1. LUXURY MENSWEAR;
ACHIEVING PROFITABLE
GROWTH IN A CHANGING
MARKET
SEYMOUR SLOAN
IDEAS THAT MATTER

2. “I think there is something about
luxury - it's not something people
need, but it's what they want. It
really pulls at their heart.”
Marc Jacobs
“I think there is
something about luxury -
it's not something people
need, but it's what they
want. It really pulls at
their heart.”
Marc Jacobs

3. The opportunities
offered in a rapidly
changing market will go
to those that act now
The relationship between men and fashion, glob-
ally, has evolved. The increased cultural ac-
ceptance of style and fashion has been shaped
through international travel, relocation, and a
wider internationalisation of culture.
How men relate to their clothes and the associ-
ated customer journey around that, has changed,
creating growth opportunities for those prepared
to act now.
A Rapidly Changing Market - Research from a
leading consultancy forecasts an annual growth
rate of 14% in the luxury menswear market. Such
growth levels are excellent opportunity in a glob-
al economy struggling for overall growth.
Fashion transcends cultures as a fundamental
element of self-definition and expression. The
shifting economic balance from West to East,and
from traditional to modern industries is challeng-
ing norms around workplace dress, as well as
creating new markets for premier brands.
The growth of the technology and creative in-
dustries has relaxed the corporate dress-code,
creating opportunities for expressive wardrobes.
increasing scope for self-expression.
Shifting global capital flows have increased af-
fluence within the emerging markets, stimulating
increased deman in curent products and brands,
but also creating capacity for new entrants.
With growth in traditional luxury markets slowing,
significant change is required to maximise the
opportuities available in a changing menswear
market. Central to success is the ability to act
quickly and establish a strong proposition ahead
of the competition.

4. insight around demand and purchasing behav-
iour. Knowing your customer is the essence of
luxury service.
Shaping the Market - The rules and norms are
changing in this dynamic period of growth and
change, with brands still understanding where
they fit within the luxury continuum. This presents
a challenge to brands around what they repre-
sent and who they see their typical customers
as.
Brands need a robust definition of luxury. It is the
expression of the definiton across the products
and proposition that will be validated in the mar-
ket. It is important to understand what it means
to be a pure luxury player.
There is a balance to tread between definitions
based on price and quality. The risk is that, in the
short-term, increase price in justifying luxury sta-
tus,with customers refusing to buy at the price.
Brands are attempting to move beyond a crowd-
ed luxury market and moving to becoming sta-
tus brands,accessible by a small ultra-wealhy
elite. brands,accessible to a small segment of
extremely wealthy buyers. Including rare and
proprietary materials,features and specifications
in products is creating a new segment brands
catering for bilionaires only.
The Growth Challenge - The luxury menswear
market is in its infancy and as such, there is
significant scope for growth over the medium to
long-term. To maximise the opportunity brands
must develop strategies to ensure they remain
relevant to their customers as behaviours and
tastes change.
While approaches will vary by organisation, with
no single approach working across the market,
the selected approach will be shaped by current
organisational capabilities and market strengths
coupled with the long-term strategic vision.
Outside of the luxury conglomerates such as,
LVMH, Richemont and Kering, most brands
are advised to adopt an incremental approach,
building on existing strengths until their market
understanding is sufficiently robust to broaden
their penetration into new product and market
sectors.
The capital required to absord the risk in an
uncertain market favours larger international
brands. However, smaller brands will have the
advantage of rapid adaptation to a changing
market, seizing new growth opportunities as they
arise.
Current market risk factors indicate that strategic
decisions should be driven by strong customer
Creative vision will
define the brand, while
organisational agility will
drive profitability
"There's a resurgence of man and
our willingness to make ourselves
look nice."
Christopher Colfer - Dunhill

