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:
.
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".
.
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.
.
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'.
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"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.
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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"

Matar a galinha dos ovos de ouro - em directo

"Through the 1970s, Gucci ... stood with Hermès and Chanel in a high-cost, high-willingness-to-pay position, its brand resonating with elegance, wealth, and success."

Em 1984 a Gucci já não passava de uma pálida sombra do que fora como força de marca. Porquê?
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Porque luxo está associado a autenticidade e escassez. No entanto, a partir de 1975 a marca Gucci começou a ser aplicada a:

"the Gucci name proliferated like some kind of illness-inducing bacteria. Unbridled licensing plastered the name, along with the red-and-green logo, on sneakers, packs of playing cards, whiskey—in fact, on a total of 22,000 different products."

Ontem o JdN trazia esta história "“Chairman” da Ferrari abandona cargo depois de desacordos com CEO da Fiat". Contudo, a BloombergBusinessWeek  conta melhor a história em "Ferrari's Old Guard Fights Back Against Fiat's Marchionne":

"Marchionne wants to the put the Ferrari brand to work as he pushes to expand Fiat Chrysler’s lineup of high-end cars. Di Montezemelo, who has run Ferrari for 23 years and began his career as an assistant to founder Enzo Ferrari, wants to maintain the company as an autonomous unit within Fiat and safeguard its exclusivity by limiting sales to about 7,000 cars a year.
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Marchionne, who wants to develop new markets for Ferrari, said earlier this year that he could envision boosting annual sales to 10,000. That number is minuscule compared to the 4.4 million cars sold by Fiat Chrysler last year. But the profit margins are enormous: Ferrari accounted for 12 percent of Fiat’s operating profit. And with sticker prices ranging from about $200,000 to more than $400,000, Ferrari wants buyers to feel they are members of an exclusive club—owners of “a desirable object par excellence,” as di Montezemelo has put it. His fear is that Fiat Chrysler will over-expose the brand."

Já adivinho a bastardização da marca Ferrari, dentro de uns anos pode estar ao nível da Audi ou da BMW.

Citações sobre a Gucci retiradas de "The Strategist" de Cynthia A. Montgomery

O jogo de sedução pode ir para muito mais longe

Esta interessante reflexão de Seth Godin "Is digital the end of luxury brands?" deixa-me a fazer a ponte para o livro de Itamar Simonson e Emanuel Rosen, "Absolute Value":

"Consumers used to make decisions relative to other things—a brand name, their previous experience with a company, an inflated list price, a brand’s advertising message compared to competing brands’ messages, or the other products a marketer chose to display on a catalog page or on the shelf. Conventional wisdom still holds that people’s choices can be greatly influenced by the context or the framing of an offer.
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But for the first time this is starting to change and we’re moving toward an age of nearly perfect information. Review sites, shopping apps on smartphones, an extended network of acquaintances available through social media, and unprecedented access to experts and other sources, all mean that many consumers today operate in a radically different, socially intensive information environment. In a world where consumers enjoy complete access to informed experts and various information services, where they can instantly read the opinions of previous users, it’s much easier for consumers to predict their likely experience with a product or a service—it’s easier to know the absolute value of things. When we talk about “absolute value” we refer to the experienced quality of a product. For example, the experience at a restaurant, the pleasure (or boredom) one might experience reading a book, the closeness of the shave, the actual comfort of headphones, or the usage value you get from using your camera. So “absolute value” doesn’t only refer to the technical specifications and reliability of a camera, but to what it is like to own and actually use it. In short: The new information environment around us allows consumers to predict much more accurately the experienced quality (or absolute value) of products and services they consider getting."

Ainda tenho de ler o livro mas à partida vou de pé atrás. Julgo que as marcas colhem o que semeiam... e, na linha do que Niraj Dawar escreveu recentemente em "Tilt", e se escreve neste blogue há muitos anos, o jogo de sedução pode ir para muito mais longe do que simplesmente o produto em si.
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ADENDA: E o mercado de massas, tem futuro?

Acerca do valor de uma marca e da sua destruição

Na sequência de "3 casos, 3 dúvidas":

"For upscale brands, there is a fine line between “cheaper” and “cheap.” And for Apple, the premium electronics maker, the key is to avoid crossing it.
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The addition of a cheaper iPhone could help Apple sell tens of millions more phones. But it could also diminish its reputation as a premium brand.
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For Apple, the devil will be in the details: just how much lower the price of the cheaper iPhone is, and just how much cheaper it looks and feels. If the iPhone is deemed cheap, it could get into the hands of so many people worldwide that it loses power as a status symbol and turns Apple into a maker of commodity products like Dell, Hewlett-Packard or Asus.
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“There are some customers which we chose not to serve,” Mr. Jobs said."

Trechos retirados de "Luxury Brands Face Hazards When Testing Lower Costs"
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Algo esquecido nesta abordagem "iPhone: Não é uma revolução, mas é uma estratégia inteligente"
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BTW, algumas empresas, tentam captar mais volume sem mexer no preço mas associando à oferta principal um brinde, estilo "Leve 2 e pague 1", para esses, com as promoções mixirucas. A hotelaria é expert nisso:

• I wonder ... (Julho 2008)
• Por que não experimentar o caminho menos percorrido? (Março 2011) (BTW, nesta mesma linha, a actuação da Abercrombie and Fitch durante a última(?) recessão)
• Pior, pior ainda é ... (Outubro 2011)

Para essas:

• A Discount May Devalue a Product More Than a Giveaway
• When Two Products Are Less Than One