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Appleton Estate 50 year old Jamaican Rum

Luxury

LuxuryActivist

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22 October 2012

Reading Time: 2 minutes

In order to celebrate the 50 years of Jamaican independence, Appleton Estate launched this summer a very special limited edition of an old Rum. Discover here the Appleton Estate 50 Year Old Jamaica Independence Reserve. Encased in a hand crafted crystal decanter, only 800 bottles will be released making each £3,500 bottle a special addition to any drink connoisseur’s collection.

Appleton Estate 50 Year Old Jamaica Independence Reserve is a hand blended and exceptionally smooth, deep mahogany sipping rum that will excite the most sophisticated of palates. Its powerful notes of oak, vanilla, cinnamon and maple resonate with a distinctive hint of orange peel – the hallmark of all Appleton Estate Jamaican Rums.

he handcrafted crystal decanter denotes etchings inspired by Jamaica’s national symbols. The bottle comes with a commemorative booklet that outlines Jamaica’s march to Independence and the rum’s remarkable 50 year journey. See here a mood video revealing all the precious details of this great limited edition.

Here the tasting notes, for the connoisseur:

Appearance: Dark mahogany colour with rich coppery reflections and a very pronounced green ring of ageing

Bouquet: Powerful oak infused with rich vanilla and layered with cinnamon, maple and orange peel

Finish: Exceptionally smooth with a honeyed oak finish

Please check the dedicated website for this special edition:
http://www.appletonestate50.com

Or you can browse the company website and discover the other elegant products they have:
http://www.appletonestate.com

Rodin used to say that if you give time to time, time will offer you its best.
LA

Info sourced at Brand official press release. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available.

Chanel 5 new ad with Brad Pitt, disappointing.

Beauty

LuxuryActivist

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19 October 2012

8

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Probably one of the most expected and viral campaigns of this fall: The new Chanel N.5 campaign with Brad Pitt. Chanel started in September a true teasing campaign that set fire to all people’s imagination. They took one of the most sexy man alive, Brad Pitt and associate the most feminine Fragrance ever: Chanel N.5. The result should be dazzling and finally…. disappointing.

Ok, there was a great idea, to use a man into a women’s fragrance advertising. Daring, original and probably outstanding as all the feminine fragrance market follows the mainstreams. It is not the first time that Fragrance brands uses the opposite-sex into a fragrance ad. But it was more used for men’s fragrances. We all remember the Kate Moss ad for Obsession for men by Calvin Klein. This was probably one of the most subversive ads ever.. look to those eyes…

Here, we wonder why Chanel has chosen someone like Brad Pitt. What is the interest to show this man telling a story ? I am definitely part of the thousands of people disappointed with this lack of audacity by Chanel. All this money for nothing. We can even say more, they just followed this fall trends. Check it out this mood board with images from different brands on the Fall-Winter campaigns 2012:

This fall, luxury brands like to have black and white scenes with men sitting or standing close to a wall. No escape? As we can see here above, Chanel writes its new ad into this Fall’s trends, so it is dated and what is dated gets outdated. Also we see a Brad Pitt old, almost dusty. Other brands had a more young and edgy imagery.

Then the part one of the reveal, shows a Brad Pitt alone, against a corner and saying different words without any sense really. His eyes are kind of empty, we do not see sparkles or desire. He looks more a kind of Lost in Translation… Out of 4 million views on Youtube, only 8,000 people liked it and more than 4,000 people disliked it… apparently I am not the only one.

If I am a woman, I do not want to see a man with that look in front of me. I would feel myself more a curse than a beloved one.

Then we got the reveal of part two. And here again it is very commercial, just a series of different images trying to link to a kind of trend. If you hide logos and Brand names, could be anyone. Could be Donna Karan, Estée Lauder, Dior or Avon. Could also be a Car brand advertising, or a coffee brand or anything…

Frankly, either I am getting old or Chanel did not succeed the bet of having a new outstanding advertising for Chanel 5. They were much more successful under Jacques Helleu era. There was real talent at that time. Here some of my preferred ones.

