Prada signed Jia Ling. Is it for traffic or brand concept?

Prada's choice of Jia Ling as its spokesperson caused controversy, pursuing traffic while also hoping to give the brand a spiritual core.

Since February 10, 2024, "Hot and Spicy" was released in China, and Jia Ling, who transformed from a comedian to a director, ushered in her highest moment in terms of traffic. Of course, high traffic will inevitably bring high controversy. No one can be liked by everyone. The comments about Jia Ling on the Internet are almost polarized. Those who like her have high praise for her, and those who oppose her have also made many criticisms of "Hot and Spicy".

However, just two months after the movie was released, a piece of heavy news once again made Jia Ling the number one trending search on Weibo. On June 2, Prada announced that Jia Ling would become the brand spokesperson for Prada. Just like the situation when "Hot and Spicy" was released before, the comments about Jia Ling's endorsement of Prada were almost as polarized as before.

From now on, it is almost inevitable that Prada's choice of Jia Ling as its spokesperson will cause controversy. As mentioned above, from the brand's perspective, people essentially have different views on the Prada brand.

In simple terms, supporters believe that the spiritual core that Jia Ling is currently showing is exactly the brand concept of Prada. Another group of people, on the other hand, have a concept of Prada as a super elite image that is refined, decent, highly educated, and work-oriented to the point of being a little indifferent. There is no essential difference between finding Jia Ling as a spokesperson and finding artists like Cai Xukun and Zheng Shuang before. Although Jia Ling has a lower chance of failure, Prada, as always, has no clear positioning and only decides on spokespersons based on traffic, without considering its own brand positioning at all.

1. Prada is never afraid of controversy

From the perspective of the public's perception of the Prada brand, Prada is obviously not too worried about this controversy. After all, these two polarized views are both Prada and neither of them is Prada. Just like Andy and Miranda in the movie "The Devil Wears Prada" that made many people know Prada.

The heroine Andy grew from a rookie in the workplace to a capable assistant, but finally returned to her dream of writing, taking care of her family, friends, and lover, and integrating into the true love and warmth. She refused to become a cold and unscrupulous professional, but also lost her ticket to the fashion industry, her reputation, and money. The "female devil" Miranda chose to continue working in the fashion field she loved, being efficient, decisive, talented, and famous, but at the same time she also lost her warmth and became cold and unscrupulous.

But whether it is Andy or Miranda, both of them are the queen of wearing Prada, but some viewers approve of Andy's concept more, while others think that queen is synonymous with Miranda. Just as some people think that Andy putting everything aside and returning to ordinary daily life is a manifestation of courage to be himself, others think that Andy's return to daily life is essentially too much chicken soup.

This kind of controversy is the norm for the Prada brand.

Since Miuccia Prada took over the design work of Prada, Prada's design concept has emphasized independent thinking and innovation in fashion. It seeks to break through the traditional framework of the fashion industry, constantly challenge conventions, and create a fashion style that leads the trend. Prada's designers are committed to integrating fashion with art, culture and society, so that each work has a unique story and connotation.

So, we saw the "Killer" bag that became popular because of the movie, and we also saw that Miuccia was inspired by the Pocono nylon fabric used in parachutes, found a factory that made nylon parachutes for the Italian army, developed a new type of lightweight and waterproof nylon fabric, and launched the Vela Bag.

Those who approve of it regard Vela as a product that overturned the design trend of luxury leather at the time, creating an extremely advanced design. However, those who oppose it believe that a nylon bag does not have the temperament of a luxury product, and that it is completely Prada's self-depreciation.

2. Traffic or brand core?

But if we say that Prada chose Jia Ling entirely based on her ability to provide sufficient spiritual core for the brand, and that for this reason Prada can fully accept the potential controversy that Jia Ling may bring to the brand, it cannot be said to be completely correct.

Just like the fact that the brand has always been controversial, Prada's choice of spokespersons is also difficult to describe. Since Prada entered China, it has made many mistakes in choosing spokespersons. Prada has signed many bad artists who have been banned for various strange reasons. Many netizens even gave Prada the title of spokesperson "the lamp of death".

