Hi everyone, this is Zsuzsa Kecsmar, 
CMO and Co-founder of Antavo
And I'm Rohini Contractor, 
I'm head of the UK office at Antavo
Today I wanted to talk about 
how companies can fight the discount culture,
because there is this trend in fashion 
that in multiple times a year,
in those multiple seasons that we have 
these days in fashion, there is a period of discounting,
when customers can buy things for cheaper.
And actually, Rohini you’ve sent over to me some great information from James Eden,
who is the owner of Private White,  
which is a British outerwear brand,
and he is putting it this way on LinkedIn:
"No, it's not a typo. There will be 0% off everything in our collection on Black Friday
Surprised? Here's why – it's because 
we believe that discount culture
is conditioning consumers by forcing them 
to doubt the intrinsic value of a product.”
What do you think of it?
Well, I gotta tell you, James Eden 
over at Private White, what can I say,
it’s one of my favorite brands.
If you go on to their website, 
you’ll totally understand what they stand for.
And this is about - to quote Deloitte 
“finding the values in your values”
and actually sharing them back with your customer.
And one of the great ways we do this at Antavo 
is through a loyalty program itself.
Being able to actually show what you support
and then overlap that with what your customer support too.
Yes. For example, what one of our athleisure 
companies support is active lifestyle,
so they are engaging customers in their active lifestyle.
They are organising these meetups, they organise 
that the like-minded people can meet up.
It’s a great opportunity to create a community, 
to create a brand around the brand,
which is aligned with your values.
And this is something which can be much more 
effective to drive sales than discounts.
That’s right. We also drive the circular economy 
by using the reward program to reward customers
who bring back old clothing, for example.
It’s really a beautiful seamless program, actually.
I encourage you as brands and retailers out there 
to really find the value in your values.
Okay, so what other ways we can imagine that help 
fashion brands and retailers to fight the discount culture
and connect with branding, apart from the example  
that we just said around this sport brand?
Well, what we found is that as with traditional email, 
you can always find niche groups and niche segments.
What we do at Antavo is we set up specific groups,
- like for example Sneaker groups - or particular sales groups.
And what we enable retailers to do is that 
those who are selling their stock off
at 50% off or even below, we’ve enabled 
them to actually raise the floor.
And that’s because what we're trading on 
now is exclusivity and scarcity.
That means we are able to invite customers
to a particular group they are part of, 
and offer them discounts at the height of the discount cycle.
And more often than not, because 
we're getting the segmentation right,
because we are getting the targeting right,
what we are seeing is that retailers just don’t have to 
go as far as lowering their floor to around 50%.
Because customers are identified as discount customers,
but they are offered the stock at a discount rate 
- essentially a 30% off, instead a 50% off -
earlier in the sales cycle.
And even if there is no discount at all, 
this particular example,
I love this so much, not only because it’s from 
one of our most successful customers, LuisaViaRoma,
but it also works, and customers love it.
These new shoes hit the floor of the closed club, 
which is exclusive, it’s very private,
you need to have a certain level of brand 
engagement in order to get there.
And they are sold before they would 
make it to the regular shop floor. It’s amazing!
We’ve seen some great stuff.
In this particular example, we’ve had 
like customers, consumers out there
actually using their reward points on a particular 
loyalty program to get into the club.
And it's been super effective!
And you can see how that could 
actually extend to even a sale periods:
having customers actually 
use their rewards as a currency
to get access to a little bit of 
better pricing, or maybe a bundle.
But the whole point is that the program 
we run enables you to raise the floor
and essentially, ultimately, 
look towards eliminating discounts altogether.
Because you are constantly communicating 
the value your brand stands for
with the customer, and making an 
emotional connection through engagement points.
As Zsuzsi always says: we look at 
engaging the customer outside of the buying cycle.
I really like that James Eden and 
Private White just puts it out there,
and it’s part of their branding 
that they refuse to discount.
This is basically their manifesto, 
their pricing manifesto, as they put it.
They are very open about all their production,
and they very conscious about 
how they created their prices.
And I think it’s a wonderful 
branding element that they use.
It’s right on trend.
Many consumers now really want to 
understand that the brand represents them,
they are concerned about sustainability, they are concerned 
about where that piece of clothing comes from.
In a global world, where you can get 
a pair of trousers for around £5,
it’s really important for us to understand who’s 
making those clothes, where they come from.
And I think, again, James Eden does this really well.
And it opens an entirely new topic of sustainability.
But anyway, I think this is about discount culture,
and we have some more information around this topic on the blog,
so head over there if you want to learn more. 
And thank you so much for watching today.