5. Success requires a
strong retail
proposition and the
ability to deliver a
memorable experience
poor. Combining retail with complementary activi-
ties and services will prove a competitive advan-
tage.
Combining pure retail with additional services
such as grooming or members club is a powerful
way to create a retail destination and experience,
with the synergies between the two, driving a
superior brand, retail and product proposition.
Looking beyond retail allows brands to build
service propositions that tie into the wider luxury
lifestyle and moving towards seeing service as
the platform for effective customer relationship
management as well as forming a significant part
of the luxury experience.
Building Successful Products - Similar to the retail
challenges,the core question around products is,
whether customers will be brand or product led
in their buying decisions.
Adopting a product-led approach suggests that
monobrand stores will prove a limited success.
Instead, customers will maintain their preference
for multi-brand, multi-product stores, which offer
greater choice.
Luxury brands must identify their profitable prod-
uct core and assess what additional product
lines they may expand into based on their exist-
ing capabilities. Intense competition places limits
on the scope of natural expansion and as such,
brand strength will be essential transcending the
challenges of new markets.
Developing An Effective Retail Proposition - The
significant issues in luxury menswear will focus
on the evolving customer journey. Current behav-
iour seeks to transpose current luxury shopping
habits into new propositions without considera-
tion of how new models of behaviour and en-
gagement could be implemented.
However, to maximise spend and retention, then
current thinking on the retail proposition has to
change.
Another significant question is whether the future
will be shaped by mono-brand stores or will buy-
ing patterns lead the market towards multi-brand
stores.
There is the challenge around what service prop-
osition is essential to enhance the luxury experi-
ence and differentiate brands. There is significant
scope to use digital technology to enhance the
customer experience and build stronger custom-
er relationships, but digital is an area requiring
care and consideration.
Developing a seamless link between online and
offline luxury experiences requires a rethink on
how digital can enhance brand affinity.
Monobrand v Multi-Brand - Some brands have
the resources to make monobrand stores a suc-
cess. But, it is likely that these stores will provide
menswear priced from the high end of the high-
street upwards in to draw customers in. Spe-
cialist luxury stores will also be viable,but will be
smaller in size to maximise revenue per square
metre in prime luxury districts.
Multi-brand stores will represent the majority of
revenue for most brands. The convenience they
provide in terms of time-saving and ease of com-
parison benefits those that are cash-rich but time

6. Profitable International Expansion - There are
two key issues to address when developing the
optimum expansion footprint.
Greater clarity is required around the emerging
markets that will be viable in the long run and
how those markets are best accessed and ser-
viced.
Luxury brands need to understand their brand
elasticity and how much expansion is possible
while maintaining the exclusivity and quality that
underpins the luxury market.
Currently, luxury brands are tapping into latent
demand built up over years of relative scarcity.
However, it is not sustainable the long run as
brands expand and demand is satisfied. Instead,
new sources of demand will have to be identified
and nurtured.
Medium to long-term growth is driven by strong
product and proposition fundamentals and rec-
reating the existing propositions to best suit new
markets. In the long-run, propositions will require
greater cultural flexibility as customers become
more demanding in their expectations from luxury
brands.
International expansion
will favour some brands
more than others but
remains a strong source
of growth
How brands cope with incorporating subtle
cultural variations will shape long-term success.
However, it will create challenges around deliv-
ering a consistent customer experience across
markets. However it will enhance brand rele-
vance for an increasingly global customer base.
A significant risk with expansion is counterfeiting
and less directly, imitation. Both issues will di-
lute brand credibility as well as long-term value,
requiring years of rectification to restore brand
equity. Historically, rapid expanson has often
been followed by rapid retreat as brands realise
the balance between breadth and exclusivity is a
fine one to tread.
Broad international expansion is unlikely to work
for all brands. Luxury brands rely on exclusivity
as much as they rely on heritage. As such, ex-
pansion should be undertaken with a clear stra-
tegic vision of revenue growth balanced against
the risks of overexpansion.
“Louis Vuitton, the world’s biggest
luxury brand in terms of sales, is
planning to dampen its expansion
worldwide and focus on high-end
products to preserve its exclusive
image."
Benoit Arnault - LVMH

7. Managing Brand Elasticity - Brand elasticity
represents the number of products and services
that can one brand can credibly provide in any
given market. For example, the Apple brand is
very powerful in its core domain of mobile com-
munications and may also is elastic enough to
cover television. However, an attempt to enter
the clothing market is unlikely to be credible
among customers.
The risk for luxury brands is, in the quest for
growth, their brand and product propositon
stretches too far to retain credibility as an ex-
clusive brand among customers. Immense
value is lost through misjudging the strength of
the brand. Brands that grow successfully do
so incrementally,adopting a focused strategy
to penetrate new markets and build credibility
before expanding.
Effective and sustainable expansion relies on
managing growth using the,creeping core princi-
ple. ’
Growth relies on
understanding the
extent to which brands
can remain credible as
they expand
It limits the desire to overextend too soon and
provides a solid rationale for strategic decision
making.
The creeping core allows companies to expand
gradually based on expanding their product
offering based on products that complement
the profitable core. As strength is built into new
products the offering can expand again. This
way,risky leaps nto new territory are managed
successfull, minmising brand risk. In the race for
growth brands must not forget what they are
and what they represent.
Looking at the Brand Elasticity Matrix below, we
can see the riskiest area is the top-right sector.
This is where a brand is least credible and as
such,the risk of failure is high. The only excep-
tion is where a brand is the first to provide the
product to that market.
It is a great incentive to innovate for brands
that either possess sufficient insight or capital
to mitigate the risk of failure. The matrix shows
the value in maximising both core products and
customers to increase wallet spend and use this
profit to explore new opportunities.
Brand credibility is the heart of success in the
luxury market. As such,decisions on expansion
must be consistent with strategic vision and
Risk Profile (Low-High)
Low High
ActualPotential
Enhance existing products
Existing product in new markets Brand and product reinvention
New products in existing markets
Distance From Brand Core
Customers
Brand Elasticity Matrix
Product 1
Product 2
Product 3
Product 4
Product 5
From a start point of selling exist-
ing products to existing customers
luxury brands can take one of two
strategic steps; sell new products to
existing customers or sell existing
products to new customers.
The selected approach is driven by
the extent to which expansion is
market or product-led. Both ap-
proaches can achieve growth, but
the focus is generally on maximising
the opportunity with existing custom-
ers before expanding.
However, market leadership will go
to those brands that innovate and
sell new products in ne markets
taking advantage of the available
headroom in new markets.

