Here’s good news for weekend warriors whose triumphs in the battlefield are writ large on their faces
By Li Haohan
If you have less than an hour in your hands and more imperfections than you can pass off as character lines, Ultherapy might be for you. The non-invasive aesthetic therapy combines ultrasound imaging and focused ultrasound energy to effectively lift the skin for immediately visible effects.
Dr David Loh, who performs the therapy in Singapore, lauds the benefits of this new technology. “For a long time we have been using what were essentially variations of Thermage technology,” he says. “Ulthera represents a breakthrough because it is based on ultrasound technology, which allows for much greater precision.”
Ulthera has a built-in ultrasound scan that targets a specific tissue layer beneath the skin’s surface – the same layer that is worked on and tightened in surgical and thread face lifts. Ulthera machine focuses ultrasound energy on this layer sending sound waves that causes vibration on the target tissue. This vibration produces heat of about 70°C and in turn triggers a natural reaction from the body to increase collagen supply in the affected area. “It is similar to the body’s way of naturally healing a wound,” Dr Loh explains. “Once collagen fibres are supplied to this particular layer, it stays tight and supple again.”
The entire procedure generally takes no more than 30 minutes. The positive results are generally immediately visible, while the top layer of the skin remains completely unaffected. Slight discomfort, redness or slight bruising is very rare following the treatment.
Clinical trials show that the procedure is effective in lifting, tightening and firming areas around the eyes, neck, cheeks and jaw line. The condition continues to improve and, depending on the patient’s skin type and lifestyle, remains apparent 10 months or even a year after the previous treatment.
David Loh Surgery
501 Orchard Road
#05-16 Wheelock Place
Singapore 238880
+65 6733 5300
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Friday, August 13, 2010
THE VALUES INTEGRATOR
Do business and charity mix? Consider the tremendous work of Chew Hua Seng who has pledged S$100 million to a foundation that rides on the success of the small business he spun into a multi-million dollar education conglomerate
To get to the CEO’s office at the Raffles Design Institute campus on Beach Road one goes through a succession of stairs and narrow corridors flanked by offices. Although the place has the orderly hum of a school campus, it also has the arty flourishes one expects from a design institute. Instead of a bank of trophy- and pennant-filled cabinets, the bright street-level lobby features show windows brimming with what are probably the best efforts of its fashion design students. Glass-enclosed meeting rooms line one wall and can be seen immediately from a concierge-style information counter. A former police headquarter, and successful model of adaptive reuse, its bright yellow shutters and orange feature walls announce to anyone within a mile that it has been taken over by a less regimented, perhaps younger, and more enthusiastic force.
I have a 10am appointment with Chew Hua Seng, founder, chairman and CEO of Raffles Education Corporation (REC), which owns and operates the design school. In 2008, Forbes named Chew the 12th richest person in Singapore, and shortly after, he made news again for pledging S$100 million to be handed out over ten years through his self-named foundation. But shortly before my appointment, REC itself was in the news in connection with financial reporting anomalies at Oriental Century, a mainland China education provider where its holds nearly 30 percent stake. As news of Oriental Century’s trading suspension broke out, REC shares suffered an expected, momentary plunge, but it has since rebounded as investors realiSed that contributions from the Chinese company were insignificant.
Chew calmly walks me through the general issue, avoiding certain details as the matter is under investigation, and hands me an almost philosophical verdict: “We cannot generalize these things because there are experts doing business in China. I invested in a public listed company, one with a proper set-up, board of directors, CEO, CFO, COO and a whole team of people. There’s also periodic reporting; internal and external auditors are there.” But when fraud is involved, he adds evenly, the mechanism that they have put in place will never be sufficient to stop it. “We’ve all sorts of law in Singapore and elsewhere.”
Chew is among the biggest investors in China, especially in educational ventures. “All my investments in China are in education. Oriental is an associate of our company, but we do not run it—all others are managed by us, except this one. But whatever happens, it’s not going to affect our businesses there.”
Back-to-Back Success
I came to see Chew specifically to talk about the Chew Hua Seng Foundation that he set up in 2007, with an express mission to provide opportunities to disadvantaged youth in the Asia-Pacific region mainly through education. But as the private foundation survives on the performance and profitability of REC, it makes perfect sense that he shows me around this multi-million-dollar machinery. In 2008, REC posted a turnover of S$190 million.
Chew grew Raffles Education from one campus offering fashion-related courses into a regional behemoth of 29 design colleges and business education institutes spread out across Asia Pacific. His acquisitions of Hartford Holdings Limited and eventually of Oriental Century Limited, China Education Limited, Shanghai Zhongfa Education, and Oriental University City were instrumental in rapidly enlarging his business footprint particularly in China.
But this is getting ahead of Chew’s story, one that has been told several times, and doubtless romanticized, by the press. Chew had previously launched a successful timber export business that literally went under when a huge shipment sailed through a storm at sea. But the extreme difficulty of waiting for insurers to reward him the money that he then handed over to his creditors also made him stronger that when a new opportunity presented itself, he was ready. Investing in an education business, in which he had neither previous experience nor inclination (Chew obtained a BA in Business Administration from the Singapore University), only proved that he has already gone past previous failing.
I’ve seen Chew a couple of times before, and from a distance he appeared cordial as many men of his status often do in social gatherings. Besides his colorful tie and red frame eyeglasses, he did not stand out from a platoon of businessmen in dark suits. In his office, almost severe in its minimalism—a large hand-hewn desk, a lamp or two, and some “arty” ornaments—nothing prepossessing stands out. His clothes, by now almost a recognizable uniform, are a black shirt and slacks, and immaculate black leather shoes. He speaks in an even, deliberate tone, never hesitating, but patiently waiting for the right words to come to him.
“You cannot legislate morality”, he says, returning to the Oriental Century incident. “You learn through these trials in life, these trials and tribulations. If you come out of it whole, the imperfect becomes perfect; injustice becomes justice. I believe that sometimes bad things can become good if they come with blessings in disguise. We go through the journey of life and these are things you learn along the way. It’s water off the duck’s back.”
If Chew has any misgiving about the incident, it has to do with the students. “One thing we can be sure of is that we will do what is socially responsible for our shareholders and for other shareholders of Oriental Century. The other stakeholders, the students, have to be taken care of. We must look after our customers, the students, who are completely innocent. When we get involved, it must be to establish our responsibility — we have to undertake and perform for them.”
Focus On Education
Today, Chew is tightly focused on education. He may have some investments here and there, but they are small. The passion he has for education, a business that he has built up for the past 20 years, is compelling. “Education as a business is a good bloodline; it’s non-polluting; it trains people for a better life.” Most Asian societies, Chew observes, are elitist and education is the preserve of the upper class. But Chew counters that education is “what brings a person to the next level; he may be a dropout but he can realiSe his potential through vocational education, or college graduate can go into a university. We hope to excel in what we do to bring a better life for people.”
And this is why his foundation is focused on education. “Education as a lifeblood cannot just be for the rich.” The son of a fisherman and a homemaker, as most stories written about Chew use as counterpoint to his success, knows what it’s like to be on the other side of the divide. “But it is true,” he assures me. “You can only become an entrepreneur if you have that hunger. It’s not necessarily the pain of having nothing when you’re growing up, but the craving for something better. I grew up not knowing the difference between the rich and the poor. We were a happy family; I had no wants. It was only later that I realized how things can be better not just for us but for everyone.”
The Chew Hua Seng Foundation is self-funded. “We don’t take money from anyone. We have pledged an amount to be invested into the foundation in ten years. The money will be invested and the return on investment will be utilised to fund the activities of the Foundation. I estimate that even if we put our shares into the Foundation, the dividends that we derive from it will be able to fund between $3 and $5 million of returns to be given away.”
With the Foundation now on its second year, Chew admits that they are still learning how to run it. “We have a lot to learn because we’re a new foundation. My wife is more involved now than in the beginning; our children are learning too so that in the years to come we will know how to do it as well. Someday they can take over the running of the foundation. It’s like education in itself. We learn by doing; in this case, by giving.”
Chew prefers the meaningful to the lavish when it comes to giving — quality over quantity — although his pledge to the Foundation is arguably among the largest ever made by a single donor. “For me it’s not building monuments and things like that. It’s the soft things that you do for people; you have to give in a way that makes an impact on the lives of the recipients.”
REC dividend flows into the Foundation. “Eventually, when all money is invested, the Foundation will have its proper management team. For now I just want to see that it is invested properly and on a long-term basis.
“What I’ll put into the Foundation are the shares of the company dealing in private education. They’re now earning dividends. Most of my commitments still come from my investment in education, my shares in the company. After that we’ll see what other areas we can invest in. We’ll put the money in an interest-bearing instrument. We know that it will give returns for many years to come. Meanwhile, in education business, we’re relatively safe.”
Foray Into Education
There are no plans to change tack in the years to come, confirms Chew. “In fact, this is the time when the bigger players will be out in the market. In Asia, as a whole, demand for education is very high. I foresee an expanding market. The initial shock of the market during the global economic downturn will destabilize any business, but with a focus on the long term, this will be a stable. In 20 years time, it will even be even more established.”
Chew is bullish about his business, predicting that it will get strong and remain reliable for a very long time. “The school has been established for 20 years; there’s always a student body that comes along. And, more importantly, we are building our capacity to operate it well. We constantly lift up the standard to make it relevant.”
REC has over 10,000 students in design courses alone. “That’s bigger than in any institution anywhere in the world,” Chew beams. “For a guy who didn’t know anything about design, and has produced hundreds of design teachers and practicing designers, that accounts for something.”
Chews entry into design education is well thought out, not a desperate attempt to move into another business. “Asia remains focused on developing the left brain,” he theorizes. “I focus my business on the right side, the creative part. Twenty years ago, when I began my business, Singapore was a country with no sense of design to speak of.”
In traditional education, “people follow a very specific route starting from primary, secondary, etc., then to college then to university. The system in Asia is also very academic; it’s about learning Mathematics, memorizing things and then regurgitating them. It’s never about using your hands and being creative. If you are an artist or an artisan you learn to work with your hands. Most Asians educators focus on the development of the measurable mind, the logical, compliant, disciplined, part. Creative people, being creative, are not so inclined towards these and they often drop out.
“Who gives them the alternative to stay in school? Raffles Education. We pride ourselves in giving these people an alternative education that maximizes human resource. People think design is not important, but from the moment you wake up to the time you close your eyes, you’re surrounded by it. We tend to focus on the manufacture of things, but focusing on this alone means that we are missing out a lot. We only derive value from one aspect, but there is great value to be derived out of design, out of distribution.”
By focusing only on certain aspects of production, most Asian economies limit their benefits. “How much do you think a pair of Nike shoes costs to produce? Maybe 10 bucks. Then add another 50 bucks for design. And that’s the aesthetics of the moment, and it will change from one period to another. Design input will always be required. Distribution and advertising cost even more. If Asian economies focused on manufacturing alone, Asian workers get paid much less as a result. The only thing we’ll be able to offer is labour. The other aspects of creating products get little attention and participation from Asians.
“As economies move on, more and more is added to production from the soft side. Look at China, why China got hit so badly? Because China is involved only in manufacturing. The whole time they’re just waiting for orders to come from the outside. Hence, they’re only paid for labour. And to make labour competitive, its cost gets lower and lower. It’s the workers who suffer in the end. Cost of raw materials commands a certain price in the global market. Capital also has a certain price in the global market. But manufacturers work with systems where they find cheap land and labour.”
Making Good of Chances
Chew started his education business by chance. “I did not plan it. It’s a journey of life that leads you to where you’re you are. I was doing business in timber and I was quite successful; the money was good. But I think education is an easier business than timber; it definitely has more enriching elements. When I realized that I made a stand to move.”
Starting out in alien territory was tough. No one knew Chew and he was a small and insignificant player; his biggest competitive advantages were his finely honed management abilities and expansion capabilities, two areas that very few among his competitors were able to do.
Although Chew believes that resources are important to grow the business, he also realized that attracting and retaining people are equally important. He pursued people who are competent in their area of discipline. “Instead of looking for stars, I looked for competencies. Stars come and go, and when they leave, the business shatters.”
During the first six years since he started his second business, Chew admits he knew nothing about education. He had to keep learning. “But I knew about running businesses and people. You have to bring in sales, the bums on the seats. If you don’t have students, even if you have the best teachers and the best curriculum, but you have no business. The reverse is also true: even if you have students but your curriculum does not help them, you lose them in the end. It’s a combination of things that make education work.”
Chew went through difficult times initially. “Those were trying times. I had to be courageous, but most of all humble. There were so many thing that I didn’t fully understand about the business, things that I needed to learn.”
Investing S$375,000 gave Chew a running start but did not get him very far. “In this business, the probability of losing is higher than making money is very high especially in the beginning. We have to be prepared to lose money for a few years every time we start a new venture. But eventually, we conditioned ourselves into the cycle: you start one school, you lose money, then eventually the new school becomes profitable. Then you find yourself in another market ready to start another school, only this time you use the money from the previous venture that has started to turn in profit. The one venture is now helping finance your second venture, and the cycle goes on.”
