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Post by Trog on Sept 1, 2015 12:59:28 GMT
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Post by Trog on Sept 2, 2015 11:43:10 GMT
Seems like the desire to buy quality products is distinct and substantially different from the desire to display those products. (To buy expensive stuff is not necessarily coupled to being a show-off). Furthermore, the impulse to splash on expensive stuff (as a vendor of luxury items that is the impulse you’d want to cultivate) is driven by an inherent sense of achievement. Maybe that is a good angle to explore if you want to sell very expensive items? To imply achievement but to emphasise low-key? Why Do We Buy Luxury Brands—and How Do They Make Us Feel? |
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Post by Trog on Sept 2, 2015 12:16:28 GMT
Luxe buyer not who you may thinkA recent study conducted by the American Affluence Research Center and analyzed by Unity Marketing—which surveyed more than 300 consumers with a minimum net worth of $800,000—found that many wealthy shoppers consider certain luxury brands "overrated." Luxe mainstays Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Hermès, Prada and Rolex were at the top of the list. While some of that could be attributed to each label's designs, Danziger said the more consumers knew about a brand, the less likely they were to view it as "overrated."
"The takeaway very simply is that marketing communication aimed at educating the affluent about the luxury brand is very likely to create a positive feeling or halo around the brand, which may well lead to ... buying," according to Unity Marketing.
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Post by Trog on Sept 2, 2015 15:32:23 GMT
Six must dos for successful luxury goods marketing
My take on this article, tailored to what I think is relevant to myself. 1. Associate your product with something wider and more esoteric. Art. Music. Empathy. Whatever. (‘Green’ seems to be a popular and pervasive one, at the moment. In SA- “developing the local community”. Wine farms seem to have an affinity with cheese and goats.) 2. Present more than just a single logo as brand identifier. (BMW has the kidney grill, which is just as (or even more so) distinctive as the BMW badge. Ferraris are red. The Springboks have a springbok, but also a green jersey). 3. Create some experiential procedure related to the purchase. Once again, wine farms offer the opportunity of ‘tasting’, which is totally lost on the palates of 99.99% of all customers but adds a ritual to buying which is nothing more than a marketing ploy. That is, add something special and pleasant to the act of buying. In line with my previous post, maybe something that suggests achievement? 4. It will be a long time before I can possibly think of setting up a dedicated store, if ever. However, maybe I can arrange a sort of dedicated ‘designer nook’ for my products at certain retailers? I think Verimark did that in some chain-stores? 5. In some way, suggest some uniqueness about themselves to prospective customers, something in the line of: “I don’t sell this to just everybody. Only to certain special people”. Intuitively, I feel that this will work, but I also think that it should be used with massive subtlety. Should operate on a subconscious level, really. I think this is something like: I’d feel a bit intimidated to walk into an agency that sell Rolls Royces. But if the salespeople are welcoming, friendly, approachable and obviously non-judgemental, I’d feel the way (5) is supposed to work. Intimidation followed with – don’t worry, you’re ok. 6. Develop some narrative around your product. “One beautiful spring morning, Gregg and Alley woke up, decided to xxxx civilisation and to make the world’s best prosciutto instead. With their last savings they purchased this lovely little farm in the fertile valley of Soekmekaar, where the summer breezes blowing of the Berg cools the unique terroir, imparting just a suggestion of rosemary and thyme to the meat of the bespoke Piétrain pigs feasting on the lush river banks. (Insert picture here, of happy pigs feasting on lush river banks => .)
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Post by cjm on Sept 2, 2015 17:18:43 GMT
Six must dos for successful luxury goods marketing
My take on this article, tailored to what I think is relevant to myself. 1. Associate your product with something wider and more esoteric. Art. Music. Empathy. Whatever. (‘Green’ seems to be a popular and pervasive one, at the moment. In SA- “developing the local community”. Wine farms seem to have an affinity with cheese and goats.) 2. Present more than just a single logo as brand identifier. (BMW has the kidney grill, which is just as (or even more so) distinctive as the BMW badge. Ferraris are red. The Springboks have a springbok, but also a green jersey). 3. Create some experiential procedure related to the purchase. Once again, wine farms offer the opportunity of ‘tasting’, which is totally lost on the palates of 99.99% of all customers but adds a ritual to buying which is nothing more than a marketing ploy. That is, add something special and pleasant to the act of buying. In line with my previous post, maybe something that suggests achievement? 4. It will be a long time before I can possibly think of setting up a dedicated store, if ever. However, maybe I can arrange a sort of dedicated ‘designer nook’ for my products at certain retailers? I think Verimark did that in some chain-stores? 5. In some way, suggest some uniqueness about themselves to prospective customers, something in the line of: “I don’t sell this to just everybody. Only to certain special people”. Intuitively, I feel that this will work, but I also think that it should be used with massive subtlety. Should operate on a subconscious level, really. I think this is something like: I’d feel a bit intimidated to walk into an agency that sell Rolls Royces. But if the salespeople are welcoming, friendly, approachable and obviously non-judgemental, I’d feel the way (5) is supposed to work. Intimidation followed with – don’t worry, you’re ok. 6. Develop some narrative around your product. “One beautiful spring morning, Gregg and Alley woke up, decided to xxxx civilisation and to make the world’s best prosciutto instead. With their last savings they purchased this lovely little farm in the fertile valley of Soekmekaar, where the summer breezes blowing of the Berg cools the unique terroir, imparting just a suggestion of rosemary and thyme to the meat of the bespoke Piétrain pigs feasting on the lush river banks. (Insert picture here, of happy pigs feasting on lush river banks => .) By and large I don't find anything wrong with the above. Based on some experience of nearly 30 years, a few comments though. To present something as exclusive and valuable is not so easy. It helps if you