The analytics community is a contortionist bunch - but as far as Gucci's growth rates are concerned, market insiders believe the blackface debacle may have caused to lose out the momentum the brand had built up in 2018. According to Business of Fashion the brand's growth rate is up 20% from this time last year - but those figures don't account for the freefall the brand may have taken in the final months of 2018.
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Evidently, Gucci's initial growth rate in 2018 was strong enough to see it forward. The rejuvenated interest in the brand can be explained by two factors: first, the rousing endorsements coming from the hip-hop community (oops), and secondly, the changes incurred by Alessandro Michele, who was appointed Gucci's creative director for the new-look future.
When asked to comment on Business of Fashion's market research, Kering's CFO Jean-Marc Duplaix did more than reject the notion of a downturn - he plainly refused to believe that a PR disaster of that magnitude would ever their overall sales mark. The jury's still out on the accuracy of these findings, but I'd be surprised, to say the least, if there wasn't some truth to Business of Fashion's caveat. What do you think?