This is a lovely piece on how online marketing via social media changes the basis for competition in an industry. Whilst Elizabeth Segran has written this piece in the global context, much of what she’s talking about is true for India as well.
A decade ago most of us were using luggage made by global giants like Samsonite, Delsey and Tumi. Whilst these big brands are still around, a big chunk of the $174bn global luggage market has been grabbed by new entrants:
“The trend began with Away, the startup founded in 2015, known for its wheeled cases with signature grooves, affordably priced at $275 for a carry-on. Fueled by $156 million in venture capital funding, it grew quickly in its early years, selling millions of cases. But Away paved the way for a wave of luggage startups, staking their claim on different markets all over the world.
In 2018, the Australian brand July launched and quickly took off across the Asia Pacific region. That same year, Monos launched in Canada. Both produced minimalist hard-shell cases that came in a rainbow of colors. Last year, in the United Kingdom, a century-old luggage brand called Antler popped up again out of oblivion.
All of these brands make similarly sleek, colorful hard-shell cases with their own distinct branding, at a very similar price point to Away. Despite the glut of options, the global luggage sector is growing at a rate of 7.4% annually, giving these upstarts the chance to build sizable businesses by winning over a new generation of consumers—or stealing market share from the legacy players over time.”
All of these D2C consumer brands are making affordable, good-looking luggage with a compelling brand narrative. In doing so, they are exploiting a gap in the market that had existed for years but one that was uneconomic to fill until the rise of social media: “Before Away hit the market in 2015, people had two polar-opposite options when it came to buying luggage. They could either spent thousands of dollars on a Louis Vuitton trunk or an aluminum Rimowa rolling suitcase, or they could spend $200 on a generic, utilitarian bag sold by a big brand.
Away’s founders believed that consumers were eager for something new, so they radically reimagined how a suitcase could be designed and marketed. They partnered with the design firm Box Clever to create a sleek suitcase with grooves on it reminiscent of those on Rimowa’s cases, but manufactured in China for a fraction of the cost. They created an immersive brand, filling their social media channels with gorgeous images of cities around the world. They sold the cases on their website, and shipped them to customers’ doorsteps, so they didn’t have to lug suitcases back from the store. (Away did not respond to a request for comment before we went to press.)
The brand was an instant success, selling 50,000 suitcases in its first year of business, and millions in the years that followed. It also spurred a wave of other DTC brands…”
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