Luxury Brand Management

Introduction

Branding is still relatively new in China. In the last 20 years, Chinese consumers have seen a radical transformation of the consumption landscape from few products and practically no brands in 1998, to a proliferation of products and brands favored by the exceptional economic development of the last 20 years and by the impact of globalization. Strong in the early phase of this fast expansion path, the voice of the brands is now getting weaker due to the abundance of choices and the difficulty to stand out of the crowd.  At the same time, the digital revolution empowered consumers with e-commerce, social media, online cross border and Chinese consumers today can access from their mobile phones all the products and brands they are interested in, even those which are not yet in China. Brands are also increasingly squeezed between these empowered consumers and powerful digital market places and integrated digital platforms. The development of local consumption continues to attract foreign brands but more and more Chinese brands also realize the huge opportunities they have to compete with western brands by leveraging on their understanding of Chinese consumers culture, aspirations and also digital consumption journeys. However, there is still a certain deficit of branding skills among many Chinese companies and the real “power of the brand’ is still a relatively new concept, not fully understood. This course aims at developing a stronger branding culture and helping Chinese brands and businesses learn from the best practices of successful western brands, primarily in the premium and luxury sector, where we can often identify the best branding and marketing techniques. These best practices can be applied partially or totally to many brands and businesses in China, not only in the premium and luxury sector and help them upgrade their branding and marketing activities, increase their brand equity value, become more aspirational. Last but not least it should be reminded that Chinese luxury consumers will account for 40% of the global luxury consumption by 2025 from 34 % today and that most of the growth will be driven by millennials and Gen Zers. This constitutes a huge opportunity for western premium and luxury brands but also for upcoming Chinese premium and luxury brands.

Course content

Lecture 1: Understanding luxury and the business of luxury

• Luxury origins
• Cultural foundations of luxury, luxury and a
• How luxury became a significant industry sector in the 70’s and 80’s
• From luxury products to luxury brands 
• Differentiating luxury and premium
• Presentation of the major industry players in the most important sectors
• The importance of PE funding and IPO’s in the luxury industry
• Evolving purchasing patterns of luxury consumers
• Luxury and globalization
• Luxury and Asia/China
• The case of Chinese luxury brand and China luxury eco-system
• Luxury business models
• Best practices and case studies

Lecture 2: Pillars of luxury brand management

• Branding foundations
• Various definitions of a brand
• Evolving branding environment
• From brand management to luxury brand management
• The art of luxury brand management is the art of creating and selling dreams
• The concept of uniqueness
• The DNA & Codes to convey the uniqueness and the legend of the brand
• Luxury brands story telling specificities
• How to balance exclusivity, accessibility and popularity
• How to manage the time paradox: innovate on traditions
• Managing evolving consumers expectations
• Best practices and case studies

Lecture 3: Luxury marketing

• Introduction on how the digital revolution disrupted traditional marketing
• Specificities of luxury and premium brands marketing strategies
• The anti-marketing laws of luxury
• Revisiting the traditional 4P’s with focus on luxury brands marketing
• Specificities of Product, Price, Promotion and Placement (Distribution) for luxury
• Typologies of luxury consumers: From segmentation to personalization
• Leveraging on marketing collaborations
• Digital marketing for luxury brands
• Managing luxury brands online reputation
• Brands online social communities
• Social media branding
• Best practices and case studies

Lecture 4: Luxury distribution and retail

• International Luxury distribution business models
• Wholesale distribution: distributors, agents, JV’s
• The evolution of the licensing model
• Branded wholesale and integrated retail
• Understanding luxury retail

                - Locations & real estate

                - The financial management of retail: KPI’s

                - The hard components of luxury retail (decoration, merchandising)

                - The soft components of luxury retail (luxury experience and service)

• How digital revolution and e-commerce are disrupting luxury retail

               - From E, M & S Commerce to omni-retail and new retail

               - The sharing economy phenomenon in luxury

• Case studies and best practices