Chew admits that although it may be easy to understand, growing the business according to this model does not happen overnight. “Maybe it took you six years to grow the first one, and seven and a half years to set up the second one, and maybe nine years to get the third going. It takes longer to get the succeeding ones off the ground. But meanwhile, your management matures and your competency goes up. So while there’s always a waiting time for the business to develop fully, there are benefits to reap along the way and important lessons to learn. By the time you’re setting up your fourth and fifth school and so on, you would have amassed resources and capabilities that will make it faster and faster.” This year, Chew set up five schools in one go. “I have the people and the financial resources in place. Today, if there is no issue about licensing and getting permits, we can easily put up a business with the model that we have developed.”
The work, however, is not half done. “Every new market requires a new model. Each time you go into a new market, you adjust what you have already developed. If you are setting up a second or third school in the same country where you already have succeeded before, you have fewer problems. But if it’s a new territory, there’s always the culture that must considered.
Chew believes that in essence people look for the same things in education wherever they may be. Most often, it’s viewed as a step towards the betterment of one’s lot. What there is a shortage of is the alternative type of education that REC seems to have tapped on well. “This absence or shortage is what we build on,” Chew concludes.
Demonstrating Intentions
Despite tremendous work done on Raffles Design Institute, the original architecture asserts itself beneath the layer of paints and structural modifications. The formal symmetry, the familiar balance and lightness, the colonial interpretation of tropical architecture are writ large on the height of the ceiling, the gaping fenestrations and well placed courtyards. We are outside the building to photograph Chew who obliges with the ease of someone who has done it several times before. “This is a serviceable building,” he says as we walk past bright corridors. In effect, the Government is his landlord, and fittingly, his design school business started out as an investment towards a Government scheme.
Students in all manners of fashionable attire dart in and out of air-conditioned rooms. Teachers, not older or stodgier than students, lead the packs. “Our design students tend to come from higher income families,” Chew casually informs me. “Both lower income and higher income families expect a job or a career out of their education, but those who come from a higher income family tend to rely not on education alone. They can go into more creative pursuits.”Chew agrees when I asked if it’s like an ascending hierarchy of needs. “With an expanding middle class (in China), we have no problem with regards to market; the challenge lies in getting there. Our fees are not cheap; we don’t enroll thousands of students. The design institute takes in a smaller number of students than the more normal type of education, our technical and IT institutes, and so on.
I ask Chew about branding and promoting his business, after all RDI is an established brand and REC is Asia’s largest private education provider. “We don’t spend money to promote ourselves. We have our students and successful graduates who do that for us. The costliest part of our operation is human resources, and 20 percent of capital that goes into it. Don’t forget that we are of a certain scale. Without that scale, human resources would cost probably more.
“We’ve done well in China for 16 odd years, and that market is growing tremendously in size and sophistication. In our field, the right environment is also important. The government will always impose regulation on education, and rightly so. We need to demonstrate that we can deliver results and our intentions are good.”
He will not have a tough time doing that.
To get to the CEO’s office at the Raffles Design Institute campus on Beach Road one goes through a succession of stairs and narrow corridors flanked by offices. Although the place has the orderly hum of a school campus, it also has the arty flourishes one expects from a design institute. Instead of a bank of trophy- and pennant-filled cabinets, the bright street-level lobby features show windows brimming with what are probably the best efforts of its fashion design students. Glass-enclosed meeting rooms line one wall and can be seen immediately from a concierge-style information counter. A former police headquarter, and successful model of adaptive reuse, its bright yellow shutters and orange feature walls announce to anyone within a mile that it has been taken over by a less regimented, perhaps younger, and more enthusiastic force.
I have a 10am appointment with Chew Hua Seng, founder, chairman and CEO of Raffles Education Corporation (REC), which owns and operates the design school. In 2008, Forbes named Chew the 12th richest person in Singapore, and shortly after, he made news again for pledging S$100 million to be handed out over ten years through his self-named foundation. But shortly before my appointment, REC itself was in the news in connection with financial reporting anomalies at Oriental Century, a mainland China education provider where its holds nearly 30 percent stake. As news of Oriental Century’s trading suspension broke out, REC shares suffered an expected, momentary plunge, but it has since rebounded as investors realiSed that contributions from the Chinese company were insignificant.
Chew calmly walks me through the general issue, avoiding certain details as the matter is under investigation, and hands me an almost philosophical verdict: “We cannot generalize these things because there are experts doing business in China. I invested in a public listed company, one with a proper set-up, board of directors, CEO, CFO, COO and a whole team of people. There’s also periodic reporting; internal and external auditors are there.” But when fraud is involved, he adds evenly, the mechanism that they have put in place will never be sufficient to stop it. “We’ve all sorts of law in Singapore and elsewhere.”
Chew is among the biggest investors in China, especially in educational ventures. “All my investments in China are in education. Oriental is an associate of our company, but we do not run it—all others are managed by us, except this one. But whatever happens, it’s not going to affect our businesses there.”
Back-to-Back Success
I came to see Chew specifically to talk about the Chew Hua Seng Foundation that he set up in 2007, with an express mission to provide opportunities to disadvantaged youth in the Asia-Pacific region mainly through education. But as the private foundation survives on the performance and profitability of REC, it makes perfect sense that he shows me around this multi-million-dollar machinery. In 2008, REC posted a turnover of S$190 million.
Chew grew Raffles Education from one campus offering fashion-related courses into a regional behemoth of 29 design colleges and business education institutes spread out across Asia Pacific. His acquisitions of Hartford Holdings Limited and eventually of Oriental Century Limited, China Education Limited, Shanghai Zhongfa Education, and Oriental University City were instrumental in rapidly enlarging his business footprint particularly in China.
But this is getting ahead of Chew’s story, one that has been told several times, and doubtless romanticized, by the press. Chew had previously launched a successful timber export business that literally went under when a huge shipment sailed through a storm at sea. But the extreme difficulty of waiting for insurers to reward him the money that he then handed over to his creditors also made him stronger that when a new opportunity presented itself, he was ready. Investing in an education business, in which he had neither previous experience nor inclination (Chew obtained a BA in Business Administration from the Singapore University), only proved that he has already gone past previous failing.
I’ve seen Chew a couple of times before, and from a distance he appeared cordial as many men of his status often do in social gatherings. Besides his colorful tie and red frame eyeglasses, he did not stand out from a platoon of businessmen in dark suits. In his office, almost severe in its minimalism—a large hand-hewn desk, a lamp or two, and some “arty” ornaments—nothing prepossessing stands out. His clothes, by now almost a recognizable uniform, are a black shirt and slacks, and immaculate black leather shoes. He speaks in an even, deliberate tone, never hesitating, but patiently waiting for the right words to come to him.
“You cannot legislate morality”, he says, returning to the Oriental Century incident. “You learn through these trials in life, these trials and tribulations. If you come out of it whole, the imperfect becomes perfect; injustice becomes justice. I believe that sometimes bad things can become good if they come with blessings in disguise. We go through the journey of life and these are things you learn along the way. It’s water off the duck’s back.”
If Chew has any misgiving about the incident, it has to do with the students. “One thing we can be sure of is that we will do what is socially responsible for our shareholders and for other shareholders of Oriental Century. The other stakeholders, the students, have to be taken care of. We must look after our customers, the students, who are completely innocent. When we get involved, it must be to establish our responsibility — we have to undertake and perform for them.”
Focus On Education
Today, Chew is tightly focused on education. He may have some investments here and there, but they are small. The passion he has for education, a business that he has built up for the past 20 years, is compelling. “Education as a business is a good bloodline; it’s non-polluting; it trains people for a better life.” Most Asian societies, Chew observes, are elitist and education is the preserve of the upper class. But Chew counters that education is “what brings a person to the next level; he may be a dropout but he can realiSe his potential through vocational education, or college graduate can go into a university. We hope to excel in what we do to bring a better life for people.”
And this is why his foundation is focused on education. “Education as a lifeblood cannot just be for the rich.” The son of a fisherman and a homemaker, as most stories written about Chew use as counterpoint to his success, knows what it’s like to be on the other side of the divide. “But it is true,” he assures me. “You can only become an entrepreneur if you have that hunger. It’s not necessarily the pain of having nothing when you’re growing up, but the craving for something better. I grew up not knowing the difference between the rich and the poor. We were a happy family; I had no wants. It was only later that I realized how things can be better not just for us but for everyone.”
The Chew Hua Seng Foundation is self-funded. “We don’t take money from anyone. We have pledged an amount to be invested into the foundation in ten years. The money will be invested and the return on investment will be utilised to fund the activities of the Foundation. I estimate that even if we put our shares into the Foundation, the dividends that we derive from it will be able to fund between $3 and $5 million of returns to be given away.”
With the Foundation now on its second year, Chew admits that they are still learning how to run it. “We have a lot to learn because we’re a new foundation. My wife is more involved now than in the beginning; our children are learning too so that in the years to come we will know how to do it as well. Someday they can take over the running of the foundation. It’s like education in itself. We learn by doing; in this case, by giving.”
Chew prefers the meaningful to the lavish when it comes to giving — quality over quantity — although his pledge to the Foundation is arguably among the largest ever made by a single donor. “For me it’s not building monuments and things like that. It’s the soft things that you do for people; you have to give in a way that makes an impact on the lives of the recipients.”
REC dividend flows into the Foundation. “Eventually, when all money is invested, the Foundation will have its proper management team. For now I just want to see that it is invested properly and on a long-term basis.
“What I’ll put into the Foundation are the shares of the company dealing in private education. They’re now earning dividends. Most of my commitments still come from my investment in education, my shares in the company. After that we’ll see what other areas we can invest in. We’ll put the money in an interest-bearing instrument. We know that it will give returns for many years to come. Meanwhile, in education business, we’re relatively safe.”
Foray Into Education
There are no plans to change tack in the years to come, confirms Chew. “In fact, this is the time when the bigger players will be out in the market. In Asia, as a whole, demand for education is very high. I foresee an expanding market. The initial shock of the market during the global economic downturn will destabilize any business, but with a focus on the long term, this will be a stable. In 20 years time, it will even be even more established.”
Chew is bullish about his business, predicting that it will get strong and remain reliable for a very long time. “The school has been established for 20 years; there’s always a student body that comes along. And, more importantly, we are building our capacity to operate it well. We constantly lift up the standard to make it relevant.”
REC has over 10,000 students in design courses alone. “That’s bigger than in any institution anywhere in the world,” Chew beams. “For a guy who didn’t know anything about design, and has produced hundreds of design teachers and practicing designers, that accounts for something.”
Chews entry into design education is well thought out, not a desperate attempt to move into another business. “Asia remains focused on developing the left brain,” he theorizes. “I focus my business on the right side, the creative part. Twenty years ago, when I began my business, Singapore was a country with no sense of design to speak of.”
In traditional education, “people follow a very specific route starting from primary, secondary, etc., then to college then to university. The system in Asia is also very academic; it’s about learning Mathematics, memorizing things and then regurgitating them. It’s never about using your hands and being creative. If you are an artist or an artisan you learn to work with your hands. Most Asians educators focus on the development of the measurable mind, the logical, compliant, disciplined, part. Creative people, being creative, are not so inclined towards these and they often drop out.
“Who gives them the alternative to stay in school? Raffles Education. We pride ourselves in giving these people an alternative education that maximizes human resource. People think design is not important, but from the moment you wake up to the time you close your eyes, you’re surrounded by it. We tend to focus on the manufacture of things, but focusing on this alone means that we are missing out a lot. We only derive value from one aspect, but there is great value to be derived out of design, out of distribution.”
By focusing only on certain aspects of production, most Asian economies limit their benefits. “How much do you think a pair of Nike shoes costs to produce? Maybe 10 bucks. Then add another 50 bucks for design. And that’s the aesthetics of the moment, and it will change from one period to another. Design input will always be required. Distribution and advertising cost even more. If Asian economies focused on manufacturing alone, Asian workers get paid much less as a result. The only thing we’ll be able to offer is labour. The other aspects of creating products get little attention and participation from Asians.
“As economies move on, more and more is added to production from the soft side. Look at China, why China got hit so badly? Because China is involved only in manufacturing. The whole time they’re just waiting for orders to come from the outside. Hence, they’re only paid for labour. And to make labour competitive, its cost gets lower and lower. It’s the workers who suffer in the end. Cost of raw materials commands a certain price in the global market. Capital also has a certain price in the global market. But manufacturers work with systems where they find cheap land and labour.”
Making Good of Chances
Chew started his education business by chance. “I did not plan it. It’s a journey of life that leads you to where you’re you are. I was doing business in timber and I was quite successful; the money was good. But I think education is an easier business than timber; it definitely has more enriching elements. When I realized that I made a stand to move.”
Starting out in alien territory was tough. No one knew Chew and he was a small and insignificant player; his biggest competitive advantages were his finely honed management abilities and expansion capabilities, two areas that very few among his competitors were able to do.
Although Chew believes that resources are important to grow the business, he also realized that attracting and retaining people are equally important. He pursued people who are competent in their area of discipline. “Instead of looking for stars, I looked for competencies. Stars come and go, and when they leave, the business shatters.”
During the first six years since he started his second business, Chew admits he knew nothing about education. He had to keep learning. “But I knew about running businesses and people. You have to bring in sales, the bums on the seats. If you don’t have students, even if you have the best teachers and the best curriculum, but you have no business. The reverse is also true: even if you have students but your curriculum does not help them, you lose them in the end. It’s a combination of things that make education work.”
