Prestige Brands Forum

Andrew Wu, LVMH Group President for Greater China, gives his personal insights on whether small or niche brands can achieve big brand status. He also talks about how to stay on top of the luxury industry once you get there.

CEIBS Adjunct Professor of Marketing Michel Gutsatz explains the difference between luxury and the concept of ‘See Now, Buy Now’.

“When you’re a brand, you look at your customers. Your customers are on WeChat; so you have to be there,” says CEIBS Adjunct Professor of Marketing, Michel Gutsatz. He points out that the multi-purpose app takes up 35% of the four hours per day the average Chinese person spends on his phone. Savvy prestige brands, Prof. Gutsatz says, can use the platform as a relationship builder, one that provides an opportunity for interaction at the personal level. “This is the essence of luxury, personalisation.

“The change in luxury, not just here in China but globally, has definitely affected our strategy,” says Daegal Ritz, Senior Vice President for Marketing at BSH Home Appliances (China) Co., Ltd. He was speaking on the side lines of the 8th CEIBS Prestige Brands Forum. “[In terms of] digital, we see that China is pretty much in the lead. So for us, China is a hub to learn how to play on this field.” That seems sound strategy, as Chinese are the number one consumers of luxury, accounting for about 29% of global sales.

Michaela Merk, Associate Professor of Luxury Marketing, Retail and Digital Management at University Paris Dauphine, says prestige brands hoping to successfully adapt to – and even thrive in – today’s digital world need to remember that it all comes down to people. “Growing digitalisation drives, and needs, growing humanisation,” said the author of Luxury Sales Management, Winning over the Strategies of your Brand Ambassadors. This means transforming sales teams, already in traditional bricks and mortar stores, into brand ambassadors.

Through luxury you learn quality. If you want to touch the people of the new generation you have to teach them through an enjoyable moment. ~ Corinne Poux-Bernard, Creative Strategy Consultant; Former Director of Innovation, Hermes; Co-Founder, thinkers Consulting Company.

(2:09)

Invest in talent and creativity, and protect it. ~ Corinne Poux-Bernard, Creative Strategy Consultant; Former Director of Innovation, Hermes; Co-Founder, thinkers Consulting Company

(2:57)

What’s driving the 200B Euro market for fake goods? Global volume of fake goods sold per year is comparable to illegal drugs market. The problem isn’t the suppliers, it’s the buyers ~ Meisterkreis’ Clemens Pflanz at the 7th Prestige Brands Forum 2015, organised by CEIBS in Shanghai.

Leica’s perspective on the definition, history and future of luxury. Watch Dr. Andreas Kaufmann’s presentation at the 7th Prestige Brands Forum 2015, organised by CEIBS in Shanghai.