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Alexander McQueen
Brand Audit
Jonathan Quach

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Lee Alexander McQueen founded his brand in 1992, and decided to name it after his
middle name Alexander due to his long time friend Isabella Blow. She was convinced that it
would give off a more memorable impression, something to the likes of Alexander The Great.
Isabella was an incredible influence in the success of the Alexanders career, she had all of the
contacts he needed and was instantly enthralled when
she saw his first graduation collection from Central
Saint Martins. She even bought the entire collection.
The headquarters for his company is located in
London, United Kingdom. Gucci Group acquired
51% of the Alexander McQueen brand in December
of 2000. Kering, which is a French luxury goods
holding company that also owns Gucci, has acquired
many luxury brands since its inception, and on the Forbes Global 2000 they are
ranked at number 763. Gucci provided Alexander McQueen with the necessary
resources to expand the brand such as management and infrastructure. They planned on

McQueens
flagship store
on Bond
Street

expanding into sectors such as accessories, fragrances, and ready-to-wear clothing.

Alexander McQueen being a very luxurious brand that offers high-end couture, decided
to widen its market with the addition of McQ. McQ is targeted toward the youthful spirit of street
wear, while trying to maintain the McQueen look. The line is meant to appeal to the youth also
by its price point. It is generally cheaper, but still upholds the McQueen aesthetic. Originally, it
was under another label, SINV Spa, but then Alexander McQueen resumed full control of McQ
in October of 2010. Generally, fashion houses come out with an Autumn/Winter collection, and a
Spring/Summer collection. A collection can have anywhere from 30 to even 50 or more pieces.

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Two collections can be quite tiring already considering the work and details that must be tended
to, but there are also collaborations and off season collections to think about. So there are
constantly new products being offered. Although, not everything that goes on the runway is
wearable, sometimes they must brought down to a ready-to-wear level. This can be seen in the
usually avant-garde collections of haute couture, which is more about art and craftsmanship than
it is about wearable clothes. The haute couture collections can be inspirations for more wearable
pieces however.
Since its establishment in 1992, Alexander McQueen has expanded into the United
States, China, Japan, Kuwait, Qatar, Turkey, Italy, etc markets making this an emerging
international brand. In fact, the Council of Fashion Designers of America awarded Alexander
McQueen with the International Designer of the Year in
2003. The brand and company hit an unexpected turn for
the worse when Alexander McQueen was found dead in his
London home from an apparent suicide. He battled
depression his whole life, and with the recent deaths of his
long time friend Isabella Blow and extremely cherished
mother the pressure was too much for him. His brand still lives on today and Sarah Burton,
Chelsea
location
storefront
after death

his assistant for 16 years, was announced as the new creative director. Due to the legacy
that McQueen left behind, and with the watchful eye of Sarah Burton Vogue has told us
that sales were continuing to grow a year after his death.
With the fashion industry, there comes intense competition and rivalry. In such an intense
market, McQueen found his niche with avant-garde fashion shows that were often very
theatrical. FashionBi conducts very in-depth analyses of brands, and in particular they did one on

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Alexander McQueen. You have to pay if you want the full load of information that they have
uncovered and evaluated. Fashionbi specifically looks at a brands market, digital, social and
financial data into a single brand performance evaluation framework, that enables you to
articulate, in actual quantifiable manner the contribution of your brand's activities over time to
your brand's value.

Although, a little difficult to see this chart details Alexander McQueens performance over the
2014 year up to the near present. Quite obvious in the graphic, there was a very large spike in
their performance in March. Fashionbi also numerates the brand overall and ranks them against
other brands. Alexander McQueen received an index score of 10.31, and a ranking of 258 that is
5 places higher than their previous week. Now that information alone means nothing if I dont
provide the index score and ranking of other fashion brands such as Chanel. They are not
surprisingly ranked 2nd, 10 places higher than the previous week, with an index score of 243.12.
According to Fashionbis number, while Alexander McQueen is quite a rising brand, they still

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have a lot of competition specifically from well-established powerhouses such as Chanel and
Dior.

Alexander McQueen utilizes most of the social media available today to help market themselves.
As you can see through their Twitter,
they promote their upcoming deals and
product that correlate to the time of
year. They also highlight which
celebrities are wearing Alexander
McQueen clothing to certain events.
There is not much differentiation from
their Twitter account and their
Facebook account. They follow the same formula and even the same posts. The only real
difference is that their Facebook reaches a larger audience with about 800,000+ more followers
or likes. Their Instagram account on the other hand focuses on the much more artistic side to the
brand, with splashes of mentions of celebrities wearing their clothing.
Alexander McQueens brand seems to rely so heavily on the image that he himself set by
going beyond boundaries and creating very controversial clothes. Now that he has passed, it will
be a very difficult thing to maintain that image while also looking forward. In the year 2014,
their brand has been trying to maintain that steady growth, but that steady growth seems to be
happening at a glacial pace.
With Alexander McQueen being a relatively new brand, barely 20 decades old there still
leaves much to be desired. One great thing that they, or rather Alexander McQueen himself has

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done has been to differentiate them from the competition. Having the connotation of being the
bad boy of the fashion industry has worked to his favor, and he has made very memorable
moments in fashion history thus elevating his brand salience. A good focus that their branding
department could hone in on is maybe their social media. I saw that although they smartly
utilized it, it was very bland and there was not much interaction. They could encourage
engagement among their supporters, because there are so many people that are loyal to brands
and especially fashion brands.