Best of both worlds
Increasing numbers of suppliers from across the travel-retail industry are looking to the jewellery category for inspiration. The result is a new generation of crossover products. Nicki Saunders investigates
When suppliers attempt to span category boundaries, the result is not always a success. History’s ‘reject bin’ of failed product launches is lined with ill-fated creations that have tried to appeal to two distinct consumer needs or desires, and in doing so, have ended up not appealing to either.
When a company gets it right, however, the result can mean the forging of a new product category. “Techno-jewellery” is one example.
When popular jewellery supplier and travel-retail success story Swarovski teamed up with technology specialist Philips, the result was inevitably going to catch the eye of the media and consumers alike. Active Crystals is a co-branded Swarovski/Philips concept that combines jewellery with functional technology, such as earphones or USB memory keys.
Swarovski and Philips describe Active Crystals – the pair’s first collaborative project – as “beautiful, practical, efficient.” The range was launched in Swarovski mono-brand stores in autumn 2007 and is currently available onboard Cathay Pacific, Virgin Atlantic, Air France, Aeroflot, North West, KLM, Air Tahiti and China Airlines. The full range of products will be available in travel-retail this year.
“Both memory keys and earphones have gotten off with a good start. So far we have great feedback from Asian, European and American markets,” says Swarovski’s vice president travel-retail, Peter Zottl. “Philips makes for a natural partner with Swarovski,” he continues. “Philips is a very innovative company, they have worked with design houses for their home appliances, and we have an equally strong record in path-breaking innovations.”
When asked why the two companies decided to share ideas and products, Zottl is suitably enthusiastic: “Why not combine jewellery with technology? Why not emotionalise and beautify what would otherwise be mere functional technical staples? Why not tap into a young and forward market?”
The market Zottl is referring to is distinctly female.
“Most of the technology offer in travel-retail is geared towards the male business traveller,” Zottl points out. “Active Crystals appeal to the female traveller for herself and to the male traveller as a gift for the daughter. If ‘tech’ products are elegantly designed and have added value as jewellery… all the better!”
Zottl is confident that the products have more than a niche appeal. “Memory keys and earphones are a fast-growing and sizeable segment of the market in which the Philips/Swarovski range aims at the top-end … the concept of high-tech going ‘high-touch’ will be sustained and will remain an interesting additional segment in both the jewellery and the technical market.”
And technology is not the only sector that is benefiting from crossover with the jewellery category. The links between beauty and jewellery are even more obvious than technology. Not suprisingly, more and more beauty suppliers are launching products that provide cosmetics or fragrances with a jewel or accessory that can be worn.
Italian cosmetics brand Pupa Milano has done just that with its Pupa Beauty Bijoux collection, previewed at the 2007 TFWA World Exhibition.
“Pupa Milano already takes inspiration for all its lines from the fashion shows in Milan, which is the centre of fashion, creativity and innovation,” a spokesperson from Pupa Milano tells Frontier.
“Current fashion trend relate to all things ‘precious’, including jewels, and so all our novelties (make-up winter collection, make-up kit and perfume) are inspired by this trend.”
Pupa Milano exports to over 80 countries worldwide and commands an impressive following in its domestic market of Italy. It has followed a policy of testing new products on the Italian market, including the Pupa Beauty Bijoux collection, which it introduced there last autumn. The collection features charms and bracelets that contain cosmetics products such as lip gloss.
“The great success of the products in Italy has convinced us to introduce a new spring/summer collection, at the moment only for the Italian domestic market,” says the Pupa spokesperson.
The supplier intends to roll-out the first collection in a selected number of domestic export markets by the close of 2008.
Just as some suppliers from other categories are finding ways to incorporate jewellery into their products, some forward-thinking jewellery producers are launching products that provide consumers with another function, such as healthcare.
Travel-retail jewellery supplier Cat Design has launched a ceramic and germanium bracelet in its Carlucci’s 925 silver collection. The bracelet, which contains five organic germanium elements that touch the skin and are said to promote general wellbeing, is available onboard a number of airlines in Asia and North America, where the healing properties of germanium are better known.
Keeley Hamblin-Smith, international sales and marketing manager for Carlucci, explains how the product came about: “The Ceramic and Germanium bracelet was born accidentally from private research. It was discovered that germanium and its healing properties combined with a fashionable material would be a fabulous contender to the magnetic style bracelet in the current market place,” she comments.
“The germanium inserts in the bracelet allow germanium to pass into the body, benefiting many of the body’s functions. It is said to improve muscle movements, increase circulation, and decrease stress and fatigue. The decision to combine these elements with ceramic was an obvious choice given the success and desirability of ceramic accessories by top fashion houses such as Chanel.”
Finding a point of difference for your brand in the crowded modern marketplace is not always easy. Those manufacturers that dare to span category divides with a single product in order to carve out a new niche may well be risking obscurity. But, if successful, there’s every chance an enterprising supplier can use jewellery and other category combinations to tap into a new market and create an entirely new type of consumer product.
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