Dear Diary: Moleskine wants to win the TikTok generation with notebook vending machines
Beloved by wordsmiths across the globe, Moleskine notebooks are based on the black books of Parisian cafes in the 19th century – where artists would meet up over a glass or three of wine to share notes and experiences.
But the firm’s boss is not looking back today – Daniela Riccardi’s eyes are very much on tomorrow’s consumer.
The “real board” of the company, she says, is a group of Gen Z staff members. All in their early twenties, these employees head projects that are “particularly meaningful for their generation,” the 62-year old Riccardi tells City A.M., who pins the success of her company to a blending of “our origins and our DNA” and appeal to a younger consumer.
One ‘Gen Z’ project is a potential rollout of Moleskine vending machines in university libraries. One wonders what the Left Bank scribblers of yesteryear might have made of it all.
RECESSION PROOF?
Today, though, Riccardi is facing up to the same problem as most consumer facing brands: a coming recession.
The Roman boss is unflinching, though, saying loyalty lies at the heart of the Moleskine consumer.
“On a £20-25 product, it’s not going to be the end of the world, if it costs £2 more,” she said of price increases.
Last year, the brand struggled with not only the cost of logistics but the complexity, with the latter worse than the former. “Carrying products all over the world had become a nightmare, there were no trucks, no ships, no containers and no workforce,” she reflects.
In brighter fortunes, Moleskine’s owner D’Ieteren Group, which pulled the company off the Milan Stock Exchange in 2016, said the notebook maker saw revenues swell 30 per cent in half-year results published last month.
Far from letting economic turbulence stifle its global growth, Milan-founded stationery firm has just launched a new UK team, the first time it has put down roots in the country with a handful of UK-based team members.
The new team come as Riccardi pledges to “put more focus on the [regional] markets” and empower local teams, with the UK team bringing “a completely different energy” just two months into their formation.
In another vote of confidence for the capital, it has opened a new boutique at department store Harrods, offering shoppers a luxury offering of personalisation and bespoke products.
“THE BOOK OF YOUR LIFE”
While Moleskine is in general “a pretty democratic product,” it is now hoping to entice a more affluent clientele at Harrods, who want to opt for “something more unique, more exclusive,” reckons the former Diesel boss Riccardi.
The boutique features exclusive products from an haute couture collection created by south-London based embroidery artist Jess De Wahls, with prices beginning at a modest £500.
“You don’t buy Moleskine because you need to write in just a notebook,” Riccardi added. “When you write in a Moleskine, people keep them for life, they are the book of their life, they keep them forever, it’s pretty unique.”
Not only is it ever important to offer bespoke products in stores in a bid to lure shoppers out from home, the retail experience must be unique too, Riccardi said.
Stores scattered across the globe are subject to “several experiments,” including a resident artist at the brand’s Hong Kong site, offering shoppers the chance to personalise their own books. Store offerings would not be “one size fits all,” Riccardi said.
The vision for the Harrods boutique was grounded in Riccardi’s familiarity with the typical shopper, after her time running the crystal brand Baccarat, which also has a foothold in the department store.
“We will see what is worth reapplying and what maybe makes sense just in that culture or in that environment,” she added.
Like most retailers, the shift towards experiences over and above just the product is the most valuable weapon in the battle against the decline of in-person shopping. Riccardi, who took the reins in 2020, appears to have wasted no time in adding value to the Moleskine brand.
Knightsbridge is no Parisian cafe, but it appears Moleskine notebooks are as comfortable in both environments.