Chew went through difficult times initially. “Those were trying times. I had to be courageous, but most of all humble. There were so many thing that I didn’t fully understand about the business, things that I needed to learn.”
Investing S$375,000 gave Chew a running start but did not get him very far. “In this business, the probability of losing is higher than making money is very high especially in the beginning. We have to be prepared to lose money for a few years every time we start a new venture. But eventually, we conditioned ourselves into the cycle: you start one school, you lose money, then eventually the new school becomes profitable. Then you find yourself in another market ready to start another school, only this time you use the money from the previous venture that has started to turn in profit. The one venture is now helping finance your second venture, and the cycle goes on.”
Chew admits that although it may be easy to understand, growing the business according to this model does not happen overnight. “Maybe it took you six years to grow the first one, and seven and a half years to set up the second one, and maybe nine years to get the third going. It takes longer to get the succeeding ones off the ground. But meanwhile, your management matures and your competency goes up. So while there’s always a waiting time for the business to develop fully, there are benefits to reap along the way and important lessons to learn. By the time you’re setting up your fourth and fifth school and so on, you would have amassed resources and capabilities that will make it faster and faster.” This year, Chew set up five schools in one go. “I have the people and the financial resources in place. Today, if there is no issue about licensing and getting permits, we can easily put up a business with the model that we have developed.”
The work, however, is not half done. “Every new market requires a new model. Each time you go into a new market, you adjust what you have already developed. If you are setting up a second or third school in the same country where you already have succeeded before, you have fewer problems. But if it’s a new territory, there’s always the culture that must considered.
Chew believes that in essence people look for the same things in education wherever they may be. Most often, it’s viewed as a step towards the betterment of one’s lot. What there is a shortage of is the alternative type of education that REC seems to have tapped on well. “This absence or shortage is what we build on,” Chew concludes.
Demonstrating Intentions
Despite tremendous work done on Raffles Design Institute, the original architecture asserts itself beneath the layer of paints and structural modifications. The formal symmetry, the familiar balance and lightness, the colonial interpretation of tropical architecture are writ large on the height of the ceiling, the gaping fenestrations and well placed courtyards. We are outside the building to photograph Chew who obliges with the ease of someone who has done it several times before. “This is a serviceable building,” he says as we walk past bright corridors. In effect, the Government is his landlord, and fittingly, his design school business started out as an investment towards a Government scheme.
Students in all manners of fashionable attire dart in and out of air-conditioned rooms. Teachers, not older or stodgier than students, lead the packs. “Our design students tend to come from higher income families,” Chew casually informs me. “Both lower income and higher income families expect a job or a career out of their education, but those who come from a higher income family tend to rely not on education alone. They can go into more creative pursuits.”Chew agrees when I asked if it’s like an ascending hierarchy of needs. “With an expanding middle class (in China), we have no problem with regards to market; the challenge lies in getting there. Our fees are not cheap; we don’t enroll thousands of students. The design institute takes in a smaller number of students than the more normal type of education, our technical and IT institutes, and so on.
I ask Chew about branding and promoting his business, after all RDI is an established brand and REC is Asia’s largest private education provider. “We don’t spend money to promote ourselves. We have our students and successful graduates who do that for us. The costliest part of our operation is human resources, and 20 percent of capital that goes into it. Don’t forget that we are of a certain scale. Without that scale, human resources would cost probably more.
“We’ve done well in China for 16 odd years, and that market is growing tremendously in size and sophistication. In our field, the right environment is also important. The government will always impose regulation on education, and rightly so. We need to demonstrate that we can deliver results and our intentions are good.”
He will not have a tough time doing that.
GREEN MEANS GO!
The race to lower carbon emission rages and manufacturers are dreaming up means of transporting passengers without posing further threat to the environment. If in the past ‘green’ efforts paid lip service to a worthy cause, today it is a serious concern with tremendous business and environmental benefits.
From personal transporters to private jets, designers are busy reinventing modes of transportation that have high aesthetic value and fuel efficiency, yet reduced toxic emissions. They are also incorporating materials that are natural, abundant and bio-degradable.
Incorporating ‘green’ materials is the big idea behind new transportation because it means that environmental objectives are taken into consideration from the time a concept is committed on paper. If in the past it was an afterthought, today it is the driving force.
In the following pages some examples of how we are going to cover distances, from tiny cross-town jaunts to long-haul trans-Atlantic flight.
VROOMING IN THE RAIN Mercedes-Benz McLaren SLR Stirling Moss
The Mercedes-McLaren partnership presents crowning glory of their collaboration, the 2009 McLaren SLR Stirling Moss, designed with 1955 300 SLR Roadster. The roofless car (be reminded that it also comes without windscreen) boasts carbon-fiber bodywork on an SLR-supplied 650-hp supercharged 5.5-liter V8 paired with a five-speed auto. Just like its parent, the SLR722, this baby can reach a top speed of 217mph, and go from 0 to 60mph in mere 3.5 seconds. It features swing doors that can cover either the entire cockpit or just the passenger side. When braking from speeds above 75mph, its retractable air brake automatically deploys. Only 75 units will be produced.
BAMBOO BOOM The Ross Lovegrove Bike by Biomega
Designer Ross Lovegrove has created a high-end bicycle with bamboo frame, demonstrating that the grass has applications far beyond traditional objects. First exhibited at Milan’s Design Library, the bikes are now in commercial production at Danish bicycle manufacturer Biomega. Units are distribute through international partners; in Asia, they are available in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan.
MINI AND ME Republic of Fritz Hansen’s Airstream for Mini Cooper S Clubman
Banish forever images of trailer parks filled with the jetsam and flotsam of humanity. Airstream Inc. and MINI team up to create a one-off MINI Cooper S Clubman paired with an Airstream trailer. This “silver bullet” Airstream trailer has luxury factor amped up by design firm Republic of Fritz Hansen of Copenhagen. The unit, measuring 22 feet, features sleek wood panels and comes with new interpretations of Arne Jacobsen’s Egg and Swan Chair, plus four Series Seven chairs. Exteriors match that of the Mini Cooper S Clubman in color and details. Some features are customizable.
CATCHING THE BUG Meyers Manx Dune Buddy
The ultimate dude dream, the dune buggy returns after more than three decades of absence. Bruce Meyers and the Meyers Manx are back with the Manxter 2+2 and Manxter DualSport range of street-legal fiberglass dune buggies. Meyers revolutionized the design of dune buggies in the mid-‘60s by using fiberglass body on a steel frame and a VW suspension and running gear. The model’s performance off-road has turned it into non-leisure utility vehicles for forest rangers and beach patrols.
VERITABLE VEYRONS Bugatti Veyron 16.4 customized by Mansory
Mansory has customised the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 for the Linea Vincero range. Unveiled at the 2009 Geneva Auto Salon, the models are manufactured using the finest carbon fiber making them totally lightweight, aerodynamic and comfortable.
Bugatti has also unveiled the Bleu Centenaire, a new special edition range of of the Veyron. The range marks the company’s 100th anniversary and pays tribute to four legendary Bugatti drivers who drove the Type 35 to prominence: Frenchman Jean-Pierre Wimille, Italian Achille Varsi, Englishman Malcolm Campbell and German Hermann Zu Leininger. The Type 35 was Bigatti’s among most successful racing models.
HAPPY CAMPERS Custom-built Mehrzeller Caravan
Replace the old expression happy camper with chich campr with the Mehrzeller Caravan with custom work from Merhzeller. The futuristic model is stopping traffic and drawing raves with multicellular design. The fun starts with Merzheller’s online Configurator that users can work with to produce exterior and interior layouts correspond to their needs. Inhouse designers take over using initial input from individual customers as design parameters.
THE FULL MONTY Foldable Monty Bike EF38
We have been bombarded with revolutionary hybrid cars, ie, models that run on both gas and alternative fuel source, but such twin-power option has been in use on bicycles for a very long time. Monty Bike offers the EF38 foldable model with alternative electronic engine. It comes with 250-watt, 36-volt electric engine and lithium battery, as well as a pedal system with throttle lever, speedometer and integrated battery level indicator. Manufactured in aluminum, it reaches top speed of 25kph. It comes in a transport bag.
SUPER FLY Aerion Supersonic Business Jet
The untimely demise of the Concorde has forced business travelers to endure long haul flights, but with the launch of the Aerion Jet with supersonic engines, corporate raiders are back in quick action. An 8am flight from Paris gets one ready for a breakfast meeting in Manhattan, while that from the North American east coast to Asia is covered in just 9.5 hours. Operating costs are equivalent to today’s large business jets. The cabin measures 6.2 feet in height and 6.5 feet in width—comparable to today’s super mid-size jets. A flat floor throughout its 30-foot-long cabin accommodates three seating areas, a full galley and lavatory. Seats are equipped with armrest control for entertainment and communications options, and recliners can be heated or cooled to individual preference. The Aerion supersonic jet can access all airports with strict noise and emissions regulations.
SOL EFFICIENT Solar-powered Verdier VW Camper
The solar power and alternative fuel make the Verdier VW camper a hit among eco-conscious motorist, but its design is wowing everyone.
A Special Jury Prize winner at the Caravaning Design Award 2006/2007 for Innovation, the Verdier Solar Power model features intelligent solar panel system, Sun Tracker, which provides electricity to on-board accessories while the vehicle is in stationary position. Equipped with an on-board computer and GPS, the panels calculate optimal position to harness sun rays. At rest, its pneumatic suspension lowers the vehicle so that it rests on the tires and achieves better stabilization. Its sliding half-door on the passenger side incorporates a folding staircase, and the passenger seat itself can be mechanically transformed into stairs. A wireless Internet connection is another standard feature. The model is designed by Alexandre Verdier.
WHAT WOOD YOU DO Carlos Alberto Vespa Scooter
Portuguese carpenter Carlos Alberto has selected 10 types of wood to recreate a Vespa scooter that mimics the original’s sensual curves. Calling it Vespa Daniela after his daughter, the model is the painstaking result of piecing together steam-bent and laminated veneers to form the body. Naturally, the seat and package tray are also made of wood. Heavier than the original Vespa after which it was modeled, the Vespa Daniela is still a head-turner.
COCO RIDES Chanel Segway Limited Edition Personal Transporter
So many things have happened to the personal transporter since inventor Dean Kamen designed it for Segway in 2001. A hit among urbanites since its first commercial production began in 2002, it has become a ubiquitous cross-town accessory. Equipped with gyroscopic sensors, the passenger easily balances himself on this electric vehicle. Leaning forward and back allows him to cover distances, while a handlebar allows him to turn. But the Segway Personal Transporter story is far from over: Segway X2 is a smart limited edition designed by Chanel’s Karl Lagerfeld. The black Chanel Segway features quilted leather fenders, handles, and a leather pouch. At top speed of 20kph, it is the most fashionable thing on wheels.
From personal transporters to private jets, designers are busy reinventing modes of transportation that have high aesthetic value and fuel efficiency, yet reduced toxic emissions. They are also incorporating materials that are natural, abundant and bio-degradable.
Incorporating ‘green’ materials is the big idea behind new transportation because it means that environmental objectives are taken into consideration from the time a concept is committed on paper. If in the past it was an afterthought, today it is the driving force.
In the following pages some examples of how we are going to cover distances, from tiny cross-town jaunts to long-haul trans-Atlantic flight.
VROOMING IN THE RAIN Mercedes-Benz McLaren SLR Stirling Moss
The Mercedes-McLaren partnership presents crowning glory of their collaboration, the 2009 McLaren SLR Stirling Moss, designed with 1955 300 SLR Roadster. The roofless car (be reminded that it also comes without windscreen) boasts carbon-fiber bodywork on an SLR-supplied 650-hp supercharged 5.5-liter V8 paired with a five-speed auto. Just like its parent, the SLR722, this baby can reach a top speed of 217mph, and go from 0 to 60mph in mere 3.5 seconds. It features swing doors that can cover either the entire cockpit or just the passenger side. When braking from speeds above 75mph, its retractable air brake automatically deploys. Only 75 units will be produced.
BAMBOO BOOM The Ross Lovegrove Bike by Biomega
Designer Ross Lovegrove has created a high-end bicycle with bamboo frame, demonstrating that the grass has applications far beyond traditional objects. First exhibited at Milan’s Design Library, the bikes are now in commercial production at Danish bicycle manufacturer Biomega. Units are distribute through international partners; in Asia, they are available in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan.
MINI AND ME Republic of Fritz Hansen’s Airstream for Mini Cooper S Clubman
Banish forever images of trailer parks filled with the jetsam and flotsam of humanity. Airstream Inc. and MINI team up to create a one-off MINI Cooper S Clubman paired with an Airstream trailer. This “silver bullet” Airstream trailer has luxury factor amped up by design firm Republic of Fritz Hansen of Copenhagen. The unit, measuring 22 feet, features sleek wood panels and comes with new interpretations of Arne Jacobsen’s Egg and Swan Chair, plus four Series Seven chairs. Exteriors match that of the Mini Cooper S Clubman in color and details. Some features are customizable.
CATCHING THE BUG Meyers Manx Dune Buddy
The ultimate dude dream, the dune buggy returns after more than three decades of absence. Bruce Meyers and the Meyers Manx are back with the Manxter 2+2 and Manxter DualSport range of street-legal fiberglass dune buggies. Meyers revolutionized the design of dune buggies in the mid-‘60s by using fiberglass body on a steel frame and a VW suspension and running gear. The model’s performance off-road has turned it into non-leisure utility vehicles for forest rangers and beach patrols.
