You arrived at Goyard in 2012. How did you approach distributing the brand in APAC?

Goyard, like any other brand, before you start to tackle the distribution, you need to clearly understand what the unique selling point of the brand is, its unique story. Distribution has, obviously, multiple possibilities and aspects. You can go very wide, you can go very niche, you can go deep, you can go e-commerce or not. You have thousands of different possibilities for distribution. So the distribution network is just an arm of the brand strategy. In order to be able to distribute correctly and to reach the brand goals, one needs to understand what the brand is about and what the brand is about to do, in the market.

For Goyard, it was fairly clear, as the brand vision and DNA is very strong. It’s quite unique. In some brands it’s not so obvious. In Goyard, as you can see in the press and as the owner – who is usually very quiet – is saying, when he speaks, the brand is a niche brand. It’s kind of a secret brand, for people who know about Goyard. That’s their strategy. They don’t want to overdistribute; the want to remain in a small number of stores, for people in the know, to target a specific 0.1% of the audience. They don’t want to become a mass brand, by any means.

The Louis Vuitton and Goyard are sometimes compared, because they had a similar history, at the beginning. But they are very different in their strategy and their distribution strategy, as well. To tackle the distribution for Goyard, first of all, I had to see what was the potential for the brand to invest. You need to understand, with your capex investment, what your capabilities for investing? Can you take over your distribution network? Can you open many stores? Basically, with the tools you have at your disposal, you have to set out your distribution strategy.

Then you have to understand, in terms of product availability, because many brands have one or two successful lines that are usually in demand and, usually, in shortage. If you open many stores, but you don’t have enough products, it will also be an issue, because you are going to lose money. You are going to be paying rents and have capex, and so on, and have no products to sell. You need to work closely with your HQ, to understand what the real possibilities of distribution are.

Then you need to tackle the relationship between the brand and the third parties, like landlords and the shopping mall management. Because, obviously, these people are key in the brand management, in the different countries. For the customer, when they stand in the shopping mall, they tend to associate the brand value and strength, versus its neighborhood. If you are next to Hermès and next to Chanel, it’s not the same as being next to Zara or H&M. They are not priced in the same way and not marketed in the same way.

Obviously, where you are located on the street, inside the shopping mall, inside the department store, is key, for your brand positioning. It’s a unique way to express your strategy and your marketing strategy, directly to the customer, every day. I would tend to say that, the brand stores, the brand corners, the distribution strategy is the only way for local teams, in the markets, to express clearly, the unique way they want to position the brand.

As for Goyard, the owner had a very clear view and we were all in agreement on the fact that, due to the niche positioning the brand, we wanted to wait for the best possible location to become available. That means that we were not going to open many stores at once, but we were going to approach specific landlords, carefully selected, and tell them, we want the best possible space, which is never available, because it’s the best possible space. But we’re happy to wait for it and whenever it becomes available, we are going to be interested. This strategy worked very well for Goyard. And quickly, as a matter of fact. I stayed with Goyard for five years, in Asia, and in the space of five years, we had reached all the targets we wanted to reach.