Florian Wortmann has been in office as Chief Brand Officer (CBO) at Bugatti Holding Brinkmann GmbH & Co. KG for almost three weeks and he doesn’t hesitate for long. It is clear to the former Baldessarini boss that he has to bring structure to the East Westphalian brand. But that also means first getting an overview and cleaning up before he and managing director Julius Brinkmann can get started with a new strategy.
In an interview with FashionUnited, he tells FashionUnited how Wortmann got his start in Herford, what vision he has for Bugatti and how this should work between regular customers and new consumers.
Mr. Wortmann, how was your start at Bugatti?
Onboarding in the first week was good – everything from IT to the office was ready and properly scheduled. Otherwise it is always said: the cell phone will be there tomorrow and the car keys the day after. I then used the bridge day to arrive, get the equipment and ‘flow into’ the week in peace.
I received a warm welcome from my new colleagues and the entire Brinkmann family – you can immediately see the positive energy of a family business. On Thursday we went to Mönchengladbach, where the product areas of shirts, knitwear, knits and trousers are located – marketing, women’s and menswear are located in Herford. Home office is planned from the start on Fridays.
Was it a big change for you compared to your previous position as Managing Director at Baldessarini?
This position has been newly created. Before, I was completely responsible for the Baldessarini brand, but now it is a much larger ship [Anm. d. Red.:
Umsatz der Bugatti Holding Brinkmann lag 2022 bei 201 Millionen Euro].
Of course, it’s nice to concentrate on product and brand building now. But not much has changed for me. Although I have no responsibility for the sales area here, I still report to Julius [Brinkmann]just like back then to Ms. Ahlers [Anm. d. Red.: Stella Ahlers, Vorstandsvorsitzende der ehemaligen Baldessarini-Mutter Ahlers AG]. So I still deal with the owners, and Julius is also CEO. It would perhaps be a different feeling if it were an external CEO. In this respect, I am in the inner circle of decision-makers.
And you are also responsible for the business part of this area.
It doesn’t work without numbers. I’m responsible for much larger budgets here and I’m also concerned with cost sensitivity and discipline – words that creatives never want to hear. But I come from a numbers-driven school and the question for me is always: Where do we spend the euro and is it efficient?
I spend a lot of time with this efficiency in my work area and leading. I’m not going to stand here like a designer throwing color concepts at the wall in his loft. It’s about us making money and it being a profitable brand. I’m already pulling two huge levers – on the one hand with the product, with which we can generate sales, and on the other hand with marketing, where we can spend a lot of money.
Do you already have a tendency where you want to save costs?
We’re currently checking all channels and I’m just letting everything run, getting an overview and listening. It is important to me to understand why something was done before I use other marketing channels.
The first step will now be to let the brand into an emotional world based on the existing, good foundation. We emotionalize them and form our DNA because this cannot consist of us having good value for money and a good fit. This is a very good basis. I hope we manage to outline the basic DNA in the first two months. So the present is already there and we’re now looking at what the wrapping paper looks like and which Christmas tree it should be under. Only then do we think about where we will use the money.
Where would you like to use it?
I’m someone who thinks about what social media and the digital world looks like. There is no point in pushing a medium budget into out-of-home consumer advertising because it requires a significant investment to achieve visibility. I’m not the type of watering can that makes everyone happy, but rather I choose certain plants.
Water them properly and give them fertilizer so that they thrive and are visible. It’s about the greatest possible output for every euro invested. And I can say that we separated from all the creative agencies that accompanied us. That was my first week!
How did this decision come about?
It wasn’t about anything being bad. The point is that a creative agency doesn’t offer me output that I can’t provide. If I don’t get my brand building done and I’m managed by someone else, how is that supposed to work?
So there were agencies here that presented seasonal themes. For certain tasks such as a newsletter, the commissioned agency then turned it into a project with a daily workshop on tonality. I would simply say: Let’s outline the newsletter based on our DNA and discuss which form suits us.
I also understand that the concept works with creative agencies, especially when you reach your limits. After the fourth or fifth fashion show or when it comes to a YouTube advertisement, it’s sometimes good if another idea comes into play and we pitch it. But such a constant agency that guides you creatively every day is not right.
How should Bugatti be perceived from the outside?
First of all, it is important that we have ‘One Face to the Customer’ and implement this across all international markets as quickly as possible and choose a uniform visual language. For example, one of the current campaigns featured themes with different models and backgrounds, making it seem like three brands. Instead, we will now leave out a lot, clean it up and rebuild it in order to create a clear brand line.
This should also happen with the lookbook, which I will be completely responsible for from November. The ‘look and feel’ should show which direction it is going – with clear imagery. It will then be reduced at first and then added back on.
What do you want to achieve with the clearer imagery?
I am firmly convinced that current Bugatti customers will not be tempted to buy based on the imagery. The experience is that customers have a lot of trust in the brand name and can find it in the DACH market at familiar retailers such as Breuninger, Peek & Cloppenburg and Galeria. In addition, there is a good price-performance ratio and a good fit.
That’s why customers buy Bugatti, not because they saw the latest campaign on social media and then want the jacket. So we have a good product associated with the name and now it’s about getting people to buy ‘a feeling’. With this foundation, we are now remaking around 20 to 30 percent of the collection in order to achieve more rigor and a better focus – with a uniform image to the outside world.
Does a certain rejuvenation also play a role?
We have to get new customers, perhaps even younger customers, by making the product label emotional. But it’s not about turning Bugatti into Baldessarini or ‘CG – Club of Gents’. It has to be brand-specific and authentic. Therefore, it will not be very design-oriented or significantly more expensive. It will be good, understandable fashion that has its merits.
Which marketing channels are authentic for Bugatti to present itself?
Instagram and LinkedIn are definitely important. LinkedIn is always forgotten and we will now use it even more. Julius and I have now presented ourselves in a new way and are continuing to pursue this professionally.
We may not be doing a TikTok campaign now, but the question does arise: How young can the customers be? So I don’t want to rule out this direction either. Daniel Grieder does this perfectly at Boss, where the customers aren’t actually 19 either. But he doesn’t care and picks her up. They’re getting older…and how are they supposed to be interested in the brand at 40 if they haven’t grown into it before? We want to be there across generations and for everyone and not consolidate ourselves based on age. And that should also be the case on social media.
How do you want to achieve this age balancing act?
A sales representative was afraid that I would cross out a certain basic sweatshirt that he liked. I wouldn’t do that anyway because it can just go along and sell. But I would now Ufo361[Anm. d. Red.: Berliner Rapper] Put this sweater on and put it on a G-Class [Anm. d. Red.: Geländewagen von Mercedes] that would be cool again. It’s always a question of marketing.
I have a lot of contact with the Elevator Boys through my previous collaboration and find it really interesting how their world works. And that’s why we will also present this attitude to life – everyone is invited, can be our guest and part of our community – on social channels.
What else can we expect from you at Bugatti?
We’ll have a stand at Pitti Uomo in January, create a lookbook and shoot the campaign in March. I’ll be putting this together soon and then the campaign for spring/summer 2025 will be available in May. But first it’s really about advancing the brand building described and having a clear goal. Once we have written that down, we will become missionaries for the vision until each of us – including you – can say: Bugatti is…
I want everyone to feel and live that here. And then we have to slowly convey this to the outside world – to the sales force, then to the buyers and then to the sales floor. Once it has reached the sellers, we can start advertising to the end customers.
Finally, what is your first impression of Bugatti?
Here at Bugatti everyone is fired up and really excited!