Speaking to so many of them is to try and engage in dialogue with a superior form of Stepford spouse: it’s all DNA of the brand, tradition of innovation, control documents, rediscovering of roots, establishing communications platforms, leadership dynamics, change management, harnessing the power of social media and the rest of the corporate voodoo. I find it hard not be underwhelmed by someone who professes to entertain a passion for their métier while talking to you in a monotone, free of pitch and cadence.

Now I know that may sound a bit harsh but it is not just the choleric inclinations of middle age that are talking here but a degree of empirical, if anecdotal, experience. This was made clear to me during a recent stay at the Palace Hotel in Gstaad. The Palace is familiar to anyone who has ever seen a Pink Panther film and I happen to rate it among my favourite places to stay, partly for the jet set heritage and partly because it is a properly-run hotel of the old school.
Andrea Scherz is the third generation of his family to oversee the ownership and management of the Palace, and he and his father are full of stories of the good old days: the party given for Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton on the rooftop of the hotel where the Scherzes introduced the Burton-Taylors to the locals of Gstaad; the time when Sheikh Yamani bought an apartment at the hotel and had a mobile bullet-proof screen installed, which could be moved to follow him as he walked around his terrace; and so many more.

But what really impressed me was when Andrea explained why he still has real keys to the rooms rather than the plastic cards that are a part of even the most illustrious hotel experiences today. In addition to standing less chance of losing it among the debris in my pocket, as an analogue person I like the heavy feel of a hotel key in the hand, preferably with a tassel of bullion fringing. I can’t help feeling that the plastic key cards go with the plastic name badges on the stagiaires at reception, the plastic smiles of welcome (no doubt well intended), and the plastic conversational gambits.

By contrast the physical key is also the figurative one that unlocks the true grand hotel experience. A regular key may be more expensive, more time-consuming and more hassle to replace if lost but, in the end, it tells you so much more about the hotel and, more importantly still, tells the hotel so much more about the hotel.

To explain: it is apparently the interaction with the concierge that is… to use the pun… key. After an evening in the hotel restaurant or nightclub the resident will wend his way to the concierge where, if the hotel is doing its job properly, the concierge will address you by name, hand you your key without needing to ask the room number, ask if you require your usual breakfast and wake-up call and generally make you feel like an esteemed guest. The concierge will also ask if the evening in the hotel bar/restaurant/nightclub has been satisfactory – and apparently hotel guests are more inclined to honesty having taken nocturnal refreshment than they are the following morning when checking out, their mind on the day ahead, meetings to be attended and flights to be caught.

Simple when you think about it, but while the convenience and cost-effectiveness of the card method can be easily calculated, the value of the traditional key is harder to ascertain. Then again, maybe I am doing the business schools a disservice and there is a handy formula that offsets the valuable information gained as part of this un-invasive guest satisfaction survey against the cost of a heavy brass key and lock, while ascribing a financial worth to the enhanced feelings of self-worth of the guest.

It is the sense of knowledge of the individual that is crucial. For most of us, at least those of us who are not newly-minted Beijing billionaires slugging it out with Kazakh mineral magnates for the honour of having the biggest yacht off the Costa Smeralda this summer, luxury is not about the headline stuff (we can’t afford it), it is about the subtle things that make us feel better disposed towards life. I saw this in action at the Marbella Club when I was chatting with Angel the sommelier.

Angel is an impressive character. He lends an appropriate dignity to the business of choosing a bottle. If you want he can give you a 20-minute peroration on the charm of the Tempranillo grape and unless you have got half an hour handy do not get him started on the left and right bank of the Gironde. But it is not the oenological encyclopaedia that he carries in his head that makes Angel an asset to the Marbella Club: “I have learned that it is more important that I know the names and tastes of the customers than the appellation of the wines.” If he weren’t such a great sommelier I would suggest that he take up a teaching post at one of the fancier business schools.

