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Tag: Louis Vuitton

  • Marketers have hit the rewind button. From Rolls-Royce and Bacardi to Louis Vuitton and Fuji, top brands are touting their roots to be on the ball this season.

    Brands rewind to move fast forward

    By John Sarkar

     

    Marketers have hit the rewind button. From Rolls-Royce and Bacardi to Louis Vuitton and Fuji, top brands are touting their roots to be on the ball this season.

     

    Take Louis Vuitton for instance. After flirting with fashion, the world’s most counterfeited brand has gone back to what it does best, make high-end luxury luggage. It is also pitching to its well-heeled Indian clients a new book, which is the first comprehensive taxonomy of its women’s handbags that date back to the turn of the 20th century.

     

    In the meanwhile, Indian bike maker Royal Enfield has launched the Continental GT, a modern take on its popular cafe racer from the ’60s. And following a disastrous first innings, Italian scooter maker Piaggio is riding back into reckoning in India on its new Vespa, whose classic lines hark back to the times when baby boomers took over the roads.

     

    “Top brands are flaunting their heritage to stand out from the crowd. New generation Indians are more connected and well travelled. They want to know what a brand stands for,” says V Sunil , executive creative director at Wieden+Kennedy India , the advertising agency behind the popular Royal Enfield Continental GT campaign . That’s what Triumph Motorcycles, the 111-year-old British brand known for its retro-modern bikes, will be counting on when it enters the premium end of the domestic motorcycle market in the next few days. Along with Royal Enfield, Norton and the now defunct BSA, Triumph enjoyed a loyal fan following in India before the Japanese came in with their cheaper and more efficient machines.

     

    To automobile connoisseurs , Rolls-Royce Motor Cars is best known for the ‘waftability’ of its cars. However, a couple of months ago in Mumbai, the British luxury carmaker introduced the Wraith, a powerful fastback inspired by its vintage grand tourers. “Wraith revives one of the most famous Rolls-Royce names first used for a production model in 1938,” Herfried Hasenoehrl, Rolls-Royce’s GM for emerging markets-Asia , told TOI. “The name expresses the character of the new car by alluding to a powerful force, something agile and potent.” Industry experts feel that this bold move will allow younger and more adventurous buyers in India to warm up to the iconic 109-year-old automobile marquee.

     

    Well, maybe. But brand guru Santosh Desai has a theory about the business of buying and selling nostalgia. “It’s fuelled by an overdose of digitisation ,” he says. “Technology has left Indian consumers very jaded. They crave for the human touch — the roughness, feel and texture of handmade products of the eras gone by. So now, if you want to experience the scarcity of an era, you have to fork out a premium.”

     

    This may have resonated within the ranks of Japanese companies too, hailed by many as the true torchbearers of digital technology . Four decades after launching its original mass produced superbike, Honda is reviving the lineage of the hugely popular CB750 with the retro-modern CB1100. And in a booming domestic market ruled by digital SLRs and point and shoots, Tokyo-based photography and imaging company Fujifilm is capturing the big picture with its slightly expensive X1 series of cameras, reminiscent of photography’s early days with metal-milled analog dials and leather clad bodies. “We were a little slow off the blocks to make the transition into digital technology. And the X1 series helped us overcome that lag,” says Rahul Pandit, executive VP, Fujifilm India. “It got us instant attention in India since it looks so retro and it showcased our rich heritage in film at the same time.”

     

    The trend has moved on to other sectors as well. While liquor brands like Belvedere Vodka, Grey Goose, Jim Beam and Bacardi are focusing on showcasing their traditions in new campaigns, a significant number of fashion brands are increasingly finding out new ways to connect with their roots.

     

    British designer label Burberry, best known in recent years for women’s handbags and fashion, witnessed a huge spike in sales this year by re-establishing itself as a menswear retailer. Similarly, fashion house Fendi is funding the restoration of the iconic Trevi Fountain in Rome to bolster its Italian connection. Says Pietro Beccari, chairman and CEO of Fendi: “This project allows us to once again reinforce our geographical and cultural Roman roots, which we are very proud of.”

     

    What’s next? Watch out for a qwerty tablet!

     

    Source:The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2013, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

    Licensed to republish

     

  • Now these cities are among the emerging hot destinations for luxury as premium global brands seek to reach out to pockets of affluence beyond the big metros

    Luxury brands, including Louis Vuitton, Armani and Burberry, eye ‘conservative’ markets like Surat, Chennai

    By Vijaya Rathore & Nandini Raghavendra

     

    Traditionally conservative markets like Surat, Chennai and Kolkata are warming up to luxury, opening a wealth of opportunity for brands such as Louis Vuitton, Armani and Burberry beyond Delhi and Mumbai.

