Bespoke Advantage - International Beauty Brand Consultancy’s Post

No eye de-puffer can help. Tears, puffy eyes, no sleep, stressful times. All up ahead for The Body Shop ‘s employees. My heart goes out. For employees who are losing their jobs, many of whom have been at the company for years. For customers, both loyal and occasional who’ve been in a relationship with it. And as a #brandstrategist at the sadness of a powerful brand allowed to gently spiral down. The brand that owned the “ethical beautycae” position (a long time ago), is now under Administration in the UK, and is letting its people go, shutting down stores. Repercussions will be global, whatever the facemasks might say. And up and down the supply and franchise chain. But this present could have been foretold. The ‘make up’ writing was on the wall. * The range didn’t seem to change. * Innovation didn’t impress. * The products didn’t seem all that special. * They certainly didn’t seem superior to the competition * Huge push offers each time. (Always a red flag) * Yet hardly any shoppers offline.(more store staff always) * In fact, even in pre Covid days, the customers were mostly someone’s mamas. Why, even the Pledge board (this I personally saw aghast, and took the store staff through) had every single apostrophe in every single contraction missing, leaving a mess of tangled words- “well do were this, weve done” and so on. Clearly no one seemed to be in charge or care as much as Dame Roddick did. And after she sold the brand in 2006, (and sadly passed the following year), The Body Shop has been the hot potato being tossed from one buyer’s hand to the next. And with each pass, seeing erosion of brand equity, brand value and loss of vibrancy in its customer base. My Rx: Need thorough inside outside cleansing, seruming, foundationing, strategising, and alignment for the body and soul to return to the #brand. Join me for occasional musings about the attachment, allure and agony #brands deliver us. And do share the feeling and thinking sparked🙌 #branding #brandstrategy #brandrxquad #marketingandadvertising #brandequity

Do you know how some businesses seem to skyrocket their success? Well I'm going to tell you a (not so secret) secret. It's about creating scarcity. I saw an interesting video the other day that talked about this ('ll link the video below) It talked about the recent sale of the streetwear brand Supreme, and how it blew up in popularity in a short amount of time. The Carlyle group bought a majority stake in the company Supreme in 2017 after they observed the rapid growth of the brand. And the reason for Supreme's rapid growth? The only produced and sold an EXTREMELY limited number of everything they sold. This made it very hard to get your hands on. Because of this, resale prices for the streetware items could 2x, 5x, or sometimes 10x the original price. Now you should be implementing this in your business if possible. If you are a B2B company talking to a prospect, say that you are only looking to work with a couple companies in their area. If you are a service based business, you can say that spots/availability are almost gone. Try this and see what happens Link to the video - https://lnkd.in/gJp4r4vt

This is sad Friday news - and another loss for the UK's declining highstreets. Even with former ASOS CEO Nick Beighton's push towards increased brand variety and introducing a rental service, Matches has been unable to navigate the complex 'post-pandemic' tailwinds of declining consumer footfall and reach of luxury online multi-brand retailers (see the recent issues at Yoox-Net-a-Porter (YNAP) and Farfetch. I'll be making a post next week about the lack of support for fashion and sustainability from this week's budget, and what we are hoping to do about it with the All-party parliamentary group for Ethics and Sustainability in Fashion. #luxuryretail #sustainablefashion #futureofretail

ANOTHER one bites the dust !! I do hope the UK goverment are proud of themselves !! what an amazing example they are setting for the rest of the world on how to destroy an economy in record FASHION !! (pun intended) MATCHES and now TED BAKER it's not hard to see how BREXIT and other less ethical policy decision making has played a significant distructive part in the down fall in the British fashion retailing sector. Whilst I am sure there are many other factors influencing this decision by Authentic Brands group & Ted Baker to call in the administators the lack of consumer spending is a clear sign that our so called Government have been instrumental in all of these recent collapses and developments playing out. It seems not even the most heavily invested and financial backed brands are unable to absorb the risks now playing out in the UK retail sector. #riskmanagement #brexit #investment #gdpgrowth #administrators #collapse #governments

Frasers Group is putting MATCHES fashion into administration, just over two months after the retail giant acquired the struggling luxury e-tailer for £52 million ($66.6 million). Frasers Group originally bought Matchesfashion (which rebranded to Matches late last year) to increase its position in luxury, but brands have begun to sever ties with Matches as some of them have not received payments for months, according to a Sky News report. Matches, which was founded as a brick-and-mortar store in the 1980s, sold more than 500 brands, including BALENCIAGA and Gucci, on its platform. In 2017, private equity firm Apax Partners acquired Matches at a reported $1 billion valuation. But Matches’ losses soon began to mount as the costs to attract customers online increased and more brands began to sell on their own e-commerce sites, competing directly with multi-brand platforms. Read the full story by BoF's Malique Morris.

