Customer Relationship Management

Prof. Werner Reinartz

CRM in a world of Luxe, Calme & Volupt

How

and

capture

their customers lifetime value

By Jaime ARAUJO, Sbastien DELAPORTE, Rgis FOLBAUM, Isabelle PATERNOT & Guillaume RENAUD

Fontainebleau Campus

Period 4

I. II.
A. B. C.

INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................3 CRM AT CARTIER ...............................................................................................................4

Organisational Positioning and Definition....................................................................................................................4 CRM strategy and key activities ......................................................................................................................................4 Analysis of appropriateness and effectiveness of CRM strategies..........................................................................8

III.
A. B. C.

CRM AT VUITTON ..........................................................................................................10

Organisational Positioning and Definition..................................................................................................................10 CRM strategy and key activities ....................................................................................................................................11 Analysis of appropriateness and effectiveness of CRM strategies........................................................................13

IV.
A. B. C.

KEY LESSON S LEARNED & RECOMMENDATIONS............................................14

The CRM dashboard.........................................................................................................................................................14 Cartiers performance & improvement opportunities.............................................................................................15 Louis Vuittons performance and improvement opportunities.............................................................................16

I. Introduction The luxury goods industry is one where we expect to find a sophisticated CRM strategy, given that profitability is highly dependent on affluent, loyal customers, while it is much harder to retain users at entry-level. We have tested this assumption and investigated the CRM practices of two highly regarded companies within that industry, Louis Vuitton and Cartier. We decided to focus on these companies as they are each market leader worldwide in their respective area (leather goods and jewellery), and potentially more developed in CRM than their competitors. The goal of our project is to identify best practices and areas of improvement, building on the detailed analysis of CRM practices in each company. As a result, we will come up with recommendations for the future developments of CRM strategies at Vuitton and Cartier.

II. CRM at Cartier 1 A. Organisational Positioning and Definition

Cartier used to have a worldwide CRM department until 2001. This department was closed down mainly due to disappointment over the initial approach. First, the CRM approach used at the time was strongly influenced by mass-market practices in the fast-moving consumer goods industry, which did not fit with premium character of Cartiers products. It advocated very frequent interactions with customers, yet this was not in line with the client policy of the house dating from 1847, which privileges fewer quality contacts. Second, this CRM approach required heavy IT investments, whereas Cartier preferred to allocate resources to other priority projects in house. Today, Cartier continues to implement some CRM activities within the Marketing department.

B. CRM strategy and key activities

The buyers of Cartier products in France can purchase their dream products through 2 channels: 1. The Cartier Boutiques 2. The Cartier Retailers (not for jewellery, available only through Boutiques) The marketing department focuses its CRM efforts more on the first channel, given that Cartier has no information on the retailers clients.

Source : Interview with M. Byenaim Marketing Manager Cartier Europe 4

Cartier in France segments its customers in 3 sub-groups, whatever the distribution channel: The prospects The small / occasional buyers The major / regular buyers

1. CRM targeting small customers It is pretty difficult to assess the real value of the small or occasional clients, who typically purchased once the Trinity ring (intertwined yellow pink and grey gold bands retail price of 300 Euros). Since they dont respond to the few mass mailing or other invitation to visit again the Boutique, Cartier doesnt spend that much time on this segment.

However, we acknowledge a recent initiative of Cartier. To target the prospects, Cartier launched a leather band with a small Trinity ring priced at 280 Euros. Trough word-of-mouth and articles in the press, this bracelet became a hit. 3 months after the purchase, the Boutiques Managers organizes cocktail to present other jewelry priced between 800 Euros and 2000 Euros to those clients. The objective is to show to those Clients the range of products offered by Cartier. However, this policy is rather limited since Cartier wants to retain its image of being the jeweler of the Kings, and the King of Jewelers.

2. CRM targeting key customers Because of the major crisis that follows the peak and the bubble of the end 90s, Cartier switches its CRM activities from advertising to one-to-one contacts. Cartier currently focuses its activities more on the major buyers to extract the higher share of their consumer spending for luxury products. Moreover, the takeovers of the old traditional houses Boucheron and Chaumet by the dynamic groups PPR and LVMH will foster competition to attract the wealthiest and trend-setting clients.