Where once ‘always-on’ culture was all pervading, consumers today are seeking digital invisibility. Constant conversation and dialogue is losing its appeal, and in its place, people are yearning for contemplation. From hotels to airports, consumers are looking beyond aesthetics, and seeking the sublime. Meanwhile, they are culling bold brash brands in favour of ones that are considerate, quiet and intuitive.

The New Sublimity is not about abandoning digital life, though. Rather than simply switching off, consumers are mastering a new on-off way of being. The world is soul-searching alternatives to capitalism. At the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2012, one of the key debates was: ‘Is 20th-century capitalism failing 21st-century society?’ David Cameron has called the old-style system ‘turbo capitalism’. Economist Noreena Hertz dubs the old way ‘Gucci capitalism.’
“The system, in all its different varieties, is widely perceived to be failing to deliver,” wrote economic journalist John Plender in The Financial Times, in January 2012.

In response to the recession, consumers are now re-evaluating what matters. “Is [life] about equity and the acquisition of things, or is it about sustainability, balance, love, family, happiness?” asks Richard Welch, director, Lowe Counsel. It’s a question more consumers are beginning to raise.

“When we can no longer find happiness and safety in outside sources we have no choice but to look for an inner sense of faith,” says Gabrielle Bernstein, author of Spirit Junkie: A Radical Road to Self-Love and Miracles. Governments are responding too. France, Canada and Britain all now measure the happiness of their citizens. The US and Australia are now investigating alternative measures to GDP. “In the beginning, it was great to be able to shop on Amazon at 2am. Now you have to shop at 2am because you just finished work with your international client. All the benefits of the always-on culture have slowly become detractions. The question is what can we do about it?” says Thomas Stevenson, New York-based artist, designer and builder.

Recognising that, according to New York research brand Basex, 50% of a knowledge worker’s day is spent managing information, which results in “a loss of ability to make decisions, process information and prioritise tasks”, companies in the future will bring sublimity to the workplace. Netlife Research web consultancy is already trialing this, by introducing a new monastery-style space at work, were employees are encouraged to find refuge for contemplation.

Companies will also put technology in its correct place, and create tech-free time outs. Automaker Volkswagen has rewired employees’ BlackBerrys to stop receiving work emails 30 minutes after their shifts ended. W Hotels in New York is instigating tech-free Fridays to encourage “greater communication and creativity among the team”.

People are going on digital diets to manage their on, and off, digital time. Daniel Sieberg’s The Digital Diet shows people how to manage technology in their lives. The new RescueTime app monitors where you spend time online, forcing you offline at certain times. It claims to rescue an average of three hours and 54 minutes of productive time per person per week.

Businesses are also becoming more aware of digital on and off time. New legislation in Brazil rules that any emails answered after work hours qualify for overtime. New app MacFreedom blocks computer connectivity for up to eight hours, allowing uninterrupted analysis, and coding or creative time.
Now that sounds like a real luxury …

www.thefuturelaboratory.com

Luxury brands are investing a lot into communicating with and monitoring the activity of their customers. This could be via email, social media or browsing habits – and all of this activity generates enormous amounts of data. However, what so many brands are failing to realise is that this data is their biggest asset, and can revolutionise the way they approach customer communications.

Understanding customers is particularly crucial for luxury brands, which thrive on exclusivity rather than mass marketing and, as such, bespoke CRM should be extended across all communication channels. One sure-fire way to damage a brand / customer relationship that’s taken years to cultivate is constantly to inundate a customer with a sales pitch he or she is not at all interested in, or that is not communicated in a way that they prefer. So, how do brands discover who wants to hear about what, and by which method of communication? The answer is by measuring brand engagement.

Brand engagement modelling is the next big thing for luxury. Rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach to CRM, our clients have developed a serious appetite for this increasingly sophisticated way of understanding customers and targeting their specific behavioural preferences.

