MBS insights
Reinvention and the Power of Collaboration
MBS Events
October 2009
Last week, Geoffroy de la Bourdonnay, CEO of Liberty, opened the doors of Liberty’s Heritage room to share with a selected group of industry leaders the inside story of one of the most visionary reinventions in luxury retail in recent years, in a breakfast discussion hosted by The MBS Group.
For a Frenchman who had spent most of his life working for global companies such as Disney and LVMH, revitalising the quirky ‘icon’ of British retail was no small challenge. Or was it? “It was easier than you might think” says Geoffroy, because “everyone loved Liberty. From the media to the customers, employees and even our competitors, we realised everyone wanted Liberty to succeed. This gave us an enormous advantage.”
Right from the beginning, he turned for inspiration to Caroline Issa (also at the breakfast) who is the Managing Director of Tank Magazine, an influential publication and creative agency that works across the worlds of art, culture and fashion.
Romance and Rebellion
Geoffroy told us that when he joined, he started by asking his people some tough questions. “What was Liberty? What made it different? What did it stand for today?” The answers varied greatly, but overall showed that the perception of the brand, even within the business, was fragmented. Many perceived Liberty to be not one brand, but three: fabrics, the flagship store and lastly, its own luxury brand – Liberty of London. It was time to get back to basics!
‘Quirky’ is a word people often use to describe Liberty but this ‘quirkiness’ has a fascinating story behind it. Founded in 1875 by Arthur Liberty, the store was built on his globetrotting spirit and ambition to bring back to Londoners individual pieces of art and design they had never seen before. By its heyday in the 1960s in ever-popular Carnaby Street, Liberty had embraced extravagance and sophistication, as well as its tradition and commitment to craft and quality.
Geoffroy’s team realised that Liberty has always been a paradox of Romance and Rebellion, Passion and Avantgarde – a powerful brand idea that not only nodded to Liberty’s heritage but gave them the freedom to embrace youth, individuality and eccentricity. Once this brand DNA was uncovered, the team had to find ways to express it through their products and services, the design and look and feel of the store and, ultimately, every part of the business. It was then that the real transformation began.
Building the new Liberty
Radical change was needed and had to happen fast. “However”, Geffroy points out, “you cannot rush it or you will end up alienating people.”
As you would expect in a company with such a long heritage, there was a great deal of entrenchment inside the organisation. “Many people had been trying to change things for years and had failed and many had stopped believing in change altogether.” Getting the right people on board and in the right frame of mind was crucial. “We needed them to be confident about the future, and this applied not only to our employees but also to our best and more loyal clients, who we involved at various stages through the process”, explains Geoffroy.
Walking through the empty shop in this early autumn morning, we felt like we were walking through a wonderfully odd and stunning art collection. It became apparent to all of us that Liberty is and has always been, much more than a retailer. “We are a curator of fashion, design and beauty, and also an ‘incubator’ for new talent” concludes Geoffroy. Caroline was quick to assert and praise Liberty’s commitment to the discovery and nurturing of new British designers and artists.
Starting with their product buying strategy, over the last two years the whole business has been transformed, from the recently renovated flagship store, down to the marketing and communications strategies. The new positioning has also enabled new partnerships and collaborations with artists and designers such as Grayson Perry, Hermès, Vivienne Westwood and Tom Dixon.
Beyond the turnaround
Since the relaunch of the flagship store last February, the results have been remarkable, with Liberty set out have it’s best year ever at a time when trading conditions are the toughest they have been in a long time. How can they explain this success? Geoffroy admits that, despite the recession, there was a latent demand, an appetite for all things new and exclusive. They also took a gamble to invest at the beginning of the year when everyone else was cutting costs, and this gave them a bigger share of voice among its competitors.
“Often, a tough environment is the perfect time to make radical changes. There is a window of opportunity to revitalise your business and set it up to succeed for when the good times return”. However, he also recognised that it is easier to make changes when you are in a ‘turnaround’ mode. “Keeping the momentum around those changes beyond that turnaround stage is what matters”. Going forward, Liberty has ambitions to grow in all areas of the business, retail and wholesale, and will continue to develop both its multi-brand and own-brand offering.
When asked about the challenge of attracting new and younger audiences, Caroline talked about the Liberty magazine as one of the drivers to push the boundaries and engage new customers. Indeed, as Moira Benigson pointed out, the notion of luxury today is very blurred particularly among younger audiences, with brands like Topshop gaining distribution in exclusive outlets in the US and beyond. Geoffroy agrees, and strongly believes that while luxury is always going to be about rarity and exclusivity, it needs to also be about being different and more importantly, accessible.
Asked by Christopher Spira, consultant in the fashion industry, whether Liberty was interested in playing up its ‘Britishness’, Geoffroy pointed out that Liberty is more of a symbol of the ‘British Eccentric’ rather than the ‘British Establishment’. In many ways its Britishness is somehow implied so you don’t need to emphasise it.
A number of times during the conversation Geoffroy referred to ‘luck’ as being an important factor in this success story. Moira, who has worked closely with him throughout the transformation, pointed out that ‘luck’ was less to do with fate and more about the dedication and absolute focus and commitment of his team. Geoffroy admitted that to have luck you have to be out there, ready to grab the opportunities when they arise. “Still,“ he joked, “leading the transformation of such an amazing British brand into the future? That’s a lot of luck for a Frenchman!”
