47 senior executives from 42 companies across luxury sectors participated in the first IMD Discovery Event dedicated to luxury industries: “Reinventing Luxury: Strategic Conversations.” IMD professor Stéphane J.G. Girod organized the event where delegates came from the luxury automobile, furniture, fashion & accessories, hospitality, cosmetics, retail and distribution, as well as the watch & jewellery sectors. The forum focused on sharing the latest IMD research and exchanging perspectives on the new capabilities luxury companies need to master to renew and sustain their brand desirability in a disrupted environment.
Professor Girod introduced a new framework to articulate what the next capabilities and key success factors will be for luxury brand desirability. In this context, he also presented new research on brand authenticity related to digital counterfeiting and on organizational agility. Other speakers included Andrea Ghizzoni, the European Director of WeChat (Tencent), Jean-Claude Biver, Chairman of LVMH Watches, Vincent Perriard, founder and CEO of HYT, Philipp Man, founder and CEO of Chronext.com, and Yasmine Made, e-Commerce Director of Richemont. The speakers approached the capabilities necessary to sustain brand desirability from different perspectives. They covered capabilities related to open innovation and digital partnerships for new consumer relationships, shaping and responding to new generations of luxury consumers, the start-up approach to consumer intimacy and to shaping the next frontier in consumer experience by horizon 2027.
All agreed that the key success factors of the past decade will not be those of the next. The speed of change is remarkable. Changes on all levels are affecting brand desirability: macro changes due to globalization, digital and generational shifts; competition intensified from new luxury brands as well as entrants or substitutes from other industries. Most importantly, there has been a fundamental shift in consumers and the way they become aware, evaluate, compare, buy, experience and stay loyal to luxury brands. In this environment, beyond product or service innovation, luxury brands need to shift their attention to six other types of innovation capabilities all directed to greater consumer centricity.
Stay tuned for the full report by the IMD Insights team.
This event was organized by the IMD Corporate Learning Network.