The management of Cartier in France decided in 2001 to target more the existing regular high-spending clients of the Cartier Boutiques. Cartier France sorted the client data of its customer database and came up with the list of the 5.000 top clients who spent more than 40.000 Euros over the last 10 years in the French Boutiques. Each of the 100 sales associate received a list of 50 clients. Their missions for 2003 were to establish a contact with them and entice them to visit the Cartier Boutique. The Boutique monthly meetings as well as the incentives show to the staff the commitment of the top management. Despite the negative sales trend in compared to the previous years.

To come back on the database, Cartier invested in a small tool and each sale is keyed in with the following information: Identity / demographics Purchase / price / discount enjoyed Taste / remarks of the clients / other soft information

To build true relationships with this group of 5.000 customers, 3 categories of promotions / relationships between the Clients and the Brand were designed.

1. Client Cartier Brand relationships The top clients were invited to major Cartier events like the opening gala of the Cocteau exhibition at the Beaubourg Museum in Paris (the French artist Cocteau had developed strong links with the Cartier family). Cartier also organizes private diners at the Cartier Foundation for Modern Art in Paris with only 20 to 40 guests. Cartier develops joint-events with its key watch retailers and invites their clients retailers to present jewelery products not sold trough the retailers network.

2. Client Boutique relationships The Boutique manager regularly organizes Brunches / Lunches in the boutiques and asks to his honor guest to invite some of her friends. Leading to a viral marketing campaign through word-of-mouth.

3. Client Sales Associates relationships The sales associates regularly call their clients to introduce them to the new collections. The clients are also called for their birthday and receive Christmas Card at the beginning of the festive season.

4. Other sources of interactions with customers On top of these events, the Marketing Department identified another source of interaction between Cartier and all its clients: the after-sales service department (ASSD). Even the clients who purchased their watch through a retailer might come to the Cartier ASSD to service the movement, change the battery or replace the leather strap. One single visit to the ASSD is the occasion for two interactions (deposit of the watch + take it back). One consequence of the bubble period of 1998 / 2000 is an increasing number of visits in the Cartier ASSD since Clients who bought watches are now visiting Cartier for servicing (a battery typically lasts for 3 years). Among other initiatives, Cartier today offers one year after a watchs purchase a free change of battery for all its clients. This initiative cost 10.000 Euros and leads to a turnover of 150.000 Euros since customers bought products while visiting the Boutiques.

C. Analysis of appropriateness and effectiveness of CRM strategies

Our first recommendation to Cartier is to build an international database. So far, a German client from the Hamburg Boutique wont be identified in the rue de la Paix Boutique, resulting in a much lower service: the sale-associate doesnt know the clients past purchases and its specificities. This tool would also enable the Marketing department to analyze data on a worldwide basis. By example, Cartier doesnt know which segment of customers is flying Singapore Airlines or Air France and the ads published on the on-board

newspapers are usually chosen randomly and not accordingly to the purchase pattern of the customers.

Second, we feel that the CRM methods of Cartier in 2004 are roughly the same as the ones of Louis Cartier in 1847. This tailor-made CRM, based on personal contacts, is powerful enough at the Boutique scale. However, a more sophisticated approach sounds relevant for mapping the place where the customers live, for finding correlation between the purchase template and the length of the relationships By example, Cartier France could map where each segment of its customers lives in Paris and advertise accordingly. Cartier could also run in parallel its database of prospects / low clients with the Insead alumni database (or other top school) to identify who are the high net worth individuals (being an Insead alumni can be a proxy for wealth). Actually, we think that Cartier focuses more on the actual spending of its customers rather than on their potential spending.

Third, we believe that a more powerful use of the database would enable Cartier to select clients to form focus group. This policy will definitely hurt the policy of total secrecy at Cartier, but could help Marketing to fine-tune its strategy.

III.

CRM at Vuitton 2 A. Organizational Positioning and Definition

CRM has existed at Louis Vuitton since 1997, and since then has developed to be completely integrated and in line with the overall corporate strategy. The goal is to choose the client with whom they wish to communicate, and then to establish a real contact as close as possible to the 1 to 1 contact that the client has with the salesperson and to generate a 360 view of each customer. Louis Vuitton is very aware of the fact that CRM in the world of luxury goods is not the same as elsewhere. For one thing, the qualitative information that is received on customers is hugely important often more important than the quantitative data. Also, according to the Louis Vuitton team, whereas with regular CRM a client who does not respond to several offers will eventually be dropped from the list, at Louis Vuitton they feel that the contact that they have with a client is vital to reinforce the relationship that the custo mer has with the brand and the feeling they have for being special to Louis Vuitton, even if that customer does not come to events or respond to mailings. Having done customer research and gotten this kind of feedback, Louis Vuitton are therefore very careful in the maintenance of their lists.

