The Luxury Marketing Council’s CEO, Greg Furman, kindly invited Hyhen’s CEO,Lorenzo Benazzo to join a panel of luxury professionals to share some of their views regarding the forecast for 2008 and strategic solutions to support sales during challenging times.

Other guest speakers included Robert Mc Cooey, SVP of Capital Markets at NASDAQ, Sharon Buntain, President and CEO, Links of London, Steve Nobel, Co-founder and Chairman, The Luxury Home Alliance, Douglas Gollan, President and Editor-in-chief, Elite Traveler Magazine.

KEY TAKE-AWAY:

A TIME OF TRANSITION
In this uncertain global economy, the focus is being put on a luxury brands’ ability to adapt and evolve in line with the market’s demand. While the high-end, most affluent customers are still buying, their decision process is more refined. Regardless of the local culture (e.g. Western vs. Middle Eastern), a part of the market is still fundamentally driven by aspirational purchase and personal recognition but the educated buyer will, more than ever, look into a brand’s ability to provide added value to its products as a driver for a purchase.

CUSTOMER SERVICE AND ADDED-VALUE
This is an area that has reached improbable levels with dedicated salespeople and designers going straight to the customer to provide personalized and bespoke service. But beyond product-related services and sales, a whole realm of opportunities is opening with the ability to apply the Internet into non-product related services. Luxury brands have always been about creating an experience and expanding the realm of their services beyond their actual product lines.

Wealthy clients are expecting more than ever from luxury providers and this new realm of added-value customer service is a good opportunity for the leaders in the industry to support competitive advantage and for new-comers to gain market shares with innovative and inventive solutions.

THE INTERNET FACTOR
With regards to added-value, utility and services, the Internet offers incredible opportunities for brands to leverage creative solutions with the right web strategy. Some example of possible directions for brands to consider are:
- Recommendation platforms that allow clients to leverage social tools to drive their demand more effectively.
- Specific interest groups that provide existing clients with the means to share their passion and expertise in very specific product categories (e.g. watches, art, anti-aging cosmetics, etc.).

In return, when using the Internet most effectively, a brand can leverage such platforms to support their CRM (using profiling) as well as their consumer research structure (using profiling information cross-referenced with activity on the platform).