Business Case Studies,Marketing Strategies Case Study, Dolce & Gabbana in China: Fury of Slighted Dragon Singes Brand

Code : MM0074

Year :2019

Industry :Fashion

Region : Asia

Teaching Note:Available

Structured Assignment :Not Available

INTRODUCTION: In November 2018, Dolce & Gabbana (DG), an Italian luxury fashion house, posted a series of promotional videos for its catwalk event in Shangai, China, on its Instagram account. The videos featured a Chinese model clumsily attempting to eat Italian food with chopsticks while a patronizing narration seemed to mock at her in the video. The video series with the hash tag DG loves China, did not create the kind of response that DG had hoped for. The promotion ran into trouble with Chinese consumers slamming it for its racist content, and what they called a bid to insult Chinese cultural sensibilities. Consumers in China went on the rampage on all the social media platforms. This resulted in a boycott of DG products on all major and popular e-commerce Chinese websites. The backlash forced the co-founders of DG, Domenico Dolce (Domenico) and Stefano Gabbana (Stefano), to post a video on Instagram apologizing to the people of China to try and end the controversy. But their apology went in vain...