Lorre White, The Guru of Luxury

Recession Recovery In Mass Affluent Home Furnishing

This consultant specializes in Mass affluent.  Do not confuse what she calls wealthy or affluent with what this blog's UHNWI.

Signs of Recession Recovery in the Luxury Sector of the Home Furnishings Market Are Emerging  --

Affluent Consumers Are Releasing Pent-Up Demand for Home Furnishings and Decor

Two quarters of strong, steady growth in luxury home spending tracked in latest survey of affluent luxury consumers by Unity Marketing

Stevens, PA  July, 2009 --  There are clear signs that the luxury sector of the home furnishings market is recovering from the recession.  In the first half of 2009, affluent consumers spent more on luxury home furnishings and decor, according to the latest tracking study of affluent luxury consumer purchases conducted by Unity Marketing. 

The survey among 1,017 affluent consumers who recently purchased any luxury (average income $207.8k; age 44.3 years) found that the average amount spent on home luxuries rose 17.6 percent from first quarter 2009 to second quarter.  This followed a rise of 16.3 percent from fourth quarter 2008 to first quarter 2009. 

Pam Danziger, president of Unity Marketing and lead researcher on the luxury tracking study, says, "Since the beginning of 2009, the affluent segment of the market has been spurred to spend more money on their homes.  Home marketers must act now to tap this growth trend that can ultimately lead their businesses out of the current slump.  The answer lies in understanding the consumer better than your competitor.  Unity Marketing has a new report that will give marketers this advantage."

Pam Danzinger

Integrity is measured by what we do when no one is looking.

Wisdom - What is Class?

Class never runs scared. It is sure-footed and confident in the knowledge that you can meet life head on and handle whatever comes along. Jacob had it. Esau didn't. Symbolically, we can look to Jacob's wrestling match with the angel. Those who have class have wrestled with their own personal angel and won a victory that marks them thereafter. Class never makes excuses. It takes its lumps and learns from past mistakes. Class is considerate of others. It knows that good manners are nothing more than a series of small sacrifices. Class bespeaks an aristocracy that has nothing to do with ancestors or money. The most affluent blueblood can be totally without class while the descendant of a Welsh miner may ooze class from every pore. Class never tries to build itself up by tearing others down. Class is already up and need not strive to look better by making others look worse. Class can "walk with kings and keep its virtue and talk with crowds and keep the common touch." Everyone is comfortable with the person who has class because he is comfortable with himself. If you have class you don't need much of anything else. If you don't have it, no matter what else you have, it doesn't make much difference. Ann Landers Encyclopedia

Framing the Super Rich for Big Bucks

I always enjoy hearing when folks talk about how the Super Rich have
cut back on spending.  While there is no doubt they are more discerning
about what they buy, the bottom line is that the Ultra High Net Worth
Individuals are the ones who still have the money to make significant
luxury purchases.  Those Super Rich folks on private jets are still
living the private jet lifestyle, and last week I made a stop on New
York's Upper East Side that re-enforced the message that for companies
with the right product, the market is there.
 
Eli Wilner sells both antique and reproduction frames.  A typical
customer spends $100,000 on their initial purchases, which could be a
single frame, although price points start at slightly under $10,000.
Many customers spend millions over the course of a couple years, and of
course, the money they spend on what goes in the frames is even higher.
 
So how is Eli Wilner doing?  Below is a quick rundown of sales he has
made in the past couple months:
 
CK recently purchased an oil by Picasso for $2.1 million and then framed
it with a period frame for $65,000
 
RB recently purchased a gouache by Fernand Léger for $300,000 and
selected a $22,000 replica frame for it
 
GF recently purchased an oil painting by Andrew Wyeth for $5 million
and selected a $28,000 replica frame for it
 
HM recently purchased an oil painting by John Frederick Kensett for
$100,000 and selected a $ 32,000 period frame for it
 
WS recently purchased an oil painting by Claude Monet for $3.4 million
and selected a $58,000 period frame for it
 
CA recently purchased a photograph by Robert Frank for $25,000 and
selected a $12,000 replica frame for it
 
BT recently purchased an oil painting by John Singer Sargent for
$1.2 million and selected a $60,000 period frame for it
 
FT purchased a watercolor by Winslow Homer for $400,000 and selected a
$24,000 replica frame for it
 
As Eli pointed out when we were chatting, there are still a lot of rich
people out there, and those people who have money are spending it when
they want to. Sounds like a dream for savvy marketers!


