A crise de autenticidade

🚨 Truly shameful that a leading Italian 🇮🇹luxury brand like “Loro Piana” (LVMH Group) known for its sky-high prices and celebrity clientele, has resorted to such horrible labor exploitation and miserable working conditions, all to make massive profits! pic.twitter.com/4lzRrvF3f0

— Mambo Italiano (@mamboitaliano__) July 14, 2025

Entretanto, em "Opinion: The Big Luxury Simulation Is Over": 

"Whereas luxury once meant beautifully crafted objects, it became about storytelling. Instead of luxury goods, brands retooled to deliver luxury narratives. And as long as their products signalled luxury, they realised they could cut corners on quality to boost margins and meet growing demand without alienating shoppers.

...

This strategy has proved stunningly successful, especially with people who grew up in a world of simulacra, conditioned to consume markers of goods more than the goods themselves. As Dana Thomas noted in "Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster" (2007), "Consumers don't buy luxury branded items for what they are, but for what they represent." On social media as in the street, what mattered were symbols of luxury.

But fast-forward to the present and it appears this logic has its limits. 

...

Last year, when Dior was taken to task for the use of a sweatshop labour in its supply chain, Italian prosecutors alleged the brand paid little more than €50 euros a piece for bags which retailed for more than €2500 each. Now LVMH stablemate Loro Piana has been pulled up by the same probe. Such stories make the luxury industry look like a scam selling empty signifiers to suckers.

It's no surprise that sales of superfakes - low-cost, high-fidelity replicas mostly made in China and sold directly to customers via WhatsApp groups and social media - have rocketed, driven by a new attitude to counterfeits. Whereas owning a fake once came with a sense of shame, now it's seen as a savvy move. Why risk feeling stupid for buying subpar, overpriced goods, when you can game the system?"

 Entretanto no WSJ do passado dia 14 de Julho, "'Superfake' Bags Take Sales From Real Thing":

"Counterfeiters have perfected the knockoff handbagand it is disrupting the economics of the luxury industry. Fake purses have always been around, but they were the cheap and plasticky kind that could be picked up for a few bucks from a sidewalk seller. A new generation of "superfakes," as they are known in the industry, look as good as the real thing and cost anywhere from $500 to $5,000. Counterfeiters take your order through encrypted services such as WhatsApp or Telegram, give real-time customer service and deliver the goods straight to your door in a branded box.

They pay social-media influencers to promote illicit goods directly to American and European consumers. The technique is proving so good at sanitizing counterfeiters' shady image that the language used to talk about the bags is changing. The word "fake" isn't used anymore. Instead, fans call the purses replicas, mirror bags, superclones or 1:1s ("one to ones").

In a red flag for luxury brands, young shoppers are embracing the superfakes."

O que emerge destes três textos é um retrato da crise de autenticidade da indústria do luxo, onde a promessa de excelência foi trocada por margens, storytelling e exploração laboral — e onde a resposta dos consumidores mais jovens não é a indignação moral, mas sim o pragmatismo: se é tudo fachada, então vale mais pagar pela ilusão bem feita. 

A lição é clara: o luxo que corta na qualidade, na ética e na transparência está a criar o seu próprio coveiro. E esse coveiro é um público informado, desiludido e disposto a contornar o sistema.

Outro jogo infinito

Há tempos escrevi aqui "Luxo e sinais exteriores", com base em “Signaling Status with Luxury Goods” (Journal of Marketing, 2010), sobre quatro grupos: patricians, parvenus, poseurs e proletarians. Agora no número de Julho da revista Bloomberg Businessweek encontro o artigo "The Never-Ending Fight Against Fakes".

O artigo da Bloomberg Businessweek mostra a relação entre a contrafacção e os "poseurs", descrevendo como a plataforma Vestiaire Collective enfrenta um aumento significativo de produtos falsificados, muitos deles “quase indistinguíveis dos originais”. Isto está diretamente ligado ao perfil dos poseurs:

“Poseurs do not possess the financial means to readily afford authentic luxury goods. Yet they want to associate themselves with those they observe and recognize as having the financial means (the parvenus)… Thus, they are especially prone to buying counterfeit luxury goods.”

Versus:

“Fighting counterfeiters is crucial for purveyors of secondhand luxury goods… In 2021, less than a third of the items Vestiaire rejected were on suspicion of being counterfeit. Today it’s more than half.”

A falsificação responde à procura de estatuto a baixo custo — tipicamente por poseurs.

O artigo menciona o trabalho minucioso dos especialistas em autenticação da Vestiaire para verificar costuras, fechos de correr e palmilhas – detalhes que só os conhecedores reconhecem como prova de autenticidade. Isto corresponde ao comportamento dos patricians:

“Patricians possess significant wealth and pay a premium for inconspicuously branded products that serve as a horizontal signal to other patricians.”

