經濟不景氣時奢侈品必然首先遭殃？古琦（Gucci）集團主席Robert Polet不以為然：他的公司是販售夢想的，你不能為夢想貼上價格標簽！

　　人們為品牌而購物，是為了成為一個特別的夢想的一部份。走進商場，他們在心動轉化為行動之際，想的不是價格，不是一條領帶或一套西裝，而是想的“我要成為一個Gucci man 或 Gucci woman”。

The big picture

Robert PoletThough Polet says Gucci will not be making any broad sweeping tactical changes to tackle the crisis head on, preferring instead to go with a less reactive approach, he says it may be necessary to make some adjustments because it still makes good business sense to monitor the situation.

“Let me just reaffirm the importance of actually sticking to your strategy because the strategy that you build around brands is the strategy for the longer term. You manage brands for a long life or longevity, so you don"t sort of whisk them around every quarter or every year or every two years,” Polet told INSEAD Knowledge in an exclusive interview. “And that is come hell or high water I would say. But you know what, times change and there are things that you need to adapt to and in the short term – change your tactics.”

For example, he says, if a company’s growth is cut by half, it is technically still growing, though profits are significantly reduced. “So you will adjust if you're wise, your capital expenditures and the way that you manage your business, (yet) always staying true to the essence of the brand and to the long-term strategy.”

Polet’s approach seems to have worked. When he joined Gucci in 2004, he had Gucci catalogueambitious plans to double the company’s revenues in seven years, as well as to increase gross margins to 70 per cent. He says he has delivered on both counts, which he is why he chooses to remain optimistic at such a time.

“Now having done that, it gives us of course a much better position because the profitability has almost tripled in absolute terms in the last four years. It gives you a fantastic starting point to be able to brace yourself for headwinds.”

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