These models are developed by examining various factors or criteria for engagement, including email open rates, speed of opening and click rates. We also overlay metrics based on the customer’s level of interest in the brand’s ecommerce site – how many times they browse, what product categories they’re looking at, whether they are unique browses and so on. There is also a vast amount of social interaction data to be worked in to the model. We measure all this against transactional data to give each customer a final brand engagement score. So, for example, one group of customers might be very engaged but not purchasing; another might have a very high transactional score but not be very engaged.
The approach brands need to take with each of these groups is obviously going to be very different – and for luxury brands, when one order can account for such a high ticket value, this is even more relevant. For example, one customer may want to know he is important and valued, but rather than noisy communication may prefer the occasional more personal email or phone call. Meanwhile another might be tipped into a purchase decision with a time-limited offer specific to the product they’ve been browsing.

Capitalising on knowledge of these specific categories of customer is something that very few brands are currently doing, but which so many are potentially capable of with the correct management and use of their data. The time has come for luxury brands to get their house in order, and ensure they are making the most of this valuable information instead of just focusing on open and click rates for customer insight and targeted marketing strategies.

Think of everything about your luxury brand as bespoke rather than off the peg – as you no doubt do anyway. Even your CRM needs to be the perfect fit.

Damian Bentley is managing director of digital and CRM agency Tangent Snowball

Many attribute this growth to China, where men account for over two-thirds (70%) of all luxury sales, due partly to the popular gift-giving culture amongst businessmen and government officials. Are Chinese male appetites for luxury sustainable? The rise of self-purchasing women may soon overshadow male demand.

Highest millionaire density in Qatar
The emirate of Qatar has the highest density of millionaires globally, behind Singapore and Switzerland (Doha Bank), with 8.9% of households having investible assets of $1m or more. Thanks to relatively high savings rates, individual investors in GCC countries currently have approx $2tn in liquid investible assets, predicted to grow by 40% (to $2.8 tn) by 2015.

UHNWI services transfer to mass affluents
UK-based advisory broker Killik & Co recently announced it will provide family office services to its broader client base, and not just the ultra-wealthy. A key element will be concierge services. Mass-affluent populations are growing: in the UK the number of ‘demi-millionaires’ (investible assets of at least £500k) currently stands at more than 500k and is expected to reach close to 1m by 2016 (White Concierge). In the US, more than one in five (22%) households is considered to be affluent (income exceeding $100k) (Loyalty360). Concierge services are profitable, provide differentiation and are a good way to forge client relationships and loyalty at a time when banks are passing on higher costs of regulation to clients. Research into how mass-affluents in the UK, France and Germany came to join lifestyle concierge schemes, shows that only 17% sourced one through their banks, compared to 22% who did so through work and 39% who did it themselves (White Concierge).

Australia among highest wealth per capita
Australia has the third-highest wealth per capita globally (Wealth Insights). More than 274,000 HNWIs in Australia have an average worth of $3.1m each.

Extracted from High Net Worth by Ledbury, the leading research for professionals who market and sell to the wealthy. To subscribe, visit www.ledburyresearch.com/research-reports/high-net-worth

Sewara Hospitality & Development
New Indian hotel group Sewara Hospitality & Development is due to open its flagship property, Lakshman Sagar, a restored heritage retreat in the Pali district of Rajasthan in September. The 32-acre estate was built in the 19th century as a hunting lodge for the Thakur of Raipur, Lakshman Sagar Ji, and comprises 12 luxurious cottages featuring quirky custom-made pieces such as recycled milk cans as light fixtures and table legs ‘dressed’ in bangles. Each cottage features a bedroom, rain-shower bathroom, living space with traditional fireplaces and private plunge pool with lake views. Living areas offer day beds, Shisha pipes, antique writing desks and a telescope for stargazing, while ingredients for the organic dishes are harvested onsite. Guests can undertake activities such as yoga and meditation, birdwatching and fishing, as well as cooking lessons or pottery making. Sewara Hospitality & Development is owned by Inderpal Singh Kochhar and is committed to offering local experiences. It is set to expand to ten boutique properties in restored heritage buildings in untouched areas of Rajasthan and the Andaman & Nicobar islands.

