February 08, 2024
Pic Credit: @ganni via Instagram
Scandi Chic is in and the one brand which champions it is: the viral brand GANNI. Lets take a look into this viral brand's inner workings to understand its METEORIC rise to success in an industry which is fraught with changes.
Origins
What started as a small scandi brand selling cashmere by gallerist Frans Truelsen in 2000's became the viral CULT phenomena which we all know today as Ganni, thanks to Nicolaj Reffstrup and Ditte Reffstrup. This husband wife duo make a perfect team blending the tech entrepreneurial know how of Nicolaj with the design aesthetics of the former buyer Ditte. Together they have transformed Ganni into an ENVIRONMENT conscious scandi viral brand where TECH MEETS FASHION!
Stats
After bringing on LVMH linked private equity firm as a major SHAREHOLDER in 2017 and expanding globally in US and UK in 2019, their turnover surpassed $76.9 million in 2019 with a revenue growth rate of 50% on average. Despite the covid 19 pandemic the brand managed to increase its revenue by 1.3% in 2020 clocking in $60 million in revenue OUTPERFORMING its competitors and taking the GIRL from Copenhagen to all over the world both through their online website and a few select stores worldwide. With an organic growth of 230% in followers on instagram in 2016 they have an average reach of over 51 million feed views.
Product Design
Ganni is all about taking the Scandi style to ANOTHER LEVEL with a fun twist. Enter SCANDI 2.0! Their products are designed with PLAYFUL mix of colours and prints with a 43% pattern mix among their product line thereby offering a WHIMSICAL take on wardrobe essentials. Their relaxed, feminine style is expertly blended with a bit of OFFBEAT giving it the signature GANNI look. By incorporating BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE in their product design they are able to always stay on TOP of TRENDS by creating the most sought after pieces thereby resolving stock issues and making the company financially sustainable. They also use CUTTING EDGE technology to research in their GANNI LABS to find environmentally friendly, LOW CARBON footprint fabrics.
Data To Dress Business Model
With a HYBRID and CONSENSUS driven business model which ensures ADAPTABILITY, all their designs are designed and planned months before their launch with a strategy which focuses on FAST TURNOVER. They incorporate cutting edge tech to analyse data and customer feedback in order to IDENTIFY successful elements from each collection and incorporate them into their upcoming ones. The idea behind this model is to MAXIMIZE the opportunity behind a CORE silhouette which speaks to their customer base and working it with the trendiest prints and colours of the season. They are big on DOWNSIZING and focus on dropping smaller and more frequent collections which help them stay ahead of the trend curve and also minimizes waste.
Sweet Spot Pricing Strategy
Ganni's pricing strategy lies right at the SWEETSPOT offering LOWER price points among premium brands thereby remaining ACCESSIBLE and OPTIMIZING their assortment and discount strategy thereby hitting the market with the RIGHT product at the RIGHT price at the RIGHT time. They are successfully able to bridge the gap between being labelled as a LUXURY brand but having an ACCESSIBLE pricing strategy.
Building the GANNI Tribe
Nobody yields instagram influencing better than Ganni does. With over 1.4 million followers their reach extends well beyond the scandi world and into the global market. With a DATA DRIVEN social media strategy Ganni was one of the first brands to focus on LOCAL influencers thereby successfully acquiring HIGHER CONVERSION rates. The GREATEST asset of Ganni is its COMMUNITY which can be clearly seen with the #gannigirls which is used by people and celebrities alike with equal fervour. In a day and age where overuse of hashtags is synonymous with visibility, Ganni keep it SIMPLE and UNCOMPLICATED ensuring relevant surfaceable content and an EXCLUSIVE CLUB like feel for their dedicated followers. They believe in the philosophy that the PRODUCT SPEAKS for ITSELF. And their social media feed reflects just that with literally NO MEMES or POP CULTURE reposts and instead stciking to HIGHLIGHTING their merchandise and using short captions which makes their feed inherently Ganni. With this NO BELLS and WHISTLES approach and by sometimes sharing the MOTIVATION behind the design, they are able to provide INSIGHTFUL context for their follwers. By making sure that they are able to respond to their customers over dm's they keep themselves RELATABLE thereby forging a LIKE MINDED community.