Doug Gollan
Elite Traveler

Creative event design for the luxury brands market!!

Nomad Food & Design was launched in Paris in 1999 by Martin Philippe, after 18 years in hospitality management and a career as a fashion photographer. Martin combined his passion for food, design and innovation to form the company that now sets the standard for catering excellence in Paris. In 2005 the sister company, Nomad London was formed. With the same values and ethos as our French counterparts, we set the standard for made to measure catering.

Nomad style

At Nomad we are firm believers in blending different culinary cultures with the latest trends in food design. Talk to us about your event and we will design menus that perfectly fit with your theme, product or brand identity. We pride ourselves on our creativity and blend original methods alongside unusual cooking techniques, often deconstructing traditional recipes to re-create fabulous culinary sensations.

Liquid Nitrogen cooking

At Nomad Food & Design our mission is to continually innovate and wow our guests. We are pioneers in the art of molecular cuisine, the technique made famous by Heston Blumenthal and Spain's El Bulli restaurant. We use liquid nitrogen to 'freeze cook' our sumptuous creations, plunging them into the boiling frozen bath, at -180c; creating an incomparable pleasure for the eyes and taste buds.

Nomad Food & Design produce stunning food, combining the finest ingredients with the latest innovations in food design. Whether you are organising a product launch, a VIP reception or a formal dinner, nomad would be delighted to discuss your requirements with you, so please feel free to get in touch. (To get a better picture of who we work with, why not take a look at oue website www.nomadlondon.co.uk

by Pierre Mallevays

Opinions The Savigny Luxury Index Review - July 2009 by Pierre Mallevays - 21 Jul 2009

back to the list send to a friend print Keywords valuation savigny luxury index financial markets investor investment

Pierre Mallevays, former Head of M&A at LVMH and Managing Partner of Savigny Partners LLP, a London-based boutique advisory firm, analyses market trajectories and valuations of benchmark firms through the firm’s signature index. SLI vs. FTSE All World 1st January 2009 – 30th June 2009 Note : The Savigny Luxury Index focuses on European and American luxury goods manufacturing and retail sector. Sailing through calmer waters Since the publication of our last newsletter at the end of April, the SLI has remained relatively stable, gaining 4.4% in May only to fall back 4.9% in June, ending 0.6 percentage points lower than at the end of April. There has been very little in the way of news flow over the last two months, explaining the lack of movement in share prices. Looking at the last 6 months, the SLI outperformed the FTSE All World index by 5.7 percentage points. It hit a low of 81 points at the beginning of March, relative to 100 points in January, and rallied to a high of 122 points at the beginning of June as investors were reassured by the measures taken by many of the luxury companies to curtail the impact of the current recession. What lies beneath… The SLI’s EV/EBITDA rating has increased by 4.4 percentage points since January to reach 8.9x at the end of June. However this modest upward re-rating belies the significant re-rating of a number of the smaller constituents of our index. Coach, Burberry, Safilo and Bulgari which together account for 11.8% of the SLI, have all witnessed EV/EBITDA uplifts in excess of 50%, with Burberry topping the league at 75%. Burberry and Coach have come out with stronger than expected results and delivered credible cost savings programmes; Bulgari’s share price recovered some of the lost ground from the beginning of the year as a result of the announcement of a wide sweeping restructuring initiative, whilst Safilo’s share price did not trade down in line with the company’s results, resulting in an upward re-rating of the stock. PPR and Tiffany which together account for 11.9% of the SLI experienced re-ratings in the 30 percentile on the back of better than expected results announcements. These significant gains were tempered by LVMH’s (32% of the SLI) relatively modest re-rating of 9% and offset by Hermes’s (13% of the SLI) de-rating of 12%. Uncertainty is likely to be a theme for 2009 Whilst companies have been very swift to react to the current economic downturn, there is still a high level of uncertainty as to its depth and length. Guidance as to 2009 and 2010 is mixed: watch companies are the most cautious, forecasting up to two years of continued depressed market conditions; the rest of the sector anticipates 2009 to be a tough year, with green shoots of recovery being seen in the USA, but with the market not having bottomed out yet in Europe. All agree, though, that stronger specialised brands with a strong tradition of craftsmanship will prevail, as intimated in our last newsletter. Source: Reuters 1. Exchange rates used: £1 to €1.15, CHF1 to €0.66 and $1 to €0.71 2. Sales growth: yoy change using latest annuals 3. EBIT margin: using latest annuals, Sales-COGS-S&GA 4. P/E forecast based on IBES yearly estimates 5. Current is either 12/08 or 03/09 depending on company year end 6. Prosp is either 12/09 or 03/10 depending on company year end