Trump Organisation
US property conglomorate Trump Organization has announced plans to expand into India’s luxury hotel market, in cities including New Delhi, Bangalore and Goa. It recently entered the market, signing a joint venture with real estate developer Rohan Lifescapes for a 45-storey luxury residential tower in Mumbai. The company, whose portfolio consists of properties in the US, Turkey and South Korea, also intends to bring in the Trump Hotel Collection by 2016 as well as several residential and hotel projects over the next five years. “India, among other emerging markets, is the biggest push for our organisation,” says Donald Trump Jr, executive vice president.

Les Petits
India’s first multi-brand luxury store for childrenswear and furniture launched a flagship at DLF Emporio in New Delhi. Brands including Miss Blumarine, Baby Dior and Fendi Kids for children from 0 to 8 are on offer, as well as furniture brand Theophile and Patchou. Swati Saraf, president of Les Petits, says: “The brands available at the store have been carefully selected keeping in mind our customers and their aspirations.” The 1,500 sq ft store has been designed by Italian architects, Lino Losanno and Lorenzo Perini.

On Fifth Avenue, Longchamp is coming to 610 at Rockefeller Center, in Movado’s former location. Joe Fresh unveiled its flagship at no 510, corner of 43rd Street. On Park Avenue, Daum and Haviland’s art, glass and porcelain move to no 499.
On Broadway on the Upper West Side, New York icon Harry’s Shoes moves to 2299. Yoga-inspired apparel Lululemon takes 2139 as headquarters. Brooks Bros’ eighth store in Manhattan debuted at 2381.

In Chelsea, home furnishing designers Artisans of the Anvil, VW home, Holland & Sherry and ALF-FT Hospitality are together in the new ALB Design Center of Chelsea on West 23rd Street. Moss Design Emporium moved to 256 West 36th Street.

In SoHo, British fashion designer Katherine Hooker popped up at 102 Thompson Street. Swedish retailer Acne has taken 33 Greene Street. Jitrois has a five-star opening for 98 Greene Street. Tahari has taken 466 Broome Street. Porsche Design’s second store in the city has come to 465 West Broadway. NYC’s first Pandora store had a grand opening at 412 W Broadway. DIGS, an acronym for ‘done in great style’, is now at 284 Lafayette Street.

In Meatpacking, Nicholas Kirkwood’s shop at 807 Washington Street has arrived, and in Greenwich Village Karl by Karl Lagerfeld popped up at 375 Bleecker Street, closed, and is now returning.

Trend-tracking from the streets of gold: hail to the haberdashers
Whether it’s because we’re all mad for ‘Mad Men’, or young executives have discovered a desire for elegance, menswear shops continue to expand. Bergdorf Goodman’s men’s shop is undergoing a major renovation; and new entrants include J Crew’s second neighborhood boutique for men at 50 Hudson Street in Tribeca, Diesel Black Gold Contemporary Showcase at 68 Greene Street, the newly transplanted Rothman’s at 200 Park Avenue South and the temporarily relocated Freemans Sporting Club, now at 343 Bleecker Street.

Faith Hope Consolo, Chairman, Retail Leasing & Sales
Prudential Douglas Elliman 001 212 418 2000 fconsolo@elliman.com

On the other side of Bond Street, Christian Louboutin is the latest brand to announce its arrival within Dover Street; and the Gazelli Art House is now open at no 39, courtesy of a £1m key money premium. The Carlston Gallery, edited by Massimo De Carlo, opens at 55 South Audley Street in June with a debut show. In Carlos Place the retail market has responded favourably to the launch of the maison-style townhouse at 7 Carlos Place (four brands vie for the space), directly opposite the Connaught Hotel between Jenny Packham and Roland Mouret.

