Two questions for FX Poels – Founder and CEO of ‘Approche sur Mesure’

In recent months, through personal experiences or testimonies that have been reported to me, I have had the confirmation that many luxury brands keep mismanaging after-sale service. When the customer comes back to the brand with a claim, it is first considered as ‘guilty’: misuse of the product, accident, etc., all the assumptions that may clear the brand’s responsibility are made before taking the problem into account. Then, it often takes several weeks before the customer receives the product repaired (or exchanged). Why are we still there? And how to convince brands to change their practices in this regard?

On October 13, the International Luxury Business Association brought together a small group of luxury leaders for a gourmet dinner prepared by Yannick Alléno’s teams in the Pavillon Ledoyen he recently took over. The dinner was accompanied by a fine wines tasting session orchestrated by FICOFI, an expert on the subject! The evening was an opportunity for many to get acquainted, for certain to get back in touch and for all to exchange business cards with the promise to talk again soon, which has already happened to some participants.

The dinner was preceded by the presentation of the new line of cosmetics by the COO of Christian Louboutin brand, Alexis Mourot, the inspiring story of an original approach to the extension of a brand’s territory.

The International Luxury Business Association launches a new section of its website, which will regularly give voice to its members and more widely to industry leaders willing to briefly share some key points of their strategy. Many thanks to Olivier Schaeffer, the Global COO of Sephora, the first who accepted the invitation!

In May 2014, the International Luxury Business Association organized a debate around the notion of ‘ French Art de Vivre ‘ which allowed addressing various issues and, among others, emphasizing once again the difference in approach between American brands and European brands.

Obviously the topic is not new. Nevertheless, the success of Coach in Asia a few years ago and Michael Kors’ tremendous expansion today are not without consequences for European luxury brands. Indeed, Coach was able to capture some of the customers of these brands in Asia, and Michael Kors has quickly raised the enthusiasm of many Europeans or Asians consumers. Thus, it seems meaningful to analyze their strategies, although many will argue that these are not luxury brands. But on this point, only the consumers’ perception counts and Americans put Coach ahead of Chanel and Louis Vuitton among brands spontaneously associated with luxury, in the 9th position, just after Gucci. Moreover, Michael Kors, a relatively newcomer on this market has appeared in the same ranking in 2013 and is not far behind Hermes! (Source: World Luxury Tracking 2013)).

The question is therefore to try to understand how these brands are succeeding in becoming aspirational not only to Americans but also to a number of the Asian and European consumers, knowing that these two examples are not isolated. Indeed, one could point to some relatively new brands such as Kate Spade, Tory Burch, Marc Jacobs, and there exist other ones less known today, but that could become popular as well…

As a matter of fact, after Tiffany, Estee Lauder and Ralph Lauren, the elders, which remained isolated examples of US brands’ success on the high end for a long time, American marketers are more and more present on this segment today and create brands that appeal to their consumers but also know how to export them and are increasingly challenging the hegemony of European luxury brands.