Istanbul, Turkey, and plans a Russian expansion. Also South Africa’s largest
city Johannesburg has the Sandton City Shopping Centre, often described as
a ‘World of Splendour’, where Louis Vuitton has a store. In addition, the
Nigerian city of Lagos has just seen the completion of two high-end retail
shopping centres, although luxury brands are yet to enter this market. At the
South American end, Brazil has witnessed the growth of independent retail-
ers of luxury brands like Daslu in São Paulo, in addition to other luxury
departmental stores in Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro. In most cases the retail
spaces in these departmental stores are leased by major international luxury
fashion brands.
Retail location techniques can also be exploited in order to create a more
viable niche for luxury brands. This can be done by creating ‘special prod-
ucts stores’, which retail specific goods not usually found in the brand’s
permanent collection range. These goods could include limited edition prod-
ucts, special order goods, bespoke products and co-branded goods. Several
brands have adopted this strategy, in following with the current consumer
needs of constant delight and individualism. A notable example is sportswear
brand, Puma, which currently has a New York flagship store called the ‘Puma
Sports Fashion Lab’, devoted to its collaborative product ranges with
Alexander McQueen, Christy Turlington, Philippe Starck and Neil Barrett.
Nike also has a concept store called the ‘Nike-ID Lab’, which retails only
limited edition products. Although several luxury brands have stores which
retail specific products from the permanent range, the luxury sector is yet to
make the concept-store retail location technique an important aspect of its
retail strategy.
Retailing is a core aspect of the luxury fashion business. However, retail-
ing doesn’t end when a brand has successfully found a location. There are
several additional tactical factors that determine retail success, and which
make up the retail strategy. The retail location choice is the first step to the
retail strategy, followed by the store concept.
Store concept
The store is an integral aspect of luxury retailing and is crucial in represent-
ing the brand identity and meeting the expectations of visitors. The store is
often the first point of real physical contact between consumers and brands.
A brand’s identity is mostly projected through the store concept, from where
an image is either crafted or harmonized. This image leads on to a mind posi-
tioning and internal judgement of the brand by consumers. For example, if a
consumer sees the advertisement of a luxury product in the print media and
visits the store afterwards, they would expect synchronism between the image
that they already have in their minds based on the advertisement and what
they see and experience in the store. The advertisement is like the cover of a
chapter 4 81luxury retail design and atmosphere