Than 8 billion. With 500 stores around the globe. At the helm is the chief executive who came into the job seven years ago, with no fashion experience but a determination to return the printed luxury, attracting younger highvalue customers. Louvet i often got the question is ralph lauren still relevant, which is a painful question to listen to, but we had lost that Younger Generation. Francine on this episode, speak to tresa levay, about his plans to take the company back to its roof. Patrice louvet, thank you so much. Do you have the best job in the world . Louvet pretty close. Francine what was the most surprising thing about your job when you first started . Louvet the thing that attracted me to this opportunity was the opportunity to work with ralph. This man is a visionary incredible entrepreneur, and the opportunity to work with him and partner with him is really special and i treasure it. Francine and you have to get along because he is socialist such a figure. He has his name of the door. How much of it is his vision . Louvet it all starts with him. And where you see this company started, the tie, you see it has all been driven by a consistent vision with a consistent purpose. I talked about our purpose being to inspire the dream of a better life through authenticity and time the stock, that has been a driving force and now we are around the world, well beyond ties, we are in hospitality and restaurants and coffee shops, womens business, home businesses, but all driven by a very consistent vision that is an industry very much about trends. And ralph says that i hate fashion because fashion comes and goes. We talk a lot about style, timelessness and elements of consistency, and that has served us over the last 50 plus years. Francine what was it like when you met him . Louvet i got a chance to see him at his ranch in colorado in telluride. Right after i got the job. That was probably the most iconic moment for me, i could also give you perspective on that first engagement. We are in his ranch, outside, its chilly in the morning, still the cookouts. Were francine looking ahead at this Beautiful Mountain view, and we were talking about what business we were in, its important to have a consistent vision. And we said that we are in the dreams business. A lot of people say that you are a fashion covenant. We disagree with that. Francine its easy to work with . Louvet is wonderful. As always this image of a creative leader in fashion being complicated and there have been stories around that, but ralph is an incredible partner. He is an amazing visionary and a great businessman. That it has been a key part of his suspect success. Although nothing is written on a piece of paper, we are clear on who is responsible for what and where we come together. I could not be happier with the partnership. Francine there is also a moment when you had to change the company to get away from the Department Stores that lowered the ambition for the company. How did that work . Louvet from a financial standpoint, its challenging, but if you go back to the roots of this company, was founded as electric company. And recently a ralph lauren tie was too type 2. 5 times the price of a comparable type. We had to pull back, practically in the u. S. , our presence, because the brand had been overextended, we reduced almost two thirds of our wholesale doors. But we are in a much stronger place, Brand Perception is much stronger, our value perception is stronger. Francine this ultraluxury was not a given, and when you look at luxury companies, if youre in the ultraluxury space, you can increase prices, you have a lot more of a market instead of this moderate luxury. What made you see that back then . Louvet were just going back to what this company said forward. This phenomenon has been going on for a while, this bifurcation of brand brands that have Consumer Power where consumers see the value and you have your ability to create increase the retail. And others work focused on to crating product, not engaging, much more promotional, when we go back to our roots, thats where we want to take the company. Francine how do you create those moments and that fortune where people associate you with wimbledon or some of the shows that elevates luxury . Louvet its a very holistic exercise. Its not just one thing. Francine does one thing were better than others, is it Flagship Stores that are very coffee shop oriented with a unique lifestyle that people are drawn to more than online . Louvet the way we think about it is that there are 30 key cities. We dont look at markets. We look at cities. In each key city, we want to have a balanced ecosystem. Starting with a Flagship Store that will project the image, our approach in china is very much driven by the city focus, establishing a strong show and billy and ecosystem around it. I dont know that we can point to what intervention. The transformation of our marketing and storytelling has also been quite effective, particularly in creating a younger consumer. Which is the hardest because they are fickle and they change, and there are a lot of opportunities. When i started in this job, i often got the question is ralph lauren still relevant . Which is a painful question to listen to. But we have lost touch with the Younger Generation and this company is 56 years old and we expect to keep going, its critical to rejuvenate our customer base. We pivoted our marketing to be where the consumer is. Gaming shade gaming. Sports activities that resonate with them. Styling products. What are white polo shirt, one of our icons, 80yearold men are wearing it, 40 euros women wearing it, 16yearold kids wearing it. Francine i wonder if there is a secret sauce with the lifestyle brand for the right moment . Because its not, people dont go to haute couture advance, and they have a more relaxed approach when they come to the office. Louvet hopefully more than that because we want to be here for 50 years. I think what ralph and the teams have been able to create over time is that lifestyle proposition which is not dependent, we are not handbag our auto experts or speaker experts. We offer a lifestyle and we offer this range of products. As we have seen people working from home, partly going back to the office or social events, we have this ability to serve you with a more feature driven proposition. Francine are we going to be offering hoodies . Louvet maybe it depends on which industry you are in. At ralph lauren, i have not meet see many people in hoodies. But we do, and occasionally with a polo buddy. , in occasionally with a polo hoodie. Francine up