Story Highlight
– Brands focus on storytelling; retailers still assessing products.
– Ambord prioritizes product assortment across price points.
– Unique retail offerings can enhance stakeholder experiences.
– Customers prefer brand stories over mere products.
– Retailers possess advantages like customer knowledge and market overview.
Full Story
Retailers are navigating the complexities of product offerings while brands increasingly hone their storytelling capabilities. At Bucherer, Ambord is prioritising the reorganisation of product assortments across various price tiers. “Product is king; a brand needs to be led by the product, not the marketing, and we are building our brand through product,” he explained.
Laurent François, managing partner at 180 Consulting, emphasises the importance of uniqueness in retail products, citing the former Parisian shop Colette as a notable example of successfully enhancing stakeholder experiences through distinctive offerings. He observes a rising need for private labels, asserting that “if retailers just remain multi-brand platforms, there is a growing risk for them to become obsolete versus any search query on Google.”
Research from the luxury and brand strategy firm Équité indicates that consumers are more inclined to engage with brand narratives than mere products. Daniel Langer, CEO and professor of luxury strategy at Pepperdine University, warns that retailers launching products purely to fill gaps in their lines without a focus on storytelling are likely to see “disappointing results and limited potential.” This situation has led many retailers to reassess their private label strategies across different categories.
Despite these challenges, François believes that retailers possess significant advantages, including deep customer insights and a comprehensive understanding of market dynamics. “When you distribute multiple brands, train your staff, host events, you know the trade intelligence and some of the secrets of the best brands,” he remarked.
Luxury jewellery retailers, in particular, are akin to emerging designers who have acquired knowledge from top brands while benefiting from solid financial backing, a discerning customer base, and optimal retail locations, as Ambord points out.