Versus:

“Mélissa… sniffs the supple leather, breathes deeply to take in its scent. ‘It smells soft and sweet,’ she says.”
“It’s examined by Hermès in-house, with its distinctive H-shaped stopper at the end.”

A ênfase está na qualidade discreta e não no logótipo visível — típico de patricians.

O artigo de 2010 refere que os parvenus — ricos com forte necessidade de mostrar estatuto — preferem marcas visíveis, como o monograma da Louis Vuitton.

“Luxury houses must justify their stratospheric prices or watch as the once-clear distinction between authentic and counterfeit becomes irrelevant to a generation that values accessibility over exclusivity. For an industry built on image, aspiration and status, the most troubling illusion might not be the authenticity of products themselves but rather the belief that authenticity is worth a premium price.”

O “perigo” para as marcas de luxo é que a procura de sinais visíveis (por parvenus e poseurs) torna difícil distinguir o autêntico do falso, erodindo o valor simbólico da marca.

O mercado da segunda mão (e o de falsificações) cresce porque muitos consumidores valorizam o sinal de estatuto mais do que a substância do produto — o que desafia as marcas a reafirmarem o valor da autenticidade.

Luxo e sinais exteriores

"This research introduces "brand prominence," a construct reflecting the conspicuousness of a brand's mark or logo on a product. The authors propose a taxonomy that assigns consumers to one of four groups according to their wealth and need for status, and they demonstrate how each group's preference for conspicuously or inconspicuously branded luxury goods corresponds predictably with their desire to associate or dissociate with members of their own and other groups. Wealthy consumers low in need for status want to associate with their own kind and pay a premium for quiet goods only they can recognize. Wealthy consumers high in need for status use loud luxury goods to signal to the less affluent that they are not one of them. Those who are high in need for status but cannot afford true luxury use loud counterfeits to emulate those they recognize to be wealthy.

...

For mnemonic reasons, we label the four groups as the four Ps of luxury: patricians, parvenus, poseurs, and proletarians. We label the first category "patricians," after the elites in ancient Roman times. Patricians possess significant wealth and pay a premium for inconspicuously branded products that serve as a horizontal signal to other patricians. 

...

We label the second category "parvenus" (from the Latin pervenio, meaning "arrive" or "reach"). Parvenus possess significant wealth but not the connoisseurship necessary to interpret subtle signals, an element of which Bourdieu (1984) refers to as the "cultural capital" typically associated with their station. To parvenus, Louis Vuitton's distinctive "LV" monogram or the popular Damier canvas pattern is synonymous with luxury because these markings make it transparent that the handbag is beyond the reach of those below them. However, they are unlikely to recognize the subtle details of a Hermès bag or Vacheron Constantin watch or know their respective prices. Parvenus are affluent—it is not that they cannot afford quieter goods - but they crave status. They are concerned first and foremost with separating or dissociating themselves from the have-nots while associating themselves with other haves, both patricians and other parvenus.

...

We call the third class of consumers "poseurs," from the French word for a "person who pretends to be what he or she is not." Like the parvenus, they are highly motivated to consume for the sake of status. However, poseurs do not possess the financial means to readily afford authentic luxury goods. Yet they want to associate themselves with those they observe and recognize as having the financial means (the parvenus) and dissociate themselves from other less affluent people. Thus, they are especially prone to buying counterfeit luxury goods. If brand status is important to a person, as it is with poseurs, but is unattainable, a person is likely to turn to counterfeit products as cheap substitutes for the originals."

O artigo refere um estudo feito com o símbolo da marca Mercedes. O estudo conclui que, nos modelos Mercedes-Benz vendidos nos EUA, quanto maior o tamanho do símbolo (estrela da marca), menor tende a ser o preço do automóvel. Especificamente:

• Um aumento de 1 cm no diâmetro do símbolo está associado, em média, a uma redução de mais de 5.000 dólares no preço do veículo
• Os modelos mais baratos exibem símbolos maiores, enquanto os modelos mais caros têm o emblema mais discreto.

Interpretação: Os consumidores com maior poder económico e menor necessidade de exibição de status (os chamados patricians) preferem sinais discretos. Já os consumidores mais preocupados em afirmar status (parvenus) preferem símbolos mais visíveis — como uma estrela grande no capô do carro.

Um outro estudo analisa mais de 400 malas da Louis Vuitton e Gucci, e conclui que:

• Malas com marcações visíveis e logótipos grandes tendem a ser mais baratas.
• As malas mais caras exibem a marca de forma discreta ou quase invisível, às vezes só no interior (como a Bottega Veneta).
• Consumidores com elevado poder de compra e cultura de luxo preferem malas discretas, como forma de sinalizar o seu estatuto apenas aos que sabem reconhecer os detalhes subtis (materiais, acabamentos, fechos, costuras).
• Já consumidores que querem ser reconhecidos como tendo estatuto social, mas não têm necessariamente conhecimento profundo de marcas ou cultura de luxo, tendem a preferir malas grandes, com logótipos evidentes, ou até mesmo contrafacções dessas.