8. A Digital Future - Successfully managing the
opportunity presented by digital platforms will
enhance a successful proposition. Unlike mass
market retailers, a significant e-Commerce pres-
ence is unlikely to add value as luxury is low-vol-
ume high-margin business where the personal
touch is often a differentiator.
A central tenet of luxury retail is that the custom-
ers come to the brand. If a customer is wiling to
spend thousands of pounds on an overcoat, it is
unlikely that an online experience is capable of
delivering a comparable experience to purchas-
ing the item in person.
Online retail may present more challenges than
the expected reward. Furthermore, it adds com-
plexity
to the supply chain and with that increased risk
of leakage,particularly through counterfeiting.
Where online channels add value is as platforms
for customer engagement and communication
across both product and brand. Creating specific
portals, exclusive to high-value customers, will
provide the added-value experience and servic-
es that turn the website into a specific destina-
tion.
It is an opportunity to embed the brand within the
wider luxury landscape,which will deliver a seam-
less journey for customers across their many
purchases and interactions.
Using the online channel to support and promote
complimentary propositions can translate the
brand across a wider span of credibility,moving
beyond simple menswear and creating aware-
ness and demand in new sectors. In terms of
outward communication, less is more. This is a
useful guide when dealing with customers that
are time precious. Digital will be a force for re-
ducing complexity.
Digital platforms allow
brands to expand
beyond fashion and
become a leading
online experience
The Challenge of the Luxury App
Recently Givenchy launched its e-Commerce
proposition with an iOS App. Based on Net-
A-Porter functionality; it aims to drive greater
e-commerce traffic for its menswear range.
Led by Ricardo Tisci, the design is sleek and
minimal. However, the App highlights the chal-
lenges facing luxury retailers online.
The App itself does not provide the rich retail
experience of other apps, nor is it supported
by targeted content to drive additional sales.
Customers now have the ability to compare
retail experiences across brands and products
and as such the stanards expected of luxury
brands will be higher.
It is difficult to imagine customers paying premi-
um prices for products via a standard App.
The challenge for luxury brands is to translate
the impressive offline retail experience into a
similarly engaging e-Commerce proposition.
This requires investment and a deep engage-
ment with the customer to understand their
expectations and engagement routes.
It is likely that e-Commerce success will be
shaped through trial and error and as
technology develops, the experience should
deepen.
What will remain true is that there needs a
reason to engage with the platform and the
most effective method is to enhance the social
media and content strategy.

9. Brief Social Media Facts
Facebook is the number one social marketing
tool for brands at 83% (88% target for 2014),
followed by Twitter at 53% (target 64% in
2014) (source: AllTwitter)
74% of brand marketers saw an increase in
website traffic after investing just 6 hours per
week on social media
76% of corporate marketers plan to increase
their use of YouTube or other video marketing
24% of the top 10,000 websites in the world
use some form of official Facebook integration
on their homepage (if standard links to Face-
book Pages is included this jumps to 49%)
42% of marketers believe Facebook is critical
or important to their business
Facebook users generate 2.5 times more page
views than Twitter and almost twice as many
as Pinterest (FB 7,Pinterest 4.1,Twitter 2.7)
Conversion rates for Facebook traffic: 2.6%,
Pinterest 0.9% and Twitter 1.1%
Average order value (AOV): FB $2.50,Pinter-
est $1.60,Twitter 80c (source: AllTwitter)
Social Media is a
powerful force that
brngs brands and
customers closer
together
Getting Closer To The Customer - It is generally
acepted that social media is:
1. An effective customer communication tool
2. Ideal for shaping and communicating brand
identity and values
3. Able to generate sales leads and conversions
However, what is still unclear is the direct impact
of social media investment on bottom line profit-
ability. There is no universal agreement on how
to calculate such a figure, making investment
decisions challenging at best.
The impact of social media will vary for brands,
by sector and product sold. Impact will split
between high touch-point brands such as Goog-
le, Amazon and eBay versus low touch-point
brands such as Allianz and BP.
Luxury brands will rest between the two, with
precise position shaped by brand vision and
proposition.
The likely benefit of social media is in allowing
luxury brands to communicate wider messages
around lifestyle to their customers. This is an op-
portunity to extend beyond the products sold into
a core component of luxury lifestyle.
Where brands opt to define their brand identity
beyond the products and markets they serve
digital platforms and social media are an effec-
tive tool for communicating the relevant messag-
es.