Although, at that time, both industry insiders and general consumers had said that Prada was too focused on the popularity index of celebrity spokespersons at the time and spent a lot of budget to sign contracts. This not only led to a low net profit margin, but also easily overlooked the qualities of the endorsement stars themselves, and was eventually troubled by continuous celebrity scandals.

But it is undeniable that Prada has indeed obtained enough traffic dividends to a large extent. Since Prada began to select spokespersons in China based solely on traffic a few years ago, Prada has indeed ushered in its own period of rapid growth. Even though sales declined during the epidemic, Prada still ushered in its own rapid recovery after the end of the epidemic.

As in the first quarter financial report of 2023, Prada's quarterly revenue exceeded the 1 billion euro mark for the first time in history, breaking the historical record, and Prada CEO attributed it to the high growth rate of the Chinese market.

But judging from the fact that Prada chose Jia Ling this time, it seems more like they hope to use the "personality" that Jia Ling has accumulated during the filming of "Hot and Spicy" to give the brand some unique spiritual core to a certain extent. After all, if it was purely for traffic, Prada would probably not wait until June when the controversy over the movie "Hot and Spicy" had gradually passed before signing. After all, whether it was signing Cai Xukun or a series of traffic artists, Prada never had a so-called cooling-off period.

In the end, judging from the results, most of those who are still paying attention to the Prada and Jia Ling incident, whether they are fans or the media, recognize this kind of spiritual empowerment. Although controversy still exists relatively speaking, it is still much smaller than when "Hot" was released.

3. What is the significance of brand core to Prada?

Or we can say from another perspective that Prada is still pursuing traffic, but at the same time it is tentatively turning to give the brand more spiritual core.

Just like Prada’s executive director and CEO, who was appointed in January this year

Andrea Guerra said: The group’s top priority in 2024 will still be to further promote the brand’s attractiveness and retail business level.

At the same time, according to Prada's 2023 annual report, in addition to sales expenses, the Prada Group's largest investment is marketing and advertising, with the investment amount increasing by 48 million euros year-on-year to 242 million euros, which is twice the cost of product design and development.

If further promoting the brand's appeal shows that Prada is still hungry for traffic, then for Prada, starting to consider the brand's core at this time instead of continuing to focus on traffic may be attributed to the extremely high growth rate of Miu Miu, a brand under the Prada Group.

At the end of April this year, Prada released its latest financial report for the first quarter of 2024. Net revenue in the three months ending March 31 reached 1.187 billion euros, a year-on-year increase of 16%. Retail sales reached 1.071 billion euros, a year-on-year increase of 18%.

If we look at the brand level, although PRADA performed better than the market, its retail sales increased by 7% year-on-year. In contrast, Miu Miu's performance growth was almost legendary, with retail sales increasing by 89% year-on-year, which is one of the few super-fast growth among all luxury brands.

Some industry insiders told ibrandi that the reason why Miu Miu has been able to achieve rapid growth compared to Prada is not only because its 2024 autumn and winter fashions have been widely praised, but most importantly, compared to Prada, Miu Miu's brand and product positioning is extremely clear.

Even Miu Miu's CEO Benedetta Petruzzo once publicly stated in an interview that unlike other brands that have undergone a 180-degree transformation after encountering growth difficulties, Miu Miu has basically maintained the continuity of its style since its inception.

In terms of marketing, it is almost all about strengthening its unique style. For example, when many luxury brands tend to choose models to shoot advertisements, Miu Miu has already begun to invite celebrities to shoot, aiming to present a young and bold attitude. However, unlike Prada's previous traffic-only theory, Miu Miu is keen to choose those artists who have just debuted and are not yet famous but have personal style and are in line with the brand style to promote its products.

This is why Prada chose Jia Ling as its spokesperson at this time. Although it is controversial, it will not cause a house collapse. It can not only add value to the brand, but also attract traffic to the brand to a certain extent. The hot searches that quickly topped the list on the day of the announcement and the extremely wide discussion are enough to prove this point.

Whether Jia Ling can really bring growth and accumulation of brand assets to Prada will probably take more time. But if we just want to see the fun, what the audience is most looking forward to is whether the Prada spokesperson curse will be verified again on Jia Ling.

Author: Innocent Roland

Source: WeChat official account: "iBrandi Pinchuang (ID: ibrandi)"