Reporter | Zhou Fangying
Edit | Lou Shuqin
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The revitalization of Austrian rayon crystal and jewelry brand Swarovski Swarovski is finally underway in the Chinese market.
Recently, Swarovski's new design flagship store opened in Hong Kong Plaza, Shanghai. The store is located in the Huaihai Middle Road business district, and is adjacent to high-end jewelry brands such as Tiffany Tiffany and Cartier Cartier.
Photo: Zhou Fangying
According to the brand's orientation interface fashion introduction, the shopping mall shops opened by Swarovski are usually only about 80 square meters, while the two-storey frontage shop occupied by this super-large flagship store is about 620 square meters. This is not only Swarovski's largest store in the Chinese market, but also its first flagship store in the Asian market.
Image source: Swarovski
In fact, with Wonderlab's new concept at its core, Swarovski has launched a number of retail-themed spaces called Instant Wonder in 27 major cities around the world in 2021. The new stores feature a new branded visual identity, an elegant swan surrounded by an octagonal silhouette.
Continuing the design ideas of Instant Wonder everywhere, the new flagship store also looks different from the usual blue and white Swarovski stores.
The new flagship store differentiates the entire space and function by highly saturated colors such as green, pink and yellow. From jewelry and watches to accessories and figurines, the mega flagship store also showcases Swarovski's new range of crystalline products. All the boxes were also completely replaced with new octagonal boxes, echoing the brand logo.
In addition, the new flagship store also exhibited Swarovski's cooperation products with Brands such as Jimmy Choo, Nike Nike, moncler monkel and other brands for the first time in China.
However, Swarovski told Interface Fashion that these cooperative products are still concept displays and have not yet opened up public purchase channels. In the future, the brand may negotiate with the partner to open up the purchase of some related products.
It is conceivable that if the cooperation products are opened to the public, the joint cooperation may become a new opportunity for Swarovski to become popular.
It is worth noting that in addition to some of the classic products displayed in the store, the price of Swarovski's new products has basically increased to more than 1,000 yuan, and some necklace products have exceeded the price of 5,000 yuan.
Obviously, Swarovski is in full swing to promote the transformation strategy of high-end and youthful, and the Chinese market will become its new position.
However, it remains to be seen whether the new store image will help Swarovski transform its image in the public mind.
Before the "Instant Wonder" concept store, Swarovski also began to implement the "Crystal Pavilion" that integrates the new retail concept in 2019. The first Chengdu Crystal Xuan store was equipped with digital equipment such as virtual try-ons, which is in line with the digital needs of Chinese consumers. However, the re-coverage of the new concept can also glimpse the lack of stamina of the management and operation of "Crystal Xuan".
In addition, the huge offline retail model with a mixture of direct sales and agencies, coupled with the original low-end product pricing, has subtly diluted Swarovski's brand image. On the other hand, aging product design and quality problems have also made it long-term criticized by consumers. To a certain extent, this has set a big threshold for the high-end transformation of the brand.
Equally troubled with Swarovski is the jewelry brand Pandora. After the beading trend, Pandora did not create other products with memory points. At the same time, the apparent decline in performance also forced it to start reforms, but more focused on brand marketing.
Swarovski's decline has become particularly evident in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the end of 2020, Swarovski, which had experienced a sharp decline in performance, announced the launch of the largest restructuring plan in the company's history, including the reduction of 6,000 jobs. Prior to this, Swarovski had already made two rounds of layoffs.
Taking this opportunity, Swarovski announced a new business reorganization. The low-margin but large-base mass-market business has shrunk, and products with larger profit margins and higher ends have become the new business direction.
As Giovanna Engelbert rose from consultant to creative director as an external force, taking full control of all creative matters at Swarovski, the brand's product upgrades became more apparent. Under Engelbert's direction, the crystal series "Collection One" and "Collection Two" with the concept of "Wonderlab" have both been listed, priced at about 500 yuan to 2000 yuan.
Judging by recent moves, this traditional family business is bringing in more external forces to help the brand transform.
According to fashion business outlet Fashionnetwork, Swarovski will start looking for a new CEO in early 2022. It will also be the first time since Swarovski's inception in 1895 that it has hired talent from outside the founder's family as CEO.
At the same time, according to the "Women's Daily" recently reported, the brand's family member Nadja Swarovski will step down as a member of the executive board and withdraw from the company at the end of the year. Former Chief Financial Officer Mathias Margreiter also recently resigned. This means that Swarovski will welcome a new group of board members from outside the family.
This is a two-sided risk for Swarovski, which has long been controlled by the family. Seeking innovation and change is certainly a way out for the brand, but the management turmoil also means that the continuation of various reform plans is full of uncertainty.