So here is a RED CARD for Chanel. In a Perfumery industry in which nobody wishes to take risks, Brands like Chanel should stand up for something rather than just stopping half way. Disappointing because we could imagine the potential of it.

The only positive and great thing, let’s try to end in a positive point, it is the INEVITABLE last word. It gives a sort of tension to the storyboard, even Brad Pitt’s eyes woke up.

Check the brand website to see more about it:
http://www.chanel.com

Inevitably, it will be unsuccessful. What do you think?
LA

Info sourced at the brand’s website and youtube channel. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available.

Digital IQ for Watch brands, by L2ThinkTank

Watches

Sebastien Eich

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19 October 2012

0

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Every year the L2ThinkTank company releases the new ranking of Digital IQ for brands. Here are the results of for the Watch and Jewelry industries. To remind you the methodology, L2ThinkTank takes in account Mobile, website and Social media for each brand and classifies them depending on a certain score from <70 to >140. Here is the scale:

<70: Feeble
investment does not match opportunities

Between 70 and 89: Challenged
Efforts are inconsistent and siloed accross platforms. Site lacks inspiration and utility.

Between 90 and 109: Average
Digital presence is functional yet predictable.

Between 110 and 139: Gifted
Brands are experimenting and innovating across site, mobile, and traditional and emerging social media platforms. Digital presence is strong, complementing brand image and larger marketing efforts.

> 140: Genius
Digital competence is a point of competitive differentiation. Site experience is shoppable, searchable, shareable, and mobile-optimized. Social media is integrated across multiple platforms.

To start, here are the top 50 best companies in the Watch and Jewelry industry ranked according to the scale above.

As we can see many Swiss brands are high ranked like Tissot and Victorinox. Others, like Vacheron Constantin, Patek Philippe are still weak in the digital revolution. This revolution accelerated a lot thanks to the rise of Social Media. In deed the word of mouth and the recommendation topics turned to be online now. Here is the penetration of the major social networks in the Watch and Jewelry industry. Of course Facebook is the highest with a 96% of penetration. We are in the Facebook era anyway. But by looking closer, we can see for example the raise of Pinterest with a 55% of penetration rate. What Instagram never succeeded to do, Pinterest did it.

Another interesting diagram is the current implementation of mobile browsing for websites in the Watch and Jewelry industry. We can see that a large majority is still not Mobile adapted. Only 11% of websites have adopted technologies like the responsive design and only 32% have wap sites. We are here still talking about traditional desktop version websites. Let’s note a dramatic 6% that are even Mobile blocking, meaning they are impossible to browse via mobile. Most of the time it is because of flash animations and IOS.

Here is a diagram with the share of revenue in the Watch and Jewelry industry.

If you wish to learn more about the L2ThinkTank services, here is a video about it.

You can also connect to the company’s website:
http://www.l2thinktank.com

So…. watch out!
LA

Info sourced at annual L2Thinktank segment report. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available.

Fragrance words, episode 8 with Diane Thalheimer-Krief

LuxuryActivist

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18 October 2012

1

Fragrance words, episode 8 with Diane Thalheimer-Krief

Reading Time: 7 minutes

Fragrance words episode 8 features Diane Thalheimer-Krief. Please see below for the french version.

EPISODE 8: DIANE THALHEIMER-KRIEF (EN)

Diane Thalheimer-Krief has 20 years of experience in developing fragrances, international marketing, olfaction and evaluation. From her studies (CELSA, Economics, Olfaction), through her thesis on Perfumery (Study and Research on perfume plants) she dedicated her career with passion to give birth to beautiful creations. After several years of international marketing direction in a composition Laboratory, she created her company, REDBERRY in 2003. It is a company exclusively about services and consultancy dedicated to perfume. Her areas of expertise: Training, training tools, Perfumery gestures, Marketing (culture, trends and conferences), Brand Portfolio (DNA analysis and olfactory mapping) and Intranets.

THE FRAGRANCE MARKET IN 2012

Luxury Activist (LA): 2012 New launches, which are the fragrance launches that positively marked this year ?
Diane Thalheimer-Krief (DT): Coco Noir, Jimmy Choo, La Petite robe noire by Guerlain, Martin Margiela and Bottega Venetta.