VERITABLE VEYRONS Bugatti Veyron 16.4 customized by Mansory
Mansory has customised the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 for the Linea Vincero range. Unveiled at the 2009 Geneva Auto Salon, the models are manufactured using the finest carbon fiber making them totally lightweight, aerodynamic and comfortable.
Bugatti has also unveiled the Bleu Centenaire, a new special edition range of of the Veyron. The range marks the company’s 100th anniversary and pays tribute to four legendary Bugatti drivers who drove the Type 35 to prominence: Frenchman Jean-Pierre Wimille, Italian Achille Varsi, Englishman Malcolm Campbell and German Hermann Zu Leininger. The Type 35 was Bigatti’s among most successful racing models.
HAPPY CAMPERS Custom-built Mehrzeller Caravan
Replace the old expression happy camper with chich campr with the Mehrzeller Caravan with custom work from Merhzeller. The futuristic model is stopping traffic and drawing raves with multicellular design. The fun starts with Merzheller’s online Configurator that users can work with to produce exterior and interior layouts correspond to their needs. Inhouse designers take over using initial input from individual customers as design parameters.
THE FULL MONTY Foldable Monty Bike EF38
We have been bombarded with revolutionary hybrid cars, ie, models that run on both gas and alternative fuel source, but such twin-power option has been in use on bicycles for a very long time. Monty Bike offers the EF38 foldable model with alternative electronic engine. It comes with 250-watt, 36-volt electric engine and lithium battery, as well as a pedal system with throttle lever, speedometer and integrated battery level indicator. Manufactured in aluminum, it reaches top speed of 25kph. It comes in a transport bag.
SUPER FLY Aerion Supersonic Business Jet
The untimely demise of the Concorde has forced business travelers to endure long haul flights, but with the launch of the Aerion Jet with supersonic engines, corporate raiders are back in quick action. An 8am flight from Paris gets one ready for a breakfast meeting in Manhattan, while that from the North American east coast to Asia is covered in just 9.5 hours. Operating costs are equivalent to today’s large business jets. The cabin measures 6.2 feet in height and 6.5 feet in width—comparable to today’s super mid-size jets. A flat floor throughout its 30-foot-long cabin accommodates three seating areas, a full galley and lavatory. Seats are equipped with armrest control for entertainment and communications options, and recliners can be heated or cooled to individual preference. The Aerion supersonic jet can access all airports with strict noise and emissions regulations.
SOL EFFICIENT Solar-powered Verdier VW Camper
The solar power and alternative fuel make the Verdier VW camper a hit among eco-conscious motorist, but its design is wowing everyone.
A Special Jury Prize winner at the Caravaning Design Award 2006/2007 for Innovation, the Verdier Solar Power model features intelligent solar panel system, Sun Tracker, which provides electricity to on-board accessories while the vehicle is in stationary position. Equipped with an on-board computer and GPS, the panels calculate optimal position to harness sun rays. At rest, its pneumatic suspension lowers the vehicle so that it rests on the tires and achieves better stabilization. Its sliding half-door on the passenger side incorporates a folding staircase, and the passenger seat itself can be mechanically transformed into stairs. A wireless Internet connection is another standard feature. The model is designed by Alexandre Verdier.
WHAT WOOD YOU DO Carlos Alberto Vespa Scooter
Portuguese carpenter Carlos Alberto has selected 10 types of wood to recreate a Vespa scooter that mimics the original’s sensual curves. Calling it Vespa Daniela after his daughter, the model is the painstaking result of piecing together steam-bent and laminated veneers to form the body. Naturally, the seat and package tray are also made of wood. Heavier than the original Vespa after which it was modeled, the Vespa Daniela is still a head-turner.
COCO RIDES Chanel Segway Limited Edition Personal Transporter
So many things have happened to the personal transporter since inventor Dean Kamen designed it for Segway in 2001. A hit among urbanites since its first commercial production began in 2002, it has become a ubiquitous cross-town accessory. Equipped with gyroscopic sensors, the passenger easily balances himself on this electric vehicle. Leaning forward and back allows him to cover distances, while a handlebar allows him to turn. But the Segway Personal Transporter story is far from over: Segway X2 is a smart limited edition designed by Chanel’s Karl Lagerfeld. The black Chanel Segway features quilted leather fenders, handles, and a leather pouch. At top speed of 20kph, it is the most fashionable thing on wheels.
SO GALLANTLY STREAMING
Are social networking platforms the new frontier for brand building and advertising?
It may be a 140-character update on a Washington congressional debate sent via Twitter, or a three-minute loop of Kim Kardashian getting a mani-pedi on youtube, but it’s definitely blazing its way to becoming a global sensation. The way (semi) private messages are transmitted, shared, and discussed on social networking platforms immediately raises them into real issues. An innocuous video diary can potentially attract reactions, discussions, dedicated blogs, and even micro-sites the moment it orbits into online universe. Blog it and they will follow. Such being the case, social network-ing platforms are effectively user-generated media -
a fertile, overcrowded, buzzing environment that has been the focus of efforts from marketing, advertising and PR professionals for the past couple of years.
According to online intelligence service provider Brandtology, “The most important conversation today about a brand and its target audience is the one that happens among the prospects themselves.” “Different platforms allow you to connect to different audiences,” qualifies Andrew Peters, director of Social Media at Pacific West Communications, whose credits include awareness campaigns for the Singapore Tattoo Show, the virtual mirror world Twinity, and ongoing reality programme SupermodelMeTV.
Although Peters believes there is a lot of crossovers and shared audience pools among these platforms, he advocates tailoring the message to the medium. “LinkedIn has a more serious tone than Facebook, which is more casual, but we are able to utilise both platforms for the same project.” For example, Pacific West has put up sign-posts on LinkedIn directing traffic towards another site, where details of the programme on which they are conducting an awareness campaign are provided in a more seamless, suitable environment.
Talk the Walk
Buying tickets to a Chris Daughtry concert, or keeping tabs on the legs of his tour, may be a popular Facebook activity, but how about weightier issues? “I don’t consider messages uploaded on social networking platforms as advertising; they’re not there to sell anything, rather they engage the audience in conversation, which in turn may become opportunities for actual sales,” explains Peters.
Indeed, big ticket brands have been using social networking platforms to get the word about their products and get discussions started especially in relation to new launches. “It creates not only brand awareness, but also brand loyalty because consumers get to discuss and understand the product amongst themselves,” Peters comments. But consumers aren’t the only ones that benefit from such discussions. Peters points out that such feedback is valuable tools for assessing the product and making vital changes where necessary.
“We have a strong online pre-opening campaign called ION DNA and (an-other on) Facebook,” says Lim Shien Yau, AVP Marketing Communications at Orchard Turn Developments, which launched ION Orchard mall. Its dedicated website introduced prospective shoppers to the mall ahead of its grand opening. Besides prospects of winning “one of experiential prizes”, most of which capitalise on what the mall offers, a visit to the website is a privilege virtual tour. At the same time, it also captures profiles of visitors to the site, doubtless an important database material.
Critically Massive
“The organisers of the Singapore Tattoo Show expected us to bring in a crowd of at least 5,000, but more than 15,000 walked through the doors and obviously they were quite pleased with the ten thousand head count,” Peters cites. For the sponsors of the show, from beverages to footwear, it meant precious association with what is perceived as a “cool” event — not necessarily a direct sales pitch but nevertheless a powerful branding initiative.
The ION Orchard campaign, for example, raised its hip factor with its “Search for Singapore’s Most Fashionable 100” on Facebook. ION Orchard photographers took shots of willing—and passably fashionable — pedestrians that were then posted on Facebook. The traffic it generated was immense, with denizens of the platform gamely posting their comments. How’s that for creating pre-opening buzz?
With a critical mass discussing an event or product launch, the likelihood of it attracting sponsorships is high. Marketing strategist and author David Meerman Scott says that “when people spread your ideas and tell your stories, buyers are eager to do business with you”. This has been demonstrated time and again by the buzz that Ap-ple creates around its products way before they are launched. Webcast countdowns, dedicated blogs, and virtual news updates preoccupy hundreds of thousands of potential buyers of the latest cool gizmo from the brand. Even the discussion boards become virtual centres of consumer-driven R&D with fans critiquing past, present and future releases.
Wherever, Whenever
Meerman Scott says in his book World Wide Rave that the phenomenon takes place when “people around the world are talking about you, your company, and your products” no matter where your location is. “It’s when online buzz drives buyers to your virtual doorstep... when tons of fans visit your Web site and your blog because they genuinely want to be there.”
Location is in fact getting to be a secondary consideration, a bonus to companies seeking instantaneous global exposure. And with social networking platforms open 24/7, time is no object either. When Peters launched a virtual awareness campaign — of out Pacific West’s Singapore office — for Hypocol, a cholesterol management drug, he was amazed by the amount of discussion it generated worldwide. “People from very diverse locations were talking about it. It was a virtual community spread out across the globe but united by a common interest,” he marvels. Audiences from Asia to Europe and Africa exchanged notes on the drug’s efficacy, writing earnest testimonials and elaborate experience-based discussions. Doctors, patients, pharmaceutical companies weighed in freely, unhampered by actual distance.
Surely, social networking platforms are more than just community builders. Some companies have utilised their ability to address diverse audiences at once. Dell Computers, Peters pints out, uses Twitter to support customers, push out packages through direct selling, and even turn the engine into a virtual call centre.
A Word Edgewise
Despite vaunted democracy in social net-working platforms, there are rules of engagement to observe in order to navigate them successfully. Savvy is key. TPR, the PR unit of TBWA group, is rolling out a maiden project on Facebook for one of its clients, reveals executive director Beth Kennedy. “The programme targets participants between 15 and 20 years old.” Focused on corporate social responsibility, it involves organising international participation in marketing programmes. “In terms of reaching out to participants, I think this is the only platform to get them.” Kennedy, who has so far resisted setting up a Facebook account, adds that she can “see no other way of launching this programme right now except on Facebook”. TPR has even recruited a 21-year-old “who speaks the language” to construct a site.
Blogs, say PR practitioners, are part of the equation. “Facebook is a social media driver,” says Peters — a chain of conversations that is instantaneous and democratic. Clued in and tuned in, the online generation spends most of their time interacting with friends on social networking platforms, adds Kennedy. Facebook updates them on what is going on and, more importantly, allows them to participate through their own video logs or vlogs and commentaries.
“I can see how much of Facebook can be productive if it is properly targeted. It can have a huge effect. But it gets out of hand when everything gets pushed at people,” Kennedy says. Hinting at natural selection forces at play, she adds: “People will filter through messages if they get sent too much and I think they are becoming more selective.”
This Way Forward
What worries PR practitioners and their clients is the exponential growth of mem-berships in social media platforms. Face-book, for one, claims more than 200 million members, half of which log on to the site at least once a day. “It’s overcrowded and there’s a chance of messages getting lost or considered as spam; the same is true of Twitter,” says Peters.
Kennedy expresses reservations about the openness of the structure. “It threatens privacy; the whole world knows so many things about you and you become a target (for unsolicited and unwelcome messages).”
Another concern is measuring efficacy of the platforms in delivering not just hits, but successful user sessions, read: actual sales. Service providers and their clients will have to wait for tools to measure delivery. “Traditional PR companies rely on specific parameters and use a multiplier,” Peters says, “but companies are now gener-ating tools that will look into virtual media.” For the time being, Facebook Fan Page provides insights into followers of specific campaigns, breaking them into familiar cohorts. Peters is developing microsites — spin-offs and elaboration of existing cam-paigns — for his clients based on profiles generated by Facebook.
Meanwhile, Brandtology has come up with ways to capture and analyse information circulating online that pertains to audience perception of client brands. The information is a vital tool for clients to strategise appropriately, react swiftly to the market, and secure a winning position. It offers online conversation audit, which provides a picture of how a client’s brand is perceived online. Its buzz and voices tracking services update clients on what is current in relevant channels in the marketplace. It also works with clients in developing strategies suited to the interactive environment.
“The way forward is going to be online interactive communication, but one that survives with specialisation,” Kennedy proposes. “Bombardment will need a direction. Let’s face it, how many hours can you spend on Twitter day,” she challenges.
The answer to that, at least for now, is not enough.
It may be a 140-character update on a Washington congressional debate sent via Twitter, or a three-minute loop of Kim Kardashian getting a mani-pedi on youtube, but it’s definitely blazing its way to becoming a global sensation. The way (semi) private messages are transmitted, shared, and discussed on social networking platforms immediately raises them into real issues. An innocuous video diary can potentially attract reactions, discussions, dedicated blogs, and even micro-sites the moment it orbits into online universe. Blog it and they will follow. Such being the case, social network-ing platforms are effectively user-generated media -
a fertile, overcrowded, buzzing environment that has been the focus of efforts from marketing, advertising and PR professionals for the past couple of years.
According to online intelligence service provider Brandtology, “The most important conversation today about a brand and its target audience is the one that happens among the prospects themselves.” “Different platforms allow you to connect to different audiences,” qualifies Andrew Peters, director of Social Media at Pacific West Communications, whose credits include awareness campaigns for the Singapore Tattoo Show, the virtual mirror world Twinity, and ongoing reality programme SupermodelMeTV.
