The timing for Ganni’s push upmarket was perhaps unfortunate. In the past two years, consumers have become more sensitive to price and value, reassessing what they expect at different price points. While Ganni’s elevation strategy seems to have targeted a grown-up millennial Ganni girl, this cohort is also facing a cost of living squeeze, which is limiting its spending power. There’s also a perception that the product has shifted in a way that doesn’t align with this customer’s needs. “A lot of clients have outgrown [or] fallen out of love with the brand,” says Paolo Casseb, a 39-year-old stylist and personal shopper, who worked with Ganni at Selfridges and Browns and was a customer during the brand’s heyday. “For that price point, they’d want something less trend-based, or a different brand altogether.”
Beyond the core millennial customer, Ganni’s elevated positioning may have also affected its resonance with all-important Gen Z consumers looking ahead. In a survey of 750 Gen Zs by youth culture agency Archrival, just 29% say they’d be willing to pay more for a luxury brand, while only 54% see luxury brands as “desirable”. Ganni has historically occupied a clearly accessible contemporary positioning, but its elevation strategy has nudged it upward without fully redefining what the brand stands for. This has left it in a more ambiguous middle ground, while a wave of affordable brands like Reformation and Damson Madder are increasingly capturing the customer Ganni once owned.
I took to Instagram to ask long-time Ganni customers about the brand’s direction. Many pointed to rising prices as a key issue and expressed skepticism around perceived value, with some saying they now wait for discounts, buy secondhand, or have turned to the swathe of lower-priced competitors.
Some described a shift away from the brand’s earlier identity. “Before, it felt more fun and unique; now, it’s more clean and commercial. It feels like it has grown up to be liked by everyone,” says one long-time customer.
Brands like Ganni have historically been able to capitalize on the growing desire for good design at accessible prices. Borrelli-Persson describes that not just as a marketing strategy, but as “part of the cultural ethos” in Scandinavia. She adds that the “seemingly omnipresent desire for everything to be high-end” is unsustainable as the industry and pop culture “encourage desire for fashion at the same time that it becomes out of reach”.
What’s next?
This all points to a broader lesson for brands navigating today’s market. Elevation can be tricky to pull off; it depends on whether a brand’s equity, product, and customer base can credibly stretch upward. At a time when consumers are pushing back on luxury pricing and seeking stronger value, the middle market is proving more resilient than expected. Elevation can work, but only if there’s a clear reason to do so.
What’s next for Ganni hinges on how closely the brand realigns with its core customer. On Friday, the brand sent a survey to customers offering a 15% discount in exchange for feedback on why their shopping frequency has changed; how well attributes like “joyful”, “accessible”, and “community-driven” apply today; how they feel Ganni has evolved over the past two to three years; and how they would describe the brand’s value for money. The move suggests it is in listening mode at a time when customers are signaling a shift in perception.
From an industry perspective, a return to CPHFW could also help reanchor the brand. Borrelli-Persson says such a move would be “a triumphant one”, helping to restore Ganni within the cultural context that defined its early success.
“To break through the noise and to register in the attention economy, companies need to lead, and having a clear brand identity is a key component to building trust,” she says. “My sense is that people just want Ganni to be Ganni.”
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