On Mount Street expect three new openings by fall 2012 including Celine, a US couture brand and a French prêt-à-porter label. Bruton Street is, at last, showing signs of responding to the Mount Street effect, with Juicy Couture relocating to Regent Street (Kurt Geiger) and the availability of the Miller Harris boutique providing opportunities to complement the arrival of Isabel Marant (within the former Halcyon Gallery).

In Sloane Street, Alberta Ferretti has acquired one of the new stores between Harvey Nichols and Louis Vuitton. Rumour has it that the other stores will be combined into one 15,000 sq ft space to accommodate “a serious brand at a serious rent”, to quote the euphemistic reliable source.

And finally, it appears that Breitling has satisfied its long search for its debut UK standalone store at 130 New Bond Street. Persistence pays (and a key money premium of £2m perhaps helps the cause).

Keith Wilson, Wilson McHardy, London (tel: +44 (0)20 7439 1666)

Luxury Lifestyle Service
sponsored by Loewe:
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Luxury Leisure Brand
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Brand of the Year: Men
sponsored by H R Owen:
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Brand of the Year: Women
sponsored by Barclays Wealth:
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Breakthrough Brand
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Commitment to Sustainability / Corporate Social Responsibility
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Inspiring Luxury Loyalty
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Innovation of the Year
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Luxury Briefing would also like to thank the following who helped bring you such a swell party: GSP, Grosvenor, Orme Retail, Arjowiggins creative papers, Harrods Estates, Focus PR, Freshminds, Mindshare

So if this is the fourth year of the five-year plan, are you close to hitting your target?
We’ve hit it already – that’s the great thing about it. You always have a bit of luck in your decision-making, and part of that luck with us was our focused approach to Asia and being there early, and now we have 103 stores in China, 53 of which we directly operate, and we will be bringing back more of those franchised stores. We’re happy with our performance – we’ve always played the game as if we were in second place anyway, so wherever we get to with our business is just the starting point. So we’ll continue to build on the foundations we’ve set in place so far.

What does Dunhill stand for and how is it changed?
It’s changed a lot over time. If you look back to when it began, it was really a business around hard accessories for men – so, cufflinks, lighters, trinkets, the Swiss Army knife for the English gentleman – and the business evolved into quite a big and powerful business in leather and in menswear. In essence we’re a shop for men and we sell the essential luxuries for them. Men are not overly complex in their shopping habits – they are relatively direct in their approach and they buy across 20 things. So for us actively to market and sell our products to those people, we have to have the very best in those areas and also depth in terms of colour and sizing so that’s where we focus our energies.

How does Dunhill fit into the luxury market today?
Dunhill now fits much better into the world of luxury because the industry has evolved. If I look back over the industry – I’ve seen it now for 20 years – when you talked about apparel in luxury, you really only talked about women – it wasn’t a man’s world. But it is rapidly becoming one – guys are certainly waking up to looking after themselves and their appearance and wanting accessories that women have always had. We don’t carry jewels like women do and we don’t carry and eat bags like women do, but we do now carry them, and comfortably, and we now care about our weekend and weekly appearance. The evolution is significant in the last three years and it will continue – which, for a brand that is only male-structured (we don’t sell anything to women, although we do have a big female client base due to the gifting side), is a nice position to be in.

What are your best sellers?
From the leather point of view, we’re particularly innovative and creative – as well as introducing new trends, styles and shapes – so that’s a particularly profitable segment for us. And on the menswear side, it’s building our products around performance, functionality and durability – which isn’t much of a luxury word, but is very relevant for men.

How many retail outlets do you have worldwide?
A little over 250, and we have plans to open another 10 to 15 doors in the next 10 to 12 months, but that depends on how the space evolves and whether we get the right locations. We are looking primarily in Asia, although we also have a big focus now on the west and certainly the US – a market we haven’t played in before – and it’s a focal point for us going forward.