Although Peters believes there is a lot of crossovers and shared audience pools among these platforms, he advocates tailoring the message to the medium. “LinkedIn has a more serious tone than Facebook, which is more casual, but we are able to utilise both platforms for the same project.” For example, Pacific West has put up sign-posts on LinkedIn directing traffic towards another site, where details of the programme on which they are conducting an awareness campaign are provided in a more seamless, suitable environment.
Talk the Walk
Buying tickets to a Chris Daughtry concert, or keeping tabs on the legs of his tour, may be a popular Facebook activity, but how about weightier issues? “I don’t consider messages uploaded on social networking platforms as advertising; they’re not there to sell anything, rather they engage the audience in conversation, which in turn may become opportunities for actual sales,” explains Peters.
Indeed, big ticket brands have been using social networking platforms to get the word about their products and get discussions started especially in relation to new launches. “It creates not only brand awareness, but also brand loyalty because consumers get to discuss and understand the product amongst themselves,” Peters comments. But consumers aren’t the only ones that benefit from such discussions. Peters points out that such feedback is valuable tools for assessing the product and making vital changes where necessary.
“We have a strong online pre-opening campaign called ION DNA and (an-other on) Facebook,” says Lim Shien Yau, AVP Marketing Communications at Orchard Turn Developments, which launched ION Orchard mall. Its dedicated website introduced prospective shoppers to the mall ahead of its grand opening. Besides prospects of winning “one of experiential prizes”, most of which capitalise on what the mall offers, a visit to the website is a privilege virtual tour. At the same time, it also captures profiles of visitors to the site, doubtless an important database material.
Critically Massive
“The organisers of the Singapore Tattoo Show expected us to bring in a crowd of at least 5,000, but more than 15,000 walked through the doors and obviously they were quite pleased with the ten thousand head count,” Peters cites. For the sponsors of the show, from beverages to footwear, it meant precious association with what is perceived as a “cool” event — not necessarily a direct sales pitch but nevertheless a powerful branding initiative.
The ION Orchard campaign, for example, raised its hip factor with its “Search for Singapore’s Most Fashionable 100” on Facebook. ION Orchard photographers took shots of willing—and passably fashionable — pedestrians that were then posted on Facebook. The traffic it generated was immense, with denizens of the platform gamely posting their comments. How’s that for creating pre-opening buzz?
With a critical mass discussing an event or product launch, the likelihood of it attracting sponsorships is high. Marketing strategist and author David Meerman Scott says that “when people spread your ideas and tell your stories, buyers are eager to do business with you”. This has been demonstrated time and again by the buzz that Ap-ple creates around its products way before they are launched. Webcast countdowns, dedicated blogs, and virtual news updates preoccupy hundreds of thousands of potential buyers of the latest cool gizmo from the brand. Even the discussion boards become virtual centres of consumer-driven R&D with fans critiquing past, present and future releases.
Wherever, Whenever
Meerman Scott says in his book World Wide Rave that the phenomenon takes place when “people around the world are talking about you, your company, and your products” no matter where your location is. “It’s when online buzz drives buyers to your virtual doorstep... when tons of fans visit your Web site and your blog because they genuinely want to be there.”
Location is in fact getting to be a secondary consideration, a bonus to companies seeking instantaneous global exposure. And with social networking platforms open 24/7, time is no object either. When Peters launched a virtual awareness campaign — of out Pacific West’s Singapore office — for Hypocol, a cholesterol management drug, he was amazed by the amount of discussion it generated worldwide. “People from very diverse locations were talking about it. It was a virtual community spread out across the globe but united by a common interest,” he marvels. Audiences from Asia to Europe and Africa exchanged notes on the drug’s efficacy, writing earnest testimonials and elaborate experience-based discussions. Doctors, patients, pharmaceutical companies weighed in freely, unhampered by actual distance.
Surely, social networking platforms are more than just community builders. Some companies have utilised their ability to address diverse audiences at once. Dell Computers, Peters pints out, uses Twitter to support customers, push out packages through direct selling, and even turn the engine into a virtual call centre.
A Word Edgewise
Despite vaunted democracy in social net-working platforms, there are rules of engagement to observe in order to navigate them successfully. Savvy is key. TPR, the PR unit of TBWA group, is rolling out a maiden project on Facebook for one of its clients, reveals executive director Beth Kennedy. “The programme targets participants between 15 and 20 years old.” Focused on corporate social responsibility, it involves organising international participation in marketing programmes. “In terms of reaching out to participants, I think this is the only platform to get them.” Kennedy, who has so far resisted setting up a Facebook account, adds that she can “see no other way of launching this programme right now except on Facebook”. TPR has even recruited a 21-year-old “who speaks the language” to construct a site.
Blogs, say PR practitioners, are part of the equation. “Facebook is a social media driver,” says Peters — a chain of conversations that is instantaneous and democratic. Clued in and tuned in, the online generation spends most of their time interacting with friends on social networking platforms, adds Kennedy. Facebook updates them on what is going on and, more importantly, allows them to participate through their own video logs or vlogs and commentaries.
“I can see how much of Facebook can be productive if it is properly targeted. It can have a huge effect. But it gets out of hand when everything gets pushed at people,” Kennedy says. Hinting at natural selection forces at play, she adds: “People will filter through messages if they get sent too much and I think they are becoming more selective.”
This Way Forward
What worries PR practitioners and their clients is the exponential growth of mem-berships in social media platforms. Face-book, for one, claims more than 200 million members, half of which log on to the site at least once a day. “It’s overcrowded and there’s a chance of messages getting lost or considered as spam; the same is true of Twitter,” says Peters.
Kennedy expresses reservations about the openness of the structure. “It threatens privacy; the whole world knows so many things about you and you become a target (for unsolicited and unwelcome messages).”
Another concern is measuring efficacy of the platforms in delivering not just hits, but successful user sessions, read: actual sales. Service providers and their clients will have to wait for tools to measure delivery. “Traditional PR companies rely on specific parameters and use a multiplier,” Peters says, “but companies are now gener-ating tools that will look into virtual media.” For the time being, Facebook Fan Page provides insights into followers of specific campaigns, breaking them into familiar cohorts. Peters is developing microsites — spin-offs and elaboration of existing cam-paigns — for his clients based on profiles generated by Facebook.
Meanwhile, Brandtology has come up with ways to capture and analyse information circulating online that pertains to audience perception of client brands. The information is a vital tool for clients to strategise appropriately, react swiftly to the market, and secure a winning position. It offers online conversation audit, which provides a picture of how a client’s brand is perceived online. Its buzz and voices tracking services update clients on what is current in relevant channels in the marketplace. It also works with clients in developing strategies suited to the interactive environment.
“The way forward is going to be online interactive communication, but one that survives with specialisation,” Kennedy proposes. “Bombardment will need a direction. Let’s face it, how many hours can you spend on Twitter day,” she challenges.
The answer to that, at least for now, is not enough.
LOUIS' FABULOUS REIGN
Holding fast to no-discount, no-sale policy may be Louis Vuitton’s best strategy to stay on top of the luxury chart. For one, it’s a practical demonstration of a value that never dips
The opening of Louis Vuitton’s latest boutique at ION Orchard was a cause celebre for a number of reasons. It is the luxury retailer’s first and largest global store in Southeast Asia, its fourth outlet in Singapore after Ngee Ann City, Raffles Hotel Arcade and DFS Scotts Walk, and the one that offers the most extensive array of products—from leather goods to fashion, timepieces and accessories. More importantly, it opened at a time when even the most avid shoppers mouth the phrase “considered spending” as self-protective mantra. That turned the event into a closely watched economic bellwether: is the fashion flock ready to return?
The 2.5-level concept store features show-stoppers beginning from a curved glass facade that mimics the folds of a scarf and a pattern that recalls the damier, the ubiquitous checkerboard design on Louis Vuitton bags. The main entrance opens to a double volume space where a nine-metre-long women’s bag bar, towering display cabinets, and a seven-metre-long men’s bag bar are laid out. A serpentine marble staircase leads to a mezzanine shop, and on to the second level where the men’s and women’s apparel and accessories sections are located. The launch showcased the “Singapore Exclusives” range, with some items bearing the Louis Vuitton Orchard Road Singapore label. If nothing else stops the fashionista dead on her tracks in this 905-sqm shop, the pleasure of space and volume, in rare supply at prime shopping hubs, will surely tell her that this is indeed her temple.
The launch also demonstrated the brand’s continued expansion in Asia, its biggest market after Europe. Continued expansion within the region is therefore to be expected. In late May this year, it dazzled fans in Japan when it opened Louis Vuitton/underground/, in Seibu, a department store in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro district. Set up like a warehouse and open for a limited time only, this concept store has somehow revived youthful interest in the brand in a country where hardcore fashionistas have been reportedly trading their designer monograms for H&M confections. Last year the brand focused on Hong Kong, where the second Maison Louis Vuitton—the second largest in the world after Paris—opened in March on 5 Canton Road. (Extensive renovation was completed on the Maison Louis Vuitton at Hong Kong’s Landmark building in 2005.)
“We have 77 stores in the region and another five are expected to open this year,” confirms Jean-Baptiste Debains, Louis Vuitton Asia Pacific president, who graced the Singapore launch. He also admitted that they are seriously considering a fifth outlet in one of Singapore’s integrated resort complexes.
Estimated to be worth over US$19.395 billion, Louis Vuitton is the 19th most valuable brand in the world according to a 2009 Millward Brown survey. Meanwhile, its peers in the luxury sector mark down their own products up to 70 percent, shrink new collections, and even host “invitation-only” end of season sales to ride out the passing storm; in extreme cases, some luxury brands, as in the case of Christian Lacroix, have filed for bankruptcy protection as sales dwindled. But not for Louis Vuitton: the brand seems oblivious to changing fortunes, never once holding sales or offering discounts. “It is important to show our customers the true value of our products,” explains Debains. And show they did.
Know By Heart
“Have you seen what the Neverfull is like inside,” asks a socialite as she talks about her enduring fascination with all things Louis Vuitton. (Her wardrobe is chockfull of Louis Vuitton apparels and accessories that she has painstakingly collected through the years.) She proceeds to turn the product inside out until it looks like a different but equally well-crafted bag. “This is the same lining that is used on the trunks,” she says as she draws attention to a striped, sturdy-looking, sepia-toned cloth. “It as if the bag is reversible because you have the same attention to craftsmanship applied to the inside as well.”
As far as Louis Vuitton die-hards go, this is standard talk. Ask anyone of them about the recent slew of ‘It’ bags from the label and you will get a litany of model names with running commentary on colour, size, and material. (Or try saying “Takashi Murakami Monogramoflage Speedy 35” without tripping.) Collaboration with independent artists such as Takashi Murakami and Richard Prince, and their respective outputs, are likewise committed to memory. So are projects involving Comme des Garcons’ Rei Kawakubo and the late Stephen Sprouse, which yielded the LV 40th anniversary commemorative bag, and the revival of the graffiti that the latter had done for the house nine years ago, respectively.
But beyond heady bag names and their availability in epi leather or damier canvas, Louis Vuitton fans know by heart that the label’s luggage are assembled and finished by hand, that an individual key will open all pad locks on an owner’s different bags, and that each trunk has a unique serial number.
A Manly Pursuit?
Louis Vuitton, which launched its first stores in Tokyo and Osaka in 1978, has established real connection with local customers. Being among the first foreign brands in the Japanese luxury market, Louis Vuitton initiated its customers early on into the label’s DNA. “Japanese customers take time to get to know the brand,” explains Debains. It’s part of their culture to examine a product with a keen eye for craftsmanship, details and construction. “Knowledge underlies our popularity in Japan. The more they know it, the more they like it,” he adds.
It is not uncommon for a Japanese shopper to know that a Stephen Sprouse bag for Louis Vuitton has 33 layers of colours, or that the hugely popular Neverfull bag is lined with the same material that is used in Louis Vuitton trunks. Such minutiae never escape the Japanese shopper and only add to his loyalty to the brand.
Perhaps the best example of Louis Vuitton’s popularity in Japan is the sustainability of its store dedicated entirely to men—a strategy rarely pursued by luxury brands with very popular women’s lines. And with the men’s luxury market developing rapidly, particularly in new economies, Louis Vuitton looks set to meet expectations fully. The brand’s well cultivated association with manly pursuits—from sailing (as originator and principal sponsor of the Louis Vuitton Cup and Louis Vuitton Pacific Series) to adventure travel (most of its elaborate trunks have been conceived for explorers such as Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza, and globetrotting musician Leopold Stokowski), and passion for new technologies—gives it unique advantage to connect with male luxury shoppers. It has a full range of products for the menfolk, from leather goods to apparel, timepieces and accessories. Special order trunks have so far included humidors, portable sound system carrier, watch cabinets, portable bars—all appealing to men.
Emotions In A Bag
Brands are digging into their past for appropriately sympathetic images to project during these less than sunny economic climate. Louis Vuitton is no exception, but it has also seized the opportunity to focus on a number of characteristics that makes the brand click with its followers. For the ageing boomers, there is the pleasant, wistful, core values campaign that reunited them with familiar icons. The campaign earlier featured Mikhail Gorbachev, an effective if unexpected spokesperson, and this time, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, Buzz Aldrin. Showbiz legends Catherine Deneuve, Sean Connery, and Keith Richards have also had their star turns in separate ads that extol the wonders of journeys. The campaign was shot by Annie Liebovitz and projects a romantic longing for kinder, gentler world.
