About the brand:

The Armani brand was established the year 1974 in Milan Italy by Giorgio Armani and Sergio Galeotti. Whereas their men fashion, which they first started working on, became a huge success they started to fund for women's fashion line. By the year 1975 the Armani brand had become a fashion symbol for women also. Today it is with the biggest fashion brand in the world with 4700 employees by the end of 2005 and sales for about 1.69 billion dollars.

Giorgio Armani himself is born the 11th of July the year 1934 and has become a symbol for high class fashion and the ambassador of fashion for Italy to the world.

The marketing behind the fashion brand is very different as in behind other fashion products. When fashion houses make their image behind the brand they tend to use their own personality, in this case Giorgio Armani himself, and try to recreate their persona in the cloths and products. The strategy behind Armani is luxury. In most cases when you ask people what comes first to mind when they hear their brand name is expensive luxury clothes, expensive sunglasses and good perfumes. Or in one word luxury.

Giorgio Armani is the famous italian fashion designer best known for the designs that he produces on his mens wear selection especially known for the clean tailored looking lines of menswear. Giorgio Armani first started up his company in 1975 and from relatively humbling beginnings has amassed a personal fortune of over $7 billion dollars.

Piacenza was the town in which Giorgio was born and raised, along with a sister and brother. From early on life Armani wanted to develop a career in medicine and began studying at the university of Milan. Although after three years he transferred his skills by joining the army within the army.

After his time in the army Armani was offered a job as a window dresser at La Rinascente, this was a somewhat diverse change in the medical career Armani originally wanted to get involved in. As a window dresser Armani gained valuable knowledge and experience in the marketing aspect of the fashion industry. This time drew to a close and Armani was offered a position Nini Cerruti for which he designed menswear. His skills were in great demand and he was offered several opportunities to freelance his work.

In 1973 Armani was persuaded to open up a design office in Milan which gave him the opportunity to collaborate with some of the most exclusive fashion houses throughout Italy and possibly indeed the entire globe. This gave Armani a strong foothold within the fashion industry

Armani established some great relationships within the industry which helped to provide a valuable source of business for the future. In 1979 Giorgio Armani founded the Giorgio Armani Corporation which produced goods for the United States introducing the Mani line to men and women. In the early 1980s Armani signed an important agreement with the perfume company L'Oreal to create perfumes and has branched out with various other sub labels which include Emporio Armani, AJ (Armani Jeans) AX (Armani Exchange), Armani Junior and Armani Casa. Giorgio Armani is planning to include a range of luxury hotels and resorts in several locations soon, the company already operates a number of cafes worldwide in addition to a nightclub and bar.

Along with the various other sub brands names Giorgio Armani is now involved in selling a range of Giorgio Armani Jewellery which a supplies a range of different products such as timepieces; pendants; bracelets; rings and necklaces. These can be purchased in a number of outlets throughout the world. Many of the sub-brands have also a selections of fashion jewellery that you can also acquire.

Armani Jeans is a pioneristic collection launched by Giorgio Armani in 1981 with the profile of an eagle and the designer’s initials as the logo. It has grown to become one of the most successful facets of the Armani world and speaks of Giorgio Armani’s vision for a young, relaxed and contemporary style. The line offers a vast selection of casual and pret-a-porter styles for men and women -shirts, pants, jackets, dresses - alongside the denim segment which it completes and which is at the heart of the collection.

The denim options are extremely rich in terms of both style-there are 14 seasonal styles- and fit, as well as in terms of washes and price point. The collection covers a whole spectrum that includes simpler workmanship as well as more sophisticated workmanship: the fits include everything from skinny to regular, with numerous variations of the waist line and silhouette.

Armani Jeans with its forward-looking technological DNA has always been attentive to the issues and problems facing the contemporary world and respecting the environment, to the point that it became an ethical as well as a stylistic challenge. Thus, a project that was born a few seasons ago and has been consolidated through numerous initiatives continues, by bringing together respect for the environment with quality products.

Following the introduction of organic cotton, where no chemicals are used in the cultivation, harvesting and transformation into fibre of the plant, research now focuses on new technologies for washes. Treatments such as the Eco Ice treatment- an innovative Italian made procedure for fading denim- are a testament to Armani Jean's longstanding and ongoing commitment to the reduction of the environmental impact in the production of jeans.

The Armani Jeans Collection is sold in over 45 countries in AJ/Armani Jeans and Emporio Armani boutiques, in multi-brand stores and in department stores. Recently the Armani Group launched a global expansion plan, opening new stores in key cities all over the world, thus making the collection a fundamental component of the Group's travel retail strategy.

For example to own an Armani suit could be a symbol of power and significance. Like with all brands in the world, after a long time of success they tend to expand in other products like perfumes, furniture's, watches, cosmetics and many more like Armani has done.

Signature Giorgio Armani Line: Is their most expensive line, their pride and joy, the line that their empire is based on. The targeted market group are the rich and famous, people on the age 35-50 years old. A lot of actors are in these sort of clothing, specially on the Oscars. But Armani became a superstar in fashion because all the actors wanted to wear his brand on the Oscars.

Armani Collezioni: Is the expensive line for the young people, 25-35 years old and have been the most prominent line for last couple of years. As an example: David Beckham is the face of this line and DJ Tiesto is the Official Armani DJ (he only wears Emporio Armani)

Armani Jeans: Their cheapest line, targeting people on the age 18-30 years old. For the young crowd that hasn't got that much money between their hands. With this line they are giving the youngest crowd an opportunity to buy and where the Armani brand.

A/X Armani Exchange: This chain of brand is their outlet line around the world where people can buy various accessories, not only clothing but also jewelry, cosmetics and many more. This line shows just how much power lies behind the Armani brand when a brand this big and expensive can have outlets all around the world so that you can gear up completely for the weekend, dinner party, the meeting or whatever you are about to do.

The Future of Armani.

Giorgio Armani is the brand, and the brand is him. When you buy something from that brand then you are buying something that he has personally worked on himself to make your experience of wearing his product as good as it gets.

What can be a downfall for fashion lines is when the name itself dies, there often comes up problems when that happens. The next person to take over the line could take the line in a completely different direction and by that lose all the loyal customers. This has become a problem for the Armani brand as Giorgio Armani is now 74 or 75 years old and maybe doesn't have many days left. He recently said in an interview that he has not yet started to find a worthy successor, which is by my opinion a really bad thing, because that can take years to find one.

Other thing that could be their Achilles heel, because there is so much going on in their fashion house, so many products, that they could lose their contextual of all their products. Everything that bears the Armani name should have a similar context, either it's a suit or a coffee mug, there should be similar style, because this is the same brand. And when the brand is this big you can easily lose sight of the context over all the products.

But to their advantage it is that the brand is always classic, and lasts for decades. There aren't many clothing lines that can last you in style for maybe a decade. Like Celine Dion said that it doesn't matter if you own a 10 year old suit or clothing from Armani, they will always suit you and you will always look fantastic and glamorous. After all this is Armani!