French Luxury Foods Firms Bet on Innovation While Preserving Tradition

Knowledge@Wharton, April 20, 2009 — Each year Fauchon, one of France's most celebrated luxury grocers, dresses up its best-selling éclairs to be launched in their haute couture collection of the season. The autumn 2008 collection features 34 individualized éclairs in an extravagant display of premium foods photographed in the style of the best high fashion catalogues. Meanwhile, Parisians, expats and tourists alike line up at the celebrity Paris bakery, Poilâne, to buy the famous miche, a loaf of bread that is still made by hand and whose recipe has not changed since the bakery was founded in 1932.

Hilton to Tap Starwood Luxury Team†

Hotel Chain Aims to Bolster Presence In High-End Arena

Wall Street Journal, June 2, 2008 — As part of an ambitious plan to nearly double its luxury properties in the next year and create an upscale boutique hotel brand, Hilton Hotels Corp. has hired two luxury gurus away from competitor Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc.

Hilton is expected to announce Monday the appointment of Ross Klein as global head of luxury and lifestyle brands for Hilton and Amar Lalvani as global head of luxury and lifestyle brand development. The moves are geared toward vaulting Hilton ahead in the luxury category, where it has trailed competitors.

Italy's Hot New Couturier Has An Unfamiliar Ring†

Wall Street Journal, February 21, 2008 — In a recent advertising spread in Italian Vogue, a model poses while the contents of her handbag — including several cellphones — spill into the street. A caption explains that she is wearing "tutto Derercuny."

Not quite "all Derercuny." There is Samsung in there, too. Unbeknownst to many followers of high fashion, Derercuny, a three-year-old Italian label that is garnering attention during this week's Milan fashion shows, is part of South Korea's sprawling Samsung Group. Best known for Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest seller of televisions and second-largest seller of cellphones, the group also includes Cheil Industries Co., a huge textile and chemicals concern that owns Derercuny directly.

Latest Luxury: The Store Concierge†

Retailers Kick It Up a Notch To Coddle Affluent Clientele

Wall Street Journal, December 20, 2007 — Not long ago, Mark Krug, a concierge at the Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek, dealt with a panicked hotel guest who had arrived at 10 p.m. in an irreparably ripped pair of pants.

The executive had an important business meeting the next morning and needed new slacks to match his suit jacket. Mr. Krug knew exactly what to do. He dialed the cell phone of the concierge at the Dallas store of luxury retailer Barneys New York. The concierge, Gary Jackson, who goes by the name Jackson, opened the locked store, scooped up some potential selections and brought them to the hotel by 11 p.m.

"It made us look good and it gave Barneys fantastic customer loyalty," say Mr. Krug. "I call what Jackson does 'making magic.' "

Diamonds go designer

Hearts on Fire pursues a jeweler's dream: creating a branded diamond

FORTUNE, November 12, 2007 — "Hearts of fire, creates love desire, takes you high and higher...." The sounds of the Las Vegas Mass Choir singing the old Earth, Wind & Fire hit spilled out of a ballroom in the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. Inside the darkly lit space, over a thousand people swayed to the music, their hands in the air. An unwitting observer might think he had stumbled into a mega-church or a revival meeting. But actually it was a convention of jewelers.

These particular jewelers, who work for independent mom-and-pop stores around the world, were in town at the invitation of a diamond company called Hearts on Fire. Hearts on Fire sells the World's Most Perfectly Cut Diamond, and it sponsors a three-day Vegas extravaganza that it calls Hearts on Fire University - HOFU,... continue reading

Like Our Sunglasses? Try Our Vodka!†

Brand Extensions Get Weirder, Risking Customer Confusion; Armani TVs, Prada Cellphones

Wall Street Journal, November 8, 2007 — Beginning today at the Salvatore Ferragamo showroom on New York's Fifth Avenue, the famed leather-goods company is displaying a new sort of product: wristwatches.

Since the timepieces, called the Salvatore and the Tempo, come out of a licensing deal with Timex, they'll undoubtedly keep fine time. What's more, Ferragamo's excellence in footwear and handbags is notable — the company is even credited with inventing the wedge heel in the 1920s. But does the Ferragamo label make consumers want to pay $7,300 for a watch, even if it is 18-karat gold?

Give the Chauffeur The Day Off

Rolls Royce readies a smaller, but still very upscale, model for buyers who want to drive themselves

BusinessWeek, November 5, 2007 — Rolls Royce is about nothing if not extravagance. Its Phantom sedan, after all, is 19 feet long, sells for more than most houses, and includes a 420-watt sound system with 15 speakers, plush sheepskin carpets, and a 12-cylinder engine. So what to make of a downsized model that the company plans to introduce in 2009—a Rolls that you might, say, take to the bakery to pick up some bread for cucumber sandwiches? "This is your everyday Rolls," says Chris Bangle, design chief at German automaker BMW, which bought the Rolls name in 1998.

The many faces of Ralph Lauren

America's billion-dollar designer is going global and upscale while creating a new in-house brand for J.C. Penney. Can he really sell all things to all people?

FORTUNE, September 17, 2007 — Ralph Lauren was doing reconnaissance, lingering outside one of his stores watching customers. On this crisp fall Saturday afternoon a few years ago, he had driven one of his vintage cars from his estate in Katonah, N.Y., through the leafy back roads of Westchester County to the nearby town of New Canaan, Conn.

At the store Lauren made an observation that would add a new chapter to his legacy. The mothers were leaving with shopping bags, he noticed, but the daughters were exiting either empty-handed or with just a shirt for their dad or boyfriend.

As Lauren stared at this demographic segment that had evaded his $4 billion fashion empire, he had a feeling that reminded him of the character played by Steve McQueen in "The Thomas Crown Affair".

In... continue reading

Luxury Goods Without the Luxury Service†

Are Upscale Retailers Losing Sight of What Draws Their Loyal Customers?

Wall Street Journal, May 3, 2007 — Think of the best experience you've had as a consumer lately. Was it with a luxury company? Chances are, it wasn't. Vivian Deuschl, a 63-year-old Annandale, Va., hotel executive, wears Chanel ballet flats and carries a Prada bag, buys Burberry slippers for her daughter, and gives all manner of luxury items to her 16-month-old grandson. Her mailbox is chock-full of these companies' catalogs, yet she doesn't feel that they really care about her.

Boutique Backlash: Rethinking Ultra-Chic Hotels†

Owners Push Comfort, Service As Some Guests Start to Shun Too-Hip Bars, Worn Furniture

Wall Street Journal, February 13, 2007 — The W Chicago City Center has a stylish lobby and chic guest rooms, with 350-thread count sheets and marble bathrooms. But it doesn't have a bar Frank Bynum feels comfortable in, or even a phone he can understand.