Diesel is successful because they know the lifestyle of their target audience.

The ‘Be Stupid’ Campaign was widely successful as it targeted their market in the right way, for example the

images used were of that age group doing something that is considered funny among them.

All items of Denim clothing are successful, and a recently added product of fragrances have been successful.

A failure could be their accessories such as jewelry as sales do not compete with similar stores.

Success/Failures

The Jeans and urban clothing industry has many competitors:

Levi’s, Replay, Acupuncture, Wrangler, Lee, Gas, Paul Frank, G-Star Raw, Miss Sixty, Calvin Klein.

Denim is worn in every season they are not perceived only as a jeans brand anymore. In this sense now they are

regarded more as a urban fashion brand. Early in the 90s Diesel made an statement by opening a flagship store in

New York right across from a Levi’s store.All these clothes brands target the casual fashionable youth.

Competition

SWOT

Strengths

Weaknesses Opportunities ThreatsDiesel

understands it’s target audience.

Diesel leaves long gaps between

their marketing

campaigns, this can lead the audience to buy into a brand that constantly

raises awareness.

An opportunity could be to collaborate

with a celebrity who

holds their iconic image.

Create a luxury jewelry brand.

They have threats

from other well known

denim companies

such as Levis.