Supply Chain Transparency
They are big on supply chain TRANSPARENCY which is in line with their ethos of being a RESPONSIBLE brand. Through its partnership with transparency tech provider Provenance, Ganni is utilising data and third party proofs to bolster consumer trust in their garment origins. With their TECH FIRST approach to problem solving they are able to ensure efficient communication between suppliers and brands. They have MAPPED their entire SUPPLY CHAIN and have stored it on BLOCKCHAIN which displays EVERY CONTACT POINT in the garment's production history. With a focus on CIRCULARITY and RESPONSIBLY SOURCED materials and ensuring that their consumers can access SUPPLIER information, MATERIALS and PROCESSES used for each product they have successfully emerged as a RESPONSIBLE fashion brand which very few are truly able to achieve.
Circular Fashion
They are NUDGING customers to RETHINK the way they shop through GANNI REPEAT: a rental service initiative allowing customers to borrow their products thereby reducing waste. They even have a RESALE option with an aim to generate at least 5% of sales from their circular business model by 2025.
Reducing Carbon Footprint
They are a RESPONSIBLE fashion brand, fully comitted towards environmental sustainability by minimising their social and environmental impact accross their entire business chain and by commiting to a 50% carbon reduction target and also removing use of coal in their supply chain by 2027. They are a signatory of the UN Fashion Charter for Climate Action with a goal of 30% reduction of CO2 emissions per kg of clothing in a bid to achieve their UNFCCC Race To Zero by 2050. By switching to new materials like recycled wool and cotton and closed loop viscose, they are aiming to achieve 60-90% reduction in their water use and CO2 emissions. As part of their CARBON INSETTING scheme, they have installed solar panels with their Portuguese supplier and are planning to expand it to their other supplier facilities.
Sustainable Packaging And Practices
By using alternatives, such as eco friendly materials, instead of single use plastics, they reduced their environmental impact of packaging. By introducing Repack option in 2019, they have ensured that 100% of the plastic packaging follow the REDUCE RECYCLE REUSE principles. They are also comitted to achieving FAIR LABOR practices in all their factories.
GANNI Labs
In their research labs, they are big on using tech in their search for environmental friendly materials. Through their FABRICS OF THE FUTURE program they are constantly innovating to create lower impact materials like Ecovero, Tencel, Refibra and even biotextiles to incorporate into their products. Following are some of their initiatives in this direction.
GANNI * STEM
By joining forces with Copenhagen based brand Stem, they hae come up with a THREE PIECE CIRCULAR collection using Stem's unique ZERO WASTE production process which utilises ENTIRE FABRIC thereby ELIMINATING cutting and sewing waste.
CIRCULOSE BY RENEWCELL
They have introduced circulose, a new natural material that needs no cotton, no fields, no oil and no trees, made by recovering discarded clothes into a dissolving pulp which is then transformed into the circulose in a breakthrough process which is powered by 100% renewable energy.
VEGEA
They have incorporated an entire collection of sandals using vegea which is made by using leftover grapeskins from winemaking and vegetable oils along with water based PU thereby utilising the waste which usually ends up in landfills.
Banana Waste Fibre Collection
They have worked with Pyratex, utilising the waste stock of the banana tree and softening it and blending it with organic cotton to create an athleisure collection.
Biotextiles
By partnering with biomaterials startup Modern Synthesis, Ganni have displayed their Bou Bag in London Design Festival which uses a leather alternative produced in part by bacteria through fermentation and combined with nanocellulose.
Last but not the least, here are some of our FAVOURITE Ganni products.
Pic Credit: GANNI
Pic Credit: GANNI
Pic Credit: GANNI
Pic Credit: GANNI
Pic Credit: GANNI
Pic Credit: GANNI
Pic Credit: GANNI
Pic Credit: GANNI
Pic Credit: GANNI
Pic Credit: GANNI
We wanted to shed light on the workings of one of fashion's MOST RESPONSIBLE brands. We hope we did justice and that this post inspires you to think about the future of our planet by incorporating environmental sustainability in our day to day lives.
xoxo