2024-09-05 15:28:25
As the fall shows of Paris Fashion Week approach, luxury continues to record generally satisfactory results, even if certain groups are experiencing difficulties like Kering. According to the forecasts of the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), the momentum should not stop there, driven by two sources of growth by the end of this decade: Chinese consumers and the younger generation also called millennials.
Totaling 32% of the luxury market in 2019, millennials will represent 50% of the market in 2025. As for the weight of Chinese consumers, it should increase from 33% to 40% between 2019 and 2025 and reach around 75% of growth between 2018 and 2025, occupying first place on the podium.
These analyses serve as a compass for Manuel Mallen, co-founder of the luxury jewelry house Courbet created in 2018. This young brand has positioned itself on the synthetic diamond and recycled gold market with the aim of attracting millennials. After France, Europe and the United States, Manuel Mallen wants to target Chinese millennials. What value proposition can be made to win them over? Will eco-responsibility be able to make a difference compared to the big luxury brands that have enjoyed a century-old reputation?
A “Tesla of jewelry”?
Table of Contents
To succeed, Manuel Mallen remembers his marketing courses. The perceived value of a good by consumers is composed of an economic, functional, hedonic and social value, reflecting in turn the monetary value of the good, the adequacy of the good to fulfill the expected function, the sensory pleasure and aesthetic beauty and, finally, the status that the possession of such a good brings. The prestige conferred on its owner by luxury brings a symbolic value linked to the image that is sent back to othersScarcity, customer experience and online co-creation are among the levers available to the brand to increase perceived value.
Whether you are a manager looking for strategies or an employee wondering about the choices made by your hierarchy, receive our thematic newsletter “Company(s)”: the keys to research for professional life and advice from our experts.
Subscribe today
To create what he calls “the Tesla of jewelry,” Manuel Mallen sets up shop on Place Vendôme, a prestigious address that is essential, especially when you have the ambition to shake up the codes of luxury. For the name of the company, he chooses that of the painter Gustave Courbet, a Franche-Comté native like him, known both for his avant-gardism and for having wanted to tear down the Vendôme column – which is located on Place Vendôme – during the Paris Commune.
Target 30 million turnover
Because Courbet has set itself the mission of reinventing jewelry without extraction. Even if producing diamonds in a laboratory and using recycled gold are much more expensive, thanks to short circuits and local craftsmanship (France, Italy), the sales prices remain 30 to 40% lower than those of competitors’ jewelry.
Courbet generated €5 million in revenue in 2021 – 80% of which was generated in Europe – and is aiming for €30 million by the end of 2024, now that the health crisis is behind us. The corner in the Printemps Haussmann department store and the private parties in the Place Vendôme showroom, banned with the curfew, are back in the news, as is China, which has returned to the global stage. Finally, Chanel and the investment company Raise are supporting synthetic diamonds with a fundraising of 8.5 million euros.
High-tech partners
Other times, other revolutions: unlike the great traditional jewelry houses, Courbet adopts synthetic diamonds other than as a complement to colored diamonds, as Fred had done until then. Indeed, he is betting on synthetic diamonds for his entire range. The gold comes from old televisions. The jewelry is personalized, produced to order for unique pieces like this 9 carat diamond sold for 450,000 euros, the largest synthetic diamond to date and a great source of pride for Courbet.
In order to attract millennials, who are looking for technological innovation, the start-up has increased its partnerships with technology companies. Thus, the customer experience is omnichannel: appointments can be made via Skype or Facetime with a 3D visualization via Hapticmedia’s SaaS solution for often unique jewelry. Payments can be made in cryptocurrencies thanks to Lunu. For millennials who are fond of innovation, Courbet offers to send a digital certificate issued by GoodsId. Changing color in the event of theft, it makes resale impossible. Compensation by the insurer Wakam is faster.