LA: According to you, which are the failed launches this year and why ?
DT: It is always very difficult to express negative opinions about a product. Indeed, the creation of a perfume uses a large team of different actors who often work with passion for many months. The result is not always at the height of their ambition … The clients are there to judge!

LA: In this 2012 fall, which are the brands or launches you are looking forward to ?
DT: Chanel 5 new communication with Brad Pitt, the new Repetto, Balenciaga, Manifesto YSL, Jardin Noir by Tom Ford and Prada Luna Rossa

FUTURE TRENDS

LA: Until 2015, you wish that the Fragrance industry becomes more… (up to you to complete the sentence)
DT: … More Premium and selective on its launches. More strict on its choices and olfactory developments. Less spokesperson in advertising, more true creations with real strong convictions, more daring and more quality. Final, less consumer tests that bring things to the lower common denominator in terms of originality (in order to please a large majority).

LA: Which new olfactory directions would you like to see in future creations ?
DT: Modernized Patchouli, incenses, balms and resins. A modernized chypre but not gustative. Female wood fragrances. Less Fruity fragrances. They tend to be all similar and for that we forget them very fast.

LA: According to you, which Fragrance Brands will take the lead in the future and why ?
DT: Niche brands for their audacity and creativity. The couture brands and the true luxury brands for the aspirational aspect and the customer’s highlight. Brands which will create a true universe with strong stories and magnificent products.

LA: Perfumery shops have a hard time trying to keep their clients who, like butterflies, flutter between different Chains, Department-stores or even Internet. According to you, which are the paths to be explored to improve customer loyalty ?
DT: Perfumery shops should develop the concept of “chapels” = mini-shops in shops, like at Le Printemps Haussmann, with high trained beauty advisors who can provide true recommendations based on a real knowledge of the perfumery industry. Other examples: Chanel Beauty boutique in Hong Kong, Editions Frederic Malle, Serge Lutens. I would also highlight the importance of CRM (eg: Mugler) and also of iPhone apps for customer profiling and the market trends. Final but not least, We must invest in the training of Beauty advisors in the perfumery. Provide them a real culture of perfumery (clients are often more informed and cultivated thanks to blogs and articles that appeared in the press). Brands must invest heavily in TRAINING! This is the final link between the brand and the customer! We must give back enchantment to Fragrances and make customers dream.

EPISODE 8: DIANE THALHEIMER-KRIEF (FR)

Diane Thalheimer-Krief possède 20 ans d’expérience en développement de parfums, marketing international, olfaction et évaluation. De ses études (CELSA, Sciences Economiques, Olfaction), en passant par sa thèse sur la Parfumerie (Etude et recherches sur les plantes à parfums) elle s’est dédiée avec passion à faire naitre des belles créations. Après plusieurs années de Direction Marketing international au sein d’un Laboratoire de composition, elle créa sa société, REDBERRY en 2003. C’est une société de service et de conseil exclusivement dédiée au Parfum. Ses domaines de compétence: La formation, les outils de formation, la gestuelle Parfum, Marketing (culture, tendances et conférences), Portefeuille de Marque (Analyse ADN et cartographie olfactive) et Site Intranets.

LE MARCHE DE LA PARFUMERIE EN 2012

Luxury Activist (LA) : Lancements 2012, quels parfums vous ont-ils positivement marqués cette année ?
Diane Thalheimer-Krief (DT) : Coco Noir, Jimmy Choo, La Petite robe noire de Guerlain, Martin Margiela et Bottega Venetta.

LA : A votre avis, quels sont les “flops” de l’année ? Et pourquoi ?
DT : Il est toujours très délicat d’exprimer des opinions négatives sur un produit. En effet, la création d’un parfum fait appel à une grande équipe d’acteurs différents qui travaillent le plus souvent avec passion pendant de longs mois. Le résultat n’est pas toujours à la hauteur de leur ambition… Les clientes sont là pour juger !

LA : En cette rentrée 2012, quelles sont les marques ou les lancements que vous attendez avec impatience ?
DT : Chanel 5 nouvelle communication avec Brad Pitt, Repetto, Balenciaga, Manifesto YSL, Jardin Noir de Tom Ford et le Prada Luna Rossa.

