Furla, A Luxury Brand In Italy, Tells Stories To Its Bags.

Leather products are really traditional industries to the extreme. Leather brands have always emphasized the origin, history and the technology that they have handed down. But after all, nothing is static. At least the Italy luxury brand Furla knows this very well. In Furla's global CEO Eraldo Poletto, it is necessary to update the product line in line with market changes, and design and technology need to make innovations according to the needs of products. How can we stand out from a traditional industry? How can we develop from a niche brand into a fashion symbol? EraldoPoletto shared his unique insights with the first financial weekly.

C: Leatherwear What changes and innovations have taken place in the industry in recent years?

P: in the past few years, the whole fashion industry has put forward many ideas about the color and usage of leather, although the process of leather manufacturing, such as pressing, softening and hardening, is still those, but a lot of things have been quietly changed. Leather processing technology is being tested more and more because you are beginning to need to push the product to a higher level and design unexpected elements for consumers. For example, silver may be hard to put into leather manufacturing in the past, and you will hardly see silver leather handbags in the market. But now we can make it possible through a series of technical means, such as controlling the softness and hardness of leather. If it is too soft, silver may stick to the top of leather, so it is possible to control the hardness and softness of the silver. Of course, a lot of technology is needed to support it. In addition, we found that leather bags were sold well in the past two years. You need to make adjustments to such market changes, such as making more fun accessories with leather. According to our own experience, sales have indeed gained growth.

C: How Adjust and update product lines according to market changes?

P: there are two reasons for more and more types of products appearing in stores. One is that the market does exist, and the other is that the brand has the lifestyle that it wants to emphasize. You know, selling bags is also a story telling, but there is no way to tell a story from a shop selling bags. The brand can tell consumers a story of life by adjusting their product lines. The story of life needs other things to build, for example, small leather goods, jewelry bags, necklaces, watches and scarves. Now we are going to launch shoes. As a brand CEO, you need to think about the problem from the perspective of brand. Because you are always serving the brand, not just selling products, so it is not enough to consider sales alone, but also to tell a long-term story.

C: how does leather industry, which is famous for its traditional skills, innovate in design?

P: sometimes something that is thought to be impossible can be found in the end. So we like to attract and recruit talents from all over the world, rather than the young people confined to Italy. In our design team, there are members from Japan, Korea and the United States, and this is also hoping that they can bring new ideas. Taking Furla, we used this multi design team to make a new candy bag. This bag is made up of three things, besides leather, plastic (10675, -15.00, -0.14%), and rubber. The point is that these three materials are not glued up but stitched up. Of course, it will also encounter many tests. For example, we found that we had to make such a bag and we could not sew it up with the original machine. have to Turn to the outside to find the cobbler's skills to mend boots, and turn this skill into our own production tool. And then I made this candy bag. In addition, we can further study the use of materials and colors. For example, with more new ideas, we eventually turn this candy bag into a product that will not fade. Three pieces of leather that do not fade are combined into a bag, which means that the brand is sending a signal of eternal happiness to consumers.

C: for foreign leather products brand, especially in the Chinese market is a relatively small brand, how to make breakthroughs in marketing?

P: do more, learn more and open more shops so as to communicate with Chinese consumers. When we entered China, we adjusted the product price according to the price of other light luxury brands around the world. Every day, every moment, I have to pay attention to what happens in the whole market. This is part of my CEO work as a company. I need to turn these into my hobbies.