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Category Archives: Fashion

BoF Announces “Online Learning”

25 Tuesday Aug 2015

Posted by Victoria Macdonald in Fashion, Luxury Fashion

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Tags

Chanel, Fashion, Luxury Fashion

BOFThe website Business of Fashion (BoF) has just announced its “Online Learning” platform. I use quotes since these are not true online courses that are interactive, test your knowledge, and track your completion. Rather, they are a series of articles covering topics related to the fashion industry, such as:

  • Fashion Business Basics
  • Fashion Marketing & Communications
  • Fashion History
  • Fashion Entrepreneurship

The topics are meant to give insight into how the fashion industry works,how to grow your business and advance your career in fashion. 

Though I wish there more articles in the Fashion History section – and there really should be – it was fun to read well-written biographies of Paul Poiret, Jeanne Lanvin, Madeleine Vionnet, and Coco Chanel.

Click here to access the free courses.

Luxury Talent Goes Big

26 Tuesday May 2015

Posted by Victoria Macdonald in Brand, Customer Experience, Fashion, Luxury Brand, Luxury Talent

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Brand, Customer Experience, Kering, Luxury, Luxury Brand, Luxury Talent, LVMH, Richemont

Big3This Harvard Business Review post, “Luxury’s Talent Factories,” discusses how large luxury conglomerates such as LVMH, Kering and Richemont actually drive talent performance. Most management research would argue the opposite. It’s generally accepted that companies can increase their financial returns by focusing on core lines of business. Contrary to this evidence, the article states: “Diversification generally does not add value unless there are significant cost savings and operational synergies across units—which isn’t necessarily the case with all luxury groups.”

Diversification generally does not add value unless there are significant cost savings and operational synergies across units—which isn’t necessarily the case with all luxury groups.

According to the article, here are some of the reasons the “Big 3” are able to use their size to their business advantage in developing luxury talent:

Mobility – Diversification of internal brands means that employees who move from subsidiary to subsidiary bring a core set of brand values and skills. They are also better able to build their personal networks across multiple internal brands. The advantage to the enterprise is that they’re able to leverage talent when and where they need it.

Best practices – The organization can identify and transfer best practices across products, and gain the benefit of new perspectives at the same time. In one case, CRM talent from a fashion group was brought in to help build a CRM function for a watch brand.

International Experience – Cross-cultural exposure inspires creativity and provides exposure to a larger pool of manufacturers and suppliers.

Understanding the Global Customer – As technology and social media create a growing international marketplace, it’s imperative that brands understand how luxury customer expectations vary from country to country.

Although Europeans can explain to customers what luxury means, they also must have experience in foreign markets to understand which aspects of luxury the customers there actually care about. For example, in America consumers will buy watches for their functionality or performance, whereas in Asia it’s more about the prestige of the brand.

The three large luxury groups are able to leverage these advantages for the individual as well as for the enterprise. It only works, however, when the group is able to keep its brands relevant and continuously invests in developing premium talent.

Once Upon a Time: Telling Luxury’s Story

11 Wednesday Mar 2015

Posted by Victoria Macdonald in Brand, Customer Experience, Customer Service, Fashion, Helping Customers Envision, Luxury Brand, Luxury Sales Training

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Brand, Chanel, Customer Experience, Customer Service, Dior, Fashion, Luxury, Luxury Brand, Luxury Fashion, Luxury Retail, Sales, Selling

story“Only 19 percent of consumers believe sales associates have relevant information,” says Adam Silverman, principal analyst at Forrester Research, San Francisco. “That’s very shocking and that’s clearly an indicator that the sales associate role needs to change.”

One way in which you can change that role is to perfect the art of telling luxury’s story. A good story engages and excites the listener. Stories create emotions and those emotions, in turn, drive desire. We buy luxury items not because we need them, but because we desire them.

