The expensive belt that middle-aged men love the most has been removed from the luxury industry

New Weekly

2024-05-31 16:56Published on the official account of Guangdong New Weekly

When the old money has money and leisure, Salvatore Ferragamo's style can be interpreted as "low-key luxury", but with the reshuffle of the luxury industry, the aesthetics of the new generation of consumers are also being reshaped, and the second-tier luxury brands represented by Salvatore Ferragamo are rapidly disappearing from the field of vision of consumers.

Author | Green

Edit | DR

Title Picture | "Little Times"

The luxury reshuffle, and the second-tier brands suffered first.

Recently, Salvatore Ferragamo released its performance report for the first quarter of 2024, and as of March 31, Salvatore Ferragamo achieved a total revenue of 227 million euros, a year-on-year decline of 18.3% at the current exchange rate; Net sales were 220 million euros, down 19.2 percent year-on-year, with retail net sales down 11.1 percent compared to the prior-year quarter.

This not too good performance has a little to do with us in theory.

Marco Gobbetti, chief executive officer and general manager, said that the decline in performance during the quarter was mainly due to the continuous volatility of the Chinese market and the weak performance of travel retail.

Salvatore Ferragamo's headquarters in Florence, Italy. (Photo/Salvatore Ferragamo official website.)

Although in recent years, the global luxury market has been cold, from Louis Vuitton, Chanel and other first-line luxury goods, down to MK, coach and other trendy light luxury, life is not easy, but it is indeed rare to take out the core market in the financial report like Salvatore Ferragamo.

Of course, it is not unreasonable to say it. Although with the single item of men's belt, it has taken a different path in the Chinese market than other markets, but in the eyes of today's young netizens, the first concern for Salvatore Ferragamo's performance will probably be: Who is Salvatore Ferragamo?

This is the attitude of the "core market": there is no such person.

In the second-hand market, Salvatore Ferragamo has even been squeezed out of the luxury category. (Photo/Screenshot of Xiaohongshu)

On the Chinese Internet, the last news about Salvatore Ferragamo appeared in the distant October 2023, more than half a year ago. At that time, Salvatore Ferragamo announced the acquisition of a stake in Lane Crawford's parent company, which is a well-known Hong Kong boutique brand with considerable influence among young consumers.

Therefore, Salvatore Ferragamo's acquisition is also seen as a harbinger of Salvatore Ferragamo's attempt to expand its strength in the Asian market and take the path of rejuvenation.

However, with the release of the financial results for the first quarter of this year, an indisputable fact has been revealed: Salvatore Ferragamo's self-help has not been smooth, and it is gradually losing its appeal to consumers.

Salvatore Ferragamo women's boutique in Milan. (Photo/Salvatore Ferragamo official website)

After being kicked out of the luxury jewelry circle,

Who's buying, exactly?

On the question "Is Salvatore Ferragamo considered a luxury?" There are many opinions on the Internet.

If you go back to 10 years ago, no one would have asked this question.

In 2013, Guo Jingming's "Small Times 2" was released, and in this "Luxury Enlightenment Bible for Small-Town Youth", Ferragamo was also "honorably on the list", which can be compared with Prada, or even slightly better, so that there is that famous line-

"I love your Prada suit." "This is Salvatore Ferragamo."

“It's Ferragamo.” In a nutshell, the privilege of the characters has been fully reflected. (Photo/"Little Times")

Since its inception in 1927, Salvatore Ferragamo has been a brand for nearly 100 years.

There is a slightly old-fashioned and heartwarming story about its founding, and it is said that the founder, Salvatore Ferragamo, has 14 siblings and has a poor family. When he was a child, his sister was ridiculed for not being able to afford shoes, and Salvatore, who was only 13 years old at the time, made a pair of white leather shoes for his sister.

A traditional Italian family that celebrates "many children". (Photo/"Friends")

This story has made Salvatore Ferragamo's positioning of "private custom" high-end shoes deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

In the early years, Salvatore Ferragamo cooperated with Hollywood movie stars, providing customized shoes for Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe and other well-known movie stars. Salvatore once mentioned in his autobiography that he designed 20,000 shoes in his lifetime, including 40 pairs of high heels for Marilyn Monroe, which earned him the title of "celebrity shoemaker".