No mundo do luxo, quanto mais alto o preço, mais pequena (ou subtil) a marca. A discrição tornou-se, ironicamente, o sinal mais forte de estatuto - mas só entre os que sabem ler esses sinais.

Trechos retirados de "Signaling Status with Luxury Goods: The Role of Brand Prominence" publicado no Journal of Marketing (Julho de 2010).

Afinal não era exagero.

Lembro-me de descer a A4 enquanto lia "How the Rise of Chinese Textile Manufacturing in Italy Fuelled the Far Right" que comentei em dois postais. Na altura fiquei surpreendido com o que era relatado, fábricas clandestinas repletas de operários chineses em Itália a seguir práticas chinesas.

Entretanto, ontem fiquei siderado com um artigo no FT, "Milan probes into Dior suppliers' illegal labour unsettle luxury sector". Não estamos a falar de fábricas clandestinas a produzir para marcas mixirucas, estamos a falar da Dior...

"The Dior leather bag supplier Milan investigators long had their eyes on was located close to the Via del Lavoro in the suburban city of Opera - or labour street. But behind its doors they uncovered employment practices of another age.

They found evidence of illegally hired workers, forced to sleep inside the factory and work long hours, including nights and holidays, in an unsafe environment, according to a statement from the Milan prosecutor's office.

...

The development has shone a light on practices in the supply chains of the luxury sector, an area hitherto regarded as problematic more for fast fashion than producers of expensive goods.

The Milan prosecutor's action against the supplier follows two other similar actions against upmarket accessories maker Alviero Martini and a Giorgio Armani subsidiary earlier this year. Such examples could be the tip of the iceberg for the luxury fashion industry, investigation insiders warn."

Mais informação aqui.

Confesso que há anos alguém no sector do calçado contou-me umas estórias sobre isto em Itália e pensei que era exagero. Parece que não.

À atenção do mundo do calçado

"For the luxury industry, future growth may be at its feet.
.
Footwear is the product category thought to have the greatest potential for rapid expansion.  It has certainly attracted the interest of some of America’s biggest fashion players.
...
On the other side of the Atlantic, Europe’s biggest mega-brands have reason to be just as enthusiastic about the category. At Gucci, for example, shoes drove 19 percent (€1.2 billion) of the brand’s 2017 revenue, up from 13 percent (€409 million) in 2011. And Louis Vuitton, which has also enjoyed traction in shoes, invested more than €30 million on building a footwear product-development facility near Venice's Riviera del Brenta.
.
The wider market for luxury shoes hit €18 billion in 2017, up 10 percent year on year, according to Bain & Company. In terms of percentage growth, it was matched only by jewellery.
...
And even though there are plenty of shoes priced over $1,000, like handbags, footwear has lower cost-per-wear and higher margins than apparel.
...
Consumers are also spending more on shoes than ever, averaging $248 on shoes in 2016, up from $212 in 2006, according to data from the American Apparel and Footwear Association. And they're buying more pairs, too, at least in the US: Americans purchased an average 7.6 pairs of shoes in 2016, up from 5.9 pairs in 1996. “In the past you only needed three or four pairs of shoes and you were sorted,” said Sagra Maceira de Rosen, non-executive chairperson of Naga Group and co-author of The Towering World of Jimmy Choo. “Now, there are so many more categories. Fashion is driving the market more than ever before.”
...
One challenge is that a shoe’s success is predicated on the temporal relevance of its silhouette, even more so than fashion or handbags. If a creative director is not able to master the current look — all while maintaining a distinctive brand identity — it’s difficult to sustain momentum.
...
the category continues to hold the interest of investors and luxury groups, in part because of the expertise needed to produce a quality shoe. “It is the most difficult category in terms of product development and manufacturing,” says Franco Pené, chairman of Onward Luxury Group, which acquired a controlling stake in London-based label Charlotte Olympia in 2017 for its manufacturing expertise. “A one-millimetre difference can be a pain for your feet. It’s not a product that is so easy to manage.”
...
Consumer appetite for luxury sneakers — which generated €3.5 billion in 2017, up 10 percent year-over-year — is also fuelling the footwear fire.
...
 “Whatever happens, the trend of tomorrow is that shoes will become more and more technical and support the physical needs of individuals.”"

Trechos retirados de "Capitalising on the Footwear Opportunity"

Não é impunemente

A propósito de:

"Hugo Boss ultrapassa “ano difícil” com roupa mais barata e vendas online" https://t.co/3GJbvdBGA4 #blogs #feedly @ccz1 algum comentário?