Continue reading →

The Rarity of Platinum Service

08 Sunday Feb 2015

Posted by Victoria Macdonald in Brand, Customer Experience, Customer Service, Fashion, Luxury Brand, Luxury Sales Training

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Bergdorf Goodman, Customer Experience, Customer Service, Fashion, Leather, Luxury, Luxury Brand, Luxury Fashion, Luxury Retail, Luxury; Handbags

platinumPlatinum is more expensive than gold because it is rarer. Similarly, a platinum level of service is more precious than the “gold standard” of service offered by most sales professionals. The Golden Rule states: “Treat other people as we would wish to be treated ourselves.” It is the rare sales professional, however, who knows and lives by the Platinum Rule: “Treat other people as they would wish to be treated.” The difference comes down to a small, but meaningful, change in perspective.

Continue reading →

Finding Luxury Talent

21 Friday Nov 2014

Posted by Victoria Macdonald in Brand, Fashion, Luxury Sales Training

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Brand, Luxury, Luxury Brand, Luxury Fashion, Luxury Retail, Selling

interviewMy last post talked about educational institutions that now offer Luxury MBA degrees. This led to the question—what happens once you have such as degree? Interestingly, I just ran across an article from the Boston Consulting Group titled, “Minding the Talent Gap: Fashion and Luxury’s Greatest Challenge for the Next Decade.” The article reveals that luxury companies are struggling to find the right talent.  What a perfect time to evaluate whether those Luxury MBA programs provide the same skills and knowledge that luxury and fashion brands seek today. For example, needed skills at the executive level are: analytical and creative skills; retail, product, and brand expertise; and international experience. Continue reading →

The Luxury MBA – Is this really a thing?

19 Wednesday Nov 2014

Posted by Victoria Macdonald in Brand, Customer Experience, Customer Service, Fashion, Luxury Sales Training

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Brand, Customer Experience, Customer Service, eCommerce, Luxury, Luxury Brand, Luxury Fashion, Luxury Retail, Sales

MortarboardBack in October I posted a blog entry titled: “Should Sales Training Differ for Luxury Brands?” The post generated quite a bit of discussion around whether the luxury customer’s higher expectations for service required a different level of training for sales associates. Now it seems educational institutions are beginning to recognize the luxury sector as an industry that demands a specialized curriculum. Continue reading →

The Value of Luxury

27 Monday Oct 2014

Posted by Victoria Macdonald in Brand, Customer Experience, Customer Service, Fashion, Luxury Sales Training

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Abercrombie & Fitch, Brand, Burberry, Coach, Customer Experience, Customer Service, Gucci, Luxury, Luxury Brand, Luxury Fashion, Luxury Retail, Luxury; Handbags, Michael Kors, Price, Value Selling

auction-paddle-2Luxury has been defined as something that is pleasant to have or experience, but is not a necessity. The concepts of exclusivity and rarity can also factor into the definition of luxury. Value, on the other hand, is determined by the relation of price to perceived benefit. But if luxury is not a necessity, then how do we determine its value? Continue reading →

Do You Expect the Same Level of Service Shopping a Luxury Brand Online as You Do in the Store?

09 Thursday Oct 2014

Posted by Victoria Macdonald in Brand, Customer Service, Fashion

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Customer Experience, Customer Service, eCommerce, etail, Luxury Fashion, Luxury Retail, Luxury; Handbags

BalenciaBagIn an article originally written for Retail Week, Martin Newman complains that he does not receive the same level of luxury service when purchasing an expensive Balenciaga handbag online as he would in the store. To be clear, Mr. Newman purchased the bag through fashion etailer Matches Fashion, which guaranteed him next-day delivery within a three-hour window. Mr. Newman wanted the handbag to be delivered within a one-hour window and felt he should be accommodated considering the price he was paying for the handbag. (I’m not sure who quickly he’d have received the bag if he’d purchased it at www.balenciaga.com directly.)

What are your thoughts? Do you feel you receive better service from a luxury brand when you visit the physical store than when you buy online? Please add your comments below.

