SKOLKOVO Entrepreneurs’ Club meeting: luxury products

Recently another SKOLKOVO Entrepreneurs’ Club meeting has taken place; it was dedicated to elaboration and marketing of luxury products (find report about the previous meeting here). Among speakers there were visiting world famous specialists: the expert Gregory Furman (Founder of International Council for Luxury Marketing), Mayur Bhatnagar (director of the LVMH Group), Gary Fowler (President of Fowler International).

As all guests had gathered and there was no free seat left, Gregory Furman started his performance. He said that clients were becoming more and more preferential concerning goods choice, in the majority of cases it was connected with the fact that almost 90% of Americans with high income had earned that money on their own, they hadn’t inherited it. Mr. Furman has given some advice concerning that issue:
-the luxury customer wants to know what is the best and why it’s the best
-discount is death in luxury
Moreover, Mr. Furman talked a little about his company’s activity. Please, find more detailed information on the web-site.

After that Mayur Bhatnagar took the floor and told everybody about the Hennessy brand and about its history in Russia. There are a couple of the most memorable quotations from Mr. Bhatnagar’s performance:
- Inheritage, quality, craftsmanship, innovation – things that make luxury brand luxury
- When you innovate you must look 360 degree round, it(the product) should be a part of DNA of your brand
- Every piece of bottle has something unique according to Hennessy history
- We never take a business idea to the market until we’re sure it’s profitable
- In luxury we give to customers what they don’t know they want. It’s a big difference between non-luxury brands (for example P&G) and luxury
- Heritage difentiates you from any other brands

Gary Fowler drew the conclusions of the meeting: we use brand to attract people. It’s needed to bring people together they want the best of the best of the best. Bring people together. The key (for brands) is to understand the power of the brands.

We’d like to thank our guests for the perfect performance and all listeners for an excellent networking! Also we’d like to remind that SKOLKOVO Entrepreneurs’ Club meetings are informal. Just come and bring your friends!
During meetings we usually share our ideas, discuss problems and find new useful acquaintances. Next meeting will take place in the end of March – follow up!