TENDANCES FUTURES

LA : D’ici 2015, vous souhaitez que l’Industrie du Parfum devienne plus… (à vous de compléter)
DT : … Plus Premium et sélective dans ses lancements. Plus exigeante dans ses choix et développements olfactifs. Moins d’égéries et, plus de créations avec un vrai partis pris, d’audace et de qualité. Et enfin, moins de tests qui nivellent l’originalité en désirant plaire au plus grand nombre.

LA : Quelles « directions olfactives » aimeriez-vous voir dans des futures créations ?
DT : Patchouli, encens, baumes et résines modernisés. Des chypres modernisés mais pas gourmands. Des Boisés féminins. Moins de parfums fruités; ils ont tendances à tous se ressembler et par conséquence on les oublie aussitôt!

LA : D’après vous, quelles marques de parfum vont prendre l’ascension dans le futur et pourquoi ?
DT : Les marques niche pour l’audace et la créativité. Les marques couture et vrai luxe pour la projection et la valorisation du consommateur. Les marques qui se donnent les moyens de créer un véritable univers avec de vraies histoires et des produits de belle facture.

LA : Les parfumeries peinent à conserver leurs clients qui papillonnent entre les différentes Chaines, Grands-magasins ou encore Internet. Selon-vous, quelles seraient les voies à explorer pour améliorer la fidélisation de la clientèle ?
DT :Les Parfumeries devraient dévélopper des « chapelles »= mini boutiques dans le magasin (cf. Printemps Haussmann) avec vendeurs formés à la parfumerie et ayant de réelles connaissances pour fournir des conseils personnalisés. Exemples: Boutique Chanel Beauté à Hong Kong, Editions Frédéric Malle, Serge Lutens. A souligner aussi l’importance de la CRM (cf. Mugler) et des Applications Iphone / profil conso ou tendances marché. Aussi, Investir sur la formation des vendeuses en parfumerie: leur prodiguer une véritable culture de la parfumerie (les clientes sont souvent plus informées ou cultivées grâce aux blogs et aux articles de fond qui paraissent dans la presse). Les marques se doivent d’investir massivement dans la FORMATION ! C’est le dernier maillon entre la marque et la cliente ! Il faut ré enchanter le parfum et faire rêver les clientes…

A big thank you to Diane Thalheimer-Krief for her time and passion.
LA

If you wish to check the previous episodes, click here below:

Episode 1: Le Critique de Parfum
Episode 2: Elisabeth de Feydeau
Episode 3: Yann Vasnier
Episode 4: Pierre Aulas
Episode 5: Luc Berriet
Episode 6: Beatrix Chartier
Episode 7: Cédric Dauch

Info sourced in an exclusive interview by luxuryactivist.com. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available.

Facebook: only one Page per company

High Tech

LuxuryActivist

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17 October 2012

0

Reading Time: 6 minutes

Facebook announced to their “Preferred Marketing Developers” that they are working on the “mandatory merge” all companies different fan pages around the world into only ONE.

So if you have several company’s fan pages, most of the time one is global and then you have the local ones, this means that you will end up with only one.

Right now, you can already do it thanks to the improvements of the admin interface.

It is an interesting way to retake control of your name in Facebook, especially if some non-authorized people did create pages on your name. I tried and it works perfectly.

But the next step for Facebook is to impose the “single-page” strategy to all companies. Facebook says that companies should use more the geo-tagging options of the admin interface rather than multiply pages. We assume that for them it will be a better cost efficiency as local pages were having a high development rate, which means a lot of same content duplicated several times in the Facebook servers. Hosting costs went crazily up on the past 3 years as many companies developed their pages and that Facebook achieved the 1 billion users.

If Facebook were a country, imagine a country with almost the same population as China but with the GDP per capita of Bangladesh. We would be either having a humanitarian catastrophe or civil war. Fortunately for the inhabitants of Facebook land, all this is virtual.