How many stores do you have in the US?
We have two – it’s a very small and focused business – we intentionally pared it back about six years ago and left it there because we had bigger issues to deal with at the time and we always knew the American market was a healthy one to come back to and you have to do it right from the beginning. So we focused on building the product and merchandising side and we’re in a position to go after it now. We’re opening in Las Vegas in the next five months and then further doors down the line. There are a lot of faux English brands there which have traded on our English heritage, so it makes sense for us.

Which countries are doing particularly well for you?
Across the board, we’ve had really strong results – we’ve got a great business developing in Japan and in the Middle East in terms of retail, China, the UK is consistent and slightly above what we’re expecting from the market and the US has had a fantastic year – so across the board it’s been solid. We’ve had some patches, but every market this year will finish high single or double digits.

Are you planning to open any new stores in the UK?
We have a city store opening in four months and we’re looking to secure a large location in the west end to open in the next 14 months in a much more trafficked area than where our flagship Bourdon House is. Our home is our home, and we’ll always be there, but what we have to do now is penetrate the UK market in other ways. We have a duty to build our business here – we are an English brand with a great birth certificate and we need to have the presence to match that.

How else will you be building the brand in the UK?
We’re cleaning up our retail and wholesale side of the business as well as merchandising, and we will be certainly focusing on communication. As a pedigree English brand, we want people to experience it and see the world through our eyes.

What about plans in Asia?
The one thing for anyone entering Asia – and this is a health warning – is to know that there’s been a tidal wave that has hit Asia, particularly China, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to do business there. This is partly due to the fact that everyone’s going there and partly due to the fact that there’s no space there anymore. So the cost of business is going through the roof and whereas it was a mediocre market from an investment point of view, now it’s one of the most expensive to invest in. It’s one of those areas we’re all watching now.

Will you be going into any other developing markets?
Yes, in Brazil and Latin America we’re working with some partners. India, we’re in with a franchise partner. We’re always cautious, particularly in the real developing markets, for security and product reasons and we always tend to do it first with a trusted partner rather than go full on into a market we don’t necessarily understand.

What are your thoughts on moving into new markets – do you change the way you do things to suit that market? What are the challenges?
Traditionally, developing markets are off-season so that’s one issue you’ll always have to contend with. The other issue is cash flow and also getting product in and out of market as well as security of staff. So you change your model considerably. But if your model has to change too much, you probably don’t want to do it. It’s better to be cautious. And, particularly in this industry, it’s better to wait – being best dressed and second in sometimes helps.

Do you tweak products / change the way you market?
From a product point of view, it’s down to merchandising as well as style. But in the east, for example, a lot of our jackets are unstructured and we’re working with different wools – the materials often change to accommodate the climate of the markets.

What are the trends in luxury retail?
Ten years ago, the trend was towards the bigger the better, and I think that’s now translated into the bigger, the greater the loss. So I think it’s about being appropriate in the market now. The biggest trend we’re seeing in the male sector is service-led. Men are relatively loyal shoppers and we have to nurture that loyalty with our client base, and that has to be seamless from a digital, virtual and physical point of view. Everything we do has to be service led. When you get a man into a changing room you’re 90% sure of a sale, which is a different game from how women shop. You have to capitalise on that when they’re there.

What about the Homes of Alfred Dunhill?
We’ve got our Homes around the world and we were the first to get into that kind of retail and I still believe we execute that to the highest standard. We’re seeing more and more brands starting to expose their history and their heritage through product and communication within stores, to help show the world their whole brand. It’s important for a brand to have a birth certificate, just as we do as human beings, and to convey that and all the values around it. We are seeing that more and more – through product and through digital imagery. We spend a lot of time on our Homes and adjusting them on a local level – they epitomise the brand but also have to fit culturally with where they are located. The essence of our Homes is that they are homes away from home. Women have had it good for a long time with shopping and we thought we’d take the message to men. The most important element going forward is men continuing to shop and being more aware of what they’re wearing and taking an interest in the service element.

