The Chanel brand and knitwear company World Tricot used to be pals. Tricot is a former supplier of the Paris-based fashion house, but things went sour back in 2009 when Tricot accused Chanel of wrongfully terminating their business relationship and for “copying one of its designs,” according to British Vogue.

A lawsuit ensued, naturellement, and Chanel now must pay over 200,000 euros ($263,000) as a result of a ruling issued by the Paris Court of Appeals — not a huge amount, to be sure, especially as Tricot had originally sought $4.7 million for breach of contract and counterfeiting.

An attorney for Chanel said at the time that Tricot was just looking for PR, according to Vogue, but Chanel execs, who've been reminding fans this year about the iconic little black jacket, are likely singing a different tune these days.

"This is the first time that we have faced this type of situation, although we work with close to 400 suppliers," said Bruno Pavlovsky, president of Chanel fashion, Vogue reports. "This very specific case is in no way reflection of the quality of our relations with our suppliers."Continue reading...

When French luxury brand conglomerate LVMH acquired a minority share of 127-year old family-owned French luxury brand Hermes in late 2010, it was hardly a match made in heaven. LVMH head, billionaire Bernard Arnault, commented to the New York Times in March 2011, "We are a totally peaceful investor, but as a leader in the best quality products in the world, we believe we can bring a certain savoir-faire to improve the functioning of their business."

Foreshadowing what was to come, however, Hermes CEO Patrick Thomas responded, "We don't want to be a part of this financial world which is ruining companies and dealing with people like they are goods or raw materials. It's not a financial fight, because we would lose that. It's a cultural fight."

That "cultural fight" has now flared up into a renewed legal battle, as Hermes recently filed suit against LVMH for "the way in which LVMH entered the capital of Hermes." The suit also alleges insider trading and manipulation of the share price, reports the Financial Times. LVMH has counter-sued for defamation.

At the heart of the battle is the independence of the Hermes brand itself.Continue reading...

Domino’s Pizza has overhauled everything from its branding to its pizza recipes to its advertising over the last couple of years, and now the biggest pizza deliverer on the globe is pressing change in a number of new ways.

For one thing, Domino’s continues to push as much business as possible to online ordering, a trend that has been overtaking the pizza trade for a while now. This week, digital customers in the US will receive half off on all pizzas ordered at the listed menu price.

Also as part of this promotion, Domino’s is reminding American customers how many options they have for getting their pizza just right. At a time when some other products are getting simpler for ease of manufacturing and to cut costs for brands, Domino’s wants to let pizza eaters know that they could line up their pies more than 34 million different ways.Continue reading...

KFC's command of American Chicken is under assault on a number of fronts. But the chain that made fast food out of chicken isn't about to give up its territory without a big fight.

This week KFC US introduced Original Recipe Bites, the chain's answer to McDonald's success with its limited-time Chicken McBites earlier this year and the Spicy Chicken McBites that the No. 1 fast-feeder is currently promoting. KFC, of course, also faces more competition from the likes of Chick-fil-A, which consumers find easy to love wherever the brand pops up.

"Only KFC could introduce big, bite-sized chicken with the famous flavor of Original Recipe," said Jason Marker, KFC's U.S CMO, venturing into tautological territory in the company's press release, predicting that the "bite-sized 100 percent breast meat chicken [will] be a hit with adults as well as kids."Continue reading...

Salvatore Ferragamo has become the first fashion house to have a full-out catwalk show at the iconic Louvre museum in Paris. The honor came about after the family company from Florence sponsored the current exhibition of “La Sainte Anne, Leonardo da Vinci’s Ultimate Masterpiece,” according to the New York Times.

“Having a runway show inside the Louvre has a meaning that goes beyond the simple concept of fashion,” creative director Massimiliano Giornetti told the Times about the 2013 resort collection's esteemed showcase. “It is a statement, a continuation of a long tradition of beauty and sensibility, of passion and a love of art. It’s a very positive message. A way to reaffirm our Italian spirit and our culture.”Continue reading...

BMW this week launched a concept called Future Retail with the grand opening of its first new BMW Brand Store in a luxe pocket of metropolitan Paris this week. It also signalled that the brand is stepping up investments in its dealers and retail network to better equip them to win BMW's worldwide fight with Audi for luxury-vehicle sales leadership — and in the United States, with Mercedes-Benz for upscale-segment supremacy.

The Brand Store aims to be more than 'just' a brand experience or halo outlet. Much more important to BMW strategically will be how it executes the Future Retail concept in its dealerships worldwide. Among other things, the brand plans to increase the number of contact points with customers and prospects, increase the services and benefits offered in its retail channels, and enhance the retail experience "at all touch points."Continue reading...

Richard Gere's new French-made commercials for Suntory's Orangina drink in Japan have skyrocketed sales to the tune of a million cases in the first four days of the commercials' debut. In the spots, the American actor plays Tora-san, an updated version of a sentimental figure from Japanese cinema: a "hapless traveling salesman from an iconic series of Japanese films," according to the Wall Street Journal's Real Time Japan blog. Watch more below.Continue reading...

It kind of just rolls off the tongue: "Faux Bordeaux." But the actual words rolling off the tongues of winemakers dealing with the spike in wine knock-offs coming out of China these days cannot be printed.

As the nation's taste for wine explodes, so do opportunities for marketing knock-offs. Aside from the occasional heath threats of poorly-made batches, the growth of the counterfeit wine business threatens to choke the growth of an entire industry. What's more, the phenomenon again illustrates why a current nationwide drive to strengthen "homegrown" Chinese brands could be a bust.Continue reading...