DAVID YURMAN
PROBLEM: A Need to Grow Profitability and Develop International Business
SOLUTION: Implement Best Practices in Procurement, Construction, Real Estate, and Facility Management.
Founder led jewelry brand David Yurman developed a loyal following by consistently focusing on delivering creative excellence. This was often done at the expense of disciplined cost management. Despite increasing revenue, profitability was lagging as efficiencies of scale were not being realized. We dramatically reduced costs and timelines by implementing best practices for real estate, lease negotiations, design, sourcing, and construction. We created the new retail store concept on Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Boston, King of Prussia, Austin, Dallas, Paris, and Dubai utilizing these best practices.
RESOURCE FURNITURE
PROBLEM: A Need for Growth
SOLUTION: Focus on Primary Product Range, Expansion of Showrooms, Addition of E-Commerce
Resource Furniture is a very successful specialty furniture business focused on multi-functional furniture. After 15 years of rapid growth the company’s growth began to flatten. After a comprehensive business audit involving the entire team, we developed a new strategic plan focusing on the company’s primary product line - luxury wall beds. In addition we recommended the expansion of the company’s showrooms and the opening of a new e-commerce enabled web site. We also helped the company implements a new strategic budgeting process, a new incentive compensation plan and a series of metric management reports. In two years the company doubled its business.
NETJETS
PROBLEM: A Need to Serve High Net Worth Clients in a Different Way
SOLUTION: A Portfolio of Unique Luxury Items Exclusively for NetJets Owners
NetJets serves many of the world's wealthiest and most sophisticated customers. The company provides the highest quality aircraft, pilots and safety to its customers without marketing hype. The emphasis is on service and subtle details. NetJets wanted to provide its owners with something unique and special. Luxury Solutions suggested the creation of a portfolio of unique, one of a kind luxury items to be offered exclusively to NetJets owners during the holiday season. Items included custom made sweaters from Loro Piana, charters on Mirabella -the world's largest sailing yacht, Babe Ruth's original uniform, a custom Steinway Piano with Steuben Glass, Chopard's limited edition "Ice Cube" diamond watch, Cartier's Mystery Clock, and Baccarat's Black Crystal Chandelier by Philippe Starck.
CHANEL
PROBLEM: Risky International Fragrance Launch without any Consumer Insights
SOLUTION: Comprehensive Global Consumer Study
Chanel, has long been a leader in setting fashion and fragrance trends. Fragrance has been central to its success which has been driven by its creativity in design and advertising. One of Chanel's most creative and remarkable advertising campaigns was for Egoiste Men's fragrance for which the Chanel creative team built a replica facade of Cannes' famous Carlton Hotel. The fragrance, was equally as creative, but unfortunately proved to be too polarizing and was not a commercial success. Realizing the importance of market research to help guide their fragrance choice, Chanel hired us to conduct an international research study based on the FragranceTrack methodology we developed. The study included three phases of testing and was conducted simultaneously in the US, France and Germany. The ultimate winning fragrance led to a hugely successively launch of Allure for Men, Chanel's first master brand.
FAUCHON
PROBLEM: Over Expansion in the US Market
SOLUTION: Complete Restructuring of US Operations
Fauchon is a very well known brand in Europe, but in the US it was not well established. New management implemented an aggressive expansion into the US via a retail roll-out in New York. A flagship store was built on Park Avenue with several other stores built and more planned. This strategy was very costly and failed to produce good results. New Private Equity owners hired us to restructure the business and develop a new strategy for the US market. We implemented a full restructuring, closing all stores other than the flagship and significantly downsized the factory and headquarters staff. The Park Avenue flagship was updated and revitalized with new merchandise, a new cafe and a champagne bar, leading to a 30% increase in revenues. A new direct marketing strategy was developed online and via a direct mail catalog. We installed a new POS system to collect customer addresses and used this to launch the new direct to consumer business. First year results produced revenues in excess of sales in a typical store. Revenues more than doubled in the second year enabling the company to replace the lost revenues in the closed retail stores in a much more profitable way.
NESTER HOSIERY
PROBLEM: Initial Strategic Plan Did Not Deliver Desired Results
SOLUTION: New Strategic Plan and Creation of New Business Units
Nester Hosiery is a successful, 30 year-old, family owned and operated business specializing in US made merino performance socks primarily sold as private label to large national brands and retailers. After 25 years, the founders sold a majority stake to two Private Equity firms. Following the acquisition, the business continued to thrive, but did not seen the additional growth that both the family and investors had expected. The founders and investors hired Founder Solutions to analyze the business and develop a new long term strategic plan. After a very thorough analytical period of several months, that involved in-depth one-on-one interviews with the entire management team and the private equity investors, a detailed report of recommendations was provided to management and the investors. After considerable discussion and debate, consensus was reached and a new strategic plan was developed. The plan’s essential element was to divide the business into three divisions to provide greater focus and management attention to each segment of the business. Founder Solutions served as a catalyst for change and to instill a greater discipline and focus on results. In addition, we worked to improve the dialog between the Board and management to create a better working environment.
RALPH LAUREN
PROBLEM: Poorly Executed Licensing Agreements Lead to Inefficiencies and Dilution of Brand Equity
SOLUTION: Renegotiate Multiple License Agreements across Asia, Oceania, and Latin America
Ralph Lauren’s business across Asia, Oceania, and Latin America primarily grew through license agreements with local partners. With each license extension, profitability and control of brand standards had deteriorated. Senior leadership was primary focused on domestic growth, so oversight of the international network was minimal. We undertook a detailed assessment of the sprawling $1B retail and wholesale distribution network and then created a strategic plan to turnaround the business in these territories. We then developed and executed an operating plan and renegotiated multiple license agreements across Asia, Oceania, and Latin America leading to enhanced profitability and global brand positioning.
