It’s in the bag

As far as leather goods and accessories go, MCM certainly has taken the industry by storm, firmly establishing its presence in the channel and proving that it is serious in its long-term plans and positioning. Marek Kolasinski catches up with the company

With the autumn/winter collection to be unveiled at the TFWA Asia Pacific show in Singapore, MCM is gearing up for what will most certainly be another very successful exhibition. Coming from pretty much nothing a few years ago – due to earlier mismanagement and a crunch in the economies of the region – MCM has known how to pick itself up from the position of has-been to that of is again. By bringing in the right talent – both on the design side of things and from a business point of view – the company’s new owner, Sung-Joo Kim has shown that she is serious about rejuvenating the MCM brand and take it back to the glories of the past – or even further.

Boston Jacquard Python The recent and future developments in terms of listings in the channel certainly show that MCM has not been sitting idly, waiting for its name to work for itself. This year has already seen the opening of a mono-brand store at Beijing T3 domestic while personalised shop-in-shops and corners were also opened at Beijing T3 international, Shanghai T2 international, and Changi T1 with King Power Singapore. Later this year will see another personalised shop-in-shop open at Beijing T2 Domestic (in May), another at Kuala Lumpur with Eraman (in July/August), and a semi-personalised corner at Bangkok with King Power Thailand (in August/September). Finally, June will see a personalised wall open at Dubai Duty Free on Concourse 2; in September a semi-personalised 8m² will open at the Harrods at London Heathrow T3; a personalised corner will open at Cairo T3 with Egyptair in October; and The Nuance Group will open a personalised shop-in-shop for MCM at Hamburg in December.

Despite this spate of openings past and future, MCM maintains a strategy of sustainable growth rather than trying to be listed in as many places as possible and as quickly as possible. “The MCM strategy has been to develop distribution for the brand both domestically and within travel retail in a controlled and selective manner,” Gerry Munday, global travel retail director for MCM tells Frontier. “Fast expansion actually, was not the priority - the priority has been to expand in the right way in order to reintroduce the brand globally and optimise its luxury status.”

The way MCM proposes to do that is by consolidating its presence domestically through direct own stores and flagship stores, which, according to Munday, has enabled the company to establish a strong base in travel-retail. The channel, however, remains a challenging one, with retail conditions changing often and a traveller that is difficult to please and ever more discerning, particularly when it comes to luxury goods. Also, “ensuring that the brand is being merchandised correctly can often be a challenge, especially when your product is part of a generic area where you have little control,” Munday says. “And, of course, there is the ever present challenge for sufficient space to merchandise the brand properly in an environment where competition for square meters is only ever getting more intense.”

D Jacquard For a category like luggage and leather goods, space is, obviously, important. Items can be bulky and displaying them properly can make a big difference to the traveller. It is a constant tug and pull between suppliers and retailers, the former trying to explain why a certain way of merchandising will produce better result, the latter trying to explain how such and such amount of space just is not possible in the current make-up of the shopping environment. Nevertheless, more and more retailers are taking on board the need to devote at least some space to fashion, which allows brands such as MCM the opportunity to develop their presence in the channel.

“Overall, I think that airport retailers are doing a very credible job in selling fashion, given the constraints there are on space and the many other product categories that are vying for the same square footage – and they are as receptive as they are able to be,” Munday says.

There are several elements that could make retailing leather goods even more successful in Munday’s opinion, however. One is that branded displays have a stronger impact on the customer because of the particular characteristics of the category, where brands are of paramount importance. By giving a supplier a specific area that can then be customised and adapted to the brand’s image, the retailer will be that much more successful in communicating effectively and with better penetration the whole concept.

Another element is lifestyle displays, which incorporate several different brands. According to Munday, they “may work very well in product ‘showcases’ within the airport, but outside the actual retail shop. More and more, consumers are mixing designer labels with lower-priced finds in one single outfit to create their own ‘lifestyle look’. Perhaps airports could think about creating special displays to promote specific ‘looks’ which may then entice more customers into the shops.”

Quilting This would add to the all-important theatre experience at the airport, by giving customers a chance to see the items displayed in different environment and situations. Another idea that would go along those lines would be to showcase some aspect of a collection’s fashion show, either by displaying a show’s highlights on screens, or by reproducing some of the show’s pictures within the shop. Or retailers could look into creating special areas specific to a certain group of travellers. For instance, according to Munday, “travelling business women are a massively important part of the passenger mix and, in often trying to juggle very busy lives with work and families, they are looking more and more for practical solutions. Perhaps retailers could consider creating a section of their store aimed at the busy travelling woman, offering lightweight luggage, crease-free clothes, travel sized skincare and cosmetics, foldable shoes etc.”

In the meantime, retailers can choose from MCM’s upcoming autumn/winter collection, which will be unveiled at the TFWA Asia Pacific show in Singapore, and which Munday says brings together a range of bags “based on soft leathers, bigger bags, interesting materials, special editions and bright colours. The combination of all these makes for a very exciting range for the season which, I have no doubt, will be its success.”