— Helder Nascimento (@hnascim) March 9, 2017

Quando as vendas baixam e os stocks se acumulam, há uma resposta instintiva, rápida e perigosa... para não dizer errada. Recordar o exemplo da Gucci:

• Eu pensava duas vezes... (Julho de 2012)
• Matar a galinha dos ovos de ouro - em directo (Setembro de 2014)
• Iludidas com a democratização do luxo (Março de 2015)

Li esta semana "Are You Solving the Right Problems?" e sublinhei:

"How good is your company at problem solving? Probably quite good, if your managers are like those at the companies I’ve studied. What they struggle with, it turns out, is not solving problems but figuring out what the problems are. In surveys of 106 C-suite executives who represented 91 private and public-sector companies in 17 countries, I found that a full 85% strongly agreed or agreed that their organizations were bad at problem diagnosis, and 87% strongly agreed or agreed that this flaw carried significant costs. Fewer than one in 10 said they were unaffected by the issue. The pattern is clear: Spurred by a penchant for action, managers tend to switch quickly into solution mode without checking whether they really understand the problem."

Nem de propósito, a minha reacção inicial ao desafio foi:

@hnascim espero comentar no blog. Com a redução de preço evitaram enfrentar a pergunta q importa: pq foi um ano mau?

— Carlos P da Cruz (@ccz1) March 10, 2017

Não é impunemente que uma marca que quer ser associada ao luxo faz estas jogadas...

BTW, recordo "Don’t touch that pricing dial":

"Don’t touch the pricing dial before you understand your customers and their needs."

Alterar a oferta (parte II)

Nem de propósito, já depois de publicar "Alterar a oferta" que termino assim:

"O autor fala da mesma oferta através de canais diferentes. Julgo que o essencial é alterar a oferta da loja física e fazê-la uma pequena parte, um complemento, de algo bem maior, a experiência de pertencer a uma comunidade."

Li "The End of Cookie-Cutter Luxury Stores". OK é sobre o luxo, mas talvez o retalho do luxo represente ou possa representar uma espécie de ponta de lança, ou vanguarda do que o retalho deve fazer:

"Imagine a Hermès flagship store in the French countryside where consumers could experience a real riding stable complete with horses. Could this be the future of luxury retail?
...
We have just lived through an era of rapid global expansion during which luxury brands extended their retail networks to the four corners of the world. This era was dominated by three imperatives: that stores must look the same, that in-store service must be the same, and that bigger was better.
.
This has led to ever-larger flagship stores, cookie-cutter store designs and environments, ‘selling ceremony’ manuals and centrally-controlled buying and merchandising. For the brands, the advantage has been guaranteed quality standards. The disadvantage, of course, is that everything looks and feels the same, wherever you are, whatever the brand.
.
The approach is rapidly losing its pertinence: customers are moving on. The new middle classes, who were invited to share in these brands, now want to be surprised. They demand a newness and diversity that cannot be satisfied by uniform stores. The problem is compounded by the increasingly fragmented nature of the consumer base. Most mega-brands serve local and travelling consumers, indigenous and overseas clients, high-end and aspirational shoppers. A single standardised format simply does not work for all of these constituencies."

A loja tem de passar a ser muito mais do que um local para expor a oferta, para isso há a internet. A loja tem de passar a ser uma plataforma que faça as pessoas virem à loja fazer a única coisa em que é preciso um espaço físico: para interagir com outros. Para partilhar, para celebrar, para aprender, para co-criar, para ...

O fim do capitalismo dos últimos 200 anos

"Starbucks has become an everyday stop for millions.
.
But that ubiquity could now be its problem.
“Starbucks is now competing with chains like Dunkin’ Donuts and McDonald’s,” Business Insider proclaimed this week. “It has gotten, in a sense, too basic.”
...
So what’s an overexposed company to do?
Starbucks in recent years has begun looking for ways to restore its luster.
...
But can a brand that’s gone mainstream turn high-end again?
...
“I’ll just say this: It’s much harder to go up-market than it is to do the opposite,”
...
It’s a phenomenon Pam Danzinger calls “lux-flation”: Our ideas of what constitutes a premium product or experience are always evolving. “A brand like Starbucks starts at the top, and as it expands, it becomes the new normal,” said Danzinger, author of “Putting the Luxe Back in Luxury.” “Now it’s got to create that mystique once again.”
...
“They’re putting the human touch back into the equation,” Danzinger said. “That’s one way to regain that luxury edge.”[Moi ici: O oposto da Grab & Go, meter interacção, fugir da automatização]
...
But, he says, there have been some successes: In the early ’90s, Gucci was almost done for. [Moi ici: A propósito da Gucci, "De ajavardamento em ajavardamento] The Italian fashion company was in financial despair and its creative director was quoted as saying “no one would dream of wearing Gucci.” Then Tom Ford took over, and revived the brand, boosting sales and restoring the company to its previous glory.
.
“There are examples, but it takes a lot of money and a lot of paring back,” Pedraza said. “And frankly, not every company has the courage to do that. Everything is so grow, grow, grow in today’s world. And before you know it, you have a mainstream brand that isn’t special anymore.”"[Moi ici: Julgo que há aqui qualquer coisa metafórica acerca do fim do capitalismo dos últimos 200 anos. Quando se chega ao fim da rua e não há mais terreno novo para explorar, e já não há possibilidade de crescer como dantes]

Trechos retirados de "Why ‘basic’ is bad for Starbucks".