What direction is your marketing strategy going in?
Jason Beckley: one massive change in our industry over the last few years has been media. It used to be that the message was constructed after media was established, but now media is so personal that for people who control brands our job ends with getting the message right. It’s become such a personal thing how you choose to receive messages: the media that one person uses is going to be totally different from the media another uses. Media is so varied that what we have to do inside is tighten up the message.

The thing with Dunhill is that the story is so beautiful. It’s an amazing brand and it stands for an amazingly unique thing – elegance and intelligence – and we really wanted that to be our message. We also wanted to make sure we were on the cutting edge of how people were receiving messages – and augmented reality seemed like a natural fit for us. We make really good content, and video is a really strong part of how we send messages out – in our Voice campaign, for example. Augmented reality allowed us to connect the static images in print to our video images, so it worked really well. Some of the hoardings around our new stores have augmented reality capabilities, so you can shop through our e-store while we’re building the physical store behind the hoarding.

We did QR codes about two years ago – we launched a local campaign in Tokyo and did online gaming around the Tokyo Home, which meant that on the subway you could use your smart phone to link to an online game. When we started talking to the guys from Aurasma, this seemed like a natural move to take.

The trouble with augmented reality is that you need a trigger. I don’t like QR codes because they’re ugly – they are just bar codes – but at least there is something in the image that says it does something else. The difficult thing about augmented reality is people knowing that when you hold your mobile device over it, it will do something. Then you need to rely on rumour, PR and publicity. Our augmented reality campaign went viral really quickly.

Where did you get the inspiration for this campaign?
A lot of brands saw digital as something that had to happen, whereas we saw the message as categorically the key element. But the good thing is, once you’ve got the message nailed, a lot of people come to you to showcase their media possibilities, so we can get involved with really exciting people doing great things. Augmented reality we first saw in Korea first – we saw someone using it at a superstore so we found out who was doing it and went down that route – it was actually a British company.

I also love traditional high quality print though, and anything we do as a brand – build stores, make products, provide services – has to be to the highest possible output if we can call ourselves a defined luxury brand for a luxury male consumer. It’s the same for our campaigns – we make sure that everyone who is executing it is at the top of their game. So if it’s a black and white image, we will make sure it’s shot by the very best portrait photographer – we never cut corners. You have to make sure that everything looks luxury.

What sort of person taps into the technology you’re using?
The thing about luxury is that it’s an opinion-led industry. We’re not necessarily hunting out a certain target market – our point is that if it fits what our brand ethos is, we become our own editor and filter. In that respect, we target no one, but everyone who believes in our values, which are that things will be made well, served well, high quality and elegant.

How can luxury brands continue to take advantage of digital technology?
Having a social media presence is being part of a conversation. And often the conversation on our social platform is about us – which is nice. So people go on our Facebook page because they like the brand or feel some sort of affiliation to its values, and so you’re actively involved in a conversation. It can be painful sometimes, because there’s no editorial filter, so if you screw up they’re going to tell you – and if you do well, they’re going to tell you! But that’s brilliant – that means you have to deliver on every level.

There’s the idea that digital is a media platform on its own. So we’re very interested in documentary, telling the truth – and a true story told beautifully is what we want to pursue: I don’t believe in the kind of fashion illusion. If you look at our main campaign, we took away situation, took away location, took away colour and took away product – and we’re left with guys we think are amazing, and have done amazing things and will have a legacy. If we have an ability to see brilliance, then somehow that must resonate with our brand values. It’s been really successful because it’s so honest. So when we use digital media, its important we don’t use it in a illusional way. I love lifestyle images, but documentary is incredibly relevant to the world right now. Men really enjoy true stories – journalism, nature and life documentaries are the top rating things right now. I see us as a content provider: we don’t have seasonal creative theme influences or messages; we don’t just take a picture and print it in a magazine – it seems like that’s an old way to communicate now. Now it’s about having a value system. We ran a documentary the other day about the guy who invented the flat plug – we knew that it was a fascinating story and that he was bringing it to market, and it makes us the provider of the news almost. After it launched, the Dunhill video was the number one on Google.

