Mardi, 7 of septembre of 2010
Can you afford not to be concerned !
La Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie supports The Atelier of Sustainable Excellence, an exclusive workshop which aims to provide a learning & sharing platform – for CSR/Sustainability professionals from luxury, prestige and beauty companies, academia and NGO.
The event will take place in Lausanne/Switzerland on September 28, 2010
More news about La Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie
Learn from GUCCI, JAEGER-LECOULTRE, ROSY BLUE DIAMONDS, WWF, UNCTAD, HEC Lausanne University and many more luxury brands, NGO and Corporate Responsibility experts.
Join the leaders of the Sustainable Luxury community for a one day highly interactive workshop on September 28, 2010 in Lausanne/Switzerland, to learn, share, network and experiment among CR peers, NGO, Academia and experts.
Unique workshop.
Early Bird price until August 25, 2010.
In a recent conference in Geneva, Adam Werbach, Global CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi S and widely known as one of the foremost experts in sustainability, made some interesting comments on initiatives that he’s conducting with several companies. He defended a position where sustainability is not only about “green products or behaviours” but rather organizing the long-term profit of a company in a responsible way through unstable times. Initiatives related to environmental issues are one aspect of the global picture.
He defined sustainability around 3 core pillars:
- Transparency…or sharing information about the business, the strategy, the activities of a company in order to support problem solving with the outside world.
- Engagement...building collaborative relationships with employees, consumers and customers.
- Network…or using the network of clients, suppliers or other stakeholders to promote and expand effectively sustainability.
We may ask ourselves 2 critical questions:
(1) What will be the expectations of luxury products’ consumers when sustainability takes much more weight in the decision making process for this product category?
(2) How luxury industry could anticipate this trend?
There are already some interesting initiatives which could help to define the critical success factors.
From quality to respect
Genuine luxury is founded on heritage and “savoir faire”. It promotes the value of respect: respect of the raw material, respect of the work and time required to produce the product, respect of the client who’s going to purchase and finally respect of the brand by the client. This drives the quality momentum which is a core component of sustainability. Hermes is a good example of a brand which has kept alive its core values while innovating and expanding its territory.
Luxury brands are more and more available and visible in countries where a significant part of the population lives under the level of poverty. The marketing and communication approach in such countries is the same as in mature and well developed countries. As a consequence, politicians and regulators are stepping into the game. The mayor of Beijing banned luxury billboards because advertisement for luxury products “was not conducive to harmony”.
A large number of companies related to gold and diamond have joined the Council for Jewellery Practices to promote responsible initiatives from mining to retailing.
From communication to engagement
Most of global luxury brands have not yet fully achieved their adaptation to new ways consumers expects brands to build relationships with them (transparency and interactivity).
Wetpoint and Altimeter released in July 2009 an Engagement analysis based on the Top 100 Global Brands done every year by Business weeks. The first luxury brand, Gucci, stands at the 31st position, Rolex 58th and Cartier 77th. The first brand of this ranking, Starbucks, demonstrated interesting best practices combining social responsibility, sustainability initiatives and demonstrated engagement with consumers while keeping business profitability on top of its agenda.
Some major luxury brands and companies have initiated Corporate Social Responsibility programs and even for many years.
Louis Vuitton The Carbon Inventory, Eole project…
Tiffany Sources and mining, collaborative efforts, The Tiffany & Co foundation…
PPR Code of business practices, Corporate Foundation for women’s dignity and rights…
Richemont Responsible Jewellery Council, St Lazarus Association (Jaeger Lecoultre)…
However, these programs are not known by the vast majority of their employees in their stores and are not consequently communicated to their clients. A better involvement of employees in contact daily with clients will help these brands to expand the awareness of their programs and contributions.
From pricing to value
Another dimension is the right balance between price and perceived value. Current economy crisis is a catalyst for underlying consumer trends on transparency and quality of products. Some luxury brands have already integrated sustainability as a core component of their value proposition:
Osklen: a Brazilian fashion brands using fabrics and materials selected with an independent NGO and sourced from Brazil.
Linda Loudermilk: a fashion designer considered as a trend setter in a new luxury eco lifestyle.
Tesla: a sport car’s brand powered by electricity
These brands are still small but are building momentum, expertise and credibility on sustainability for the years coming.
Luxury industry is most probably at a tipping point where sustainability may represent for its future what was numeric revolution for argentic based photography. Minolta was a well known, premium and international brand. The brand didn’t anticipate (as many others) this major shift and its consumer behaviour’s implications. Part of the core “savoir-faire” was acquired by Sony and the brand disappeared. Sustainability may not be major decision criteria for the majority of current luxury goods’ consumers. It will be one of the top decision making factors within 5 years to 10 years.There are a lot of fruitful initiatives from which luxury brands could build momentum and quick wins…
There is a future for sustainable luxury brands so why not starting today?