next, prices, ambitions and asia, and sustainability being key. Louvet you cant run out of resources. Sustainability is not a side activity, its not a reaction to external pressure, its core to what we stand for. And to a very strong extent it is about the future business. Of business. Francine ralph lauren has raised raise the average price of its product by 80 since 2018 as an attempt to elevate its brand and become a lifestyle electric company, something the executive is passionate about. We continued that conversation now. Francine when you look at pricing, you have been able to elevate the brand by increasing prices. Is there a limit to how much you can increase prices by before it hurts demand . Louvet our average unit retail is close to 80 up, and the short answer is that i dont think that there is a limit as long as we do it job on elevating the product and elevating the storytelling and the environment. Making sure that the consumer sees the value and they have so far, our value perceptions are the highest since we have been tracking it. The onus is on us to provide this consistent elevation to support the continued growth of average retail. Francine china has huge potential, but it is still a smart market for you. Smallmarket fee. Louvet it has a lot of midand longterm possession first. The company is worth about what was, but its still quite small when you look at the penetration of the Chinese Business for some of the other players that are up to 40 . Im excited about opportunities on the runway. What is energizing for us in china is how the brand is connecting with younger consumers that more elevated consumer. As a result of all of the elevation by our teams, are most of it products so best in china. We have the best gender balances , as i believe you know, we have been more towards men, but in china its a good balance. And its a good balance, late 20s, early 30s, its a good example for the rest of the world. We are being very deliberate to our approach in china, we can grow faster, and we will do inequality weight that is building the brand, five years or 10 years from now. Im excited about asia and china. Francine are you worried about diluting the brand if you become too big to quickly . Louvet desirability is critical for this industry and there is an element of exclusivity that is important. That is why we pulled back in the u. S. , where we felt we were over distributed. And became ubiquity ubiquity can be a challenge. You want to stay unique and special. That is why we are building in markets like china as we look ahead to markets like india, which are promising to the future. Being delivered on planting the right foundations so we can go from there with the right image perception. Francine the world is changing, we talk about ai and the need for Fashion Companies to do more. How much time do you spend thinking about sustainability . Louvet a lot, i will tell you why. Lets talk about purpose earlier. The dream of a better life is timeless. Im listless and sustainability go together. You cant expect to be timeless if we run out of resources. For me, sustainability is not a side activity, or reaction to external pressure. It is core to we are and what we stand for. And to a strong extent is a future proofing for our business. You need to focus on sustainability to recruit, more and more, the younger consumer, they want to work for companies that care about the planet and do more than generate revenue and profit. You need sustainability to attract consumers, people care deeply about what are you doing differently. Investors in europe place value on sustainability. Many of our partners have expectations of sustainability. Francine what does that look like fry lecture livestock up update . Louvet its multidimensional for a fashion company. Louvet its multidimensional. If we are able to shift any Business Model from linear to circular, that is one of the biggest changes we can make that has the most impact. That is a total ecosystem that you have to impact. We are innovating how we design. We launched a cradle to cradle certified innovation in materials, innovating in processors that helps us with recycling cashmere and leveraging industry scale. Francine do so differently to the chinese then to American Consumers in terms of lifestyle or is there a similar lifestyle . Louvet there are fundamental difference tories that we tell in the movies that we show, the way that consumers dress and engage with fashion brands, on average, the Chinese Consumer tends to be or elevated and sophisticated in the types of styles that they put together. That informs parts are by impaired parts of our buyin. Francine so more luxurious . Louvet more elevated and luxurious. Francine there seems to be a trend, and you might have been one of the first ones to get chief executives from parts of the industry that were not luxury and fashion that were consumer products. Is there parallel, do chief executives to better than lecture . . Marjorie echo luxury . Louvet were you start to see growth is the cpg consumer and the professional coming first, and we see that in the fashion world. I think that at the end of the day, success in this industry is getting the balance right between magic and logic. The fashion industry and Creative Leaders have the magic, and there is an option to bring in a higher level of logic without diluting the magic. And i think the people from the consumer goods industry armor fork focused on the consumer now. Where you get success is design efficient and customer needs coming together. Greater understanding of the consumer, more data, more experience, imaging data and decisionmaking, leveraging data and decisionmaking, sublimated by data. Francine whats the algorithm for the store . Louvet i cant tell you, we do look at a number of metrics, whether consumer profile or competitive environments or products being sold in the area. And the last thing that i would point to is operational discipline,. We develop complex supply chains and what we learn in the consumer goods industry is how to run rigorous and disciplined supply chains, and general operations, and a lot of these companies are 20 billion, and it requires great expertise to get there. Francine how do you choose celebrities and influencers . We used to rely on magazines, if thing has changed. Our consumers more influenced by our consumers more influenced by influencers and celebrities . Louvet celebrities has always been part of the industry. Francine but its more controlled. Louvet there were less spokespeople have now you have a much broader pallette, what is critical is