can win a competition or two or can point to some dignitary wearing (or drinking) your product. You need to leech on something or somebody. Your own qualifications (in a wider sense) are also relevant. The exclusivity part creates problems with distribution. If you are in a remote part of the country, your chances of success are smaller unless you manage to get your product into the retail trade. That is another ball-game. Your price is under pressure, demands are made on the ethical aspects, quality. Some distributors/retailers have arrangements with other producers not to carry competing products. Do you provide credit or not. If the latter, expect an immediate drop in interest. Managing credit arrangements is a nightmare in itself. In some cases, warehousing may be called for and the logistics of feeding a market are also important (transport costs, insurance). We went for exclusivity in restricting supply to very few outlets. That does not work well either. Having a shop in a busy, upmarket centre might be a solution. We have never had the guts for that and in any event, our range is too small. Add other similar products and your product has competition of your own making. It is also difficult to maintain the momentum. There is after all just so much you can say about the product. As you mention, one must have side shows and even those have a shelf life. The demand for new stories never ceases. Sponsorship of something to add your name and logo to is a vehicle even if you only support the local SPCA. Making only top-end products is not such a good idea. The theory tells one not to dilute an expensive trademark with cheaper products. Get another brand name but the point is that one should not underestimate the lower price market. It provides a way of getting rid of pieces of leather (in your case) which are surplus otherwise. So, have an exclusive brand but have a cheaper one as well. Sometimes the cheaper brands are a source of surprise. One could even find that customers in lower income levels move to your more expensive brands as they become more affluent. That is the ideal, but it is not so easy to connect the two brands without down thumbing the more expensive one. |
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Post by Trog on Sept 3, 2015 5:44:23 GMT
Unless I move, I’m currently actually perfectly located for what I want to do: On a good day, I’m about 5 minutes away from Jan Smuts International Airport, with its shopping malls. I’m about 20 minutes away from South Africa’s most exclusive shopping spaces – Sandton City and Rosebank. I’m about 30 minutes away from Centurion. I’m within reach of the boutique towns of Dullstroom and Clarence.
Furthermore, I’ll never be moving huge volumes of product – these are fairly small, high value items. I could probably get away with a standard motorcar. I’d never have the need of a 3 tonne truck.
I wonder if the extension of credit cannot be outsourced? One can always transfer the cost of this to the customer, rather than paying for it yourself.
I conceived of having different brands from the word go. The exclusive handmade one and then perhaps a cheaper line with machine made and more homogenous items. The irony is that I must first generate some capital from the exclusive line in order to finance the machinery for a cheaper product.
As you said, this introduces some dichotomous tension in how one would present the company. It becomes inconsistent to cultivate an overall company image of absolute exclusivity and then to also maintain a mass produced product line. An alternative to that (a cheaper brand) could be that I would have a range of products, not all equally expensive. A wallet, for instance, is much smaller and a fraction of the cost of a laptop case, which is much cheaper than a travel case, for instance. I would probably move a lot more wallets than travel cases, and build a brand loyalty in that way.
Maybe it’s stupid to speculate at this stage about these kind of things, when I’m not even able to actually make the stuff, and I’ve not sold a single item, yet. I do believe, however, that in doing so it will enable me to have a coherent view of what I want to do, and how to go about it. I’m really going through the whole shebang – compiling a business plan, marketing plan, customer analysis, etc. Even if NOTHING comes of it, it is a kind of game, one of the sort of games I’ve been playing my entire life.
(It is easy to think that just being able to make the stuff is sufficient, everything else will look after itself – but that particular mistake is one I made before.)
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Post by cjm on Sept 3, 2015 8:14:35 GMT
What a good location. In our case, transport is such a problem.
The type of leather is also important. At one stage, ostrich leather was very sought after. That might have changed. Then there is of course crocodile. The advantage with these is that the animals are bred. The moment you have exotic wild animals, the Greens start wondering.
I am sure the credit aspect can be outsourced. Recovering bad debts (and interest) is a major problem though. Also make sure that your contracts are watertight as the Credit Act can intrude.
I was about to ask whether you are manufacturing already! Playing around with ideas is a good idea/game by itself, I would say!
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Post by Trog on Sept 7, 2015 10:34:25 GMT
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Post by Trog on Oct 5, 2015 13:57:08 GMT
... Maybe it’s stupid to speculate at this stage about these kind of things, when I’m not even able to actually make the stuff, and I’ve not sold a single item, yet. ... Well, I do now have some idea of how to make the stuff. A handbag for my wife... |
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Post by Trog on Oct 5, 2015 13:58:50 GMT
And a travel bag, mostly for me, I suppose (You could fit a laptop in there, enough clothes for an overnight stay, and its size is within the limits of the bags you can take with you in the cabin of an aeroplane, without having to check it in.): I need to seriously ask myself - where do I go from here? These are highly labour intensive products, and moreover labour that cannot be delegated to the virtually brain-dead. The crux would be to determine which parts of the manufacturing process can be left to the not-so-bright, and how to do so whilst minimizing the risk of having someone destroying a very expensive partially completed product. |
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Post by cjm on Oct 5, 2015 14:31:43 GMT
Both look very sophisticated!  Very difficult to give advice on the labour aspect. I am sometimes surprised how people do manage to train employees. Locally some women have managed to start home craft enterprises. So it can be done. |
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