Luxury, Retail, FMCG and Media News & Trends: Nov Week 4
Luxury, Retail, FMCG and Media News & Trends: Nov Week 4
1. Business Moves
i. Chanel Opens First Beauty Boutique Store
Chanel has opened its first beauty boutique concept store, Maison de Beauté, in the fashionable Chaussée de la Muette district of Paris. Spanning 180 square meters across three levels, the boutique showcases Chanel’s full range of beauty products and offers exclusive personal care services.
Takeaway: Analysts believe that the opening of this new store is aimed at attracting consumers through a refined experience, solidifying Chanel’s leadership position in the beauty sector.
ii. Rolex to Sponsor Larry Ellison’s High-Speed Yachting Race
Rolex secured a long-term title sponsorship deal with SailGP, a high-speed yachting race series co-founded by Larry Ellison.
Takeaway: The partnership, which will span a decade, marks a major move for Rolex in the world of sailing following its exit as a headline sponsor of Formula One. Rolex’s sponsorship aligns with its strategy to engage a younger, more diverse audience, including women, while reinforcing its strong ties to sailing, a sport the brand has supported for decades. Rolex sees its involvement in SailGP as an opportunity to connect with affluent sports fans and further enhance its image in the luxury market.
iii. Authentic Brands Signs ANZ Partnership for Champion
Authentic Brands Group partnered with Brand Collective to expand the Champion brand in Australia and New Zealand. Brand Collective, which already manages brands like Reebok and Canada Goose, will leverage its expertise to drive Champion’s growth and connect with consumers in new ways. The deal is expected to close by January 31, 2025, with Champion continuing under Hanes Australasia until then.
Takeaway: The move follows Authentic’s acquisition of Champion earlier this year, and the licensing agreement with the Australia-based distributor is a key step in growing the sportswear brand in the region.
iv. Chinese High-End Beauty Brand Mao Geping to Start IPO in December
Mao Geping Cosmetics Co., Ltd. has passed the listing hearing at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and plans to launch its public offering on November 21. The official IPO is expected to start in December. The targeted transaction size is approximately $300 million. According to data from Frost & Sullivan, in 2023, Mao Geping ranked eighth in the retail rankings for high-end beauty brands in China’s department store channel (with annual revenue of 1.996 billion yuan, accounting for 2.9%), making it the only domestic brand to enter the top 10.
2. People Moves
i. Luxury: Celine, Kering and Salomon
Celine: Celine appointed Emilie Leblanc as its new global communications director. Leblanc, who joins from Saint Laurent after a 15-year tenure, will report directly to Celine’s CEO, Severine Merle, and sit on the executive committee. She previously held senior marketing roles at Saint Laurent and Reposi. She has also worked as an ad sales executive at Editions Jalou, the publisher of French fashion magazine L’Officiel. This appointment follows the departure of creative director Hedi Slimane and comes ahead of Michael Rider’s appointment as the new creative lead in 2025.
Kering: Kering appointed two new CEOs, effective January 2, 2025.
- Cédric Charbit was named CEO of Saint Laurent. Charbit, who has been with Kering since 2012 and previously led Balenciaga.
- Gianfranco Gianangeli was named CEO of Balenciaga. Gianangeli was previously chief commercial officer at Saint Laurent.
Both will report to Francesca Bellettini, Kering’s deputy CEO in charge of brand development. This move comes as Kering strengthens its leadership structure to drive long-term growth.
Salomon: Amer Sports, which owns brands like Arc’teryx and Wilson, appointed Guillaume Meyzenq as the new president and CEO of Salomon, effective January 1, 2025. Meyzenq, currently the Chief Product Officer for Salomon, is a 28-year veteran at Salomon with extensive experience in global product categories, regional commercial roles, and a decade-long tenure on the Salomon leadership team. He is credited with driving the transformation and growth of Salomon’s footwear business, a key component of its future success.
ii. Retail & E-Commerce: Sephora, Crocs and Alibaba
Sephora: Marion Bouchut, who has served as associate director of public affairs at Shein Europe, is set to join Sephora as head of global communications in January 2025. Meanwhile, Shein is replacing her with Quentin Ruffat, who was previously the PR director at Forward Global, though it’s unclear if this change will improve the brand’s public image.
Crocs: Crocs has appointed renowned footwear designer Steven Smith as its head of creative innovation, starting December 2. Smith has over 30 years of experience working with top brands like Yeezy, Reebok, Nike, Adidas, and New Balance. He will lead design efforts for Crocs and Heydude, introducing new product silhouettes and refining the brands’ design languages. This move comes as Crocs aims to boost growth, having seen a slight revenue increase in its third quarter, driven by Crocs brand performance but a decline in Heydude’s revenue.
Alibaba: Alibaba appointed Jiang Fan to lead a major overhaul of its e-commerce division, which involves consolidating all online shopping assets, including Taobao, Tmall, Lazada, and other smaller services. Jiang previously oversaw Alibaba’s growing international retail division. This restructuring follows a series of changes within Alibaba, and it signals Alibaba’s commitment to enhancing its e-commerce operations and expanding market access globally.