Source : interview with Dominique Leonetti, Louis Vuitton CRM Manager, 13 April 2004 10

B. CRM strategy and key activities

LV has an advantage in that its products are sold exclusively through its own boutiques, and therefore can develop and maintain a close and privileged relationship with its customers. When a customer makes a purchase, they are invited to fill in an information card with very basic information on it (name, address, email, telephone, age). In addition, the salesperson adds his or her own quantitative comments about the client. These pieces of information are then put into the central database, where they are processed and the client is classified in terms of their potential CLV and profitability. The segment into which they fall then determines what sort of offers they will receive. In general, the system can identify any client anywhere in the world (and tracks their worldwide purchases). The only difficulty at the moment is that there is no way to track between Asian characters and western alphabets, therefore clients going between Asia & Europe may not always be followed as closely as possible. The CRM system is run completely centrally, and objectives are defined at head office. These objectives are then relayed to the various geographic zones which translate the objectives into locally appropriate strategies which are then relayed in turn to the countries and individual stores. For example, if internally the objective is set to make contact with 100% of the top client segment at least once in the year, this may be done through direct mail in the US and through in store events in Europe, taking into account the effectiveness of different contact media in different cultures. In addition to objectives, the central office also communicates the outcomes of the various initiatives to the zones, countries, shops. This means that not only will the shop in New York receive targets, but they will also have feedback on how their
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contacts have been profitable (e.g. The return on such or such promotion was x$$, the top segment that yo u targeted brought in x% extra revenue compared to last year, etc.). Technically speaking, about 80% of the system is now run internally, with very little being outsourced. This allows for more flexibility, autonomy and reactivity which they define as cr ucial for their very sensitive customer analysis. In keeping with the corporate strategy and image of the brand, no merchandise is ever offered for free to the client (Louis Vuitton has a policy of never having sales and never making discounts). Instead the CRM team identify certain top segments of customers and then offer them special access and privileges, for instance first choice on a limited edition product, in-store events and parties, privileged access to events sponsored by the group (art exhibits, the LV Cup, LV Classic, etc.). Louis Vuitton does work with partners to create these special events for their customers. Their goal is to surprise and amaze the client and to make them feel special. These partnerships come from both within and without the LVMH Group they have in the past done a tasting with Hennessy in LV shops, as well as events in conjunction with BMW for the launch of the C1. The CRM department works closely with the Product Marketing, Visual Merchandising and Communications departments in order to design the offers that they give to their clients and to ensure that the events are in line with the products and the strategy of the overall company. They make efforts to ensure that whatever they offer, it is coherent with the image of the brand. For instance, they always use limited edition stamps for their mailings, rather than regular postage stamping, and much attention is paid to the quality of paper and envelopes used for invitations, letters, catalogues, etc. This level of

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attention to detail is crucial to ensure that the CRM adds value to the company and helps them to keep their clients longer, and get them to spend more.

C. Analysis of appropriateness and effectiveness of CRM strategies

As it stands today, the CRM system at Louis Vuitton has clearly proved successful and people within the company feel it has added value. This is no doubt because in addition to the work that has gone in to ensuring that the system is coherent with the brand values and aligned with corporate strategy, the CRM team have constantly allowed for adaptation to cultural norms and continue o give feedback to prove to the people collecting the information that their work is not in vain. The goal going forward is to continue to add value to the company by identifying and keeping good customers and also by developing the CRM offering beyond identification and entertainment of clients into helping to cross-sell through the Louis Vuitton offers. For example, by offering to good handbag customers the possibility to buy a limited edition piece of jewelry, or by explaining to them why they should also be interested in Louis Vuitton shoes. In addition, the development of the system to allow for tracking clients between Asia and Europe would be invaluable, as here are no doubt a large portion of loyal customers who travel between these two key markets. There is no doubt that until now, the CRM system at Louis Vuitton has proved successful and a real necessity for the business, especially in mature markets where keeping customers and extracting the maximum value from them throughout their life is a high priority.

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IV. Key Lessons Learned & Recommendations A. The CRM dashboard In order to assess the effectiveness of CRM at both companies, we have built a visual dashboard that helps summarize our findings.

+ Strategic intent !