Suspeito que no futuro me irei recordar muitas vezes deste texto "Hipsters and artists are the gentrifying foot soldiers of capitalism". Sobretudo deste trecho, tão ao modo de Mongo, tão ao modo de fechar o ciclo e voltar ao pré-Revolução Industrial:

"I asked the hipster owner and his beard-nurturing hipster customer (a tattooist from across the road) how they described themselves. “Socialists,” they replied, quickly adding that they were not looking “to build empires”, just to “make a living”. They had both left safe jobs working for the state and local government respectively. This led me to wonder about suggestions that the hipster may represent some form of reincarnated frontiersman/woman or pioneer. In many ways, I think they do. Their styling certainly harks back to the mid-to-late 19th century; to the British colonialists and the western frontiers. These people want to earn a reasonable living, independently, by “crafting” and “creating”. They, like the original pioneers, are explorers and artists and they are capitalists.
.
Unlike the colonising pioneer of the past, however, the hipster is postmodern, post-industrial, and post-Fordist." 

Marcas que viraram carcaças (bonitas por fora mas ocas)

Ler "The Decline Of Premium American Fashion Brands. What Happened, Ralph And Tommy?" é tomar consciência do cumprimento, em toda a linha, da profecia fácil do "hollowing", ou "radioclubização", de como uma marca forte e genuína se transforma numa carcaça, num aristocrata arruinado, fruto de deixarem os muggles à solta.
.
É ver na prática a resposta das tribos aguerridas de Mongo aos gigantes que perderem a magia e julgam que podem tratar os clientes como plancton.

"I'm not the only one who feels that these iconic American brands have lost their luster. Many are on a downward spiral, hit by sluggish sales.
...
What went wrong? How did premium American companies lose their way? And is there a new generation of labels that will fill the void?
...
Charles Lawry, a professor at Pace University's business school who specializes in studying the luxury market, points to how high-end American brands have been creating cheaper products for decades now.
...
In their new incarnations, these companies all faced new shareholder pressures to keep business booming. "Growth became more important than brand," ... "This meant everything from lowering the cost of manufacturing to making the brand accessible to new a wider spectrum of consumers."
...
"There was an over-expansion and distribution into places like factory stores, which presented a tremendous economic opportunity," he says. "But it came at the expense of the brand. If you start training the consumer to believe that the brand is widely distributed in factory outlets, people who were once your core customer will start doing that, or lose interest in the brand altogether."
.
To lower costs, many of these corporations shipped production to China and Vietnam, where labor was cheap. As a result, products suffered: People who weren't trained to work with premium leather or master expert tailoring could not be expected to create high-end merchandise on a massive scale. "With globalization and an effort to cut cost by going overseas, these megabrands that were once known for high quality started to see their quality deplete and decay,"
...
It was also hard to predict consumer demand when outsourced orders had to be placed many months before they hit stores. This lead to bloated inventories. Karla Gallardo discovered this firsthand when she studied the luxury brand supply chain before cofounding her own brand, Cuyana, three years ago. "These businesses had to liquidate their inventories at low prices," she says. "When this happens once, twice, and three times, the customer gets used to buying on sale. This is a problem that gets compounded over time."
.
In 2008, American prestige fashion hit new lows. "During the recession and post-recession periods, these brands went further by having a lot of these products trickle down to discount retailers," .
...
In short, bargain prices robbed luxury brands of their mystique."

Depois, em "The Rise Of The High-Quality, Reasonably Priced, Direct-To-Consumer Brands" o artigo continua mas já com as marcas que estão a aparecer agora e a ganhar força:

"A younger generation of companies saw the decline of legacy American brands as an opportunity to redefine premium fashion and educate customers about how high-end goods are made.
...
"Digital-first retail brands,
...
"They architected brands that had a belief system built into them—about things like quality and social good—and a conversational tone built into its messaging that transparently exposed [those values].
...
It has focused on creating women's clothing and accessories made by experienced craftsmen using quality materials so that consumers can enjoy their products for a long time—and perhaps even pass them on to their children.
.
Another important distinction between these fashion startups and older apparel companies is that they are much less flashy. ... "Millennials are not as interested in logos as previous generations who gravitated toward things like the enormous Gucci Gs. Those garish logos would scare today's consumer away.
...
Today, many people see high-end products as one-of-a-kind items—the antithesis of mass-produced commodities whose attention-grabbing logos turn consumers into advertisements. And a new wave of savvy entrepreneurs have built businesses on the idea of offering customers something that feels unique.
...
"I understand what can happen when demand for your product explodes: The easiest way to respond to that on a knee-jerk basis is to aggressively pursue growth. But I think if you want to maintain status as a luxury brand, you have to temper this desire." A little self-control can go a long way, even in fashion."

