Let's now talk about luxury brands. If you remember actually in the world of fashion and luxury we have four business models. Luxury brands, designer fashion, premium brands, and vertical retailers. The luxury brands are probably the oldest kind of business model in the world of fashion, because they were the first to be established, particularly in France; and usually in what we call hard luxury categories: such as watches, jewels, or leather goods. Luxury is something that has a value proposition that has to be very clear. Luxury is not about fashionability because this is the main difference with the high end fashion brands. Luxury is more about timelessness. It's about legacy, heritage of the brand. It has to do a lot with the idea of uniqueness, exclusivity, and craftsmanship. This is very much the value proposition and what the customer expects from a luxury brand. A second element the what. So the delivered product as I already said, has a lot to do with hard luxury, timeless categories, watches, jewels. Leather goods is a booming category. Silk accessories is another important category for luxury brand. Less apparel; which is usually the category for fashion brands. In terms of the design of the value chain. So the, the how, let's say, of this business model. Think that companies are usually increasingly, vertically integrated. So, French brands such as Luis Vuitton and Hermes that are luxury brands by nature and they're the top luxury brands that we may think of. Do control all their activities, in particular Louis Vuitton is integrated both in design, manufacturing and retail. It's a retailer in all senses. Control of the production is super important among these brands. Even Italian luxury brands. Think about Zegna, think about Tods, think about Ferrogamo, they are increasingly controlling all the manufacturing activities. And even if they, in the case they have. A network of suppliers, external suppliers, they are very much linked to them, they invest in their machines, they help them in the product development, so really, it is a sort of ecosystem, that of luxury manufacturing, very much based on craftsmanship, very much. Based on superior competences, and more and more luxury brands are investing in this. Of course the retailer is fundamental as well because this is the place where luxury brands can speak and tell their stories but of course retail is also vertically integrated in the case of the mass market so, it is not so different in this case. Another thing that has to be taken into consideration when talking about Luxury brands is that what’s in the center of a luxury brand is the brand itself. Its heritage, its tradition. The brand has an authority. And this is very different from a fashion brand where at the heart of a fashion brand you have, you have a design. The designer persona, its interpretation of trends, the fashion show, is fundamental for a fashion brand. So this is very important to position a luxury brand. It's very also important in the case of luxury brands. If you think that most of the luxury brands are were born in Europe, Italy, France. Some in Switzerland, at least two, centuries ago. They have years of legacy, and this is actually what the customer buys. Time is what you buy when you buy as a company through an acquisition, a luxury brand. Time is difficult to establish a new luxury brand because the time in very important and the timelessness in its value proposition. In the way that vertical system works. So, we find a difference, for instance, between Italian and French companies. As I said, French companies tend to be vertical integrated from design to retail. Italians control manufacturing and design, but usually they Sell if we talk about distribution also through wholesale channels. So they are not 100% integrated in to retail downstream. Why when we talk about the segment of accessible luxury, think about brands such as. Coach or in particular American brands in this accessible luxury they are integrated into retail and into design but most of them are not integrated into manufacturing. So this is an interesting point, different business models are called in not really business model but ways to design. The value chain according to the kind of nationality of the brand. Totally integrated, French; not fully integrated in retail, Italian; and not integrated in manufacturing, American brands of accessible luxury.
