Balenciaga Brand Identity – Luxury meets Streetwear – 440 Industries (2024)

• Written by440 Industries
• Balenciaga, Case Study
• November 30, 2021

Introduction

Fashion in today’s world has been prevalent, evolving, and improving in all spheres of development. When we talk about luxury fashion houses, we can not limit Balenciaga’s impact on the fashion industry. Interestingly, this company has developed its brand since its introduction to the industry in 1919. Balenciaga brand Identity stands for nothing but quality. The company is named after the founder. Balenciaga has influenced the fashion industry, not only through fashion but also through textile design.

Due to the changing nature of the fashion industry, it has done a lot to keep up with the change with its new inventions and designs. This strategy has kept them afloat over the years. It is impressive to see how much this company has shaped modern contemporary fashion, bringing new ideas into the spotlight in grand style. Under Gvasalia, the company’s Identity is backed up by her strong and clear mission statement: luxury clothes can only be worn, not for storage; desirable products with no loss in integrity are something practical. This statement shows in their attitude, values, and commitment towards the satisfaction of the consumers. Balenciaga creates long-lasting revolutionary impressions in women’s fashion clothes, top-notch quality clothes, handbags, sneakers, and shoes.

In this article, we’ll be considering some critical areas in the brand identity of the company.

• History: How did they start?
• The Revolution
• Promotion Strategies: The Streetwear

Balenciaga Brand Identity History: How did they start?

Balenciaga was founded by an iconic man in fashion history, Cristóbal Balenciaga, in the year 1919. Cristóbal Balenciaga was born in Spain in 1895. Initially, the company was founded in Spain before it moved to Paris. He opened his very first fashion boutique, known as haute couture, in San Sebastian in 1919. The naming of the fashion house was an inspiration from his mother. This is because his mother worked in Spain as a seamstress. He launched his fashion house and his first collection in Paris after he had left Spain.

This fashion attracted a lot of people as well as the media after its launch. Cristóbal’s designs stood out among all other designs as unique and perfect. These designs are eye-catching, which gives him an edge over all other designers. The designs were linear, streamlined and people respected him for his knowledge in construction and perfectionism. These designs placed him at the forefront of the fashion industry. With this, he gained the favour of the royal family and other fashionable elites.

Company Growth

The company grew exponentially after the civil war in Spain. He moved and settled his establishment in Paris. He was compelled to close up his boutiques, the operations stopped, and he moved the company to Paris, where he established many branches. In 1937, Balenciaga staged its first runway, exhibiting its exquisite and quality designs to the world. One of its oldest designs is the suit that Salvadora Egana used on his honeymoon. This model of design is a balanced but straightforward design. The waistline was stiffened, having curves in alternate directions. The company started its first workshop in 1924 in the Calle Vergara’s building. He transitioned the company to Avenida De La Libertad after registering the business with the fashion industry with the name “Cristóbal Balenciaga.”

It has a series of unique designs, including the coat featuring Japanese style in the Cristóbal Balenciaga Museoa collection in 1927. The dinner dress also evolved in the same year, and the wedding dress featured Carmen Alustiza. The company experienced a positive turn up when it expanded and settled in Paris. There, he named the company “Balenciaga,” which the international media house commended for its success in the industry.

Balenciaga Brand Identity

Cristóbal Balenciaga, the company’s founder, had invested a lot in the reputation being enjoyed by the company in recent times. He had coined a name commensurate with excellence, value, and uniqueness for the company’s image. This has given the public an overview of what the company started with during the ’50s and the ’60s. It is still about dishing out value and prestige to its consumers right from its establishment. The artistic guru’s design soared up higher in the world of fashion during its few years of operations. This is due to the talented face behind all the creative designs. His designs were basic, simple, and stylish, with their austere and simplicity celebrated all over the fashion industry. This served as a fundamental legacy during the company’s revolution in 1997.

As a high-end luxury brand, its role is to source raw materials to produce quality and durable products. For products like shoes, bags, and clothes, it is crucial to increase sustainability. Firstly, it is so because the products might get exposed to harsh conditions. Secondly, the raw material is responsible for the aesthetic nature of the product. The raw material is the basis of the quality production of new designs in the company.