Know Target Sell Serve

Datamining Profiling & segmenting Metrics : Loyalty, Profitability, Satisfaction, Retention

Product development Product mix & shop experience Design of customer interactions Targeted customer acquisition Targeted offerings (repeat purchase) Customized communication Data collection Customized & efficient after-sales service Profitability maximization Data Collection

The dashboard measures the performance of a firm on the 4 stages of the customer lifecycle: Know, Target, Sell and Serve, stages that are iterative by nature. It also assesses to what extent the CRM is part of the overall strategy of the firm, and is an integral part of the marketing strategy. For an ideal firm that would execute perfectly on each aspect of all the possible CRM aspects, all lights are green. An orange light means that some actions are present but that improvements are possible. A red light indicates either the absence of action on the considered dimension, or actions that need improvement.

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B. Cartiers performance & improvement opportunities

+ No Strategic intent !

Know Target Sell Serve

Datamining: fragmented databases limited IT investment Profiling & segmenting: only based on frequency & spending level Metrics : Loyalty, Profitability, Satisfaction, Retention: spending

Product development Product mix & shop experience Design of customer interactions: classic luxury events Targeted customer acquisition Targeted offerings (repeat purchase) Customized communication Data collection Customized & efficient after-sales service: watches etc. Profitability maximization: treat best customers better ? Data Collection : maximize information exchange through interaction ?

Overall, the dashboard shows that Cartier has a lot to do to become better on CRM. The most worrying areas are to be found at the Know stage: Cartier would benefit from a centralized worldwide database, from a segmentation that takes qualitative aspects into a greater account, and from more refined metrics for decision making than simple spending levels. At the Target stage, Cartier does not go beyond classic luxury events that are organi zed by all luxury houses, and does not really leverage the information it has on customers to design unique customer interactions. The Serve stage has not been explored very deeply with our contact, so we are unable to assess all dimensions here. Still there is certainly a lot of opportunities there, as watches get serviced and jewelry get cleaned regularly, and this is the opportunity to collect data about the customer, but Cartier seems to have started to recognize this. It should go beyond strictly promotional events and try to leverage this opportunity in order to gather information and shape customer experience.

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C. Louis Vuittons performance and improvement opportunities

+ Real Strategic intent !

Know Target Sell Serve

Datamining: central worldwide database strategic investment in IT Profiling & segmenting : refined and highly qualitative Metrics : Loyalty, Profitability, Satisfaction, Retention: CLV, Cust. Profitability, Profitability of actions Product development Product mix & shop experience Design of customer interactions: refined & innovative Targeted customer acquisition Targeted offerings (repeat purchase) Customized communication Data collection Customized & efficient after-sales service Profitability maximization Data Collection

No after sales in leather goods

Louis Vuittons dashboard shows that CRM is used with the right strategic mindset. The only lights that are not green are related to the retail of luxury goods per se: in this business it is not usual to make decisions on product design and merchandising (shop & window arrangements) based on the preferences of a subset of customers. It is also true that leather goods do not get serviced (this would indicate quality issues). However, if Louis Vuitton really wanted to test how far it can go to leverage the individual information it has on its customers, we can imagine that on the product development dimension, limited editions could be designed especially for a limited set of customers, in order to make them feel even more special.

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On the Sell dimension, targeted acquisition is the ultimate frontier, as it is very difficult to get data on customers Louis Vuitton does not have. This is made even more difficult by legal issues in France and several other countries, as we have seen earlier. Nevertheless, it is worth thinking about this dimension today, as competition is increasing in the luxury segment, and it is in Louis Vuittons interest to acquire new customers before Gucci and similar competitors. The company has already started to design joint events with complementary luxury goods that allow them to jointly extend their customer base. It can probably do even more in this direction: one could imagine a cooperation with Amex to reach customers of exceptional affluence, for example, and work on data Amex would be willing to reveal to design an appropriate event and/or targeted offering for this new particular target. Finally, with respect to the Serve dime nsion, one could imagine after-sales as the designing of customer experiences in order to generate more frequent contacts and increased information gathering (and additional revenue streams), without creating negative impressions about the products. For example, we could suggest invitations to let special customers know about tips to take care of their leather and make their bags last longer, or exclusive fashion afternoons showing new ways of matching clothes and accessories etc. Overall, Louis Vuitton shows great understanding of CRM as a strategic tool to go beyond the boundaries of traditional marketing and keep the exclusivity of its relationship to clients.

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