ELIE SAAB Case Study

Project By:Sitanshu Bindra

Background
Elie Saab born in 1964 began his sartorial career by cutting cloth and drawing sketches for his sisters at home in Beirut, Lebanon, sewing table cloths and curtains into new designs at the age of nine In 1982, when he was only eighteen years old, the largely self-trained designer opened his own fashion store in Beirut with an employee base of 10 Soon his reputation rapidly transcended Beiruts borders, attracting women from high society who desired an elegant Elie Saab dress In the 1990s he expanded his presence to Europe by opening up a store in Paris

Continued
In 1997 Saab was the first non-Italian designer to become a member of the Italian Camera Nazionale della Moda, and in 1997, showed his first collection outside Lebanon in Rome In 1998, he started ready-to-wear in Milan He became an overnight success after he became the first Lebanese designer to dress an Oscar winner, Halle Berry, in 2002 In May 2003, the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture invited him to become a member, and he showed his first haute couture collection in Paris in July 2003 Also expanded his presence in Dubai and London

Organizational Structure
The Group was organized around 2 main functions
Creative function Business function

Total employee base of 150 as of 2012 in 3 different locations

130 were located in Beirut the headquarters of Elie Saab

15 were located in Paris handling the Sales, Communication and Public relation and administrative tasks

5 were located in Harrods store, London handling mostly the sales activities

Product Base
Haute Couture
Elie Saab provided personalized service for the customers buying these products Customers consulted with him on color, designs, fit, hairstyle and jewelry selection Saab insisted on the finest details, including the finest detailing, including hand-made beading and embroidery

RTW(Ready to wear)
It included casual wears but also had semi formal gown collection Elie Saab outsourced the RTW line production to very select manufacturers in Europe, mainly in Italy and France

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Wedding dresses
The wedding dresses were classified as either the Haute Couture or the RTW The dresses were sold through the ES Couture salons in Beirut and Paris Elie Saab made the wedding gown for Countess Stephanie of Lannoy, Luxemburg

Accessories
The accessories line included shoes, handbags, scarves, jewelery, belts, fragrance and cosmetics

Haute Couture Fashion Show

Saab and his team makes four major collections in an year, two for Haute Couture and two for RTW line

Major Competitors

Distribution Strategy
Company-owned flagship stores which were present in Dubai, London, Paris, and Honk Kong

multi-brand retail channel and department stores across the world

Through licenses and third-party distribution

Marketing Strategy
They followed three different platforms for marketing their product Through events, celebs and crowned heads
o Presence in the Academy awards, Grammy awards, and the British film festival o This fetched them free media coverage across television, internet, and print media o In 2002 when Halle Berry wore the dress designed by Elie Saab, it fetched the brand an estimated media coverage of $1 Billion o Saab had big celebrities like Jolie, Dianne Kruger, Penelope Cruz, and many Blue bloods such as Her Majesty Queen Rania of Jordan in his customer base

Dresses flaunted in Oscars

Continued
Communication and public relation
o The primary communication objective was to build the image of the company, which is built through wide media coverage and other communication tools o It has 3 external public relations offices in London, Los Angeles and New York, as well as 2 in-house offices in Beirut and Paris o The break up of their expenditure on different promotional techniques

10 8 6 4 2 0
PR offices & consultants Adverising

8.74

2.85 1.19
Fashion Shows

2.28 0.32
Other Events Others

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Fashion Shows
o Saab and his team developed four major collections, two for Haute Couture and Two for the Ready to Wear line o Retailers, along with the select customers members in the media, were invited to attend the yearly fashion shows o The dresses worn in the fashion show was not sold but were rather archived

Pricing
o The target consumers are those who are interested in high fashion and have the ability to afford them o The price range of custom-made couture is $30,000-$1,000,000. The RTW line begins at $1,200 and goes up to $21,000

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The sales figures of 2008
o The sales increased massively in the Middle East market and grew very slowly in North America

Present scenario of haute couture

The number of couture design houses declined from 106 in 1946 to 11 in 2010 The taste and preferences of the new world billionaires from countries like Russia, China and The Middle East was less about wearing Authentic Western culture and exquisite handmade creations The clothing trend specially of the extremely wealthy class was shifting to a to a more casual style of clothing as now their were less dinner parties, and grand royal meals where women would wear the exclusive gowns And many Ready to Wear clothing line companies were increasing the quality and the price yet keeping the volumes thereby maintaining exclusivity and attracting more customers

Case Analysis
FOUR PS OF MARKETING
Place

Product
Elie Saab has four primary product Haute Couture Specifically for extremely wealthy/ elite class such as actors or royals Wedding Dresses A very niche clothing sector RTW Casual wear for rich class of the world Accessories

Price
The price range of custom-made couture is $30,000$1,000,000 The RTW line begins at $1,200 and goes up to $21,000 Pricing was done keeping in mind the consumers who are interested in high fashion and have the ability to afford them

Promotion
The personal service, workmanship, unique designs, and exquisite materials used by Saab kept the ES collection on the forefront of the elite with stars and royalty alike The three techniques used for promotion were Communication and PR Events and celebs Fashion shows

Presence in 32 countries Brand was also available in 45 multibrand retailers and department stores across the world Having 3 external public relations offices in London, Los Angeles and New York Making their presence firm in the developing world

SWOT Analysis
Strengths - Saabs personal
involvement in customer service and brand mgt. activities

Weakness - Restricted to
luxury clothing line - Less variety of collection

Opportunities
- Online Sales - Expansion in Asia - Tapping the affluent middle class sector

Threats - New players

coming up in RTW line - Changing clothing trends

Solution to the problem

Organic and Inorganic expansion in different geographic areas
o Plans to open up new flagship stores in Asia in Honk Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai o Plans of tapping the Asian market where the billionaires are rising at the highest rate in the world in spite of the bad economic condition in the world o Increasing the number of multi brand shops globally

Diversifying the product portfolio

o Plans to enter the men's clothing, eyewear, lingerie, swimsuits and Home line businesses

Creating sub brands under the Elie Saab umbrella

o This move could be taken to produce different brand of clothing line for the affluent middle class which is a huge market as the upper middle class today is drastically moving towards buying luxury products

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Starting with an online sales platform
o This could lead to a jump in sales of the accessories sold by Elie Saab, As most of the accessories dont have any size or fitting foundation

increasing the product range in the RTW line, since the Ready to Wear clothing line was selling more as compared to the Haute Couture line

Diversifying into other businesses

o Elie Saab has already tried to do this by forming alliances to explore the hospitality industry o Elie Saab also planned to enter into the fragrances business o It also partnered with a yacht manufacturing company called Weyves International Ltd. and took the responsibility of designing yachts for that company

Reducing the prices of their premium products. However, that can affect the brand image of Elie Saab