← The Art of the Brand
The Art of the Brand
How Moncler Went from Discount Jackets to a $13B Luxury Empire | Branding Strategy Breakdown
00:06:43
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- [00:00]
A
Talk about the power of strategy and what you can learn from the Montclair story.
- [00:05]
B
What a brand, what a brand, what a brand, what a mighty good brand what a brand, what a brand, what a brand, what a mighty good brand.
- [00:15]
A
So the Montclair story is really interesting. Reno Raffini purchased Montclair in 2003 for literally pennies on the dollar. He bought the company for just over a million dollars, and it is now today worth $13 billion. So when he came in, he bought a struggling company. He took many of the same designs, the same logos for jackets that were once sold for $100 to be sold for thousands of dollars, bought the likeness of celebrities, and really used the power of strategy to turn a failing brand into one of the most coveted brands in the world.
- [00:58]
C
What do you think was the change of strategy? I understand that he raised his prices and changed the distribution level, but I would be interested in knowing what the tipping point was that made it attractive to celebrities. Because you get one wearing it. How, you know, how did he. How did he take the same product and make it attractive to celebrities?
- [01:18]
A
It was design and access, right? Like he took like before, before they were sold in decathlon stores, which you could get kind of anywhere in Italy. And then he moved them into like, luxurious hotspots. So you could only get Moncler in Geneva and Gad and Milan. And they were like, in iconic skiing destinations in Europe. And you got a lot of American or Western affluent travelers who would go to these kind of city centers. And because it was. It was a scarcity of access, it drived demand and awareness. Because from outside people, they didn't know what the Moncler brand is. Because when you're a rich person traveling to Milan or Geneva or Gstad for skiing, you're not heading into a low end department store in Italy, right? Like, you're kind of in and out. So that one strip of stores in a ski village really, really shaped perception on value.
- [02:20]
C
It's kind of interesting that if your area has something that is exclusive to the rest of the world, by taking that product and making it seem rare, it then creates. It creates market share in other countries. Because they were selling Montclair in their own jurisdiction at their version of a Bass Pro Shops or.
- [02:44]
A
Yeah, or.
- [02:45]
C
Or something like that. But when they realized that this was a superior product for the skiers in that region by making it, by taking kind of a quarterly hit on profits, by taking it out of the mass sales in your local jurisdiction and then presenting it kind of as a national Brand that fits the highest level. It then created demand in Europe and North America. The rest of Europe in North America, totally.
- [03:11]
A
But I, I do want to take a different approach with Monclair, right? Is it. Because it had all of the right elements and that's what I think that Raffini saw in the brand, right? Like the logo was. Is fantastic. It's a great logo. What he changed though, is what actually matters almost most to the brand, right? It's like they made a fantastic store experience. Like the Monclair stores are beautiful. They're pieces of art of the design of the jackets are quite unique, they're quite feminine. They're quite like the design alone is high end because it's very unique. Now the question becomes like, when you're talking about, and this is, this is an argument that we've had, when you're talking about, you know, water resistant and downfilled jackets, how do you create levels of kind of luxuriousness? Like, once you get to the point of that, it's downfilled with duck feathers and it's within those kind of that Gore Tex quality of material. It then comes down to design and experience. And if you can execute design and experience and you can get the biggest names in the world wearing your brand, well, that is the difference of a premium price tag and a luxury price tag. Well, that's what, that's why strategy matters, right? Because there's so often we see really great products come across our desk, but they're just not communicating, positioning properly to connect with that, with the right audience to get the tipping point. And that's what Raffini did properly, is that like the logo was there, he had the design. It was. They're good quality jackets. But that's why when I talk about there's four pillars to a brand. You need a good product, you need a good story, you need a good experience and you need consistency. And it's not enough to just have a fantastic product. That's kind of like step one. So when you look at the differentiation of the disparage, the step, like from one premium jacket to a Moncler jacket, it's those differences, right? And like, I guess that's kind of the question. If you're someone that like looks down at that, you, you're not their customer. Because all Monclair was when you're skiing in Gast in Geneva, like, it's status, it's exclusivity, it's meant to like, it's things that like, may matter less to you as a consumer. It's shared values. But a lot of those resorts aren't like they don't even have the retail space to sell jackets. Right. Because of how many SKUs and sizes that they need. So like what you see at those resorts are like actually almost no gift shop or a very tiny gift shop because the, the amount of retail space that like winter goods takes up is quite big. That's why there's actually such a shopping epicenter tied to skiing. Because when you need like skis and like like all the different materials are quite bulky and big. You need shopping to go with skiing.
- [06:15]
C
I'm just saying there's a potential strategy there that you would showcase that you would off site the inventory. But I think these places could look at increasing revenue by really charging a premium. If you're the top ski resort in Switzerland. Right. Whatever they're showcasing there would be. Anyhow I think there's something, there's something to that in terms of like getting on the digital trend because if you go to the best spot in the world for surfing wherever. But anyhow kind of petered out that one.