L'Affair Prive: a luxury wedding planning business

Luxury Wedding Business

Overview of the Company

The company is known as L'Affair Prive, and this will be a luxury wedding planning business based in Mayfair, London. We will have a small shop front in Mayfair, and then offices in selected cities that serve as popular wedding destinations -- Venice, Istanbul and Florence. These field offices will support the wedding business, where wealthy Londoners will set up luxury weddings in these destinations, or nearby, and we will have people on the ground to facilitate the execution of these weddings. The brand will focus on arranging the details regarding the pre- and post-wedding periods, so travel, planning and the reception. The objective will be to ensure that our clients have their dream weddings, designed by people who understand what luxury clients want in a wedding.

Among the different services that we will provide will be everything from invitations, honeymoons, transportation, gifts, hotels, entertainment, and any other aspects that need arranging. So this will be a full-scale wedding planning service, serving the London market.

Differentiation

There are a few different factors that differentiate the luxury market. A basic trait of a luxury business is that the product/service needs to be of the highest possible quality. The customers are often discerning, and they have experience with high levels of service -- they will reject a business that cannot meet their exacting needs. It is imperative that the service we provide is of the highest-possible quality. The couple getting married may not be the payer, but we have to have the best people in the industry in order to meet the needs of both the couple getting married and the payer. This market has the means and the willingness to pay for quality. They are characterized by a low price sensitivity and a high quality sensitivity.

The second point of differentiation in the luxury market is exclusivity. By definition, something that is luxury-branded cannot target the mainstream market; rather, it must only target a niche section of the given market (Okonkwo, 2007). In our case, the target market consists of the wealthiest of London society. Our target market will be those with a preference for a European-style or British-style wedding; we are not equipped to handle the needs of clients who wish an Indian, Arab or Chinese wedding, unfortunately, even though this rules out some of the luxury clients in the London market. Interestingly, there is a market among people from foreign countries to come to London so that they can have a more European-style wedding experience (Parish, 2014).

That said, we specialize in these European destinations, and there is a significant market for that. We are targeting the executive/professional segment of the luxury market specifically, as these are the clients who need planning services the most -- they simply do not have the time to work on these details themselves. We are competing in the same market are luxury wedding providers like Bruce Russell and Sarah Haywood, as this is a market where we believe there to be untapped potential that remains.

The Competition

Luxury weddings are big business, and this is reflected in the competitive environment. The exact size of the wedding industry in Britain has been difficult to pin down, but it is worth USD $52 billion in America, which can likely be scaled for population (Feitelberg, 2014). The luxury segment is only 0.8% of weddings, but the sterling share of the market is much larger for luxury, as the price for a luxury wedding can run over ?1 million easily (Confetti, 2014). There is intense competition in all segments of the luxury wedding market, because it is so lucrative. Designers compete intensely in wedding dresses and shoes in particular, but also there is substantial competition among hotels, resort and other venues for weddings. Many of these would be considered strategic partners for us, rather than competitors.

The direct competitors for L'Affair Prive would be other luxury wedding planners operating in London. While London has a large luxury wedding market, there is substantial competition, and many such competitors are already entrenched, with established brand names. Competitors include Bruce Russell, Sarah Haywood, Jessie Thomson, Knot & Pop, Mayfair Luxury Weddings, Oliver's Travels and many more (Silverman, 2015). These typically operate with a similar structure to our company -- a head planner who organizes a team of other planners, utilizing a wide variety of contacts within the industry, to tie everything together into a singular, spectacular event. Contacts throughout the industry are essential, and a critical success factor in this industry. Many established players in the business already have these contacts, and in some cases (though not many) may have exclusive contracts are inside deals with key providers. Thus, competition is fairly intense, and we will have to deliver a superior product in order to build our reputation.

Staff and Responsibilities

There are several key positions within the organization. The first key position is the Head Planner. This is the person who is basically the focal point of the organization, the person who brings in the clients and who has the best contacts. There is no more important person in the organization, as this is the one who has the vision for the wedding, who conveys that vision to the clients, and who has the right people and contacts in place to execute on that vision.

The Manager is the next person in the organizational chart. The Manager is in charge of ensuring that the weddings are executed perfectly. The manager organizes payment to all staff and suppliers, builds supplier relationships, ensures quality control on the different elements of the wedding, and is often the point of contact for some of the issues that arise in the course of planning the wedding. The Manager also handles a lot of the back-of-house operations, and ensures that the company runs smoothly.

The Financial Controller handles the financial aspects of the business. This will typically be all of the accounting, though there will be separation of duties where cash handling is concerned -- the Manager will manage that. The Financial Controller is also responsible for accounts payable and receivable, and will be responsible for financing the company as well. This is therefore a multi-faceted role within the company, handling almost all of the financial aspects of the business and ensuring sufficient cash flow to continue.

The remainder of the business will be comprised of speciality staff. There are many different aspects to a wedding, and it is these specialty staff who are charged with ensuring that the different aspects are handled well. As noted, there will be specialist staff not only in London but in three overseas locations, in order to handle things on the ground in those cities. There will be specialists for food, for travel, for venues, for decor and for clothing, to help coordinate each of these different aspects of a wedding. There will also be generalists to handle some of the smaller details that do not require a full-time specialist position.

Part 2:

We are seeking partners for L'Affair Prive, a luxury wedding planning business in Mayfair. The market for luxury weddings is growing at around 6% per year, faster than the general wedding business, and we have assembled an experienced team to try to capture some of this growth. Our people have worked for some of the most recognizable names in luxury weddings, and have the industry contacts to deliver a truly unique and magical wedding experience, with the discretion that the luxury market demands.

The competitive landscape is fairly crowded, but there are few new entrants to soak up the growth that the industry has been experiencing. We feel that we can capture 5% of the market within two years, which would allow us to be profitable in that time frame. Most companies in this industry are privately-held, which means that there are few opportunities to get in on this business, but we are offering one here.

Our objective is to create a true luxury brand, skimming off the cream of the market. Our initial plan is to start with three focus cities in addition to our London base, and then expand from there. We see opportunity in New York and Los Angeles, and we are going to add more focus cities in addition to Florence, Venice and Istanbul. We plan to grow the business into a global luxury brand, in line with our globally-minded client base.

We have developed a brand essence that we believe will allow us to create a degree of differentiation from the other competitors that are already courting this market. If we can successful differentiate ourselves, we will be in a position to achieve the growth that we are seeking, and that growth will provide you with the return on investment that you are seeking.