Consumers of Branded Goods Beware: Goods May Not Be Resalable!

Women’s Wear Daily and The New York Times just reported that LVMH, the parent of Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Parfums Christian Dior, Parfums Kenzo, Guerlain and Parfums Givenchy, and other French luxury brands has just won a significant case against eBay in the French courts. According to the article, the French court has held eBay liable for the sale of counterfeit LVMH items and the sale of legitimate LVMH items by non-authorized sellers.

It is the barring of sales by the so-called non-authorized sellers that is troublesome to me because these non-authorized sellers could easily be folks like you and me.

Many owners of high-end trademarks and branded goods companies have policies, which define a “seller” as anyone who offers three or more branded items for sale. Once one is included within the definition of “seller”, it only requires a check on the trademark owners’ “Sellers” list to determine whether or not one is “authorized”.

Casual sellers and independent dealers who buy these goods and resell them as used, don’t appear on these lists. Ebay, on the other hand, lacks the capacity to check whether the goods being offered are legitimate or not and consequently merely takes off its site any goods reported to it by the trademark owners and being sold by “unauthorized sellers”.

The result: all this high end stuff that is trumpeted as holding its value or even increasing in value over time, is unsalable on eBay.

Obviously, these policies were established for legitimate reasons to maintain an orderly distribution system for the manufacturer and owner of the marks. But on the Internet, where everyone can be a seller, and where people often go to buy and sell trademarked goods not wanted by the original owner, this is a problem.

In fact, the Internet exacerbates this problem because it is the market in which branded goods experience much more success than unbranded goods and at the same time the Internet was a market touted to be friendly to the independent, often smaller and less powerful, merchant.

To the extent that this decision, already being heralded by many of the major brand owners as a significant victory, signals that the Internet is now on track to become the domain of the powerful, large brand owners, this is a setback for independent and smaller merchants and ultimately for all consumers who will inevitably pay more for branded goods. The next time you are told that a high priced luxury branded product is intended to be passed from generation to generation, take it seriously: You may never be able to re-sell it.

 

 

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High Energy Costs & The Consumer: From SchmidPreissler International Strategy Consultants


Energy Costs Naturally Change Consumer Behavior. Globally.

The majority of people, no matter in which part of the world they are living, are not going to earn more than the rising energy costs. This does not inevitably have to lead to a decrease in consumption. In our opinion, consumers are going to change their behavior. 

The process of purchasing decisions is subject to changed criteria. We are assuming that impulse buying in regard to satisfaction of needs is going to decrease for most people in the broadest sense and every purchase is going to be pondered with greater thoroughness and the actual necessity of the purchase. 


The satisfaction of wants is going to increase considerably. The small and big wants are going to increase, especially in tougher times. The majority of people are going to ask the question of value more often and more intensively when it comes to the satisfaction of wants. Material values are playing the decisive role here. Premium and Luxury products have their high times especially in times when the disposable money is worth more, because there is less of it. Purchases are made purposeful and selective. True Premium and Luxury products are bought, maybe even more than ever, but only if they are “true” Premium and Luxury products.



Growing awareness during purchasing and consumer behavior is surely one of the consequences that arise from the development of energy costs. What does this mean for industry and retail? Advertising, sales conversation and service agreements for customers have to be of a better quality. Naïve advertising, half truths, deceiving appearances all of this is not going to be enough for promotion. The sales conversation has to have a content directly related to the product and its qualities. A profound knowledge of the product would be such content. For the longest time the maintenance of such sales conversations has been grossly neglected. Self service in retail, order charges and online ordering systems in wholesale and in B2B business have disregarded the vocation of sales personnel. It is imperative to do a lot of persuading here.



Quality is above quantity. This principle applies especially to those products meant for satisfaction of wants. Less is going to be more in the future. Bulk goods are going to be hard to sell even at reduced prices. People are going to live more consciously. A lot of things that might have been viewed as old-fashioned are going to be held in esteem again. What’s natural is going to be rediscovered again. Life is going to become more humane again and as such get back a new “old” quality. In a certain way the development of the energy costs is helping us to get a new relation to consumption, as paradox as this may sound.

 The fear that high energy costs endanger the consumer’s wealth or keep the people in the Second and Third World in poverty is only one of many positions one could take and one we do not really believe in. When it comes to the people of the Second and Third World one could see one ray of hope in this development that consists of the ability to achieve higher prices for the natural resources, oil, gas, food, and other materials that they produce and thus have one immediate advantage to the higher energy costs. Let’s think of Africa. We have pointed out the future of Africa years ago and have touched exactly on what we experience today. A new Africa that is slowly finding its feet on solid ground again thanks to its natural resources. 



High energy costs slow down uninhibited globalization. In turn, this is going to ease the fear of the future in many people. 



Restrained and conscious consumption, quality above quantity are decision criteria that allow for a positive outlook into the future. And there is one other thing we should consider, it is energy in the form we know it today that has enriched our lives. Often we have not even noticed it anymore, at least in the First World, because energy was relatively cheap until recently.



For the development of new strategies it is important that the above mentioned other side of energy cost development attracts interest, because it contains a great deal of possibilities which have been overlooked in the recent past.

 

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