With a transparent fishing line and an F-wedge heel, this "invisible" shoe earned Salvatore Ferragamo the Neiman Marcus Award, the "Oscars of the fashion world". (Photo/Salvatore Ferragamo 2017 Autumn and Winter Advertising Film)

Salvatore Ferragamo entered the Chinese mainland market around 1995. Compared with the signature items in the field of shoes and bags, what really makes it a sign in China is a seemingly "ordinary" men's belt.

A classic ancient Internet joke: In the field of consumption, the commercial value of middle-aged men is not as good as that of dogs. Facts have proved that the men's acquiescence to this has a bit of a taste of self-preservation in exchange for self-preservation.

Moutai, fishing, Archaeopteryx, graphics cards, toys...... Many cases are enough to prove that the spending power of the old people with abundant money is not weak. Although they shop less frequently than female consumers, they win because of the higher unit price.

The Salvatore Ferragamo's belt, which costs 4,500 yuan, has won the favor of middle-aged men for no other reason, because the classic symmetrical horseshoe buckle design on the belt is quite similar to the Arabic numeral 8, homophonic "hair", and has the meaning of "waist wrapping ten thousand, wealth from all directions".

Out of the "just need" to please a lip show, back then, this belt once became the favorite of bosses and the standard of successful people, and it can be said that it has firmly grasped the lifeblood of middle-aged men.

In its heyday, Salvatore Ferragamo's figure-8 belt, even with the top luxury ceiling Hermès, has been given the attribute of "fortune", its sales have been soaring, and it is still the brand's most popular best-selling item; After returning from a trip abroad, noble ladies often bring a figure-8 belt as the best souvenir for male relatives.

Fortune belt, the best souvenir for ladies. (Photo/Screenshot of Xiaohongshu)

However, from the current point of view, Salvatore Ferragamo, which originated in Italy, is unlikely to tailor the homophonic stalk of "88 is hair" for domestic consumer groups, and the design of the 8-figure belt buckle is purely coincidental.

Can you make a fortune wearing a figure-8 belt? Metaphysical things are hard to judge. However, the person who sells the figure-8 belt with this set of rhetoric is one step closer to making a fortune.

Quiet luxury is popular, why don't the old money buy it?

In addition to the dream of making a fortune for middle-aged and old money, Salvatore Ferragamo's popularity in the hearts of the Chinese people is enough to be summed up in one word: tepid.

When the old money has money and leisure, Salvatore Ferragamo's style can be interpreted as "low-key luxury", but with the reshuffle of the luxury industry, the aesthetics of the new generation of consumers are also being reshaped, and the second-tier luxury brands represented by Salvatore Ferragamo are rapidly disappearing from the field of vision of consumers.

Salvatore Ferragamo Fall-Winter 2024 fashion show. (Photo/Salvatore Ferragamo official website)

Because whether it is design or positioning, "Salvatore Ferragamo" seems too low-key, low-key to no characteristics. This seems to confirm a truth once again: for fashion brands, even if they are ugly out of the circle, they are better than being "the same".

Without characteristics, it is the deadliest.

"Shoes that always fit" are being abandoned by young people. (Photo/Salvatore Ferragamo official website)

Although in the first quarter of 2024 financial report, Salvatore Ferragamo attributed the decline in performance to the "core market", that is, the decline of the travel industry in the Asia-Pacific region. But in fact, since 2015, Salvatore Ferragamo's sales performance has been declining for eight consecutive quarters, and the performance of the European and American markets is also weak, and the core business product lines, including shoes and fragrances, have experienced varying degrees of revenue declines. Michel Norsa, then CEO of Salvatore Ferragamo, once said that "the company needs to rethink its approach to creativity", pointing to the crux of the persistent sluggish performance.

