A graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique and Insead, Yves Carcelle is a marketing man who began his career in the pharmaceutical industry before joining the world of textiles and branching out into the luxury goods industry in 1989 as Strategic Director for the LVMH group. It is in this firm that he undertook a great journey that led him to the head of Louis Vuitton until 2012. Today he has moved away from operations, but remains a member of the Executive Committee of LVMH. He chairs Louis Vuitton Foundation for Creation alongside Bernard Arnaud. Yves Carcelle is also a member of the Board of the Colbert Committee and the Palais de Tokyo. With his strong experience in big-name brands and their lines, backed by his attention to the values they embody and the world they help create, he shared his marketing vision with participants in the Global Lodging Forum.
"The luxury industry is undergoing change. As the word crisis is increasingly heard, the world continues to grow richer and inequalities are deepening. A certain number of people have more money and are ready to spend greater sums on the products and services they consume. Several trends may now be observed in the luxury industry, particularly where the hotel industry is concerned.
We may thus observe higher demand for personalization, which is incongruous with the extraordinary growth of luxury houses in recent years. The latter must therefore continue their development while giving each of their customers the impression they are unique. Personalization may be found in services, as seen in the growing trend of personal shoppers and in-home sales, and particularly in the hotel industry with the emergence of new experiences: eating in the kitchen, sleeping in the desert... Today's customers are seeking emotions that are their own and want to live something very few people have the opportunity to live. Individual recognition is an integral part of this trend.
Globalization is another factor influencing the luxury industry. We must constantly ask ourselves where the next destinations will be. Corporations need to expand and seek new clients in other countries, in places where customers wish to find adapted hotel services. Opening in exotic places involves risks, but these may be reduced through international diversification. Appealing to new clientele makes it necessary to constantly think about the next level of globalization.
Another important point is that service has become a given. Today it is difficult to imagine a hotel with no WiFi and where takes 30 minutes to check out. Of course, the more demanding a customer is for services the more it costs in terms of personnel, but some of this service can be provided thanks to the development of the digital world. Digital has become a must for the hotel industry as customers use this means for preparing their travel and choosing the property they will stay at. It the whole of the digital world were put to good use by the luxury goods industry the result could benefit the entire industry.
Internet also makes it possible to stay in touch with customers, by providing them with information about the brand depending on their needs and interests. Customer relations may thus be more efficient and more technological, with communications that are more personalized. As far as concerns control over hotel distribution, as a professional from the luxury industry, I have difficulty seeing how it is possible to lose part of the margin to online agencies. This is why brands are very important today. Brand homogeneity appears to me to be key in the hotel sector."
We may thus observe higher demand for personalization, which is incongruous with the extraordinary growth of luxury houses in recent years. The latter must therefore continue their development while giving each of their customers the impression they are unique. Personalization may be found in services, as seen in the growing trend of personal shoppers and in-home sales, and particularly in the hotel industry with the emergence of new experiences: eating in the kitchen, sleeping in the desert... Today's customers are seeking emotions that are their own and want to live something very few people have the opportunity to live. Individual recognition is an integral part of this trend.
Globalization is another factor influencing the luxury industry. We must constantly ask ourselves where the next destinations will be. Corporations need to expand and seek new clients in other countries, in places where customers wish to find adapted hotel services. Opening in exotic places involves risks, but these may be reduced through international diversification. Appealing to new clientele makes it necessary to constantly think about the next level of globalization.
Another important point is that service has become a given. Today it is difficult to imagine a hotel with no WiFi and where takes 30 minutes to check out. Of course, the more demanding a customer is for services the more it costs in terms of personnel, but some of this service can be provided thanks to the development of the digital world. Digital has become a must for the hotel industry as customers use this means for preparing their travel and choosing the property they will stay at. It the whole of the digital world were put to good use by the luxury goods industry the result could benefit the entire industry.
Internet also makes it possible to stay in touch with customers, by providing them with information about the brand depending on their needs and interests. Customer relations may thus be more efficient and more technological, with communications that are more personalized. As far as concerns control over hotel distribution, as a professional from the luxury industry, I have difficulty seeing how it is possible to lose part of the margin to online agencies. This is why brands are very important today. Brand homogeneity appears to me to be key in the hotel sector."