For the younger, hipper crowd, there is the second cycle of the Paris campaign featuring Madonna. The previous one showed the pop star in provocative, edgier poses, while the second revealed her softer aspects in a series of Steven Meisel photographs that suggest Tamara de Lempicka portraits. Meisel used the solarized technique favoured by Man Ray to set off varicolored planes and metallic shadows.
Tying up these two powerful ranges of images is one on father-daughter team of Francis Ford and Sophia Coppola, which also appeared in the core values campaign. Shot by Liebovitz in the meadow outside Buenos Aires, the print ad ran a tagline, “Inside every story, there is a beautiful journey”. It conveys the connection between two generations, the affection that binds them, and the values that they share.
Louis Vuitton, which has mastered visual imagery, through its various products and branding activities, is also showing its metier in emotional imagery through its campaigns. “But it’s not just the product but also the entire (brand) experience,” Debains explains. That explains how well we choose the locations of our stores and why we collaborate with the best professionals to deliver the kind of shops we have, he qualifies.
Bolstering Resilience
Louis Vuitton Malletier, aka Louis Vuitton, or simply LV, is the flagship brand of the Louis Vuitton LVMH conglomerate. It owns and operates over 60 brands, most of them high profile luxury labels such as Christian Dior, Fendi, Celine, Loewe, Donna Karan, Berluti, Thomas Pink, Kenzo, TAG Heuer, Marc Jacobs and Givenchy, among others. CEO Bernard Arnault grew the business with a series of takeovers, some of which were memorably acrimonious, in the mid-1980s, starting a trend for luxury conglomerates. Today, the Arnault Group holds a controlling 47.4 percent of the company, while foreign institutional investors and French institutional investors hold 27.4 percent and 16.2 percent shares, respectively. Its business groups include wines and spirits, fashion and leather goods, perfumes and cosmetics, watches and jewelry, and retail. The fashion and leather goods group, to which Louis Vuitton belongs, is a perennial money-maker, turning in a total profit of 1,060 billion Euros last year.
Profit from Recurring Operations by Business Group (Highlights)
EUR million
2006 2007 2008
Wines and Spirits 962 1,058 1,060
Fashion and Leather Goods 1,633 1,829 1,927
Perfumes and Cosmetics 222 256 290
Watches and Jewellery 80 141 118
Selective Retailing 387 426 388
Source: LVMH Annual Report 2008
Despite unfavourable economic scenario, Louis Vuitton sustained its momentum in Asian markets including China, Hong Kong, Macao, South Korea and others, reports Yves Carcelle, president of the fashion and leather goods business group. The group’s business in Japan accounts for 20 percent of revenue, while another 25 percent accounts for the rest of Asia. In comparison, eight percent of revenue comes France, and 21 from the rest of Europe.
Revenue by Business Group (Highlights)
EUR million
2006 2007 2008
Wines and Spirits 2,994 3,226 3,126
Fashion and Leather Goods 5,222 5,628 6,010
Perfumes and Cosmetics 2,519 2,731 2,768
Watches and Jewellery 737 833 879
Selective Retailing 3,877 4,164 4,376
Source: LVMH Annual Report 2008
In its 2008 Annual Report, Louis Vuitton LVMH revealed that China has become Louis Vuitton’s second largest customer base in the world.
Revenue by Geographic Region of Delivery
8% France
21% Rest of Europe
19% United States
20% Japan
25% Rest of Asia
7% Other Markets
Source: LVMH Annual Report 2008
Comfortable spread and market leadership have ensured Louis Vuitton’s resilience especially during the recent slowdown. LVMH group managing director Antonio Belloni said in an interview that “our businesses have different cycles, our portfolio of brands is very diversified, and we are present in all regions of the world.” These, he reasoned, are traditional factors in the solid performance of the Group.
“Uncertainty remains but we perform well,” adds Debains. Many people are not changing the way they live. There is more careful buying, but there is buying going on.
The opening of Louis Vuitton’s latest boutique at ION Orchard was a cause celebre for a number of reasons. It is the luxury retailer’s first and largest global store in Southeast Asia, its fourth outlet in Singapore after Ngee Ann City, Raffles Hotel Arcade and DFS Scotts Walk, and the one that offers the most extensive array of products—from leather goods to fashion, timepieces and accessories. More importantly, it opened at a time when even the most avid shoppers mouth the phrase “considered spending” as self-protective mantra. That turned the event into a closely watched economic bellwether: is the fashion flock ready to return?
The 2.5-level concept store features show-stoppers beginning from a curved glass facade that mimics the folds of a scarf and a pattern that recalls the damier, the ubiquitous checkerboard design on Louis Vuitton bags. The main entrance opens to a double volume space where a nine-metre-long women’s bag bar, towering display cabinets, and a seven-metre-long men’s bag bar are laid out. A serpentine marble staircase leads to a mezzanine shop, and on to the second level where the men’s and women’s apparel and accessories sections are located. The launch showcased the “Singapore Exclusives” range, with some items bearing the Louis Vuitton Orchard Road Singapore label. If nothing else stops the fashionista dead on her tracks in this 905-sqm shop, the pleasure of space and volume, in rare supply at prime shopping hubs, will surely tell her that this is indeed her temple.
The launch also demonstrated the brand’s continued expansion in Asia, its biggest market after Europe. Continued expansion within the region is therefore to be expected. In late May this year, it dazzled fans in Japan when it opened Louis Vuitton/underground/, in Seibu, a department store in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro district. Set up like a warehouse and open for a limited time only, this concept store has somehow revived youthful interest in the brand in a country where hardcore fashionistas have been reportedly trading their designer monograms for H&M confections. Last year the brand focused on Hong Kong, where the second Maison Louis Vuitton—the second largest in the world after Paris—opened in March on 5 Canton Road. (Extensive renovation was completed on the Maison Louis Vuitton at Hong Kong’s Landmark building in 2005.)
“We have 77 stores in the region and another five are expected to open this year,” confirms Jean-Baptiste Debains, Louis Vuitton Asia Pacific president, who graced the Singapore launch. He also admitted that they are seriously considering a fifth outlet in one of Singapore’s integrated resort complexes.
Estimated to be worth over US$19.395 billion, Louis Vuitton is the 19th most valuable brand in the world according to a 2009 Millward Brown survey. Meanwhile, its peers in the luxury sector mark down their own products up to 70 percent, shrink new collections, and even host “invitation-only” end of season sales to ride out the passing storm; in extreme cases, some luxury brands, as in the case of Christian Lacroix, have filed for bankruptcy protection as sales dwindled. But not for Louis Vuitton: the brand seems oblivious to changing fortunes, never once holding sales or offering discounts. “It is important to show our customers the true value of our products,” explains Debains. And show they did.
Know By Heart
“Have you seen what the Neverfull is like inside,” asks a socialite as she talks about her enduring fascination with all things Louis Vuitton. (Her wardrobe is chockfull of Louis Vuitton apparels and accessories that she has painstakingly collected through the years.) She proceeds to turn the product inside out until it looks like a different but equally well-crafted bag. “This is the same lining that is used on the trunks,” she says as she draws attention to a striped, sturdy-looking, sepia-toned cloth. “It as if the bag is reversible because you have the same attention to craftsmanship applied to the inside as well.”
As far as Louis Vuitton die-hards go, this is standard talk. Ask anyone of them about the recent slew of ‘It’ bags from the label and you will get a litany of model names with running commentary on colour, size, and material. (Or try saying “Takashi Murakami Monogramoflage Speedy 35” without tripping.) Collaboration with independent artists such as Takashi Murakami and Richard Prince, and their respective outputs, are likewise committed to memory. So are projects involving Comme des Garcons’ Rei Kawakubo and the late Stephen Sprouse, which yielded the LV 40th anniversary commemorative bag, and the revival of the graffiti that the latter had done for the house nine years ago, respectively.
But beyond heady bag names and their availability in epi leather or damier canvas, Louis Vuitton fans know by heart that the label’s luggage are assembled and finished by hand, that an individual key will open all pad locks on an owner’s different bags, and that each trunk has a unique serial number.
A Manly Pursuit?
Louis Vuitton, which launched its first stores in Tokyo and Osaka in 1978, has established real connection with local customers. Being among the first foreign brands in the Japanese luxury market, Louis Vuitton initiated its customers early on into the label’s DNA. “Japanese customers take time to get to know the brand,” explains Debains. It’s part of their culture to examine a product with a keen eye for craftsmanship, details and construction. “Knowledge underlies our popularity in Japan. The more they know it, the more they like it,” he adds.
It is not uncommon for a Japanese shopper to know that a Stephen Sprouse bag for Louis Vuitton has 33 layers of colours, or that the hugely popular Neverfull bag is lined with the same material that is used in Louis Vuitton trunks. Such minutiae never escape the Japanese shopper and only add to his loyalty to the brand.
Perhaps the best example of Louis Vuitton’s popularity in Japan is the sustainability of its store dedicated entirely to men—a strategy rarely pursued by luxury brands with very popular women’s lines. And with the men’s luxury market developing rapidly, particularly in new economies, Louis Vuitton looks set to meet expectations fully. The brand’s well cultivated association with manly pursuits—from sailing (as originator and principal sponsor of the Louis Vuitton Cup and Louis Vuitton Pacific Series) to adventure travel (most of its elaborate trunks have been conceived for explorers such as Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza, and globetrotting musician Leopold Stokowski), and passion for new technologies—gives it unique advantage to connect with male luxury shoppers. It has a full range of products for the menfolk, from leather goods to apparel, timepieces and accessories. Special order trunks have so far included humidors, portable sound system carrier, watch cabinets, portable bars—all appealing to men.
Emotions In A Bag
Brands are digging into their past for appropriately sympathetic images to project during these less than sunny economic climate. Louis Vuitton is no exception, but it has also seized the opportunity to focus on a number of characteristics that makes the brand click with its followers. For the ageing boomers, there is the pleasant, wistful, core values campaign that reunited them with familiar icons. The campaign earlier featured Mikhail Gorbachev, an effective if unexpected spokesperson, and this time, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, Buzz Aldrin. Showbiz legends Catherine Deneuve, Sean Connery, and Keith Richards have also had their star turns in separate ads that extol the wonders of journeys. The campaign was shot by Annie Liebovitz and projects a romantic longing for kinder, gentler world.
For the younger, hipper crowd, there is the second cycle of the Paris campaign featuring Madonna. The previous one showed the pop star in provocative, edgier poses, while the second revealed her softer aspects in a series of Steven Meisel photographs that suggest Tamara de Lempicka portraits. Meisel used the solarized technique favoured by Man Ray to set off varicolored planes and metallic shadows.
Tying up these two powerful ranges of images is one on father-daughter team of Francis Ford and Sophia Coppola, which also appeared in the core values campaign. Shot by Liebovitz in the meadow outside Buenos Aires, the print ad ran a tagline, “Inside every story, there is a beautiful journey”. It conveys the connection between two generations, the affection that binds them, and the values that they share.
Louis Vuitton, which has mastered visual imagery, through its various products and branding activities, is also showing its metier in emotional imagery through its campaigns. “But it’s not just the product but also the entire (brand) experience,” Debains explains. That explains how well we choose the locations of our stores and why we collaborate with the best professionals to deliver the kind of shops we have, he qualifies.
Bolstering Resilience
Louis Vuitton Malletier, aka Louis Vuitton, or simply LV, is the flagship brand of the Louis Vuitton LVMH conglomerate. It owns and operates over 60 brands, most of them high profile luxury labels such as Christian Dior, Fendi, Celine, Loewe, Donna Karan, Berluti, Thomas Pink, Kenzo, TAG Heuer, Marc Jacobs and Givenchy, among others. CEO Bernard Arnault grew the business with a series of takeovers, some of which were memorably acrimonious, in the mid-1980s, starting a trend for luxury conglomerates. Today, the Arnault Group holds a controlling 47.4 percent of the company, while foreign institutional investors and French institutional investors hold 27.4 percent and 16.2 percent shares, respectively. Its business groups include wines and spirits, fashion and leather goods, perfumes and cosmetics, watches and jewelry, and retail. The fashion and leather goods group, to which Louis Vuitton belongs, is a perennial money-maker, turning in a total profit of 1,060 billion Euros last year.
Profit from Recurring Operations by Business Group (Highlights)
EUR million
2006 2007 2008
Wines and Spirits 962 1,058 1,060
Fashion and Leather Goods 1,633 1,829 1,927
Perfumes and Cosmetics 222 256 290
Watches and Jewellery 80 141 118
Selective Retailing 387 426 388
Source: LVMH Annual Report 2008
Despite unfavourable economic scenario, Louis Vuitton sustained its momentum in Asian markets including China, Hong Kong, Macao, South Korea and others, reports Yves Carcelle, president of the fashion and leather goods business group. The group’s business in Japan accounts for 20 percent of revenue, while another 25 percent accounts for the rest of Asia. In comparison, eight percent of revenue comes France, and 21 from the rest of Europe.
