Armani Hotels
& Resorts

Brand Extension

Luxury Branding worked closely with Giorgio Armani and Emaar Properties to translate the eponymous fashion brand into the experience economy through hotels and branded residences.

Case Study

How does one of the world’s most iconic fashion brands move smoothly and successfully into an entirely new hospitality space?

In 2005, Dubai property mogul Mohamed Ali Rashed Alabbar and Italian luxury fashion house Georgio Armani SpA agreed to develop an international collection of Armani Hotels & Resorts.

CEO Peter Venison and CMO Bruce Hutchison appointed Luxury Branding to translate the universally recognised fashion brand into the three-dimensional world of real estate, hospitality and hotel design, underpinned by a unique Armani brand of style and service.

Interpreting Brand Armani into its hospitality variant was an entirely new category of business.

A diffuse brand, with sub-brands from Emporio to Jeans, Casa and Privé, meant that no definition of the brand had been formally articulated. Rather, Giorgio Armani himself performed as the living embodiment of the brand.

Using Mr Armani as our muse, we established the brand platform ‘Stay with Armani’ for the hotel and ‘Live with Armani’ for the residential real estate.

In March 2010, the first hotel was launched in Dubai’s world-renowned Burj Khalifa, while the work to sell the Armani Residences off-plan continued.

Luxury Branding created a communications platform that translated the brand essence, ‘Armani Living’, and the brand promise of ‘Haute Couture Hospitality’, into a call-to-action for residential sales: ‘Live with Armani’.

This reinforced the idea of each site being Giorgio’s very own residence, with his furnishings, his music, his espresso and all his tastes etc.

We collaborated with Pentagram Design to create an accompanying suite of marketing collateral.

Armani residences sold at an average premium of 35% over the unbranded real estate. Wallpaper Magazine garlanded the Armani Hotels & Resorts project for “Best Branding” in its annual Design Awards 2012.

A diversification both smooth and successful.

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