authenticity. The concept of im going to write you a big check and you are going to talk about us and then tomorrow, youre going to shop on a competitive brand, we are not interested in that. We want people who have an authentic creation shape. Relationship. Im next, risktaking, family on the metaverse, and the next 15 years. Louvet as long as we capture the spirit, it was a success. With eu have on your plate, earning your degree online seems. Impossible. But at grand canyon university, we specialize in helping you fit a masters degree in business into your busy day. Your Graduation Team led by your own gcu counselor provides you with the personal support you need to succeed achieve your goals with a plan and team behind you find your purpose at grand canyon university. Visit gcu. Edu francine more than half of Ralph Laurens customers are women, but they represent less than a third of sales. Its an area of the business that the executive sees as opportunity as he bets on growth in womens merchandise. Francine what is next for ralph lauren, are you going to focus on sleepwear, are there other parts that you can grow along with . Louvet what is amazing with this brand is that we can enter a lot of spaces with automatic credibility. We are looking for an opportunity in new york to open in new york and london. Our ecosystem is not necessarily a car priority for us. Our next priority is women, ralph lauren has been mainly driven by men. Today, 56 of customers are women, presenting less than 30 of our business. Representing less than 30 of our business. As we understand her better, present products in a way that resonates with her, which may not be the same way as for men, that is a big opportunity for us. Handbags is an area as completing the style for women, and we look into home and if you reflect on ralphs approach to the space, you can create this environment and this world, you could picture how that translates into home. That is an area for us, longer term that i am excited about. Francine the metaverse. Are you excited about the metaverse . Now that we have been talking about ai, we are not talking about it. Are you investing in it . Louvet we are. We talked about the principle earlier, we want to be aware of consumers, we want to engage with brands like that, we want to play a leadership role, and we are excited about what were doing, we have a partnership with fortnite. Francine how does that work, do you dress louvet if you plan fortnite, you can dress them in a ralph lauren skin, and there are cookbooks that we developed that you can give to your player, but we have done physical versions of them. Francine was that a gamble, going into its brave, it paved paid off, it could have backfired. Louvet true, but heres where we go back. Ralph started with a tie, 56 year leaders, 56 years later we are art the Global Leader of ties. We need to innovate, expand and expand met. We are just staying true to that. And i always talk about the fact that the only failure is a failure of learning. Even efts if we have tried it and it bond bombed, if we capture it and applied elsewhere in is a success. I think that people if you ask them throughout my career how they would describe me, they would say servant leader. I really believe in the fact that my job is to set the team up for success. And create the conditions for people to leverage their full potential. If i do that well, i will be fine. I went say would say listener, theres this quote from a philosopher, to year two ears and one mouth, and theres a reason for that. I have been a learner and have been constantly learning, and ralph is an incredible inspiration, i used is mindset as inspiration. I am a measured risk taker, not a swing for the fence risk taker, but i believe in innovating and extremity and trying to things. I think that you feel that energy inside the company. I love that spirit of just trying things. And again, learning. Francine whats a good day in your world . Louvet a good day is where i get the greatest energy and excitement is in the stores with our team. I try to hold myself, its very tempting, i try to avoid doing that. I just listen to the stories that our teams tell me in terms of how they are engaging with customers, what we can do better in terms of the brand and product and how they are building culture. Francine and you are committed to the u. K. Louvet very committed, our secondbiggest historical market and a great source of inspiration ralph. For ralph. When the numbers arent coming through the way that you would like them, that never feels good. But welcome to life in the business world. When we are not able to get the balance right between the magic and the logic, and groups are not communicating well, that obviously can be frustrating. What i love about fashion is that its emotional. Its also challenging that it is emotional. Francine were you surprised that even in the costofliving crisis, luxury does so well . Louvet i think people need to drain. Dream. When the environment is challenging, people need to dream, you need to have hope and optimism, and that is where we do well. We are on an exciting journey right now is a firm in terms of geographic expansion. We will be stronger in asia, we will have a good presence in india, we will be better distributed across europe. We will be more present in the west of the u. S. , that is a big space for us. And we want our womens business to be more successful and larger than what it is, and what i hope is that i am still at the helm working with ralph to bring hope to consumers around the world. Francine thank you very much for joining us. Wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. Its to die for. And its all right here. Streaming was never this easy, you know. This is the way. You really went all out didnt you . Um, its called commitment. Could you turn down the volume . Here, you can try. Get way more into what your into when you stream on the xfinity 10g network. Its an amazing thing when you show generosity of spirit to someone. And you want people to be saved and to have a better life, then you dont stop. We have been able to reach over 100 Million People impacted and affected, and at risk of hiv. The rocket fund takes all of the work that were doing, all over the world, and looks at the most effective ways, to get resources to them, to get services to them. The idea that we have saved five Million Peoples lives, its overwhelming. Its everything. Emily ive been covering this industry a long time, and there is always something new that big tech is chasing. First, it was self driving cars, then the metaverse, now eve