“Asia is becoming the major market in the world and it’s a natural trend that Asian companies will take over the luxury brands – after all we are the major buyers of the brands,” she says, citing Singapore billionaire Christina Ong’s acquisition of UK brand Mulberry, Hong Kong businessman Kenneth Fang’s purchase of Pringle of Scot- land in 2000 and Dickson Poon’s great rejuvenation of Harvey Nichols.
She says that the ‘new’ MCM is targeting a different consumer – not the “blind buyers” of the past. She chuck- les about the “wives and concubines of rich men” who are so often the targets of luxury companies. “We are tar- geting intelligent consumers – 21st century globally trav- elling high-powered professional men and women – that’s a very different notion to those who buy for status and who are driven by logo. Our consumers certainly appre- ciate luxury images, but with substance.”
Functionality, quality and good value are key drivers, she says, as well as convenience – the latter an important fac- tor in the duty free success. “Remember we started as a world-class travel goods company. So now we can com- bine German precision and quality with Korean hi-tech, as Korea is known as a hi-tech capital. We want to target the emerging wired generation who carry an iPod, a lap- top, a Blackberry and so on.”