26/05/’21 – The time to change for many companies is always seen as a complex time, fraught with difficulty and full of perplexity, such as to have to question beliefs, habits, ideas and feelings of the entrepreneur.
I often find myself in this situation, I try to explain to the company how a change is the result of context analysis and assessments, not an attempt. And this phase is precisely the one that falls within the concept of strategy, a decidedly practical and not theoretical step, which requires a methodical approach and a goal to be achieved.
Every entrepreneur feels that he has put his strategy into play and wants to defend it with all his might, but sometimes this rigidity can represent a limit. There are also many famous cases of companies that have consolidated some strategies over the years and that have brought forward the unchanged examples of choices and from here we start to understand how – instead – the time for change comes for everyone.
Tiffany&Co. it is one of the best known examples of a communication strategy based on a clear choice, total, that without any frills has created and imposed the iconic cube-shaped precious box on a global level, aquamarine blue color … Tiffany in fact. A color that evokes the Caribbean seabed and that over the years has become almost identifiable in the name of the brand now owned by the LVMH group, which has dressed garments and outlets without any other concession to design, styles or colors, keeping the maison's success unchanged over the decades.
but yet, even for such an authoritative example, it's time to do some analysis !
And the studies have led to the understanding that today there are new generations of consumers and customers to satisfy, the company must adapt at all costs to new languages and new places of communication, so much so that the result of this evaluation method has led to a novelty in the strategy, with special effects!
On 1 April of this year, the maison's social profile suddenly showed a sunny yellow box, leaving anyone speechless. The connection to a nice April Fool was immediate, enough to unleash a media tam-tam that made Tiffany talk at all latitudes.
A well thought out trick, but in reality this was already a planned step in the strategy, defined for a new way of communicating and open to the so-called generation Z.
The subsequent steps therefore provided for the gradual approach to the novelty, which actually saw the Beverly Hills store open with a new amazing and spectacular entrance completely painted in yellow, while inside furniture, yellow decorations and fixtures framed the “stone of scandal”: the now iconic yellow box with the addition of another delicious novelty, the yellow Tiffany shopping bags.
The strategy was designed and written with the application of a series of interlinked actions focused on change; a much less approach “institutional” and corporate as it has been until today, indeed:
– greater use of corporate spaces with the iconic yellow diamonds of the Yellow Diamond collection (including the Tiffany diamond from 128,5 carat) on display for the summer,
– a Yellow Diamond Café with obviously yellow delicacies (like ginger turmeric milk, lemon soda and honeycomb ice cream),
– the photo booths for social photos,
– the opportunity for virtual testing within the’ quirky and experiential Beverly Hills pop-up store.
So try to imagine the disruptive effect of a project of this type on a company that has made its strategic choice a milestone and an example of authority on the market. Yet someone in company management had the enlightenment and the ability to listen to those who have a vision of the context around the company. th and – together – they were able to develop and contextualize a new strategy which, while upsetting some of the key points of the positioning of that brand, has managed to bring an improvement and above all to ensure adequate renewal, a fundamental aspect in order not to lose contact with the market and the perception of what customers experience with the greatest interest.
Edited by Davide Diurisi
Our approach to brand development strategy and corporate positioning is based on these elements and enables us to achieve “unpublished projects” always and in any case aligned with the positioning of the company. For information and insights: management@mito.org.uk