Balenciaga Brand Identity: The Revolution

The true innovator of the designs, Cristóbal Balenciaga, has laid down a lifetime legacy of perfectionism for others to follow. In 1939, Balenciaga received praises from the French press for its revolutionary contribution to the reinvention of the fashion world. Buyers were trooping all over the world to be able to access his collection. He gets commendations for creating the balloon skirt design, the high waist baby doll dress, which defines the waist gracefully. He introduced the sack dress in 1957 and the chemise in 1958. Neither of these designs above has a detachable waist. With these exceptional and iconic designs, the company has achieved the maximum contribution to society through fashion. His fashion house experienced a decline in the year 1968, which ended his career as a designer.

After he died in 1972, Balenciaga’s brand identity resurrected after its decline years after the founder’s death. A family company, bogart group, bought the company’s rights, and the company’s name appeared in the fashion week calendar. The company resumed operations under the administration of Nicolas Ghesquiere. The company became well-known after Demna Gvasalia took over in 2015 as the creative director. Driven by visions and purpose, he created hype all over the brand. He pivoted the essence of the company, making it reach its highest point. This 101-year-old brand has witnessed a lot of transformation to date in history.

Brand Promotion Strategies

A company or brand cannot survive in the market without an adequate and strategic plan for promoting its products. Looking at Balenciaga’s annual sales rate, we can conclude that it has invested so much into promoting its brand. They have employed great promotion and marketing strategies targeting the right consumer for each of their product lines. This has helped her understand the needs of their consumers, the next trend, and how to join or initiate a new trend.

The Use of Meme Marketing in Brand Identity

Visuals affect the human mind and emotions. Therefore it is a good marketing tool and strategy to make people dip their hands into their pockets to buy. People respond to what they see on social media. Meme baiting is the use of strikingly designed visuals to drive traffic and convert them into sales. It is efficient to convert this traffic into sales. Being aware of a particular brand in the market is not enough. In this age, the use of memes by many people on the internet is the in-thing. You are likely going to find one meme or more every day on the internet. Balenciaga leveraged this fact to increase their brand concept, which boomed and became the talk of the town. Demna understood that people need to talk about the company in their everyday discussions for the brand to succeed and gain popularity.

There is a level of influence your family, social class, and reference groups have on your buying behaviour. The use of memes have two advantages:

• It serves the purpose of entertainment.
• It creates an unforgettable experience, especially for children. This is because they are smart, and they tend to remember what they see rather than what they hear.

Creating more than a thousand memes in a week on a product would set thousands of eyeballs on Balenciaga. This is what we call leveraging innovative marketing through the internet. Once a celebrity creates a meme on the product, stating the quality, people will engage, which will persuade people to make a purchase. By using this strategy, Balenciaga targeted not only the population but also the Millenials. Millennials make up 60% of the population of Balenciaga’s products. The company makes use of celebrities also in marketing and showcasing its product to consumers.

Injection of Aesthetic footwear

Footwear is essential for Balenciaga and other competitors in the industry. This approach involves targeting the Millennials and the Gen Z’s. The company’s footwears are not cheap but not expensive either to capture almost every segment in the consumer market. One would think that Demna made a mistake by targeting the younger generation because they are not independent.

However, going after the younger generation is essential because self-esteem and self-actualisation are peaks, especially in adolescents. This is another promotion strategy that has helped Balenciaga over the years, and it has been proven to work out. The company has designs on all manner of sneakers and footwear. It is so amazing to see them turn up, and the results have been consistent over time. Getting a result for one time is different from getting results over time. This shows that the strategy involved with Balenciaga product marketing is not only tested but trusted.

Conclusion

To conclude this, when one begins to lay down a legacy, another will continue to build on it. Cristobal Balenciaga pioneered this multi-billion euro company, and he started with a strong foundation. This foundation has allowed others to explore the world of fashion to its maximum level. Many more designs have been developed to bring quality and affordability for the youngsters to purchase. There are different factors responsible for the successful result of every big brand. The first is to allow your vision and purpose to drive you. This is the first step to victory.

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