An eco-responsible promise
Courbet has adopted an eco-responsible position that breaks with the big jewelry houses. The founder believes that his approach is more efficient than the actions carried out by traditional companies in the sector that use compensation measures or “reparative” actions aimed at local populations (education, etc.). He explains:
“Our diamond does not destroy the planet. Of course, it takes a lot of energy to produce it but the energy is clean and decarbonized, so where is the harm knowing that the France owns and operates the third most carbon-free energy in the world ? »
The challenge for brands is to communicate in order to prove which technique – diamond from an open pit mine or synthetic diamond – emits the least carbon emissions. The founder of Diam Concept, which supplies Courbet, explains that the number of kilograms of CO2 products is correlated with the origin of the energy: approximately 20 kg of CO2 per carat for the low temperature method in its French workshops. “It is ten times less than the best mines we know of. »
She points out that France mainly uses nuclear electricity in its energy mix. And, for larger diamonds, Courbet sources abroad from suppliers using hydroelectric energy or from solar panels. These figures are contested by the Natural Diamond Council (grouping together 80% of the world’s diamond dealers) which financed the Trucost report – carried out by S&P – showing that a natural diamond (one carat) would emit on average 160 kg of CO₂… compared to 511 kg for an artificial diamond. In addition, Courbet donates 15% of the sale price of the Let’s Commit bracelet range to various associations including Ocean Cleanup, Save the Children, International Animal Rescue, etc.
In addition to the carbon footprint, the importance of the sourcing location and the different ways to contribute to achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by UN for 2030Manuel Mallen questions the place of CSR in the choices of millennials. BCG, like marketing researchers, are not unfortunately not reassuring. Indeed, millennials readily declare an awareness of CSR and say they are attracted by the ethical and responsible discourse of brands, without this being reflected in all their purchasing behaviors. A “green consumer gap” exists, i.e. a significant gap between declarations and behaviors.
Chinese consumers to be won over
While CSR commitment is not necessarily a differentiating factor that translates into sales, this is even less the case with Chinese consumers. They say they are likely to buy second-hand goods (except for clothing, which sets them apart from other consumers) but like to display expensive goods, with logos of well-known international brands. This conspicuous consumption is more important to them than to other consumers. The explanation for these consumption practices is that they are part of a context historical, social and economic.
Deprived of Western luxury products, in a market flooded with counterfeiting, Chinese consumers who have the financial means to afford luxury goods, particularly French ones, want to make it known. In this respect, their consumption is more social, influenced by the way others see them. In this context, owning an eco-responsible good from the young Courbet brand does not bring the same social value or the same notoriety as owning a piece of jewelry from one of the major jewelers.
Finally, among the major trends for luxurycelebrity collaborations and limited editions are particularly attractive to the Chinese (62% of them) and especially to millennials (60%). Chinese consumers appreciate influencers and the use of social networks twice as much as their Western counterparts. Even for luxury goods, 64% of Chinese customers do not hesitate to buy online and use an omnichannel journey compared to 42% of European or American consumers. Many purchases are made via influencers during live sessions on Chinese social networks.
To meet this demand, Courbet is supported for its introduction in China by the specialized agency Hylink. The latter recommended an influencer present on the relevant networks and with an affinity with luxury: Jing Tian. Courbet creates thousands of pre-packaged jewels, in the form of special series for this use, which can be sold in the blink of an eye during a live session. The message will be focused on luxury, intended to arouse emotions and the desire to consume.
With 12 million weddings per year and an appetite for luxury, particularly from France, the Chinese market would be a significant boon for a young luxury brand. Millennials represent 400 million people and 68% of diamond purchases. The next generation, Gen Z, is already following suit with 240 million individuals. Among them, many women who are emancipating themselves and buying diamonds, so much so that they make up 70% of buyers.
It remains to convince them that CSR practices are a central element of luxury goods. The entry into the synthetic diamond market of brands like Fred or Pandora Will it help to democratize this product or, on the contrary, will it De Beers’ mixed resultswhich sold them under its Lightbox brand, will they freeze the market?
1725741127
#Jeweler #Courbet #bets #synthetic #diamonds #CSR #attract #millennials
The Rise of Luxury Fashion: How Paris Fashion Week is Shaping the Industry
As the fall shows of Paris Fashion Week approach, luxury fashion is experiencing a resurgence in growth, with certain groups facing
