Giorgio Armani's Empire - Giorgio Armani the 'Master' of Luxury

The luxury industry has undertaken some truly transformational changes over the past 20years. Most luxury brands are now owned by big players like LVMH, being a part of their portfolio, always with a side-eye in their branding strategies to not cannibalize other brands of the company. Expansions are a popular tool to enter new markets and take new challenges. The increasing number of middle class consumers with high purchasing power triggered a shift in the industry: From many, traditional, mainly family-owned luxury brands, catering to the wealthiest individuals, to becoming global players trying to cater to as many consumers as possible. Therefore, price-entry products, like perfumes, became a common expansion strategy among luxury brands. This has led not only to significantly increased diversification and democratization of the luxury industry, but simultaneously also to many challenges on the part of luxury brands who, in order to succeed in their brand extensions, needed to quickly identify the most suitable strategies for expansion. And it is at this crossroad, we ask a pertinent question: What makes a luxury company consistently successful? How did one man succeed where most other brands have not come close to his success till now? That man is Giorgio Armani, who is still the main decision maker in every aspect within his empire and controls 100% of Giorgio Armani SpA. Through a combination of quantitative and qualitative research based on a survey and focused groups, and their analysis, this paper will provide detailed findings for future entrepreneurs, business leaders and academics showing an example of how to take the challenge of expanding the core of a brand and dare to create brand extensions.