It's hard to make an impression with a static design. (Photo/Salvatore Ferragamo applet)

As a representative of the traditional Italian "family business", Salvatore Ferragamo was once stuck in a long period of self-sufficiency. Especially with the death of the founder, the brand's long-standing "high-end customization" gene has been weakened.

Since then, successive successors (that is, Salvatore's wife, children and grandchildren) have hesitated, so that the brand's main business has always been limited to the scope of accessories such as bags, shoes and shoes, and it is difficult to make differentiation, and it is difficult to form a unique style of the brand.

The official price is thousands of styles, 5% off is not enough, 3% off is moving. (Photo/Little Red Book)

But Gucci is so "too broad", and Ferragamo, who missed the last opportunity, has not even really "mixed" the name of luxury, and it will usher in a fateful catastrophe in 2020.

At that time, affected by the epidemic, the "core" Asia-Pacific market could not continue to exert its strength, and both county ladies and domestic old money lost interest in this once "icing on the cake" souvenir. The drawbacks of the brand's high dependence on the tourism economy were exposed in the face of huge force majeure, and Salvatore Ferragamo also ushered in the first loss in 10 years since its listing in 2020.

Due to poor performance, Salvatore Ferragamo lost ground in several large shopping malls in China. The street-facing shops of SKP in Beijing were replaced by LOEWE; The double-storey flagship store in Beijing China World Mall was replaced by Armani; In Nanjing Deji Plaza, Salvatore Ferragamo's shop has also been transferred from the first floor to the basement floor, replacing MK as the "top stream on the negative floor".

The second-tier luxury goods of "getting old before getting rich",

I just want to brush up on my presence

When luxury goods enter a downturn, the head luxury brands may be able to resist for a while with stronger stability, but the second-tier luxury "Salvatore Ferragamo", which is not clearly positioned, is destined to suffer the most injuries in this turmoil.

Sticking to style or firm? Category expansion or single-point sniping? When life is not good, it is always difficult to choose what path to take, and the innovation downturn that can be directly summarized in the eyes of consumers is actually an abyss for second-tier luxury brands.

Salvatore Ferragamo Pre-Fall 2024 New. (Photo/Salvatore Ferragamo official website)

Under the increasingly conservative atmosphere, it is already difficult for luxury goods to "keep their old ways". Salvatore Ferragamo, which is in a critical period of revival, is also thinking of other ways to win back the attention of young consumers.

For domestic consumers, last year, Salvatore Ferragamo sponsored "Riding the Wind 2023", and the bright red and beautiful blockbuster of all the "Sister Lang" was not only eye-catching, but also broke many people's inherent impression of the brand's "black, white and gray".

Sponsoring "Riding the Wind 2023", Salvatore Ferragamo has another wave of goodwill in the hearts of the Chinese people. (Photo/Weibo)

All attempts at rejuvenation have traces to follow.

In 2021, Salvatore, the eldest son of Salvatore, the founder of Salvatore, stepped down as executive director, and for the first time in 94 years of existence, the management of the brand was handed over to outsiders. In 2022, 26-year-old Maximilian Davis replaced Paul Andrew as the new creative director. The young British designer is more adept at ready-to-wear than the latter, and since his appointment, Salvatore Ferragamo has indeed become visibly younger; The position of CEO has gradually stabilized after four changes in five years.

A series of personnel changes and changes of course have announced that this fashion brand, which has been established for nearly 100 years, is struggling to cope with the impact from the new world.

It's just that in this cold winter of luxury, whether Salvatore Ferragamo can get out of a way out is still unknown.

Salvatore Ferragamo simplified the brand name and released a new logo design. (Photo/Screenshot of social platform)

Proofreading: No ginger fish; Operations: Ono; Typesetting: Chen Yi

Resources

[1] Yang Dian. In the luxury "miserable competition", Salvatore Ferragamo won the championship. DataVision, March 14, 2022

[2] LVMH, Kering, Hermès, Prada, Ermenegildo Zegna, Salvatore Ferragamo and other luxury groups in the first quarter financial report analysis. Zhang Chi Youdu Consulting, 2024-5-22

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