Documentaries are amazing – we have also launched our first half-hour documentary – it’s about people who do exceptional and brilliant things. Last year an amateur jockey won the Cheltenham Gold Cup – when we looked up the word ‘amateur’ it means ‘for the love of it’ – and there was something really amazing about that which resonated with us. It’s a romantic thing – he was there with all those professionals, but he’s just an amateur with a horse, he entered the biggest race and won it – so we called him up for a chat and he told us that an amateur has won once before, but not twice. His dream was to win again – so we filmed everything he’s done in the run-up to this year’s race. And released the only story about it. It’s quite funny – now TV stations are calling us up for content.

What do you hope to achieve from showing the film?
This goes back to your question of who we target. The values of Dunhill, which are elegance and intelligence and doing things properly and being in a man’s world, means there’s more than one audience. So if we focus on sailing – as we did with our last Voice campaign using the double Olympic medallist Iain Percy – he’s a man’s man and a great athlete but also a really interesting person – you focus on the audience that is interested in him. It draws in people who like luxury products and also like sailing. If you focus on the amateur jockey, the Sam Waley-Cohen story – it’s a Dunhill take on racing – not for aficionados, but certainly for people who show an interest in that world. It allows you to shine the light onto someone, with content that’s right for the brand. And we do it across the world, so we do localised content in Japan and China which allows us to tap into different parts of society but with an audience that loves our brand’s values.

Any surprises / innovations coming from Dunhill?
Chris Colfer: from a product point of view, we’re focusing on the international man, the international traveller and clothes that work with that. From a retail point of view, we’ve got our first Beijing Home store opening in May. Our Home concept is the idea that retail is one of the things we do, but service is another. People can come and relax with us, have lunch, sit in the cinema or the spa.

And what trends are we seeing emerging?
The biggest trend in Asia is the segmentation of leather – mid-sized leather. You’ve got small leathergoods – wallets and pochets – and then you’ve got large leather bags that men carry – weekender and average business case – and there’s a big development in between that: little satchels men that like to carry.

Has the economic uncertainty affected you?
We were all very concerned going into this year and we’re surprised at how well the business has held up and that’s not just us – I think it’s been across the industry – particularly in the watch and jewellery segment. But who knows – Asia I think is safe, I worry about Europe a lot, the US is taking its time to recover, the Middle East is ok and the developing world is still very much the developing world for us. In India, for example, there’s no infrastructure, so it’s going to take time.

Jason: We used to forecast two years ahead but now we don’t know what tomorrow’s going to be like. You just need to run your ship well – be quick to market, make sure your supply chain is working, and your merchants are trading every day and really well.

Chris: and keep in touch with your customer. It doesn’t matter how difficult it is – even in 2007, when most of the world collapsed, we were lucky, because most of our business had rotated to retail and we knew our customers and were able to grow our retail base during 2008 and early 2009 – it was probably the biggest surprise in our segment, let alone the industry, that we did that. That’s because we’re customer-driven and customer-focused. There are two types of customers in luxury – those who happily shop and it’s part of their world, and those who trade into that world. The first segment to disappear in a downturn is those who have traded up, so it’s a question of protecting what you’ve got while they’re there, balancing their needs. In some cases you’re adjusting their suits and in others you’re providing new ones.

What do you feel is the future of the luxury industry?
The future looks very healthy and part of that is the dynamics that are happening in Asia, and partly it’s about socio-economics – the amount of wealth created over the last 10 years is quite unbelievable. The other element is that whereas luxury was traditionally for women, it’s now here for men too. From a male point of view, the industry will be very healthy. All the signs are positive – it’s just seeing how the world unfolds over the next few years. But if we knew the answer to that, you and I wouldn’t be sitting here.