3. Marketing and Advertising
i. AI Search Startup Perplexity Adds Shopping Features
Perplexity, an AI-powered search startup supported by notable backers like Jeff Bezos and Nvidia, is challenging Google’s dominance by launching a shopping-focused hub. This new feature introduces visually rich product cards that integrate data from platforms like Shopify, enabling users to access relevant product details in response to shopping queries. Key highlights include:
- Snap to Shop: A visual search tool that identifies products from user-uploaded photos.
- Merchant Programme: Allows retailers to share product information.
These features are debuting in the US, with plans for global rollout.
Takeaway: The move aligns with the broader trend of e-commerce platforms leveraging AI tools to attract merchants. As Perplexity competes with OpenAI’s expanding search functionalities in ChatGPT, it is also pursuing new funding that could value the company at $9 billion.
ii. Google Shopping Now Supports Price Comparison, Availability Check
Google rolled out new updates to Google Shopping to enhance the in-store shopping experience. Notable features include:
- Google Lens with comparative pricing for items shoppers see in-store. By simply taking a photo of a product, shoppers can now access price comparisons at nearby stores and view similar items, availability, and more. This update leverages AI image recognition and the Shopping Graph, which includes over 45 billion product listings.
- Google Maps, which now allows users to search for specific items and see which nearby stores have them in stock.
- Google Pay, which is expanded and now offers Afterpay, Klarna, and Discover for secure purchases.
Takeaway: Google is positioning this as a tool to boost purchase confidence and drive in-store sales, as 72% of US shoppers use their phones while shopping, with over half leaving stores without buying due to uncertainty. However, this also makes it easier for consumers to find cheaper alternatives elsewhere, potentially leading to price competition for retail outlets.
iii. Google Adjusts Site Reputation Abuse Policy for Fairer Ranking
Google updated its site reputation abuse policy, now including first-party involvement or oversight of third-party content as a violation if it’s used to manipulate search rankings. This change targets practices like “parasite SEO,” where third-party content is exploited to leverage a site’s ranking signals unfairly. Google clarified that even with complex business arrangements like licensing or partial ownership, any attempt to exploit the host site’s reputation remains a violation. The policy, which still relies on manual actions for enforcement, aims to improve the quality of search results and eliminate tactics that degrade user experience.
Takeaway: This policy update also means that Google’s algorithms may now adjust rankings based on site-wide signals, treating sections with different content independently, ensuring a fairer ranking system. Though not all third-party content is considered abuse, this broader policy is likely to impact sites using such tactics, as manual actions can now result in content removal from the index.
iv. Google Details Ads API Roadmap for 2025
Google outlined its Ads API roadmap for 2025, detailing five planned updates. These include three major versions (V19, V20, V21) and two minor updates (V19_1, V20_1). Key dates include V19 launching in February/March, V20 mid-year, and V21 in Q4. Each version will have a 12-month sunset period.
Takeaway: This roadmap enables marketers and developers to prepare for the technical resources and implementations needed, with updates rolling out quarterly. However, the schedule is tentative and subject to changes, so developers should stay updated on feature changes and deprecation timelines.
v. Snapchat’s Bitmoji Feature Prada and Miu Miu Bags
Snapchat introduced a new feature for its Bitmoji avatars that allows users to personalise their characters with designer bags from Prada and Miu Miu. This marks Snapchat’s first branded handbag partnership and adds to its existing collection of digital fashion options from brands like Adidas, Converse, and Nike. Users can unlock these new accessories for free or purchase premium items to enhance their virtual persona.
Takeaway: While this partnership may not immediately generate significant revenue, it provides a way to expand Bitmoji usage and drive engagement, especially among younger audiences who are familiar with interacting through avatars. This move aligns with the broader trend of social media evolving towards more immersive virtual experiences, similar to Meta’s metaverse vision, where avatars play a central role in communication and engagement.
vi. Meta Switches Primary Metric to “Views”
Meta announced a shift to using “Views” as the primary metric for content performance on both Instagram and Facebook, aligning with Instagram’s changes in August. These updates will roll out gradually across Meta’s platforms.
- What:
- “Views” will now track all content types, including videos, images, and text posts, measuring how many times content appears on a user’s screen—replacing “impressions” for Stories and photo/text posts.
- For video and reel content, “Watch Time” and “Average Watch Time” will be replaced with “Minutes Viewed” and “Average Minutes Viewed,” capturing total and average viewing time in minutes instead of seconds.
- Implications: This move simplifies the measurement process by consolidating various content metrics (such as “plays,” “impressions,” and “accounts reached”) into a single, consistent measure across both platforms.
Takeaway: While these changes aim to simplify performance tracking, it’s important to note that the new metrics may lead to inflated view counts, especially since “Views” now counts repeated views (e.g., someone viewing a photo multiple times counts as multiple views). The focus on video and the streamlined approach to performance tracking could impact how engagement is measured, and it may be worth monitoring data trends for any unexpected fluctuations.
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