A sobering article, but some wisdom found, and reasons to be optimistic. Brilliant article and insights from Kirsty McGregor. MULTI BRAND ISN'T DEAD! Many luxury shoppers prefer a multi-brand environment that enables the mixing and matching of different aesthetics and the discovery of new names. Elizabeth von der Goltz. “We’ve got to a place where brands don’t trust retailers, so they’re trying to do it all on their own. But that’s not how a customer wants to shop.” She advises brands to consider a balance between DTC and finding strategic wholesale partners. Michael Kliger’s faith in the future of multi-brand retail has not wavered. “2023 was a tough year, and we have seen a pivotal moment where businesses that were already struggling fell apart. But there is a consumer out there that loves multi-brand.” TRYING TO BE SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE IS OVER! WE HAVE LEARNED THIS AT SEEK . RETAILERS ARE NOW LEARNING THIS. Mytheresa’s tight curation — it carries around 200 brands — means it’s not an easy nut to crack for emerging talent. “In general, because we are so highly curated, it’s tougher to be part of our portfolio than others. The mantra is that if a new brand comes in, one needs to go out. That doesn’t mean we don’t take new brands, but there needs to be a reason to have them in the portfolio.” “My number one priority is to not make the mistake of thinking MACHINE-A should one day become this global platform that tries to satisfy everyone and sell hundreds of brands. I believe this model is not viable. We need to focus on what we do best — offering something highly curated, interesting and unique that speaks to the customer on an emotional level instead of trying to satisfy everyone or become the next big thing. It’s about creating a special relationship with your loyal audience and evolving and increasing that audience in a healthy way.” Stavros Karelis IT WOULD APPEAR THE CASE, CONSIDERING MATCHES HAS 600 BRANDS, MR PORTER - UNDER CONSIDERATION FOR SALE - HAS 460 BRANDS. END. HAS REDUCED FROM 700 TO 500 BRANDS. ADDED TO OTHER RECENT ARTICLES/INSIGHTS FROM Voo Store, LN-CC - FURTHER-PROOFING THE NEED FOR A TIGHT, UNIQUE CURATION. NEW PLAYERS ARE COMING TO TOWN TO TAKE MARKET SHARE! Italian luxury retailer MODES is expanding and plans to open its first-ever UK store later this year. “People are looking for a personalised, multi-brand experience where you can find different collaborations or exclusive products,” says Simon Whitehouse. Ryan Llewellyn-Pace is launching a multi-brand retailer dedicated to outerwear called Out With Style. 'We’ve done a lot of research on what the consumer is looking for, and essentially, it is more specialisms, rather than the mass multi-brand websites we see so much of today,” he explains, echoing Karelis. “We felt very strongly that there was a need to have fewer brands and be more purpose-specific. Consumers need to understand why it’s there. You can’t be everything to all people.'

For GUESS?, Inc. to make its first acquisition ever you know the deal had to be good. Guess is buying rag & bone and my gut tells me just the brand is worth more than $50M but clearly I’m wrong. They are buying it for $56.5 million USD, with an additional earn out that could reach as high as $12.8 million USD. Rag & Bone sales were around $250 million USD. Let’s assume $100M were wholesale at 30% ($30M) margins and the other $150M ($9-15M) were retail using <10% net margin after their operating costs. My guess is revenue is declining, senior loans were coming up and fashion and retail is just extremely hard. Let’s turn to the experts. Dee Murthy Jonathan Saven Angelic Vendette https://lnkd.in/gYYhZ4Gn

The scent of acquisition in the air for SpaceNK Apothecary? This will be an interesting one. We already have plenty of online D2C players offering deals on luxury products. Plenty of department stores bring in new brands and organize pop-ups before then moving those brands online. What sets SpaceNK out for many consumers, is the discovery and specialist guidance for specific skin needs. There is an atmosphere of independence in-store (despite being PE-backed) for the customer. The stores are often overstaffed, which helps to keep samples and displays clean. You will usually discover niche brands well before other brick-and-mortar stores. The beauty industry is globally worth circa US$646.20bn. New products are constantly coming out for more and more niches. So we need to have a diverse marketplace for brands so for anyone planning to put the SpaceNK deal in their basket, please keep the independent spirit. #retailnews #beauty #retail #highstreet #ecomm #beautybrands #M&A #takeovers https://lnkd.in/eQUq5ujw

The Body Shop - the end is nigh or revival in sight? I shared my thoughts with TheIndustry.fashion & TheIndustry.beauty “It’s a surprise to see The Body Shop appoint administrators so soon after it was acquired, but there may be a silver lining to the future of this iconic brand. By appointing administrators, the business will be pulled apart, assets may be sold and some of the more profitable areas of the business will be left to be focused on. We have seen this done with high-street names such as Wilko and Made.com recently, where the brands live on but under different management and ways of retailing to the customer. There could also be the opportunity to sell the brand name and IP similarly to what we saw with Paperchase and Hunter last year. The Body Shop is a heritage brand but no longer has the ‘cool’ factor it did in the 70s and 80s. When it launched, The Body Shop was way ahead of the trends and for decades afterwards, but as the market evolved and brands overtook The Body Shop, it lost its point of difference. There are now numerous brands with ethical values, and truly, all brands must have ethics and a mission as part of their business for success in the future market. Ultimately, The Body Shop needs to invest in further developing its point of difference to succeed. Remodelling the business will only take it so far. It has already been left behind in the market, customers are not engaged compared to other brands, it needs to create an emotive connection with customers again. The only way is to reposition itself in a swiftly evolving market, as well as focus on a unique customer experience that gives customers a reason to enter their shops or shop online. I don’t think this is the last we will see of The Body Shop, but it needs to operate, look, feel and act very differently to survive." 👇Share in the comments - do you think it’s possible to revive The Body Shop in a new format or this marks the end of the road? #cleanbeauty #beautyretail https://lnkd.in/ehgxxbcC

Harrolds: the popular luxury retailer (around 40 years in the game) has gone into liquidation; liquidators from SMB Advisory have been appointed; the retailer owes creditors (including major luxury fashion houses) over $16 million. Watch this space. Pressures continue for the retail sector. It’s important for all those impacted by financial distress to be proactive and obtain early professional advice and we’re here to help. https://lnkd.in/gM54RzFY