A propósito deste parágrafo final mais dois artigos:

• "High-End Shopping In The Sharing Economy: Now We Can All Have Couture" (Julgo que este é um outro campeonato, não o do luxo. Mesmo que nele estejam actuais marcas de luxo. Não creio que luxo-luxo rime com white trash ou democratização. Luxo-luxo precisa de escassez.)

"How Mansur Gavriel Beat the ‘It’ Bag Hangover"

"“Certain articles of clothing, once they become coveted by everyone, everyone gets over it,” says street-style photographer Tommy Ton, who shot the brand’s spring/summer 2016 presentation. Not Mansur Gavriel’s.
...
“In addition to being great designers,” he says, “they’re also good businesswomen. They’re careful not to overdistribute.”
.
Mansur Gavriel restricts its retail partners to a few high-end boutiques and department stores and limits the number of bags a retailer can order." 

Os outsiders vêem oportunidades onde os incumbentes vêem paredes

Meu Deus... fico a pensar no que os portugueses poderiam fazer neste campeonato se saíssem mais do modelo mental padrão. Como esse modelo resulta, têm de ser os outsiders a entrar e aproveitar:

"one of a number of custom retailers disrupting the luxury market, luring consumers with cheaper options and the ability to design their own products. [Moi ici: Interacção! Personalização!!!] As the proliferation of fast fashion and e-commerce creates an increasingly detached shopping landscape, these companies are working to rebuild relationships with consumers by adding a touch of personalization to the digital space. The challenge comes in building name recognition and expanding variety amid a mass customization market.
...
custom companies hold a level of accountability to their customers that you don’t see in the traditional retail space.
.
“There’s this sense of stewardship. You want to make sure the customer is making the right choices, and you want to inform them to make the right choices,”
...
“bringing back old-school craftsmanship” and responding to a shift in men’s wear from off-the-rack styles to customizable pieces.
.
Increased accessibility and lower price points become a selling point by minimizing the middle men, in this case wholesalers, distributors, retailers, salespeople and the costs associated from typical brick-and-mortar style stores.
...
“The biggest challenge with the space is that this is all mass customization,” Mulpuru-Kodali said. “The companies generally are limited by the few items they can customize. They’re like pizza restaurants with lots of variants around a few core items. To scale, they’ll need to offer much more variety and choice.”
...
Beyond a return to tradition, custom wear gives the consumer a sense of ownership and artistic jurisdiction over their apparel, an integral element of building truly unique personal style.[Moi ici Tribos de Mongo!]
...
“People are looking to be part of the process,” Pagano said. “For millennials, expression is such a core value of what we espouse and what we purchase.”
.
Jodie Fox, co-founder of custom women’s shoe company Shoes of Prey, echoed Pagano, and said that giving the consumer the ability to design their own products helps enhance custom brands and gives them an edge over standard retailers.
.
“Customization is a really important thing now, really having that ownership and connection to what [consumers] want,”
...
“I think that a lot of brands that have been around for a long time have to think about how they’re going to exist in a digital environment,” said Hamilton, whose company was founded by his father before the dawn of the Internet age. “Especially custom, which is so special because there’s this interaction with somebody who’s guiding you through all these decisions."

Trechos retirados de "Customization is the next front for luxury retailers"

Pricing man (parte IX)

"Success Factors for Luxury Goods Price Strategies.
As we have done with the other price-positioning concepts, here are my recommendations for pricing luxury goods:
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1. Luxury goods must always deliver the highest level of performance: This applies across all dimensions, including materials, product quality , service, communication, and distribution .
2. The prestige effect is a big driver: In addition to the dimensions above, luxury products need to convey and confer a very high level of prestige.
3. Price contributes to the prestige effect and serves as a quality indicator: A
higher price does not usually come at the expense of volume . In fact, sometimes
the opposite is the case.
4. Volume and market share must remain within strict limits: Observing volume and market share limits - especially if limited editions have been promised - is a must in the luxury goods market. Companies have to resist the temptation to go for a “bigger” volume or market share, no matter how attractive this may seem in the short term.[Moi ici: Recordar Gucci e LVMH]
5. Strictly avoid discounts, special offers, and similar actions: They will tarnish a product, brand , or company’s image (if not destroy it) and will diminish the products’ residual value.
6. Top talent is essential: Every employee must meet the highest standards and perform on a high level. This applies to the entire value chain , from design and production down to the appearance of salespeople.
7. Having control of the value chain is advantageous: Luxury goods companies should strive to control the value chain, including distribution , to the greatest degree possible.
8. The primary factor in price setting is the customers’ willingness to pay :
Willingness to pay is decisive, while variable costs play a relatively smaller role"

Trechos retirados de "Confessions of the Pricing Man: How Price Affects Everything" de Hermann Simon.