LA PRAIRIE
PROBLEM: Lack of Deep Consumer Insights Around the World
SOLUTION: Video Market Research in the US, Italy, Germany, Korea and China
La Prairie is a very prestigious and high priced brand and it is difficult to conduct focus groups with its clientele. We designed a virtual focus group through the use of online video technology to interview dozens of women around the world. The feedback was translated, analyzed and edited in numerous video clips and then presented to management for the development of new marketing strategies. This same approach was used to interview La Prairie skin care specialists around the world to serve as testimonials for the brand’s 35th anniversary and presented at the company’s global management conference.
SUNSTONE VINEYARDS
PROBLEM: Wine Club In Need of Revitalization
SOLUTION: New Club Designed With Improved Value Proposition
Sunstone Vineyards is one of the most successful vineyards in California’s Santa Ynez Valley specializing in Bordeaux style wines. It was one of the first vineyards to implement a Direct to Consumer Strategy launching a very successful wine club 10 years ago. With the proliferation of other wineries introducing wine clubs, it became necessary to rethink the club’s design. We worked directly with the owner to devise an entirely new approach to club marketing. The new club replaces the industry’s standard 20% discount with a new innovative approach which is much more compelling to consumers. In addition, the new club set a new standard for shipping costs by offering free shipping to all wine club members. A new Reserve Club was successfully introduced increasing revenues and margins. The results of the new program have been tremendous. New club memberships doubled in one year and attrition rates have been reduced by more than one-third.
TIFFANY
PROBLEM: A Need to Grow Revenue with a New Generation of Customers
SOLUTION: Redefine Brand Identity, Develop New Retail Concept, Rollout to 200 Global Locations
In 2008, Tiffany & Co., America’s premier jewelry brand, was losing market shares and failing to appeal to younger customers. After years of steady expansion, Tiffany’s stores were dark, dated, inelegant copies of the Fifth Avenue flagship and not reflective of the brand’s timeless elegance. We undertook an intensive brand identity initiative and used the brand’s rich heritage as inspiration for the new store concept. We created a future-focused retail experience, incorporating luxurious materials, Tiffany blue accents and developing new branded patterns like the Wheat Leaf, Magnolia, and Dragonfly. The new concept store in Soho won Store of the Year and was widely published. We developed over 200 stores many of them with location-specific design variations to differentiate stores across the globe notably: Soho, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Chicago, New Orleans, Montreal, Paris Champs-Elysée, Nice, Prague, Munich, Milan, Verona, Barcelona, Dubai, Melbourne, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Kuala Lumpur.
PRIMAL BLUEPRINT
PROBLEM: Company Focused Too Much on Content and Not Products
SOLUTION: New Strategy Focused on Products
Primal Blueprint is the genius creation of Mark Sisson - a pioneer of the Ancestral Health Movement. Mark was a world class marathon runner and triathlete. After his athletic career he became interested in nutrition and launched a line of supplements. After extensive research he developed The Primal Blueprint, a new approach to health and nutrition. He wrote about this in a New York Times best selling book and in his blog - Mark’s Daily Apple. With his best selling book and hugely popular blog soaring, his supplements business had grown out of synch with his new approach to nutrition. After studying the strategic alternatives, we recommended a change in the company’s strategic focus to concentrate on selling healthy nutritional products and weight loss programs as opposed to books and supplements. We redesigned the company’s website to showcase this new strategy - www.primalblueprint.com. The product benefits, positioning, sizing and price points were all repositioned to be more consumer focused. As a result of these strategic changes the company expanded rapidly with an entire new line of products that Mark developed called Primal Kitchen. Four years later the company, which had revenues of less than $10 million, grew extremely rapidly and was acquired by Kraft-Heinz for $200 Million.
INSTYLE PRODUCTS
PROBLEM: Company & Branding in Need of Revitalization
SOLUTION: Company Restructuring & Relaunch of Brands
InStyle Fragrances has been a leading mass market brand for the past 15 years sold in CVS and Walgreens. A dramatically changing landscape in the mass market for fragrances left the company in a very difficult position and the company needed to change its approach to retailer relationships. We negotiated new supplier contracts with the retail chains and closely monitored and changed the companies approach to managing charge backs. We implemented a complete restructuring of staff and operations creating significant cost savings. The flagship line was relaunched with a modern new design, new bottles and new cartons leading to an improved position on shelf and an improvement of eight margin points. The new Instyle body spray packaging (above) won an American Package Design Award. These strategic and swift moves returned the company to profitability within one year.
APRES BY CK BRADLEY
PROBLEM: Need for New Energy for Dormant Fashion Line
SOLUTION: Retro-Chic Ski Clothing Line
In the late 1990’s and early 2000’s CK Bradley pioneered a new modern twist on preppy. This was way before Tory Burch or others arrived on the scene. With stores in Newport, RI and Manhattan she was really beginning to make a name for herself. Then, for personal reasons she halted her line. A few years later she wanted to relaunch her fashion house and decided to launch a retro-chic line of ski clothing in 2010. We helped with the strategy, production and raising seed capital. We also helped design an innovative marketing approach by decorating a vintage airstream trailer to serve as the marketing signage and mobile pop-up store. The founder, pictured above, traveled with a couple of friends to the chic western ski resorts such as Aspen, Vail, Park City and Jackson Hole. The three woman team dubbed themselves the “Apres Girls” and passed out t-shirts, cups and hats as a means to generate press and consumer attention. The chic, retro designs were way ahead of their time - these designs are from 2010 and the designs and colors are similar to what you see on the slopes today.