Fighting The Urge To Discount With Unique Experiences

Perhaps it helps to have Japanese ownership who take a long-term view.
Halekulani Corporation Chief Operating Officer Peter Shaindlin said the
advice from his Board of Directors was "Don't fire a busboy to save a
few dollars and ruin a reputation that's taken 25 years to build."
 
Watching over the iconic Halekulani on Waikiki in Hawaii, Shaindlin
compared his stewardship to the famous Patek Philippe ads with father
and son where the tag line is: "You never really own a Patek, you
just look after it for the next generation."
 
So with that long-term view, the hotel and Shaindlin are rolling out a
new, ultra exclusive dining concept called Table 1, overseen by new
Executive Chef Vikram Garg who, like Shaindlin, is a Rosewood alum.
 
Table 1 is a prominent "see and be seen" table at Orchids, a restaurant
in the hotel.  Seating from two to eight, guests can design their own
menu with Garg or alternatively let him offer a chef's surprise.
 
Shaindlin noted by making the concept exclusive, many nights have
already been booked.
 
On the accommodations side, instead of focusing on discounts, again
Shaindlin and his team are trying to create unique experiences.  The
new Orchid Suite (named in our July/August issue as one of Elite
Traveler's 2009 101 Top Suites) like the Royal Suite and Vera Wang
Suite, is priced at $7,000.
 
In addition to the normal room service menu, each suite has a special
menu conceived by Garg and La Mer (the Halekulani's top rated French
restaurant) Executive Chef Yves Garnier.
 
Moreover, since each suite has a small kitchen, guests are offered the
option of having dinner personally cooked en suite by either Garg or
Garnier.  The Orchid Suite with a private lawn also offers the option
of dining al fresco to the sound of Waikiki's surf.
 
The suite also has a $150,000 Steinway Lygendorf home theatre system
that turns the volume down when the doors to the terrace are opened;
a program called Art in Motion enables guests at the three top suites
to have use of a Lotus, Bentley or Maserati, with or without driver,
during their stay.
 
The result of creating unique lifestyle products, says Shaindlin, is that
The majority of guests in the suites are new to the hotel.  He noted the
Vera Wang suite has improved the hotel's profile in New York, where
Wang is well known in the social and fashion circuits.
 
"It's a good time to be innovative, and of course, we are very focused
on substance and style, respecting our tradition," Shaindlin said over
a recent lunch in New York at the Core Club to introduce Table 1.


Doug Gollan
Elite Traveler

Lorre White, The Luxury Media Personality on the Luxury Platform.

There is currently a void for Luxury consumers on the web, especially video and including social media space.  There are not enough appropriate places for luxury brands to advertise.

 

 

The UHNW have the money to spend, yet do not know where go purchase, nor can they distinguish what brands offer, in all the many luxury categories.  Over 92% of the Ultra High Net Worth world wide, made their money instead of inheriting it. This means that they need to learn the differentiations of the luxury brands since they did not grow up with it.   Of the 92% new money, 80% of these have had it less than 10 years.

 

The wealthy are twice as likely to purchase on line.

 

The higher the education the higher the use of electronics and technology.

 

 

The needs of premium and luxury brands (advertisers) looking to reach the UHNW people have not been met. Survival of the luxury brands is dependant upon their being able to differentiate themselves.  Video can show this where a static ad cannot.

 

Lorre White allows Luxury companies to unite in one focused luxury web outlet/network, so they are able to reach more world wide

viewers … this allows luxury companies to unite among peers  of equal brand status.

