For almost a week there has been all the buzz about the new Instagram feature currently being tested. The platform is coming up with shoppable tags for the businesses’ profiles and it is hard not to be excited as the process of buying for us as consumers gets increasingly easier. But what exactly are the opportunity and the challenge for the brands? According to Instagram research, 60% of the application users admit they learn about products and services on the platform; 75% say they take actions like visiting sites, searching, or telling a friend after being influenced by a post on Instagram. Try recollecting how many times you wanted something…
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(Insert luxury brand here) Made in Sweatshops
Gucci made it to the headlines again — and this time, for the wrong reason. A recent report claimed that Chinese employees for Libero Mondo — one of Gucci’s subcontractors in Italy — worked 14 hours a day on handbags, instead of the contracted 4 hours. Worse, Libero Mondo’s Arnoldo Guidotti proclaimed that Gucci is fully aware of the exploitation, and Gucci buys those bags from Libero Mondo for 24 euros. In store, a Gucci bag retails for approximately 1000 euros. Kering (once Pinault Printempts Redoute or PPR), Gucci’s parent company, responded that they would include additional measures to ensure that incidents like these would never repeat again. Yet, in 2002, Brylane — a US based clothing supplier for Kering —…