So Facebook needs desperately to MONETIZE their business. Social does not mean volunteering work in social media right? The first step is increase revenues. They extended the advertising offers. Marketplace became a multiple billion dollar tool with extended packages. This year they launched Facebook offers, which allow companies to reach fans timelines in order to advertise special offers.

Of course another way to improve profitability is to reduce the costs of your operations, reduce the debt. With a consistently growth of their users and of the content in Facebook, every month they need to add extra Tera-octets. Every minute, Facebook has almost 1 million pieces of content published on their servers. So one of the actions to reduce the costs of such servers will be to force companies to keep only one single company page in the world. This should stop the duplication of the same content in multiple pages.

But the question is: Is it interesting for companies to have one single page? Not sure. Of course centralized companies will have finally a better control of their pages content and identity. For the users, it will be easier to find the “official page”. Large companies will end up with pages with hundreds of millions fans. Could this be a “web-killer”? In deed and up to now most of the brands have more traffic in their respective websites than in their Facebook pages. But if Nike ends up with a 500 million fan page, this might be more strategic than the website. What if big companies would basically shut down their websites to dedicate themselves to their Facebook pages? People instead of using Google to search for products and services, they will use the Search function of Facebook. and there we go…. web-killer strategy.

Of course Facebook needs to improve alot their companies admin interface and features. Right now try to manage a 5 million fan page. Hard. They are right now beta-testing alot of these features, so we might get more news from them in the incoming weeks.

They are right now beta testing the tool. The Geo targetting will be improved, language management will be much more fluid so every user will see the appropriate content.

Here is what Facebook tells you:

What are Global Pages?
Global Pages is a structure that allows brands to create individual localized versions of their Page
while maintaining the same Page name and global metrics such as Likes and People Talking About
This across all Pages. When a customer navigates to the main global page, they’ll get redirected to
the most localized Page available to them. This allows people to hear from the correct Page, so that
brands can deliver the right content to the right audience.
Why did Facebook build it?
Currently brands adopt one of two solutions to communicate with their fans worldwide: 1) a single
page solution, which unifies all fans to one Page, but doesn’t have fully geo-targeted features such
as the cover photo, profile picture, etc. or 2) a multi-page solution for each country which offers fully
localization, but it fragments their audience and doesn’t show aggregated fans, PTAT, etc.
Each solution has benefits and drawbacks. Global Pages merges these two strategies and allow
brands to create many different localized Pages while maintaining a global brand community.
Do brands have to transition to the new structure?
No, although it is encouraged. Not only will it allow a brand’s audience to easily find and like the
best Page for them, this is also an opportunity to create a fully localized Page experience including a
localized cover photo, profile photo, Page name, apps, timeline, pinned posts, and news feed
stories.
Does each Page get its own Facebook web address?
Yes, each Page can have a unique Facebook web address for each local Page as well as for the main
global Page. When users navigate to the main global Page’s address, they’ll be redirected to the appropriate local
Page. When users navigate to a local address, they’ll go directly to the local Page, regardless of
whatever country/region they are located in
Can more than one page share the same web address?
No, each Page should have a unique web address.
Will users see the URL for the main global page or the URL for the local page in their
browser?
They’ll see the URL for the local Page. For example, if they’re viewing the local Japan Page, they’ll see
facebook.com/brandJP instead of facebook.com/brand.

What do you think? Ready to share your passion with millions of people? Or do you prefer smaller communities?
LA

Info sourced at Facebook insiders. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available.

Fragrance words, episode 7: Cédric Dauch

LuxuryActivist

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16 October 2012

2

Fragrance words, episode 7: Cédric Dauch

Reading Time: 6 minutes

Fragrance words episode 7 features Cédric Dauch. Check down below for the french version.

EPISODE 7: CEDRIC DAUCH (EN)

Cédric Dauch is Communication manager at Le Printemps France. After his studies at l’Institut Français de la Mode (the French institute for fashion), he developed his career close to the luxury clientele for prestigious Distribution Brands. At Le Printemps France, he actively contributes to the qualitative ascension of the Printemps brand. He is personally invested on the Printemps Brand’s highlight via outstanding activities. His great culture in Luxury image, places him among the cutting edge “eyes” in Paris.