Revenue by Business Group (Highlights)
EUR million
2006 2007 2008
Wines and Spirits 2,994 3,226 3,126
Fashion and Leather Goods 5,222 5,628 6,010
Perfumes and Cosmetics 2,519 2,731 2,768
Watches and Jewellery 737 833 879
Selective Retailing 3,877 4,164 4,376
Source: LVMH Annual Report 2008
In its 2008 Annual Report, Louis Vuitton LVMH revealed that China has become Louis Vuitton’s second largest customer base in the world.
Revenue by Geographic Region of Delivery
8% France
21% Rest of Europe
19% United States
20% Japan
25% Rest of Asia
7% Other Markets
Source: LVMH Annual Report 2008
Comfortable spread and market leadership have ensured Louis Vuitton’s resilience especially during the recent slowdown. LVMH group managing director Antonio Belloni said in an interview that “our businesses have different cycles, our portfolio of brands is very diversified, and we are present in all regions of the world.” These, he reasoned, are traditional factors in the solid performance of the Group.
“Uncertainty remains but we perform well,” adds Debains. Many people are not changing the way they live. There is more careful buying, but there is buying going on.
COZY IN ST. LUCY
Thanks to Lord Glenconner’s vision and hard work, Mustique showed up on the jet-set radar as the world’s first island resort. Now he sets his eyes on neighboring St. Lucia with a plan to turn it into an intimate piece of paradise
When Princess Margaret was presented with two choices for a wedding present—something wonderful from Aspreys or a 10-acre lot in Mustique—she chose the latter, had the land cleared and built Les Jolies Eaux, which became her favorite retreat. The gift came from the Right Hon. Colin Tennant, 3rd Lord Glenconner, whose family had a long involvement in the Caribbean. “I rebuilt the village of 120 to its current location, and then with Princess Margaret making her home there, we set a new standard, a fantasy place which I financed—the first resort in the world,” recalls Tennant.
It takes a Lord Glenconner to impose civilization on a place whose very attraction is its natural state. As a young man working for his family company, Tennant oversaw their estate in Trinidad, sold it in 1953, and used the proceeds to buy the island of Mustique five years later. Back then Mustique was nothing more than a 1,400-acre outcrop, but under Tennant’s visionary guidance, its infrastructure was developed, elegant homes were constructed, and its reputation as an exclusive destination grew. Consequently, property on the island became the most sought after and most expensive in the world. It also became very exclusive, and for that reason, somewhat unnatural.
The party somehow ended for Lord Glenconner, who found himself looking again for that virgin territory where tropical warmth was more than a line from a travel brochure. “The situation in Mustique changed and it was time for me to move on. I spent several years looking for a new home and decided on St. Lucia,” he says. He first bought an estate on the other side of Soufriere, and when his son Henry told him about the Jalousie Estate, he bought the site unseen, knowing instinctively how beautiful and rare the situation was. “The Pitons are St. Lucia’s national symbol and biggest attraction in the Eastern Caribbean. I first came to the land by canoe from Soufriere, located on a bay the other side of the Petit Piton. There was no road, just a goat track and pier from which the local farmers transported their mangoes; it was paradise but in a more intimate setting.”
Nowadays, Lord Glenconner lives in St. Lucia permanently, although he visits England and Scotland regularly. “One of my happiest times in St Lucia was when we lived in my old chattel house, which I brought up from Vieux Fort. I ran my restaurant Bang—so called because it was bang between the Pitons—with my daughter and her husband. Everyone came, including Steven Spielberg and Nicholas Cage who came twice, with his new bride”. Bang was open every night—it was a fully working restaurant and bar.
Life on a new island suits Lord Glenconner. “My fondest memories are of Bupa, this little elephant who I bought from Dublin zoo in 1983 and transported to St. Lucia. She roamed freely all over the estate and was an attraction in herself: 10,000 St Lucians came to see her in the first month alone. She was loved by everyone,” beams Lord Glenconner.
Lord Glenconner is spearheading the development of Glenconner Beach, an exclusive development of seven luxury five- and six-bedroom villas located on the white sand beach situated in the most iconic location in the Carribean—the Val de Pitons of St. Lucia, on a property he owned previously. Located in the southwest part of the island, Glenconner Beach lies within the Pitons Management Area surrounded by the natural beauty of tropical rainforest and spectacular dive sites.
Three of the villas are frontline from the beach, while the other four are positioned on higher ground to ensure uninterrupted sea view. All seven villas have been designed for outdoor/indoor living, incorporating as much of the tropical rainforest that surround them, and making maximum use of natural resources found in St Lucia. Award-winning architect Lane Pettigrew, who has designed over 60 luxury homes and resorts all over the Caribbean designed the architecture and interior of the villas. In order to personalize their home, each purchaser at Glenconner Beach will be allocated an amount of Pettigrew’s time to help them create bespoke property through adapting the interior layouts for their own use. Pettigrew will be available for meetings wherever the client chooses, whether in St. Lucia or abroad.
Owners of Glenconner Beach have direct access to a quarter mile stretch of sans as well as a private jetty and eight mooring buopys in the bay below. The plots range in size from 13,340 sqft to 26,852 sqft.
“I have an active interest in Glenconner Beach. Glenconner Village was my idea and I expect to run an art gallery in the village with my daughter-in law. The development of part of the Jalousie Estate to include local St. Lucians has been a vision of mine since I bought the property.”
The Val de Pitons, where Glenconner Beach, and Tides, Sugar Beach are located is very secluded, accessed via private road or from the sea. “While privacy is important we do not want the area to be too exclusive; visitors are welcome, there will be little local shops along the jetty, and my home is 100 yards away. My doors are always open if visitors would like to call on me,” he says.
Lord Glenconner concedes that “Mustique was a very different enterprise”, having developed at a different time and under different circumstances. “While the whole island of Mustique is a resort, Glenconner Beach is intimate and diverse with a greater variety of experience.” But he admits to bringing some of the principles that guided his earlier development. “I have brought with me the vision of what people expect from their Caribbean homes. Space, a blend of inside and outdoor living, access to a pristine white sand beach and the crystal-clear sea, a jetty from which to board their yachts.”
It differs from Mustique because St. Lucia is an independent country with its own government, tourism body, and two international airports with daily flights to the US and UK. The island also has an excellent brand new marina, which has been extended to provide facilities for super yachts.”
At Glenconner Village this vision will create a forum for local people to sell their goods to tourists and visitors and to create a noteworthy destination in its own right for people holidaying on their yachts. “I’ve always maintained that everyone should have access to The Pitons, which are a UNESCO World Heritage site by establishing somewhere that is public. I would like the jetty at Glenconner Beach to be a place people want to get off at, to come ashore and look at the marketplace, eat at the restaurant or have a drink at the bar.”
When Princess Margaret was presented with two choices for a wedding present—something wonderful from Aspreys or a 10-acre lot in Mustique—she chose the latter, had the land cleared and built Les Jolies Eaux, which became her favorite retreat. The gift came from the Right Hon. Colin Tennant, 3rd Lord Glenconner, whose family had a long involvement in the Caribbean. “I rebuilt the village of 120 to its current location, and then with Princess Margaret making her home there, we set a new standard, a fantasy place which I financed—the first resort in the world,” recalls Tennant.
It takes a Lord Glenconner to impose civilization on a place whose very attraction is its natural state. As a young man working for his family company, Tennant oversaw their estate in Trinidad, sold it in 1953, and used the proceeds to buy the island of Mustique five years later. Back then Mustique was nothing more than a 1,400-acre outcrop, but under Tennant’s visionary guidance, its infrastructure was developed, elegant homes were constructed, and its reputation as an exclusive destination grew. Consequently, property on the island became the most sought after and most expensive in the world. It also became very exclusive, and for that reason, somewhat unnatural.
The party somehow ended for Lord Glenconner, who found himself looking again for that virgin territory where tropical warmth was more than a line from a travel brochure. “The situation in Mustique changed and it was time for me to move on. I spent several years looking for a new home and decided on St. Lucia,” he says. He first bought an estate on the other side of Soufriere, and when his son Henry told him about the Jalousie Estate, he bought the site unseen, knowing instinctively how beautiful and rare the situation was. “The Pitons are St. Lucia’s national symbol and biggest attraction in the Eastern Caribbean. I first came to the land by canoe from Soufriere, located on a bay the other side of the Petit Piton. There was no road, just a goat track and pier from which the local farmers transported their mangoes; it was paradise but in a more intimate setting.”
Nowadays, Lord Glenconner lives in St. Lucia permanently, although he visits England and Scotland regularly. “One of my happiest times in St Lucia was when we lived in my old chattel house, which I brought up from Vieux Fort. I ran my restaurant Bang—so called because it was bang between the Pitons—with my daughter and her husband. Everyone came, including Steven Spielberg and Nicholas Cage who came twice, with his new bride”. Bang was open every night—it was a fully working restaurant and bar.
Life on a new island suits Lord Glenconner. “My fondest memories are of Bupa, this little elephant who I bought from Dublin zoo in 1983 and transported to St. Lucia. She roamed freely all over the estate and was an attraction in herself: 10,000 St Lucians came to see her in the first month alone. She was loved by everyone,” beams Lord Glenconner.
Lord Glenconner is spearheading the development of Glenconner Beach, an exclusive development of seven luxury five- and six-bedroom villas located on the white sand beach situated in the most iconic location in the Carribean—the Val de Pitons of St. Lucia, on a property he owned previously. Located in the southwest part of the island, Glenconner Beach lies within the Pitons Management Area surrounded by the natural beauty of tropical rainforest and spectacular dive sites.
Three of the villas are frontline from the beach, while the other four are positioned on higher ground to ensure uninterrupted sea view. All seven villas have been designed for outdoor/indoor living, incorporating as much of the tropical rainforest that surround them, and making maximum use of natural resources found in St Lucia. Award-winning architect Lane Pettigrew, who has designed over 60 luxury homes and resorts all over the Caribbean designed the architecture and interior of the villas. In order to personalize their home, each purchaser at Glenconner Beach will be allocated an amount of Pettigrew’s time to help them create bespoke property through adapting the interior layouts for their own use. Pettigrew will be available for meetings wherever the client chooses, whether in St. Lucia or abroad.
Owners of Glenconner Beach have direct access to a quarter mile stretch of sans as well as a private jetty and eight mooring buopys in the bay below. The plots range in size from 13,340 sqft to 26,852 sqft.
“I have an active interest in Glenconner Beach. Glenconner Village was my idea and I expect to run an art gallery in the village with my daughter-in law. The development of part of the Jalousie Estate to include local St. Lucians has been a vision of mine since I bought the property.”
The Val de Pitons, where Glenconner Beach, and Tides, Sugar Beach are located is very secluded, accessed via private road or from the sea. “While privacy is important we do not want the area to be too exclusive; visitors are welcome, there will be little local shops along the jetty, and my home is 100 yards away. My doors are always open if visitors would like to call on me,” he says.
Lord Glenconner concedes that “Mustique was a very different enterprise”, having developed at a different time and under different circumstances. “While the whole island of Mustique is a resort, Glenconner Beach is intimate and diverse with a greater variety of experience.” But he admits to bringing some of the principles that guided his earlier development. “I have brought with me the vision of what people expect from their Caribbean homes. Space, a blend of inside and outdoor living, access to a pristine white sand beach and the crystal-clear sea, a jetty from which to board their yachts.”
It differs from Mustique because St. Lucia is an independent country with its own government, tourism body, and two international airports with daily flights to the US and UK. The island also has an excellent brand new marina, which has been extended to provide facilities for super yachts.”
At Glenconner Village this vision will create a forum for local people to sell their goods to tourists and visitors and to create a noteworthy destination in its own right for people holidaying on their yachts. “I’ve always maintained that everyone should have access to The Pitons, which are a UNESCO World Heritage site by establishing somewhere that is public. I would like the jetty at Glenconner Beach to be a place people want to get off at, to come ashore and look at the marketplace, eat at the restaurant or have a drink at the bar.”
ON A ROLL
The romance of Hollywood’s and Washington’s golden age was often played out in the backseat of deluxe cars
Aided by her loyal manservant (also her former husband and director Max von Mayerling), Norma Desmond re-turned to the studio convinced that Cecil B. DeMille was interested in film-ing her script for Salome with her in the lead role. In a scene that surpasses most cinematic illustrations of dramatic irony, Desmond found out that the studio had been calling, not to discuss her long delayed comeback but, to borrow her Isotta-Fraschini—a vintage 1929 Tipo 8A Castagna Transformable. Sunset Boulevard, and a handful of other classic American films, illustrates how cars bookmark the pages of the passing of an era. Filmed in 1950, Sunset Boulevard references movie stars’ fascination with luxury automobiles. Both Clara Bow and Rudolph Valentino drove Isotta-Fraschinis, a marque that was also featured in 1934’s Death Takes A Holiday, the basis for 1998’s Meet Joe Black.
Spotlights were trained on such vintage deluxe automobiles at Bonham’s June 7th auction held at Greenwich Concours d’Elegance. Among them was Jay Gatsby’s yellow 1928 Rolls-Royce 40/50hp Phantom I Ascot Dual Cowl Sports Phaeton, driven by Robert Redford as Gatsby, in The Great Gatsby. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, the car was a symbol of excess and materialism that gripped America in the early 1920s, between the graveyard that was the Great War and the precipice of the Great Depression.