Women and Fashion and Fashionable Women

07 Tuesday Oct 2014

Posted by Victoria Macdonald in Fashion

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Bergdorff Goodman, Chanel, Luxury, Luxury Brand, Luxury Retail, Schiaparelli

On the stiletto heels of New York Fashion Week comes a wave of new books about women in fashion and fashionable women—in other words, the women who create fashion and the women who wear it.

Let’s begin with the fashion designers, then move on to the fashionistas. The dueling dress doyennes, Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli, each has a new biography. (I’ve sometimes imagined both ShoeHatdesigners as contestants on Project 03_schiaparelli_dali_womans_dinner_dress_1937Runway and fancied who might come out this season’s winner. I think Heidi Klum would flip over Schiaparelli’s fantastical “lobster dress” and “shoe hat” creations,  while Nina García would nod approvingly at Chanel’s more accessible fluid jersey suits and dresses.)

CocoChanelRhonda K. Arelick, in Mademoiselle: Coco Chanel and The Pulse of History, positions Chanel’s oeuvre within the context of  historical events occurring during her life. Garelick writes, “Whether we know it or not, we are all now wearing Chanel’s distillation of European history.” The much shorter book, titled simply Elsa Schiaparelli: A Biography by Meryl ElsaSecrest, focuses on how the designer turned “women’s wear from a business into an art form.”  The difference in page numbers is attributable to the few personal details Secrest has available to her, after all Schiap was rather shy and secretive. But as far as the lady couturiers themselves are concerned, I’ve heard it said Chanel is sugar and Schiap is spice. Choose your favorite flavor or try them both!

(Side note: After nearly 60 years, Maison Schiaparelli has been reborn with the appointment of creative director Marco Zanini.)

WomenInClothesMoving on to ladies who like to wear their fashion, we have Women in Clothes by Sheila Heti, Heidi Jalvits, Leanne Shpation and 639 Others. This book, born as a survey sent to 600+ women, combines brief essays, poetry, photo collections, and survey results into a compilation of how women view fashion as both self-preservation and social survival. It’s not a book that’s meant to be read straight through. Rather, like the clothes in your closet, flip through it to see what jumps out at you, and then return to revisit your favorites.

Last, but not least, we have Betty Halbreich’s I’ll Drink to That: A Life in Style, With aIllDrinkToThat Twist—a phrase I’m appropriating as my epitaph by the way. The octagerian Halbreich was the former preeminent personal shopper at Bergdoff Goodman and she has some beans to spill. Halbreich was stylist, helper, therapist and friend to countless fashionable women from Babe Paley to Lena Dunahm, and with this autobiography, she offers us delicious stories like perfect little cocktails for the sipping. And I’ll drink to that!

HijackingtheRunway10/9/2014 – I’m updating this post with a last minute addition of another book devoted to fashion that just debuted today: Hijacking the Runway: How Celebrities are Stealing the Spotlight from Fashion Designers by Teri Agins. Since it just appeared, I haven’t had the chance to read it, but below is the book’s summary on Amazon:

A fascinating chronicle of how celebrity has inundated the world of fashion, realigning the forces that drive both the styles we covet and the bottom lines of the biggest names in luxury apparel.

Make sure your online customers are happy before you try to wow them.

16 Tuesday Sep 2014

Posted by Victoria Macdonald in Brand, Customer Experience, Customer Service, Fashion

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Customer Experience, Customer Service, eCommerce, Luxury, Luxury Brand, Luxury Retail

online_shoppingIn Michiel Gasterlaand’s article “The Secret to Winning the Customer Service Battle in eCommerce” in Entrepeneur, he states that only 1% of web store customers feel their expectations are being met. Web stores are missing the opportunity to differentiate themselves through customer service. Gasterlaand writes:

Whether they realize it or not, web stores now are competing primarily on customer service. Apart from offering a great product for a great price, customer service clearly is the new battleground.

Continue reading →

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