De ajavardamento em ajavardamento (parte II)

A propósito de "Quiksilver se place sous la protection de la loi américaine sur les faillites":

"La marque Quiksilver, si elle a réussi à forger son image auprès des adolescents en sponsorisant des sportifs de haut niveau comme le surfer Kelly Slater ou le skateur Tony Hawk, n’a pas su s’adapter à la concurrence. La compétition féroce des enseignes de « fast fashion » qui proposent des vêtements à tout petit prix à sa clientèle d’adolescents ou de jeunes adultes, lui a été fatale. Cette année encore, le groupe a vu ses ventes fondre de 13 % et ses pertes se sont creusées pour atteindre 309,4 millions de dollars. Au total, sa dette est évaluée à 826 millions de dollars. Près de trois fois son chiffre d’affaires."

Lembrei-me logo do que aconteceu à Gucci, recordar "De ajavardamento em ajavardamento".
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Tantas e tantas vezes pensei nas peças com a marca Quicksilver colocada sobre vómito industrial em prateleiras da distribuição grande.

Acerca da evolução do luxo

Ultimamente têm surgido vários sintomas da passagem do luxo, das coisas, para as experiências. Por exemplo:

• O luxo discreto (Agosto de 2015)
• Iludidas com a democratização do luxo (parte III) (Junho de 2015)
• "uma oportunidade tremenda de se diferenciar" (parte IV) (Maio de 2015)
• Internet e autenticidade (parte II) (Abril de 2015)

Mais um sintoma em "Luxury brands need to broaden from selling unattainable products to luxury moments"... uma alteração do modelo de negócio! (BTW, esta notícia de ontem "Portuguesa Chic by Choice compra rival alemã La Remia")

"By adjusting the focus from products to experiences, brands are allowing luxury to continue to embody preciousness. And in terms of sales, it’s working. A 2014 Eventbrite nationwide study found that 78% of Millennials would choose to spend money on a desirable experience or event, over buying a desirable product.
...
Brands need to broaden their interests and offering from being manufacturers of luxury goods to facilitators of luxury moments. And it’s not just about standalone experiences and events. In-store experiences need to have a bigger focus on curation and inspiration.
...
In order to stand out in today’s new luxury landscape; brands must focus on delivering incredible customer experiences and create a value beyond the product itself.
...
Of course, brands must still have a solid product offering. ... However, they need to move beyond product to be seen as luxury in today’s changing market. Brands must give their customers the opportunity to have a unique experience that embodies what they stand for."

O luxo discreto

Excelente artigo, "Luxury Branding Below the Radar", excelente tema. Cada vez mais, clientes com poder de compra querem consumir luxo sem fazer alarde disso.

"For nearly a decade marketers have been talking about the rise of “inconspicuous consumption”: elite consumers’ growing affinity for discreet rather than traditionally branded luxuries.
...
all of a sudden people were making fun of overt wealth and even taking the labels off their clothes
...
upper-class consumers have become intrinsically less drawn to overt status symbols
...
social media have enabled the rise of niche brands
...
through which like-minded people of any socio­economic stratum can send what Berger calls “subtle signals” to one another. His lab studies have shown that “the educated elite”—say, fashion students choosing which bag to buy—have a significant preference for “discreetly marked products, subtle but distinct styles, or high-end brands that fly beneath the radar,” which gives the providers of those offerings greater longevity than their “more blatant counterparts."

E claro que isto é um problema para muitas marcas:

"Our entire strategy is based on people buying products to signal their social status to others.’" 

O artigo continua com uma série de alternativas para ir ao encontro destes clientes e desta tendência.

Iludidas com a democratização do luxo (parte III)

parte I e parte II, bem como, "De ajavardamento em ajavardamento".

"Luxury goods group Mulberry has found that there is one thing that supermodel, actress, designer and party attendee Cara Delevigne cannot do: sell £5,500 handbags in quantity.
...
Mulberry has been combating falling sales and a string of profit warnings after an attempted brand repositioning into a more premium market segment saw core customers take their cash elsewhere. It recently introduced a range of cheaper handbags priced from £495 to appeal to a wider audience including younger shoppers."

Não basta decidir, é preciso ter uma história, ter um intangível que soe a autenticidade. Não basta ter os ingredientes, é preciso saber misturá-los na dose e na combinação certa:

Como não recordar o episódio (V ?) de Cosmos de Carl Sagan acerca de Marte (?) em que ele faz esta demonstração:


Este episódio é um clássico das minhas formações sobre sistemas de gestão, para ilustrar que o todo é mais do que a soma das partes.

Trechos retirados de "FT Opening Quote – Mulberry bags a loss"

Há os que ajavardam e os outros...

Recordar "De ajavardamento em ajavardamento". Sim, há os que ajavardam e os outros "Hermès Birkin Bag Sells for Record $222,000 at Auction in Hong Kong".

De ajavardamento em ajavardamento

Sim eu sei, a linguagem não é a mais correcta, mas quero ferir susceptibilidades.

