Sensible, actionable advice for anyone hoping to move a brand into the upper echelons of retailing.
A fashionista offers marketers advice for connecting with the elusive luxury customer.
In a world where suburban teens tote designer handbags and Prada is available at the local outlet mall, how is luxury defined? As more consumers gain access to ostensibly high-end goods, many luxury brands are struggling to distinguish themselves while retaining the aura of exclusivity. How does a luxury company ensure that its products get into the hands of the “right” customer? And how does it hold on to a shopper “whose needs are constantly growing and changing”? These are questions that Phillips tackles in this marketing guidebook for those who want to grab the attention—and the dollars—of the ultrahigh-net-worth shopper. Each brief, easy-to-read chapter delivers a single marketing lesson, whether it’s the benefits—and hazards—of licensing a luxury brand, the importance of cultivating a smaller, elite clientele rather than courting mass appeal, or the dangers posed by counterfeiters. Charts and graphs illustrate concepts such as the “luxury consumption pyramid,” and callouts draw attention to key points. Like a textbook, chapters end with a list of lessons learned and a question for readers. Some of Phillips’ insights are common sense; most luxury marketers have probably realized the importance of having easy-to-navigate, smartphone-optimized websites, for example. But the handbook also offers on-point guidance on tapping the fast-growing global luxury market, noting that elite shoppers from countries like Brazil and China are big consumers of luxury goods, but simply opening new stores in these markets may not guarantee growth. Instead, a smarter approach could involve developing online sales, producing regionally tailored products (such as Hermès saris for the Indian market), and building overall brand awareness to capture tourist shoppers. Other useful tips include guidance on creating spin-off children’s brands, which provide a luxury consumer a chance to “indulge in a form of shopping that can be rationalized as selfless,” the changing habits of the high-end shopper, and how embracing a sustainable business model can benefit both the environment and the bottom line.
Sensible, actionable advice for anyone hoping to move a brand into the upper echelons of retailing.Pub Date: July 14, 2012
ISBN: 978-1475113327
Page Count: 256
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Smart, engaging sportswriting—good reading for organization builders as well as Pats fans.
Prolific writer Benedict has long blended two interests—sports and business—and the Patriots are emblematic of both. Founded in 1959 as the Boston Patriots, the team built a strategic home field between that city and Providence. When original owner Billy Sullivan sold the flailing team in 1988, it was $126 million in the hole, a condition so dire that “Sullivan had to beg the NFL to release emergency funds so he could pay his players.” Victor Kiam, the razor magnate, bought the long since renamed New England Patriots, but rival Robert Kraft bought first the parking lots and then the stadium—and “it rankled Kiam that he bore all the risk as the owner of the team but virtually all of the revenue that the team generated went to Kraft.” Check and mate. Kraft finally took over the team in 1994. Kraft inherited coach Bill Parcells, who in turn brought in star quarterback Drew Bledsoe, “the Patriots’ most prized player.” However, as the book’s nimbly constructed opening recounts, in 2001, Bledsoe got smeared in a hit “so violent that players along the Patriots sideline compared the sound of the collision to a car crash.” After that, it was backup Tom Brady’s team. Gridiron nerds will debate whether Brady is the greatest QB and Bill Belichick the greatest coach the game has ever known, but certainly they’ve had their share of controversy. The infamous “Deflategate” incident of 2015 takes up plenty of space in the late pages of the narrative, and depending on how you read between the lines, Brady was either an accomplice or an unwitting beneficiary. Still, as the author writes, by that point Brady “had started in 223 straight regular-season games,” an enviable record on a team that itself has racked up impressive stats.
Smart, engaging sportswriting—good reading for organization builders as well as Pats fans.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-982134-10-5
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Avid Reader Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
A vigorous and highly readable plan for building the finances of a new business.
A program of cash-management techniques for aspiring entrepreneurs, aimed at a minority readership.
At the beginning of this business book, Mariga reflects on the birth of her daughter, Florence, and on the depressing prospect of returning to her corporate job and missing some of her baby’s early moments. She realized that she “wanted to show Florence…that I could, that she could, that anyone could be anything they wanted to be in this world.” To that end, she wanted to start her own business, and she “wanted to help entrepreneurs build successful businesses that provide opportunities for others.” In a sentiment reflected by others she’s interviewed, she says that she wanted to strengthen her family legacy, so she founded her own accounting firm. She paints a vivid picture of the hardscrabble early days of other minority business owners like herself, the child of an African American mother and a Chinese father who also had a family accounting business. She and others were “all hustling to acquire clients and build our businesses…and most of us had absolutely nothing to show for it.” She was inspired by Mike Michalowicz’s Profit First money management system, and the bulk of her book is devoted to an explanation of how to make this system work for minority business enterprises. (Michalowicz provides a foreword to the book.) One of the primary goals of Profit First is to build “a self-sustaining, debt-free company,” so a large part of Mariga’s work deals with the details of managing finances, building and abiding by budgets, and handling the swings of emotion that occur every step of the way. As sharply focused as these insights are, the author’s recollections of her own experiences are more rewarding, as when she tells readers of her brief time as a cut-rate accountant and learning that it was a mistake to try to compete on price. These stories, as well as financing specifics and clear encouragements (“Small changes and adjustments accumulate. Over time, they will lead you to your goal”), will make this book invaluable to entrepreneurs of all kinds.
A vigorous and highly readable plan for building the finances of a new business.Pub Date: May 25, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7357759-0-6
Page Count: 230
Publisher: The Avant-Garde Project, LLC
Review Posted Online: April 7, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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