BrazilLuxury brand Furla hires RTG Consulting Group in China
Furla is looking to boost its brand profile in China, bringing Shanghai-based brand consultancy RTG Consulting Group on board for support. The latter’s specialist design and content development agency RTG Inspire will manage the project.
An Italian luxury brand established in 1927, Furla specialises in all manner of apparel and accessories – clothes, shoes, handbags, wallets, etc. As it stands, Furla has 450 dedicated stores across 100 countries, with a presence on glittering high streets across the world. With China emerging as an epicentre for the global luxury market, Furla is looking to cement its name in the country.
To this end, the brand will need a public & media relations strategy, communications design, production coordination, event support, as well as celebrity and opinion leader support – all of which will now fall under RTG Inspire’s mandate.
A division of the RTG Consulting Group, RTG Inspire specialises in brand design, campaign development as well as media & social media relations. Parent company RTG Consulting Group, meanwhile, houses a team of more than 70 business consultants – spread across Shanghai & Singapore – who help luxury brands across the world with business and brand strategy.
For Furla’s Global chief marketing officer Antonio Burrello, RTG’s experience made it the right fit. “The RTG Consulting Group is experienced working with international luxury brands on both a regional and global scale, and they have a deep understanding of the China market. We have full confidence that this makes them the right team to champion Furla's upcoming China efforts.”
It’s hard to drop a big name that isn’t on RTG’s brand partner list, with Chanel, Calvin Klein, L’Occitane, Ferrari, Gucci, Versace, Tag Heuer, Mont Blanc, Johnnie Walker and Godiva – to name just a handful – all featuring on the illustrious roster. Founding Partner & CEO at RTG Consulting Group Angelito Tan welcomed Furla to these ranks.
“We are very fortunate to have Furla join our family of luxury brand partners. Our RTG Inspire division has unparalleled experience in communicating the world's top brands, and we all look forward to helping Furla grow and succeed in Greater China.”
Moving with the times
Furla’s China focus comes at an awkward time for the global luxury market. Covid-19 and its subsequent economic repercussions have put a squeeze on spending, and discretionary goods were the first to suffer. Many experts have made doomsday predictions for the luxury market: In March the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) forecasted up to $600 billion in losses for the fashion and luxury segment as a whole. Fellow consultancy Bain & Company made similarly gloomy predictions.
China’s story is different. While the country’s luxury market was the first to take a hit after Covid-19, it was also the first to begin its recovery. The country was among the quickest to contain the outbreak, and was early to reopen its economy. Already in March, Bain reported that certain brands were clawing their way back up in China, pegging the overall loss for the year at a mild 5-10%.
This is enough to draw investments from Furla and other brands, given the sheer size of China’s luxury market. Last year, analysts predicted that China alone could account for half the global luxury goods market by 2025. With most economies still in a spending crunch, many luxury players will have their hopes pinned on China for the near future.
