LVMH is synonymous with luxury, excellence, innovation, and creativity and its longstanding global success can be attributed to the great minds behind the brands who work every day to innovate the retail experience and create luxury goods. John Gerhardt is a retailing visionary who has navigated the luxury industry for the last 25 years by holding positions at some of the largest and most renowned North American and Global luxury retailers. The Bensadoun School of Retail Management hosted Gerhart as a guest speaker for a Retail Leaders talk event where he provided valuable insights into career navigation and his current position as Creative Director for Mo毛t Hennessy.
Gerhardt debuted his career in the retail industry, working at Parachute, one of the first Canadian brands to move to SOHO, New York. In this role, he learned how to manage a team by giving "clear direction [...] not just about supporting [his] staff, but about empowering them [...], motivate people [...] and inspiring people".
When asked about key responsibilities in his career journey, he again highlights that inspiring others is crucial. This position is what propelled and supported his career in retailing. He then held a position at Holt Renfrew as a Creative Director and DFS/T Galleria (LVMH) in Hong Kong and New York as a Senior Vice President in Branding and Creative. Within the latter role, he internalized the creative, which he now leverages within his current role as the Branding and Creative Director of Mo毛t Hennessy (LVMH) in Paris.
To Gerhardt, being a creative director does not only mean being creative but knowing how to sell and having key presentations skills while inspiring others. By centralizing functions in his line of work, he rebranded five Maisons, leading to cost and production efficiencies.
Mo毛t Hennessy is an "umbrella of 27 brands" in which each is marketed uniquely. Branding identity is a significant aspect of John Gerhardt's work, and he outlines three key elements that Mo毛t Hennessy focuses on. The first focus is helping "the smaller brands and work on their brand identity" to "redesign them, reskin them, or reimage them." The second is content-focused, to support the brands, and the last dives into leveraging photography and video to produce the primary functions.
One example he mentioned with respect to brand identity is how he and his team were successful in elevating the Chandon brand by changing the packaging and creating an inclusive and diverse brand image, utilizing their uniqueness of being the only global Maison that has wineries across various continents. Each brand has a different audience, allowing Mo毛t Hennessy to keep them separate to avoid cannibalization.
"We make certain that there is no crossover. That they are as distinct as possible, and we look at value propositions and how they all have different value propositions. We look at different [corporate social responsibility] programs and how they all have different CSR investments. We look at brand codes and visual codes to make certain they are not playing in the same arena, and whether it is as simple as color or whether it is as big as values, they all have to be different," says Gerhardt.
When discussing branding, Gerhardt explains the importance of sustainability at Mo毛t Hennessy who 鈥渓ook[s] at it from things as tactical as packaging and labeling to things as strategic as biodynamic vineyards.鈥� Sustainability is a priority for LVMH and all the brands under it.
Creativity is another crucial part of the Mo毛t Hennessy brand. However, creativity and business are often seen as separate. Many believe business is about generating profit, while creativity is about artistic imagination. For Gerhardt, creativity is a vital business skill that ensures differentiation and successful product development and marketing. He shares insights on managing creativity and explains how 'businesspeople' should embrace creativity.
"I would advise businesspeople not to be so subjective when it comes to creativity and to separate themselves from their ingrained aesthetic or feelings about whether you like it or whether you don't. It needs to come back to the consumer [...], the trend, and whether it is on-brand or not. There are many things I do that I don't like [...], but it's what makes sense to the market and the brand. The biggest advice I can give to businesspeople working with creatives is to [...] separate your personal bias from what is best to the brand."
As a pioneer of retail and creative direction, Gerhardt left the Master of Management in Retailing (MMR) 2022 cohort with valuable career advice. He attributes risk-taking to his success and emphasizes the importance of developing a niche.
"You can't be risk-averse and be really successful. You have to take risks. Sometimes the risks will pay off, and sometimes they won't, but you have to take them. [...] You have to be vulnerable, put yourself out there, and try new things all the time. I separated myself during my freelance career; when everyone was going left, I went right. And it paid off because I was able to renegotiate my rates [...] they paid for that uniqueness. If I were to look into a crystal ball, I think we will walk away from generalists in retail and people who try to be everything to everybody. You need to be specialized in the way yo develop your career, be as niche as you can and develop your own point of view. The 27 unique brands we have within Moet Hennessy are only there because they are different."
This opportunity to speak to Gerhardt was enlightening as we learned about the drive, passion, and commitment it takes to work in the luxury sector. By learning more about brand identity, sustainability, and creativity, the MMR students got a 360 view of the inner workings of Mo毛t Hennessy and earned valuable career advice from an inspiring retail pioneer.
Written by: Annie Chusid and Vicky Constantopoulos
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