Blanc des Vosges‘ history begins as early as 1843. The family-run French business manufactures large ranges of high-quality home linens and stylish interior design collections. Today the company sells its products in more than 1,500 stores all over the world. How do the brand’s unique export strategy and digital marketing bring success? There might be a lot to discover of its export plan.
1977: “Le Relais Occitane”, the company’s first store, opens in Manosque. Forty years later, L’Occitane en Provence, which today has more than 2,300 stores in 90 countries, shows us how selling on several channels in several countries is a growth driver that is also possible for SMEs and very small companies. Multichannel strategies are not out of SMEs’ range. On the contrary, L’Occitane en Provence shows that international multichannel is within the reach of companies of any size, through a gradual expansion, country by country, combined with the implementation of marketing tools to guide and retain consumers in every market and channel.
Any enterprise, even start-ups, has several internationalisation options, depending on its competitive positioning and its development level. That is what The Click & Boat believes and that is why the brand came to life. By adjusting the internationalisation strategy to the business situation, SMEs and startups can watch their business prosper in export markets.
In 2016, Nokia acquired Withings for 170 million euros. The Finnish company considered that it and Withings had the same ambition: improve people’s health through everyday things. This is the start of a new phase for the French company: founded in 2008 in Issy-les-Moulineaux and among La FrenchTech’s pioneers, Withings is specialized in connected devices and smart lifestyle products for health and well-being. In just 6 years, Withings boosted its international business, with a strategy that almost entirely self-financed its export. In 2014 the company reported that 90% of its sales were made outside France. Among SMEs, Withings is a fortunate one but not the one and only to succeed with digital channels and export. Though many SMEs and start-ups dare not consider these two possibilities, they have never been an exclusive offer to giant companies. So as for the smaller ones, how can they start and accomplish the internationalisation.
