theceomagazine.com | 119With the success of the business in CEE and
ME, Kenneth was presented with the opportunity
to move to Hong Kong and take over as president
for Pandora Asia–Pacific. “That was five years ago,
and it seems like the time has passed in the blink
of an eye,” Kenneth muses.
TO THE ASIA–PACIFIC REGION
Many of the products brought to Pandora Asia–
Pacific were based on bestsellers from Europe and
the US. “We had a lot of success with the pink
cherry blossom in Asia–Pacific,” Kenneth notes,
“A silver charm with enamel that can be set with
stones.” Another major success in the region was
the rose gold collection the company launched two
years ago.
The most highly sought after colour in Asia–
Pacific, however, is blue. “Blue and generally strong
colours are very successful here,” Kenneth continues,
“aside from Japan, which prefers pale colours. We
have these button charms that are set with big blue
stones in the middle and they have been received
well by consumers.”
THE VALUE OF A CHARM
Pandora constantly receives messages from the
public about how its jewellery makes them feel.
And Kenneth recalls a particular message from
a woman who had bought Pandora charms for
many years. “Her house burned down and she
lost everything,” he remembers. “Nobody was
hurt but she lost everything she owned, and didn’t
have insurance to cover many of those things. So
she went online and described what had happened
and how afterwards, you start to think about what
matters in life.”
The woman talked about how all the material
things she had didn’t matter so much because they
could be replaced, but one of the things she regretted
losing the most was her Pandora bracelet. “It was
because it symbolised so many important parts of her
life – from her graduation to when she got engaged
and when she married,” Kenneth continues. “She had
a charm for when she had her first child, a charm for
when her child had her first graduation, and so on.
So we invited her into the store and she got to
recreate her bracelet with all the memories that she
had on the old one. That was an incredibly emotional
experience and something that has stayed with me.”CREATING SPECIALISED CHARMS
Over the years, Pandora’s Asia–Pacific range has
been based on global collections, but now it’s
looking to make a collection that’s more specific
to the region. “That’s a big step for us and I think
it is something we need to do,” Kenneth says. “We
are looking at China and the new styles coming
out of Asia and many of them are based on the
different festivals there. So there is a big opportunity
in making jewellery that is specific to a country,
region or culture that speaks to consumers in that
part of the world.”