MILAN — Coccinelle believes “the future is limitless.”
With this claim, the Italian handbag and accessories brand has been going through several changes, and chief operating officer Emanuele Mazziotta has been busy focusing on a customer-centric strategy, rationalizing the brand’s product offer and strengthening its merchandising team.
“We moved away from the previous wholesale-driven distribution and realized we needed to edit the product and make it more desirable,” explained Mazziotta. “We identified distinctive Coccinelle elements, such as the plectrum, which we highlighted throughout the collections as a closure, for example. We injected more consistency and we are already seeing a positive feedback to these changes.”
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To promote the new product, Coccinelle is opting for a “less glossy” communication, “more in tune with the times and the customers,” the executive said.
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In sync with this view, the company is launching the Coccinelle for the Barbie international project. “Barbie has also changed over the years, becoming closer to real women and in tune with the changing role models, including different body shapes and dolls with disabilities. Together, we want to give a strong and clear message to promote diversity and inclusion.”
On Monday, Coccinelle will launch its Bag Manifesto in all its distribution channels, including online, with dedicated windows. The company has tapped 180 international and 200 Italian ambassadors, involving 25 countries. “The goal is to pull down the barriers,” said Mazziotta. “The idea is that if you believe in yourself, you will succeed. Diversity is a value and not a limit, this is the concept.”
This positive message, for example, is conveyed by Kimi, a Russian model with albinism, or model and influencer Nina Rima, whose leg was amputated following an accident.
Mazziotta underscored that Coccinelle has promoted diversity in the past, but this is the “first time the message is so loud. Today this is no longer a choice, it’s a duty. We want to side with women in a dimension free of stereotypes, ruled by self-acceptance.”
The Coccinelle for Barbie Manifesto bag is made of strong nylon canvas, with leather handles and a feminine grosgrain ribbon.
The words “The Future is Limitless” stand out in graffiti-style characters on the bag, pink on black, black on pink.
Inside the bag is a Barbie Pink label and the color of the box containing the bag is in the same color. The item retails for 120 euros.
Coccinelle has seen a surge in online sales, a high double-digit growth since 2020. At the same time, Mazziotta said the company still believes in physical retail. Coccinelle counts 125 stores and the brand is available at 1,000 points of sale.
Italy accounts for 45 percent of revenues, and the rest of Europe is a strong market for the brand, especially in countries such as Germany, Switzerland and Austria, as well as Eastern Europe and Russia.
Pop-ups have recently been opened in Tokyo and Osaka, and the brand has a brisk online business in Korea.
Direct online sales account for 10 percent of the total, while sales through third-party e-commerce platforms reach 20 percent of the total. Online, Coccinelle has introduced a service called buy now, pay tomorrow, said Mazziotta.
Admitting a setback due to the coronavirus pandemic, the executive said the goal is to return to 2019 levels in 2021 or in the first part of 2022. “There are the bases to do so,” he said.
In 2019, sales were close to 100 million euros.
Coccinelle was founded in 1978 in Sala Baganza, near Parma, Italy, by the Mazzieri family. In 2012, the Korean E-Land fund acquired the company and the Mazzieri family exited.