The car literally advanced the plot: it created a bridge between the East and West Eggs, the fabled play-grounds of the blued-blood establishment and the ascendant middle class; it also traced the routes between the disparate lives of the privileged Bu-chanans and the working class Wilsons. In the end Daisy Buchanan hit and killed Myrtle Wilson, her hus-band’s mistress, while driving the Rolls-Royce. Tom Buchanan then misled Myrtle’s husband George by claiming that Gatsby was on the driv-er’s seat when it happened. Seeking revenge, George rushed to Gatsby’s mansion and shot him dead. What could have been a denouement led to an undoing: ties were severed, friend-ships hastily abandoned, and dis-tances stretched to where the yellow Rolls-Royce cannot go. In the 1974 movie, the car was featured prominently, often as harbinger of liberating truth or fatal blow.
A Hollywood Pedigree
Another stunner at the auction was Clark Gable’s Packard Darrin—a 1938 Packard Eight Business Coupe that Howard ‘Dutch’ Darrin transformed into a Convertible Victoria. Sources claim that little was left of the original Coupe after Darrin and his team were done with the refurbishment. Auction notes describe the car as a traditionally built coach with ash frame and aluminum-paneled cowl. Since it left the Gable estate, the car has changed hands a few times: a military officer had sold it to Earnest Sulek sometime in the 1960s. Sam Broadhead acquired it from Sulek in 1962. A careful restoration was done on the car, including a close duplication of the cowl’s wooden frame.
During the bodyworks, the car was identified as one of two Convertible Victorias that Darrin had made. Ted Leonard acquired the car in 1982 and was its owner until the recent Bonham’s auction. Documents accom-panying the sale attest to the car’s illustrious provenance. The Bonham’s auction featured other lots from the Ted Leonard collection, which is dis-tinguished by fine motorcars with ce-lebrity pedigree.
A Statesman’s Stately Car
Although without a Hollywood lineage, President Woodrow Wilson’s Roll-Royce Silver Ghost also drew at-tention from the crowd. President Wilson received the automobile as a farewell present from his supporters when he left office. The range was produced from 1906 to 1926 and col-lectively named 40/50 hp, with one particular model, Chassis 60551 registered as AX 201, christened Silver Ghost. The press picked up this catchier moniker and the original name of the line was eventually dropped. The Silver Ghost is the predecessor of the Roll-Royce 30hp and the successor of the Phantom I. Some models from the range still run today, a testament to the line “Best Car in the World” that influential publication Autocar bestowed upon Rolls-Royce automobiles in 1907.
Other crowd pleasers included the Le Mans Special once owned by racing legend Fitch Whitmore, and rarities such as a 1963 Porsche 356 Carrera 2 Convertible — one of only 28 built, a 1953 Jaguar XK120 Roadster, refinished to a very high standard in its original colors of pastel green with a suede green interior.
The sale totaled USD5 million, the largest ever realized at Greenwich Concours d’Elegance. It also comprised the biggest number of lots. Among the top sellers were 1963 Porsche 356 Carrera 2 Convertible, which fetched $381,000; a 1953 Jaguar XK120 Roadster sold for $106,470. Gable’s Packard Eight Con-vertible Victoria sold for $282,000 to a private collector, beating four bidders who were present. The Gatsby Rolls-Royce was sold to another telephone bidder at $238,000. A bidder in the room secured President Wilson’s 1923 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost Oxford Touring Car for $161,000.
Peripheral Collections
Scott Hanson’s Plates, circa 1998, headline the automobilia section of the auction. The Carmel California sculptor created a map of mainland America from license plates of each state. It sold for $3,965. Bidders eagerly snapped up automobile related posters, artwork, models and parts. (Bonhams offered the first edition of Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, printed in 1925 and with the original dust jacket, at their Madison Avenue gallery on June 10, as part of the Books, Maps Manuscripts sale. With estimates between US$80,000 and US$100,000, it was a chance to own a Gatsby memorabilia if the Rolls-Royce was slightly out of reach.)
“Collectors recognize that it is rare to see cars of this caliber, and history assembled in one sale, and the bidding action certainly demonstrated keen interest from around the world,” Rupert Banner of Bonhams Manhattan Motorcars department said after the sale. “The sale also demonstrates that in this market, cautious pricing provides the best results.”
The top lot of the sale was a 1934 Bugatti Type 57 Stelvio Drop-head Coupe, which sold for $419,500. The crowd literally held their breath as intense bidding for this lot from collectors assembled under the tent and those on the telephone ended with the car going back to Europe. The highlight of the event though, was when racing legend John Fitch, aged 92, took the podium to give background information on his 1952 Fitch-Whitmore Le Mans Special, which lead a “charmed life” he said, to a standing ovation from the crowd. The car fetched $403,000.
“It was amazing to have this living legend join us at the event, and the crowd was thrilled to see him hop into his Le Mans Special – illustrating the spirit and sprite of someone far younger than his 92 years!” Mark Os-borne, Bonhams west coast motorcar specialist said. “A one-of-a-kind event certainly, and we are proud to add the excitement of the auction to the enjoyment of the famed Greenwich Concours d’Elegance.
Up Next: Cadillac
What will draw attention next would probably the staple of Hollywood’s top garages, the Cadillac.
Perhaps the most avid collec-tors of such cars among celebrities was rock ‘n’ roll king Elvis Presley, whose first car was the famous pink and white Cadillac—remembered in the Aretha Franklin hit Freeway of Love. Presley gave Cadillacs to friends and associates from his ka-rate instructor to his then wife Priscilla.
At his funeral, a bright white 1977 Miller-Meteor Landau Traditional Cadillac carried Presley’s body to the Memphis cemetery, followed by 16 Cadillacs bearing the bereaved family and mourners.
Adulations have been sung to that American icon from the Dreamettes in Dream Girls who rhapsodised:
I got me a Cadillac car
Cadillac, Cadillac
Look at me, mister, I’m a star!
To the Puerto Rican ladies who proc-laimed America the land of promise, in West Side Story, with an exuberant:
Skyscrapers bloom in America,
Cadillacs zoom in America,
Industry boom in America!
Aided by her loyal manservant (also her former husband and director Max von Mayerling), Norma Desmond re-turned to the studio convinced that Cecil B. DeMille was interested in film-ing her script for Salome with her in the lead role. In a scene that surpasses most cinematic illustrations of dramatic irony, Desmond found out that the studio had been calling, not to discuss her long delayed comeback but, to borrow her Isotta-Fraschini—a vintage 1929 Tipo 8A Castagna Transformable. Sunset Boulevard, and a handful of other classic American films, illustrates how cars bookmark the pages of the passing of an era. Filmed in 1950, Sunset Boulevard references movie stars’ fascination with luxury automobiles. Both Clara Bow and Rudolph Valentino drove Isotta-Fraschinis, a marque that was also featured in 1934’s Death Takes A Holiday, the basis for 1998’s Meet Joe Black.
Spotlights were trained on such vintage deluxe automobiles at Bonham’s June 7th auction held at Greenwich Concours d’Elegance. Among them was Jay Gatsby’s yellow 1928 Rolls-Royce 40/50hp Phantom I Ascot Dual Cowl Sports Phaeton, driven by Robert Redford as Gatsby, in The Great Gatsby. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, the car was a symbol of excess and materialism that gripped America in the early 1920s, between the graveyard that was the Great War and the precipice of the Great Depression.
The car literally advanced the plot: it created a bridge between the East and West Eggs, the fabled play-grounds of the blued-blood establishment and the ascendant middle class; it also traced the routes between the disparate lives of the privileged Bu-chanans and the working class Wilsons. In the end Daisy Buchanan hit and killed Myrtle Wilson, her hus-band’s mistress, while driving the Rolls-Royce. Tom Buchanan then misled Myrtle’s husband George by claiming that Gatsby was on the driv-er’s seat when it happened. Seeking revenge, George rushed to Gatsby’s mansion and shot him dead. What could have been a denouement led to an undoing: ties were severed, friend-ships hastily abandoned, and dis-tances stretched to where the yellow Rolls-Royce cannot go. In the 1974 movie, the car was featured prominently, often as harbinger of liberating truth or fatal blow.
A Hollywood Pedigree
Another stunner at the auction was Clark Gable’s Packard Darrin—a 1938 Packard Eight Business Coupe that Howard ‘Dutch’ Darrin transformed into a Convertible Victoria. Sources claim that little was left of the original Coupe after Darrin and his team were done with the refurbishment. Auction notes describe the car as a traditionally built coach with ash frame and aluminum-paneled cowl. Since it left the Gable estate, the car has changed hands a few times: a military officer had sold it to Earnest Sulek sometime in the 1960s. Sam Broadhead acquired it from Sulek in 1962. A careful restoration was done on the car, including a close duplication of the cowl’s wooden frame.
During the bodyworks, the car was identified as one of two Convertible Victorias that Darrin had made. Ted Leonard acquired the car in 1982 and was its owner until the recent Bonham’s auction. Documents accom-panying the sale attest to the car’s illustrious provenance. The Bonham’s auction featured other lots from the Ted Leonard collection, which is dis-tinguished by fine motorcars with ce-lebrity pedigree.
A Statesman’s Stately Car
Although without a Hollywood lineage, President Woodrow Wilson’s Roll-Royce Silver Ghost also drew at-tention from the crowd. President Wilson received the automobile as a farewell present from his supporters when he left office. The range was produced from 1906 to 1926 and col-lectively named 40/50 hp, with one particular model, Chassis 60551 registered as AX 201, christened Silver Ghost. The press picked up this catchier moniker and the original name of the line was eventually dropped. The Silver Ghost is the predecessor of the Roll-Royce 30hp and the successor of the Phantom I. Some models from the range still run today, a testament to the line “Best Car in the World” that influential publication Autocar bestowed upon Rolls-Royce automobiles in 1907.
Other crowd pleasers included the Le Mans Special once owned by racing legend Fitch Whitmore, and rarities such as a 1963 Porsche 356 Carrera 2 Convertible — one of only 28 built, a 1953 Jaguar XK120 Roadster, refinished to a very high standard in its original colors of pastel green with a suede green interior.
The sale totaled USD5 million, the largest ever realized at Greenwich Concours d’Elegance. It also comprised the biggest number of lots. Among the top sellers were 1963 Porsche 356 Carrera 2 Convertible, which fetched $381,000; a 1953 Jaguar XK120 Roadster sold for $106,470. Gable’s Packard Eight Con-vertible Victoria sold for $282,000 to a private collector, beating four bidders who were present. The Gatsby Rolls-Royce was sold to another telephone bidder at $238,000. A bidder in the room secured President Wilson’s 1923 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost Oxford Touring Car for $161,000.
Peripheral Collections
Scott Hanson’s Plates, circa 1998, headline the automobilia section of the auction. The Carmel California sculptor created a map of mainland America from license plates of each state. It sold for $3,965. Bidders eagerly snapped up automobile related posters, artwork, models and parts. (Bonhams offered the first edition of Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, printed in 1925 and with the original dust jacket, at their Madison Avenue gallery on June 10, as part of the Books, Maps Manuscripts sale. With estimates between US$80,000 and US$100,000, it was a chance to own a Gatsby memorabilia if the Rolls-Royce was slightly out of reach.)
“Collectors recognize that it is rare to see cars of this caliber, and history assembled in one sale, and the bidding action certainly demonstrated keen interest from around the world,” Rupert Banner of Bonhams Manhattan Motorcars department said after the sale. “The sale also demonstrates that in this market, cautious pricing provides the best results.”
The top lot of the sale was a 1934 Bugatti Type 57 Stelvio Drop-head Coupe, which sold for $419,500. The crowd literally held their breath as intense bidding for this lot from collectors assembled under the tent and those on the telephone ended with the car going back to Europe. The highlight of the event though, was when racing legend John Fitch, aged 92, took the podium to give background information on his 1952 Fitch-Whitmore Le Mans Special, which lead a “charmed life” he said, to a standing ovation from the crowd. The car fetched $403,000.
“It was amazing to have this living legend join us at the event, and the crowd was thrilled to see him hop into his Le Mans Special – illustrating the spirit and sprite of someone far younger than his 92 years!” Mark Os-borne, Bonhams west coast motorcar specialist said. “A one-of-a-kind event certainly, and we are proud to add the excitement of the auction to the enjoyment of the famed Greenwich Concours d’Elegance.
Up Next: Cadillac
What will draw attention next would probably the staple of Hollywood’s top garages, the Cadillac.
Perhaps the most avid collec-tors of such cars among celebrities was rock ‘n’ roll king Elvis Presley, whose first car was the famous pink and white Cadillac—remembered in the Aretha Franklin hit Freeway of Love. Presley gave Cadillacs to friends and associates from his ka-rate instructor to his then wife Priscilla.
At his funeral, a bright white 1977 Miller-Meteor Landau Traditional Cadillac carried Presley’s body to the Memphis cemetery, followed by 16 Cadillacs bearing the bereaved family and mourners.
Adulations have been sung to that American icon from the Dreamettes in Dream Girls who rhapsodised:
I got me a Cadillac car
Cadillac, Cadillac
Look at me, mister, I’m a star!
To the Puerto Rican ladies who proc-laimed America the land of promise, in West Side Story, with an exuberant:
Skyscrapers bloom in America,
Cadillacs zoom in America,
Industry boom in America!
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