On April 13, 2009, according to the latest forecast report of Bain & Company, global luxury goods sales may drop by 10% in 2009, and the sales of luxury goods, including various high-end supplies and jewelry, may reach 201 billion US dollars.
According to Hong Kong’s “Wen Wei Po”, the multinational market research company Millward Brown recently announced the top 100 most valuable brands in the world. The American financial magazine “Forbes” listed the 10 most valuable brands in the world based on the survey data. The world’s most powerful luxury brand, French brand Louis Vuitton (LV) ranks first, with a brand value of US$19.4 billion. Millward Brown’s senior vice president pointed out that amid the raging global financial crisis, companies selling luxury goods have suffered less.
The top three luxury brands in 2008 remained unchanged in 2009. Although the brand value of LV dropped by US$6.34 billion compared with 2008, it still ranked first; the second place was Hermès, with a brand value of US$7.86 billion; the third place was Gucci, with a brand value of US$7.47 billion; No. 4 Chanel and No. 5 Rolex respectively rose one place from 2008.
Market researchers believe that in addition to brand positioning, LV and Hermès’ prudent business considerations are also the key to their success. He pointed out that at a time when high-end brands are cutting prices and dumping goods, the prices of goods in LV specialty stores of high-end department stores are still “hard”, and customers can only find discounted goods in special stores, which reflects that its senior management has changed its operating model from retail distribution to decision-making. Discounts are strictly controlled in every aspect.
Among the top 10 luxury brands in 2009, Cartier suffered the largest decline, falling from 4th in 2008 to 7th in 2009. The reason was that some ultra-luxury products (such as diamond watches) were slow to sell, while some luxury handbags and shoes were in poor sales. Still thriving.
The brand value of Giorgio Armani, which ranked eighth in 2008, plummeted by US$2.02 billion in 2009, a drop of nearly 40%, and fell out of the top 10 luxury brands. Comments pointed out that the reason was that the company’s multiple brand market expansion scale was too small.
Comments pointed out that compared with brands targeting the middle market, luxury brands are more able to withstand the impact of the financial crisis. There is always a market for famous brand goods. Customers still want to buy, but they don’t want to buy too much. They would rather buy a $1,500 luxury handbag than Will buy 5 handbags worth $300.