     

    In the next six months, people in Surat – home to some of India’s richest entrepreneurs in the diamond and textiles trade – will see the entry of half a dozen international labels that include Armani, Burberry, Tumi and Crabtree & Evelyn.

     

    Some 1,500 km away down south, on the eastern cost, curious shoppers in Chennai are checking out the first Louis Vuitton store that opened a fortnight ago. “Chennai is a great market, full of possibilities and perspectives,” said Geoffroy van Raemdonck, Louis Vuitton’s south Europe president, from Milan.

     

    Two new luxury hotels in Chennai are offering space to luxury brands keen to go deeper into the country even as Louis Vuitton has identified its next stop – Kolkata, where businessman Sanjiv Goenka is readying a 7-lakh sq ft mall that has already leased out about 50,000 square feet of space to luxury brands such as Bottega Veneta, Bally, Burberry, Rolex, Porsche Design and Jimmy Choo.

     

    Surat, Chennai and Kolkata have traditionally been conservative markets, with only a few rich buyers spending on the luxury labels. But now these cities are among the emerging hot destinations for luxury as premium global brands seek to reach out to pockets of affluence beyond the big metros.

     

    “There is a nascent market waiting to explode. We think the time has come,” said Sanjay Kapoor, managing director of Genesis Luxury, which markets brands such as Armani, Burberry and Canali in India.

     

    Genesis has taken up space for half a dozen stores at a luxury mall in Surat being built by Virtuous Retail, a retail real estate asset platform sponsored by the Xander Group Inc. It is also looking for space in Chandigarh, Ludhiana and Jaipur because several people from these towns frequent its stores in Delhi and Mumbai.

     

    Clearly, the rich in small towns have more money and desire than ever to spend on high life, and they seem indifferent to the slowdown in economic growth and overall consumer spending.

     

    Three years ago, NCAER’s Rajesh Shukla and Future Capital’s Roopa Purushothaman had said a report titled Next Urban Frontier, that boomtowns like Surat, Jaipur, Lucknow, Nagpur, Bhopal, Coimbatore and Kanpur have seen the most striking shift in income distribution.

     

    “That trend is established now,” said Mr Shukla. “The number of high-income households in boomtowns is growing at around 20 per cent a year, against 13.7 per cent in the mega cities…(and) boomtown households on average spend 12.7 per cent more than mega cities on clothing.”

     

    Anupam Yog, marketing director of Virtuous Retail, said Surat is one of the top ten markets on the company’s radar and has massive consumption potential. He says 73 per cent of the five million population in Surat is below 35 years of age, and 32 per cent of the households there have an annual income of more than 3 lakh.

     

    Virtuous Retail has also tied up with Indian fashion designer Rohit Bal to open shops within ‘VR Surat’ mall.

     

    Chennai, meanwhile, is fast becoming a popular luxury destination. “Chennai is becoming big in terms of consumers’ spending on luxury and lifestyle,” said Rajmohan Krishnan, executive vice president (wealth management) for north and south, Kotak Mahindra Bank. “People have new money and also the new generation of business entrepreneurs, who want to splurge, has come up.”

     

    Mr Krishnan says increasing connect between north and south of India too is impacting spending habits of people in the south.

     

    A new luxury hotel in the city, The Leela Palace, has earmarked around 8,000 square feet of retail space for luxury brands. “We are looking at luxury retail brands, with a focus on jewellery and watches,” said Amruda Nair, head of asset management, The Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts.

     

    ITC Grand Chola too is offering space to luxury retailers in Chennai as the city does not yet have a super luxury mall.

     

    In Kolkata, Sanjiv Goenka’s mall that will be operational early next year. “The mall will not only get shoppers from within the city but from the entire eastern region. We also expect an influx from Bangladesh,” said Pankaj Renjhen, managing director, retail services, at property consultant Jones Lang LaSalle, which is marketing the property. Gucci, too, is exploring having presence in Kolkata.

     

    Then there are other places.

     

    Louis Vuitton’s chief representative in Asia, Tikka Shatrujit Singh, said that besides Kolkata, the French fashion giant is considering places like Hyderabad, Noida and Gurgaon to open shops. High-end crystal products maker Swarovski opened boutiques in Ahmedabad and Pune last year. “This year we are opening in Ludhiana and Chandigarh and also looking at Kochi and Jaipur,” said Sukanya Dutta Roy, managing director (consumer goods business) at Swarovski India.

     

    Luxury hotels too are reporting higher business from domestic travellers.

     

    Source: The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2012, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved