Iku Hirosaki

1946Christian Dior

founded the brand

1960Marc Bohan

became the designer

1967Opening Baby Dior

1947Established Parfum

Christian Dior

1997John Galliano

Became the designer2012

Raf Simonsbecame the designer

1955Yves Saint Laurent

became design assistant

1969Launched

Dior Cosmetics

1970Launched

Dior Homme

1989Gianfranco Ferré

became the designer

2011Bill Gaytten

became the designer

2016Operating without

head designer

From 1946 to 2016Founded in 1946, Dior has proven its originality and beauty to the world. This such a feminine, soft and dreamy brand, surprisingly had been led by 7 male designers. In addition to Christian Dior, the founder himself, Dior has had so many talented designers including Yves Saint Laurent and John Galliano who grew the brand to the giant global fashion house.

From the very beginning of the brand to this day, Dior has attracted countless men and female for its breathtaking designs, and steadily expanded globally. Among many countries that Dior operates, the brand experiences strong demand from Asian countries, especially from China and Japan. Currently Dior has 21 flagship stores globally, half of which are located in Asia.

The brand started as couturier is now offering a lot more than clothes. It continues to expand and to lead fashion industry with strong leadership.

FemininityElegance

Power

Core Brand Values

Femininity

Elegance

Classic High Status ChicFrench

Roots

Traditional

Authenticity

Brand Image

ProductDior: Women’s fashion

Haute CoutureReady to WearLeather Goods

ShoesAccessories

FragranceMake up Skin Care

Time piece

Dior Homme: Men’s fashionHaute CoutureReady-to-WearLeather GoodsShoesAccessoriesTime pieceFragrance

baby DiorNewborn

Girls clothesBoy

Product placementMovies/TV shows

Alfred Hitchcock’s Stage Fright, 1950Charlotte Inwood (Marlene Dietrich)

Michael Patrick King’s Sex and the city, 2008Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker)

Rajshree Ojha’s Aisha, 2010Aisha Kapoor (Sonam Kapoor)

Stephanie Savage’s Gossip Girl (2007-2012)Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester)

and moreRed CarpetNatalie Portman (The Dark World Germany premiere)Jennifer Laurence (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Rome premier)Ethan Hawke (86th Academy Awards)and more

Promotion

5 Shows a yearHaute Couture (SS, AW)Ready-To-Wear (SS, AW)

Cruise Exhibitions all around the world

Collaboration with HarrodsCafé Dior

Distribution channels

Boutiques around the worldAsia: 109Africa: 1

Europe: 45Middle East: 8

North America: 48Oceania: 6

South America: 2Online store operated in GermanySpainFranceItalyUnited KingdomKorea Travel retail stores

expanded in over 165 DFS stores

Price

Signature bags Current Price

Miss Dior Small Bag$3,900.00

(USD)

Miss Dior Medium Bag$4,100.00

(USD)Miss Dior Large Pouch

Bag$2,050.00

(USD)Lady Dior Small Tri-color

Bag$3,500.00

(USD)

Lady Dior Medium Bag$4,100.00

(USD)

Lady Dior Large Bag$4,600.00

(USD)

Price of Christian Dior remains high end even when compared to competitors. Price of all products of Christian Dior ranges anywhere from $200 (Sunglasses) to tens of thousands of dollars (mostly haute couture or limited edition leather goods)

Competitors

Brand Perception Map

Luxury

Accessible

Traditional Modern

Position in the marketCompeting with major luxury brands, Dior enjoys high end, traditional positioning in the market. A few of the strongest competitors are considered to be Chanel, Cèline,

A few of the biggest points of difference with those competitors are its renowned feminine yet powerful design, tradition, the know-hows stored up through the brand heritage, and signature products such as Lady Dior bag. Points of parity, on the other are reliable product quality, very professional craftsmanship, social recognition, relatively close price range, and fashion leaders in the world.

With this positioning in the market, pros are its established position in the luxury industry with top-tier competitors, and tradition that gives authenticity and credibility to the brand. At the same time, cons of Dior’s positioning is sometimes the brand is seen as old dated, traditional brands for your mother. Also, although Dior has focused on femininity and power as inspirations of the designs in recent years, the image of femininity is well too spread that it is difficult to send other messages to keep the brand fresh and innovative.

Core customerJingfei Liu38 years old, married to Gen Liu, 44 years old, who works as global technology manager at Intel China. She holds Bachelors of Arts in International Business, and likes to read books in a park, cooking, baking, and attending social events.

Blessed with 2 daughters and 1 son, she is very passionate about education for their children, and she works as a head committee member at the school. Living in the center of Shanghai, she enjoys going out with friends for lunch, shopping, and taking care of children in a day.

She often purchases leather goods and shoes from her favorite luxury brands, such as Dior, Chanel, Hermès, Christian Louboutin and so on. She likes Dior for its authenticity, high sense femininity, and their customer service. She has considered purchasing clothes for children at baby Dior, but did not result in actual purchase since she thought they will grow very fast.

Aspirational customerMarion Bonnair

27 years old, fashion stylist lives in Lyon. Graduated from International Fashion Academy in Paris 2 years ago, she is very passionate about fashion and trying to build her career in the scope. She likes to play with her dog, sketch, run, and go out with her friends.

She is now dating with Adrian Roux, 28 years old working as civil engineer in Lyon. Her favorite luxury brands are Cèline, Saint Laurent, Prada and Dior. She likes modern, cutting edge brands such as Saint Laurent because she feels they speak her language and fits her. But at the same time she likes traditional brands such as Dior and Prada for its tradition and authenticity. She currently owns a vintage Dior purse, which she uses on special occasions. For her, Dior and Prada is the brand to go when she saves her money for half a year to a year to purchase from them.

Brand pyramid

SalienceIconic fashion house Deep broad brand

awareness

PerformanceQuality productsDurabilityCraftsmanship

Imagery

　 FeelingSocial statusSelf confidenceFashionableReliable

Judgement

Trend setterSuperiority

ResonanceBrand Loyalty

French fashion brandHigh-end, LuxurySophisticated couture

Advertisements

Social media

10.3 million followers250K followers for Dior Makeup6.67 million followers

15 million followers Undisclosed

Presence in Social Media

In order to renew the image of old-dated, excess traditionalism in the brand, Dior is actively using social media to engage with the audience. Dior regularly uses Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to post pictures and videos of new products, backstage scenes of production and so on. The most recent social media effort of Dior was made during Cruise collection in May 2016. Dior used Snapchat to capture back scenes (make-up prep, the arrival of celebrities, the show, after party and so on) to connect with younger audience. While many companies in and outside of the industry are starting to use snapchat as a new medium, for Dior it was a big step considering how the organization is caught in traditional image.

Financials

Source: Dior Finance http://www.dior-finance.com/en-US/

Current issueAlthough current financials proves that Dior continuously enjoys revenue growth, it suffers from multiple issues that are relatively critical to its brand.

First and foremost, Dior has not found its new head designer since Raf Simons announced his withdrawal in October 2015. The fact of running such a iconic brand with the absence of head designer gives unstable image. What Dior needs now is talented and strong design leader to bring the brand back to life and to the front center of the industry.

Second, likewise many other luxury brand, Dior too, relies its huge portion of revenue from Asia. While it is a good indicator to prove popularity in Asia, it also means that brand performance is heavily influenced by economy of a country or region. Considering the stability of the brand and more expansion in the future, Dior might face difficulty in getting attention in other countries or regions.

Third, the brand needs continuous effort to modernize and renew the brand perception to attract new younger segment to keep the brand awareness and the position in the market. Snapchat campaign was a success, but the brand needs to keep investing and inventing such new approaches.

Recommendation 1. Expand online store to broader countries and regions to build

customer basis outside of Asia

2. Take innovative approach to keep renewing the brand. Keeping up the online presence and collaboration with technology is going to be the next field that Dior can show its leadership.

Very importantly, almost all Dior boutiques are located in the center of big cities, with heavy focus on Asia. However, there are a lot more places for potential discovery, and online store rollout could be the first big step towards it. Currently online stores are ran only in 6 countries. Considering more and more people are purchasing online, it is crucial to establish distribution pipeline online to serve customers.

Also in order to keep the Dior top of the mind of customers, the brands need to constantly make efforts to revitalize the brand perception. Engaging with customers on social media as starter, Dior might need to consider how the world is moving towards technological sphere, and to collaborate with it. One of its competitor, Hermès’s collaboration with Apple Watch certainly drew attention both from luxury and tech industry, and Dior can learn from this.

Iku Hirosaki