In this guest column, Luxottica Business Development Director of Special Channels Francesco Calcagnile discusses the importance for brands to explore alternative channels in order to stay ahead in the ever-changing consumer market. Across sea, air and land, he discusses Luxottica’s approach in these white spaces and the results that have emerged from it.
In this increasingly competitive global market, it’s important for all brands – not just the eyewear category – to take on the challenges and, consequently, the benefits that alternative channels present. At Luxottica, the goal is to always be looking at how we can strengthen our position in all markets. To do this, we have long-term strategies in place to support our expansion in the eyewear industry, with one strategy focused on diversifying beyond the airport channel. My role in our Special Channels department is dedicated to developing new avenues for Luxottica and I work closely with the sales and marketing teams of each region to identify areas that have high growth potential to drive Luxottica’s growth.
So far, we’ve identified new frontiers in the cruise, inflight and resorts channels to much success. These white spaces have been under-explored and under-utilised by brands, and we are on a mission to change that. What we’ve done in these areas is identify the challenges and convert them into opportunities for our brands or leverage any existing prospects and turn them into shopping moments. It hasn’t been smooth sailing, but it has certainly been rewarding – by creating conversion opportunities in these spaces, we are engaging consumers, driving awareness and greater visibility, and have been gaining positive results from our investments.
“We should be constantly asking the question – what other elements of the travel retail ecosphere can be tapped into?”
Sailing the open seas
The cruise industry is on a growth trajectory, with a steady increase in demand over the years. In 2020, the number of cruise passengers is expected to hit 32 million across the globe, up from 19.1 million passengers just a decade ago, according to the Cruise Lines International Association. This rising demand is expected to continue in the foreseeable future, and will be largely driven by the Chinese, who are exploring this type of holiday. The retail environment itself is an attractive one: consumers have longer dwell times and shoppers tend to be more relaxed.
Pooling our creativity and working closely with the likes of Carnival, Norwegian, Royal Carribean, MSC and Gentlin, we have created some innovative set-ups and developed a sizeable business within the cruise sector. For example, our Ray-Ban Flower Glory Party with MSC Cruises was a great success with consumers when it was merged with the cruise entertainment program. It created engagement opportunities and drummed up interest in Ray-Ban, and introduced a dimension to the sunglasses category in the onboard retail.
Taking to the skies
From the sea to the sky, inflight also presents a prime opportunity for brands to present their offerings to an international audience. No doubt that the inflight retail scene has its challenges, with digital connectivity issues and logistical difficulties, so it is refreshing to see that it is being reinvented to create more seamless shopping moments for travellers. Some companies are also reinvigorating the scene with inflight ecommerce and connectivity options.
Last year at Luxottica, we adopted an innovative approach to the management of the eyewear category in the inflight channel, reaching over 40 airline partners, ranging from full-service airlines like Lufthansa, Alitalia and Airfrance to low-cost carriers like Easyjet and Ryanair. By pushing the boundaries of creativity, we created striking brand collaterals dedicated to Ray-Ban and Oakley, which were tailored specifically for airline catalogues. The result? It was featured in more than 20 inflight magazines with a full-page allocated to one of the two brands. We’ve received positive feedback from all stakeholders, and the strong consumer feedback was reflected in the significant increase in sales achieved in this channel.
One of our most successful case studies is EasyJet, where we collaborated with them on their new catalogue, Boutique EasyJet, which was designed to include premium product offerings. On these pages, we had personalised travel visuals featuring our iconic products, the Ray-Ban Folding Wayfarer and the Classic Aviator, which are among our bestsellers in the channel.
The Hospitality Opportunity
If we are seeing success in airports, cruise and inflight, why not also consider the hospitality industry – or more specifically, hotels and resorts? It’s a big potential sector. The luxury hotels, resorts and private islands are ripe with opportunity, allowing consumers with high purchasing power to be targeted; this is a key area of focus for Luxottica’s global channels team.
We’ve rolled out several successful initiatives with our resort partners and devised shopping moments for guests. Our recent collaborations in 2019 included a Persol pop-up station at Mandarin Oriental Resorts in Lake Como where consumers could customise their pair of Persol sunglasses, while another is with Club Med that saw ten existing boutiques personalised and dedicated to the Ray-Ban brand. Our roll-out plans will continue in 2020, and consumers can look forward to more activations at Mandarin Oriental’s resorts in Canouan Island and Marrakesh, as well as at selected Club Med resorts.
These are just a few examples of relatively untapped spaces, and we are sure there are plenty more. We should be constantly asking the question – what other elements of the travel retail ecosphere can be tapped into? We are already exploring and our hope is that through this piece, we can encourage our industry peers to also look at avenues slightly off the beaten track because, at the end of the day, if we don’t challenge our mindset, the growth of the category and overall industry will suffer. This is something Luxottica is very passionate about and we welcome the opportunity to discuss with our industry peers the ways we might collaborate together to discover new opportunities.