 

Lorre White allows viewers one trusted place to go to get reliable information from a trusted source.  Lorre is the only luxury media personality. This media personality gives viewers a reason to return, which is lacking from all other attempts like Luxe TV.  The best way to reach the UHNW is peer to peer. The Luxury Guru offers them insiders advices from someone they can relate to, instead of an outside reporter.  The power of the personality can be seen in many media platforms: Oprah in social awareness, Martha Stewart for Middle class home makers, Rachel Ray in blue collar cooking, etc.

 

It is a world market - Uncovering hidden gems in the luxury market offers even those (less than 8 % already more brand aware) reason to tune in.

 

The Ultra High Net Worth is the fastest growing economic class (minimum of $30 million in liquid assets).  Even in times of recession, the middle class shrinks and the two ends increase.

 

 

Interesting content (i.e. fashion, food/wine, cars, jets, yachts, events, nightlife, culture)  Lorre offers one consolidated place to go to learn about the arts of luxury.

 

”on demand viewing” or web TV allow people to watch items of interest at any time anywhere in the world, even on their cell phones.

 

Videos have a longer “shelf life” w/ iTunes reporting 1/3 of the weekly podcasts are downloaded from the archives.

 

Luxury brands like Hermes & Chanel, that 2 generations ago felt it “bourgeois” to advertise, now for survival clamor to get their brand known by the (92%) majority of the worlds wealthy.

 

Luxury market is both male and female, ages 18 to 80, and world wide.  Who does not love luxury!

 

 

 

New, Hot and Trendy....

Nomiya, a Japanese word for “little bars”, is a chic new restaurant that is located on the roof of one of the coolest museum in Paris - Palais de Tokyo.

The 24-ton curiosity will stay here for a year.

Read this article and see photos here : http://spedr.com/5gl6y

From the Restaurant Group

While the economy may be sputtering readers of Elite Traveler, the private jet lifestyle magazine, and Elitetraveler.com, the private jet lifestyle online, keep spending.  Make sure your media plan includes these wealthy readers!
 
Mr. R. H. from Jacksonville, FL spent $10,000 on private jet travel with AvantAir
 
Ms. R. B. of New York, NY spent $5,250 on Cartier Tank Francaise watch
 
Ms. S. C. of New York, NY spent $3,200 on a David Yurman Cordelia bracelet 
 
Mr. T. M. of Doral, FL spent $200,000 for Font Designs to landscape his Florida property
 
Mr. G. S. of New York, NY spent over $6,000 on at the Four Seasons Hong Kong
 
Mr. J. E. of Wauconda, IL spent $3,800 at the Four Seasons Cairo.
 
Mr. G. S. of New York, NY spent over $50,000 on travel to and from New York, Seoul, and Shanghai with Korean Air.
 
Mr. J. E. of Wauconda, IL spent $11,000 on a Lufthansa flight from Chicago to Egypt
 
Mr. D. O. of Jersey City, NJ spent $2,000 on a hotel stay at the Mandarin Oriental Washington, DC.
 
Ms. C. B. of Minneapolis, MN spent $3,200 on a Mikimoto Pearl necklace
 
Ms. S. T. of Fort Lee, NJ spent $2,240 on a Mikimoto Pearl bracelet and earrings
 
Mr. S. P. of Laguna Hills, CA spent $2,000 on a 3-day stay at the Miraval Resort
 
Mr. D. B. of Cayucos, CA spent over $4,000 on a 5-day stay at the Miraval Resort
 
Mr. J. H. of San Antonio, TX spent $5,000 on men's clothing at a Ralph Lauren boutique
 
Mr. D. G. of West New York, NJ spent $20,000 on a Roger Dubuis Excalibur watch
 
Mr. S. L. of Oakley, CA spent $7,500 on a Rolex Yachtmaster watch
 
Mr. Z. M. of Pleasant Grove, UT spent $3,950 on Stefano Ricci Cufflinks
 
Mr. N. I. of Alexandria, VA spent $28,000 on a Tiffany ring
 
Mr. W. T. Northbrook, IL spent $11,000 on a Ulysse Nardin watch