10. Social media is still in its
infancy, but the
message is clear,
content is king
Success Through Content - Social media and
content marketing face a number of challenges.
Channel and opportunity expansion combined
with increased boardroom focus create an at-
mosphere where“doing more is better. The truth
of that view is debatable, a more reasoned view
is that being great with a smaller range of social
platforms is a better route to success.
In social commerce not all platforms are creat-
ed equal. Some social networking sites produce
higher conversion rates than others. This is true
whether you have followed the best practices
and advice about focused content and messag-
ing. Selecting the platform to use is shaped by
the content brands wish to communicate.
Current thinking suggests that visual content will
continue to surge in popularity on social media in
2014. Image-based social networking sites like
Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr are experiencing
significant growth. But the way people are using
these platforms is shifting towards more focused
and targeted sharing of visual content.
We are in a period where a social media and
content strategy are essential components of
brand strategy.
While social networking sites provide a useful
platform for brand communication, brands are
increasingly using content to differentiate them-
selves on platforms such as YouTube. Other vid-
eo-sharing platform such as Vine and Instagram
create broader appeal across demographics.
Louis Vuitton: A Man, A Voyage,
An Iconic Bag: Using Content To Move Be-
yond Brands and Products
Louis Vuitton incorporated personality in
three of its bags for men through the use
of promotional video. The focus was on
highlighting the experience of owning the
bags and how seamlessly they fit into all
lifestyles.
The video, featuring the three bags in three
different rooms, embraces the LV travel
heritage as well as the individualism of
their customers.
The first room, belonging to a filmmaker in
Florence, focuses on the Roman messen-
ger bag.
Whenever the bag is on screen, a small
circle icon pops up, clicking the icon paus-
es the movie and an overlay with product
information appears.
The second bag, the Keepall Ban-
doulière45 is shown in a country setting,
sitting outside on a chair in front of a lake-
side cabin belonging to a herbalist.
The third video focuses on an oceanog-
rapher in Havana. The oceanographer’s
Porte-Documents Voyage bag sits on a
white bedspread. This reinforces the spirt
of adventure associated with Louis Vuitton.
The video is an example of luxury brands
using content to create the emotional con-
nection with the brand and product while
driving sales traffic. Great content triggers
a meaningful response and great e-Com-
merce provides a patform to fulfil that re-
sponse.

11. While the future is un-
certain, the present in
clear; rapid, focused
action is the foundation
of growth
ABOUT SEYMOUR SLOAN
Seymour Sloan understand great ideas drive progress. We help companies do things differently and where we are unable to do so,
we step away.
We do not tell clients what they already know, instead we try and understand what they may not know and identify opportunities
within the unknown, bringing certainty in challenging times.
We use the brightest intellects and bravest minds to challenge convention and successfully deliver innovative solutions. Our aim
is not based on long-term engagements, we believe in short-term engagement and long-term support. This is cost-effective for our
clients and serves as a basis for their continued growth.
© SEYMOUR SLOAN 2014
A World Of Opportunity - This is an exciting
period for menswear. Creatively,designers are
pushing boundaries and redefining menswear.
The next stage for brands is to build commercial
operations and strategies that will turn creative
innovation into sustained commercial growth.
Brands will look at new models and systems to
optimise their brands and products in changing
market. Agility and responsiveness will be cen-
tral to the successful brands of the future as the
shape of the market changing. A key considera-
tion will be how brands develop their digital pres-
ence in addition to their eCommerce proposition.
Generating awareness and converting that into
sales will drive domestic growth as well as inter-
national expansion.
Effective action is the first step in maximising this
opportunity. In addition,there is a need to em-
brace new methods of delivering luxury and it is
this ability to innovate that will equip brands of
the future to grow in a rapidly changing market.

12. SEYMOUR SLOAN
IDEAS THAT MATTER