"Marca de luxo fez corte inédito nos preços. Consumidores chineses estão a acampar à porta de lojas para aproveitar oportunidade.
...
A Gucci está a provocar uma loucura na China, graças a um desconto histórico que ‘cortou’ ao meio o preço de quase todos os produtos da marca."

Qualquer dia temos artigos Gucci, genuínos, divulgados nos catálogos do Lidl!!!
.
Recordar:

• "Iludidas com a democratização do luxo" (2015)
• "Matar a galinha dos ovos de ouro - em directo" (2014)
• "Eu pensava duas vezes..." (2012)

Trecho inicial retirado de "China Desconto de 50% provoca loucura à volta da Gucci"

O teste do tempo e da realidade

Primeiro, recuemos a Fevereiro de 2011 e a "Fazer o by-pass ao país", convido-vos a recordar o que o presidente da CMVM dizia sobre as empresas portuguesas e sobre o mercado interno.
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É sempre bom fazer estas pesquisas para enquadrar estas pessoas e os seus conhecimentos e saber se enfrentam bem o teste do tempo e da realidade.
.
Depois, recordem tudo o que escrevemos ao longo dos anos neste blogue:

• sobre Mongo;
• sobre a vantagem das PME;
• sobre os nichos;
• sobre subir na escala de valor;
• sobre o trabalho do artesão;
• sobre ...

Então, estarão no ponto para ler "“Os produtos italianos não são melhores que os nossos”":

"Apesar do crescimento acelerado nos últimos anos, Paula Sousa rejeita a industrialização da produção. O mobiliário da Urbanmint distingue-se pelo design inovador e elevada qualidade do fabrico artesanal.
...
A nossa verdade [Moi ici: A autenticidade]: a cultura artesanal, o nosso legado, o saber fazer bem feito, o nosso perfeccionismo... Eles ficaram muito impressionados com isso.
.
A indústria mundial do mobiliário está muito massificada. [Moi ici: Recordar o Mar del Plastico e os russos] E nós temos esse valor cultural, muito enraizado na forma de fazermos as coisas. Ele adoraram isso. Claro que já tínhamos massa crítica do ponto de vista editorial, de presença em revistas. Já tínhamos um bom portefólio de projectos de privados e ‘contract'.
...
Porque não queremos evoluir para a industrialização. Queremos manter a nossa génese, que é a produção manual."

E a propósito do título e da importância da comunicação, recordar o que se disse sobre o luxo:

"E voltando ao luxo, pode-se produzir muito bem mas o luxo é mais do que o tangível. O luxo é sobretudo a constelação de histórias que acompanham algo e dão um substracto de intangibilidade" 

BTW, material para os blocos do modelo de negócio:

"Em 2008 criou a marca e, para ganhar notoriedade, contou a sua história às revistas internacionais da especialidade. Quando a ‘Corset' foi capa de uma importante publicação britânica de design de interiores, os clientes começaram a bater à porta.
"A validação na área do design e das indústrias criativas pode ser feita através de vários métodos. No nosso negócio, que tem uma componente de design e também comercial, o reconhecimento por editores é muito importante. E o reconhecimento  por prémios tem uma importância adicional", sublinha Nuno de Sá, responsável pela comunicação e marketing da Urbanmint.
.
E galardões também não faltam. A Munna já foi distinguida com o Prémio  Internacional de Design e Arquitectura, promovido pela conceituada revista  britânica "Design et al". A primeira vez foi em 2012, com a poltrona ‘Becomes Me'.
.
"Esse prémio foi um bom tónico para a Munna que já era uma marca popular no design de interiores no Reino Unido. E repetimos esse prémio em 2014 com o sofá ‘Hughes'. Trabalhamos para satisfazer os clientes, que são os designers de interiores e, em última análise, os clientes finais. E nesse sentido os prémios são apenas a cereja em cima do bolo"."

O luxo no mercado americano

Escrevo aqui no blogue, com alguma frequência, que nos Estados Unidos há falta de paciência estratégica, demasiada crença na força do preço mais baixo como a proposta de valor de eleição. Assim, muitas empresas perante uma dificuldade de mercado, em vez de subir na escala de valor, optaram pela deslocalização.
.
Este trecho explica um pouco a situação:

"Remarkably, the US is still very much an under-penetrated luxury market. “[America] has 30 percent of the world’s high net worth individuals (people with more than $1 million in liquid assets) and nearly a quarter of global GDP, but consumes less than a fifth of the world’s personal luxury goods, noted Olivier Abtan of the Boston Consulting Group in a piece recently published by The Economist."

O texto foi retirado de "All Eyes on America"  e traça uma série de oportunidades que podem ser aproveitadas pela nossa indústria do calçado.

O truque europeu

"el sector europeo del lujo ha elevado su negocio un 23% entre 2010 y 2013. En el mismo periodo, ha creado un total de 200.000 empleos."

Trecho retirado de "La industria europea del lujo crece un 28% en dos años y crea 200.000 empleos"