Purpose-Driven Brands — Case Study 2: Ganni

GANNI excels in community building, effectively representing the mindset and aspirations of its target customers worldwide.

GANNI Spring/Summer 2025 Collection

Ganni is a huge inspiration for a purpose-driven brand that highlights smart positioning, a journey from local to global branding, and the commercial success based on authenticity and earned marketing. The brand is known as an “affordable” luxury in women’s wear, but is deeply rooted in community building and sustainability.

Brand resume:

Ganni is a Scandinavian lifestyle brand, focused on women`s wear, a high-end Luxury brand with “affordable” price tags. Since 2009, it has been led by the owner and creative director, Ditte Reffstrup, working alongside her husband and co-founder, Nikolaj Reffstrup. The Copenhagen-based brand is well-known for dressing celebrities as Bella Hadid, Miley Cyrus, Emma Chamberlain, Kylie Jenner, and Beyoncé. In its designs, the brand is vibrant and explores contrast in silhouettes and colors to drive personality, keeping high quality. However, the great differentiator of Ganni is the known brand responsibility and sustainability efforts led by Nijolaj. GANNI achieved the B Corp Certification in 2022. In 2018, Ganni was partially acquired by L Catterton, a private equity firm owned by LVMH. This partnership made it possible for GANNI to scale the business worldwide. And most importantly, according to the founders, without compromising the company values.

In this case study, I want to highlight three characteristics that built a strong foundation for the brand’s success. Three future-proof characteristics: Customer-centric Mindset; Strong Sustainable Responsibility, and Being Long-term Driven.

Customer-centric Mindset:

In its beginning, the company has focused on creating products for a clear persona, “the average Danish consumer that are interested in fashion but wouldn`t pay $600-$800 for a basic dress, a customer who is confident, intelligent, and works in the creative industry”. So, they decided to position the brand as mid-luxury, striking a balance between commercial and fashionable. And practicing very affordable pricing while maintaining good quality. Even when the brand didn`t have any design distinguishing factor, the responsibility for production positioned GANNI as an ethical brand in the market.

Very smart positioning to keep the local and customer-centered mindset as the focus throughout the years. Became the most prominent Scandinavian brand before starting the global positioning. The mix of popularity, responsibility, design, affordability, and quality makes GANNI a strong and highly differentiated brand. Well-connected to the generational mindset and aspirations of the customers, especially the young. And it drives to build a strong and loyal community that makes the name of the brand more and more known around the fashion industry.

Strong Sustainable Responsibility:

The brand is very attentive to its supply chain and is very committed to environmental practices and being transparent. Even publicly standing as a non-sustainable brand. The brand started an official corporate journey to minimize its social and environmental impact and strive to be more responsible. In 2020, GANNI set 44 tangible goals to be reached by 2023 across four main pillars: People, Planet, Product, and Prosperity. The company also achieved the B Corp Certification in 2022, the main certification in social and environmental impact for business. For this, GANNI has been evaluated in five pillars (Governance, Workers, Community, Environment, and Customers). According to Nijolaj, some of the projects GANNI works on are large-scale and have a profound impact on how they run their business. Such as mapping out the company`s carbon footprint, using lower-impact materials, investing in circular business models, or working with carbon in settings supporting the suppliers’ transition to renewable energy.

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Being Long-term Driven:

GANNI is a huge example that it is possible to make a difference inside the fashion industry and gain scale step by step. The commitment to its purpose and drive for excellence, quality, and affordability to the customers they know well has turned them into a powerful brand. More easily driving love and loyalty from the customers, which led them to organic popularity. A brand founded in 2009 took a decade of deep work and development to become a global brand. All of it shows how a successful purpose-driven brand is built in a journey, not just one or two successful collections. GANNI shows that long-term thinking is the right approach to thrive and build relevance in the fashion market.

Sources to dive deep into the brand: