Episode 338: A Branded Product Agency Philosophy with Francis Pierrel, LR Paris

LR Paris is a globally connected, full-service branded product agency operating in over 45 countries with clients that include American Express, H&M, Tom Ford, Ritz-Carlton, Marriott, and the White House. Frances Perel has held CEO and brand president roles at some of the world's most iconic fashion brands, including Ralph Lauren, Club Monaco, Lacoste, Diesel, and Urban Outfitters. Today, Frances is a partner and CEO at LR Paris, leading the third-generation branded product agency through a period of acceleration accelerated growth. And on today's show, we talk with Francis about L.R. Paris's unique approach to branded merchandise and how to create an emotional dollar value for branded products. Welcome to the Skucast, the podcast for innovators and maverick thinkers in the branded merch space. My name is Bobby LeHew. I'm glad you're here. Hey, before our chat with Francis, if you've not heard, we have only a handful of seats left for our signature boot camp experience, Sku Camp, held in Scottsdale, Arizona, September 7th through 10th. Come learn how to craft an unforgettable customer experience, navigate economic volatility, understand how the biggest supplier brands are impacted by tariffs, plus many more topics. Grab your seat at skucamp.com. Today's episode is brought to you courtesy of us at Commonsku. Over 800 distributors powering $1.8 billion in network volume rely on Commonsku's connected workflow. Process more orders, connect your team, and dramatically grow your sales. To learn how, visit commonscue.com. Now here's my chat with Francis.

Welcome, Francis. I'm so glad to have you here.

Nice to meet you.

LR Paris is sort of an enigma to me. I mean, you operate in over 45 countries. Your clients include American Express, Estée Lauder, Marriott, the White House. How do you define yourself to customers?

We are the best kept secret. Now, we, we, we are an agency, you know, and then maybe unlike our, our industry, we don't have a catalog, we don't have stock, we don't have anything to push. You know, we are the brand behind the brands. Mm-hmm. And then we perform as an agency. So when somebody has a need or a problem or an issue or a want, our job to figure it out through the product.

That's why I, I love how you call yourself a product agency.

Yes.

I, I've not heard anyone actually put those two words together in that particular phrase, but that way you're defining to folks, we obviously work in product, but we're also an agency.

Yeah, we are like a private chef, you know, so we don't have a menu, you know, you don't come to us with like, you buy this, or if you want Chinese, you go next. And if you want Italian, you go, no, we, you come, you come to an agency that you like, you, you feel like-minded. Okay. And you feel like you can actually trust them with your, with your needs. And then we become a part of their brands. Okay. And then we, we solve their needs. We don't solve any, any hunger or any problem of the world, but we solve their needs. Through a product. And most of the time our, our partners or our clients, they, they do products, okay. Or they don't do product. They sell services, but they are never a specialist in the product that we are selling, the branded product. And that's what, that's what we bring to them. So the product outside of their core product.

One of the interesting things that intrigued me about talking to you is that you don't fit in any clear categories within the industry, the traditional industry, so to speak. So it's, it was hard to define whether you're a manufacturer or a wholesaler, whether you work direct with clients or whether you work through distributors and it maybe sounds like a little bit of all the above. Can you give us a glimpse into like share a project or something you've done that sort of gives us an idea of who you are?

Yes. I'm not gonna tell you exactly who it is, but very big cosmetic. Okay. Very big group of cosmetic. Okay. The, you know, like cosmetic, they're very into like influencers. You know, there was a time where they were advertising in magazines. You don't advertise in magazines anymore. You just, you, you go to the influencers and then it's the race to impress them more and more. Okay, so this brand, they come to us and they say, look, for holiday, we want the, the, our influencers to receive a trunk, a beautiful— now if you, if you go on Instagram, you're going to figure out who I'm talking about— but a beautiful trunk in which we are going to give you two of the boxes that we already have, a big one and a small one. And inside, I want you to put some of the products that we have. You, you close all of this, and then we want this box to ship into another box, and then after that into like a mailing box, all received before the 20th of December. Number, and then we give you the addresses and the name of all these people. Well, that was a brief. Okay. And now all of a sudden we have to engineer that box to fit boxes that we don't know about. It's, there is a huge fulfillment component, picking, packing, shipping. There is a lot of compliance because obviously you have fragile products inside. It goes to influencers. So the unboxing is essential. So really like testing the way is going to open and then, and then, and then create that, that special moment that's going to influence the person to post about it. So it's about, it's about a product. It's about, it's about packaging. It's about fulfillment. It's about logistics. It's about data, you know, an address crunching. It's about a lot, a lot of coordination and all of this with the stress of the holiday. That's what we do. You know, when I say come with, with your problem or actually your biggest dream, that's what we like. We, we, we love to take.

And because you have an office in Washington, DC, New York City, Paris, you also have an international supply chain through Asia, Thailand, China, with 14 to 15 languages being spoken in your company. You're obviously built for this import, global expansion, things like that. Is there a type of business you don't wanna do in the merch space?

I would think that the only thing that we, because we are in the merch and packaging, I love to say merch and packaging.

Okay.

Right. Okay. A lot of merch comes with packaging. Some packaging doesn't come with merch, but we love to do both. The only The only thing that we, we don't touch really is the, the, the, the first packaging, right? The, the one that is containing whatever you are going to put in packaging and everything. But no, I, I think what's important for us is to, we focus on the industries, you know, and we focus on working with the leader within the industries. One, because we want to be specialists within some industries, but at the same time, we want to cross-pollinate across the industry. So what's good for cosmetic could be applied to legal, right? What's good for legal and gifting for very high-end client could be good for loyalty programs, you know, and then so we cross-pollinate and then we share this know-how without revealing any secret from one another, but we, we share it within our, our clients that are not in direct competition.

Yeah. So why are you, why are you stepping sort of into the industry? You're sort of kind of doing a media blitz where you've talked with folks in the business. What are you hoping to do in this space? Work with more end clients, work directly with distributors, expand your knowledge of kind of the industry? What is your hope to, as you plug into talking to folks like me?

What is, what is my hope? I look, I, I've met a guy called Charles Deliger, you know, he's the, he's the third generation owner of, of the company. His grandfather created the company on the idea that, you know, like the, the gift, you know, is what seals relationship between, between people. He was doing it between the French army and then ambassadors around the world. But, you know, and so diplomacy, you know, it's, it's very important. So we have that deep, deep into us. Okay. And Charles had it. And I said, okay, at the end of the day, you're thinking about a promotional merchandise, merchandise, like, like a retail product, like, like, like a product that, that, that has a brand in it. And then you're going to charge emotional dollar, which is not the price, which is the price that people really want to pay. I love that.

Yeah.

But you want to give it. And I was just like, wait, we, I are two worlds they need to meet, you know, that's what I did, you know, for my, for my living. Okay. But that's the way you think. Let's put these two things together and we could bring that to our clients. You know, my marketing team, they say, you know, like often the swag, the swag product, they, they call them à la poubelle. I don't know if you've seen that in the, on the Instagram and à la poubelle means in French, it means in the trash. Okay. So, so if I do, if I do a product and I put your brand on it and then the, the whoever is going to receive it, they're going to put it in the trash or they're going to leave it behind. That is a failing industry. Okay. That is an industry that exists, a business that exists, but is not going to resist the need for sustainability, the need for return on the ad spend, the need of priorities of investments, none of that. So we want to approach it in a way where when we do something, for your brands, your client is going to want to put it on their coffee table. Yeah. They are willing to put it on their desk. They are willing to put it on their back. They are willing to take them on vacation with them. They are willing to steal it, you know, from somebody else. Yeah. I really want it. Right. I know. I, it always reminds me, you know, when I was a kid, you know, Coca-Cola was so strong, you know, and the dream of, of every kid was to have this Coca-Cola t-shirt or the sweatshirt or, or the records. You know, they are special records. You couldn't buy them, you know? And that's, that's for me, that's, that's, that's merch to its At the peak. Yeah.

You, you, so you kind of see the swag industry as a, as an industry you can step into, disrupt, and, and actually create a, a bigger impact.

Yeah.

Well, not everything is bad in swag. I'm not saying this, right? I mean, it solves a lot of, uh, you know, like an entry price point readiness of the product, but the, the offer is so wide, you know, I think we, we are not distributing the swag. We use other, other people to, to, to to, to, to bring it to us. We do like more custom products, but when we need it, we curate. Okay. And we think that's again why we're an agency, because in the ocean of offer, we curate. Okay. We curate not to the more expensive or to the cheapest. We curate to exactly what we know that you need, Mr. Client.

You, I mentioned this in my intro and you have a fascinating fashion background. So it's really interesting to talk to someone like you who's stepping into this space with a fashion background. So we are seeing a lot of trends with with high-end brands. So brands like Porsche are partnering with Hermès, Dior, or— and their merch. Rennais Gin, Emma Watson's gin company, cultivated in Paris, distilled in England, they partnered with Del Toro, an Italian shoemaker. Erewhon, the California supermarket, partnered with Merci in Paris. I'm really— you can hear my Texas accent when I'm trying to pronounce these names. My apology. As a former fashion executive, what do you, what do you make of the current landscape where couture brands are partnering with boutique retail brands to create merch? What do you make of that?

It's beautiful. I mean, fashion is not standardized and fashion goes extremely fast. It's not fast fashion, but fashion is very fast. Interesting. There is a word that always fascinates me. It's co-creation. Okay. There is nothing better when two artists, two brands, two creators come together, you know, and create a third thing, you know? Yeah. And it's like, it's like getting a baby, you know? Yeah. It's of course it's gonna look like both sides, but, but it is, it is special and it's, and it's unique in its, also in its, in its, in its DNA. And I think creative people, they don't mind creative, confident people, you know, or brands that know exactly who they are. They don't mind sharing. They don't mind coming together because they know that what's gonna come out is gonna be even more fascinating. Yeah. And they like to be surprised themselves, you know, say, oh, that is, these are new limits for my brand. It's a great point. My brand could actually play in that field, but it's for the delight of the, of the clients as well, you know, like, and their customers, they can, They appreciate their brand and their co-product even better when they see how it can stretch. And it doesn't, it's not always a success. Trust me. You know, I've done it, you know, you go too far and you become off-brand, but then you finally, you discovered, you discovered who you are as a brand. It's like a painter, you know, that, you know, you try, you try and go, that's not me. And I'm good at this, but it's beautiful. Co-creation is beautiful. It's mixing two ideas, you know, the confrontation or the tension, you know, I love the triangle. That's good. Triangle, you know, because you create the tension and when, when you can hit right in the middle, then you win. That's, I guess this is why they're doing this.

I, I wanna ask a little bit about your background, but, but as an interesting segue into this is in, in the industry itself, there's a lot of acquisitions and mergers going on in the, in the just the merchant swag industry. Given how much consolidation and acquisitions happen in the fashion world, brands like Ralph Lauren, besides whom you obviously worked with, worked for, do you see that opportunity here or, or do you see LRR Paris growing more organically?

Well, I think we are in a very, very fragmented market. Yeah. You go from mom and pops, you know, from their garage, you leveraging all the modern tools, you know, so giving a great service, but mom and pops to midsize. I would say we are, we are part of the midsize with the specialties and then to giants that have become, that have become very inflexible, you know, buy my stuff the way I'm telling you, otherwise, you know, I'm not going to do business with you. And then the small guys that don't have access to all the— so I think there is a necessary consolidation that is going to happen. Is the big going to eat the medium? I don't think so. I think the medium are going to eat each other. And then the small, they might just die, you know, just by themselves. But what I'm realizing is the lack of agility in the big guys. Okay. Because, because you're big, you know, so now you have structure, you have to sell your structure. I've got my salespeople, I need to format them in the way they have to sell. I've got my systems and I need to, so they are going to absorb some, but some that are very, very similar so that it gives them just accelerated growth. We are looking for complementarity. We're looking for synergy. We are looking for geography. We are looking for new services. So Are we going to grow just organically? No, no, we, we absolutely want to grow acquisition, partnership, co-creation, collaboration. Absolutely. Okay.

We were seeing lots of activity over the past couple of years where the US brands have expanded overseas, obviously, but we're seeing actually almost, this is just my opinion and perspective, more brands outside of North America coming into North America. Whereas we think of expansion as in US outward, but what we're actually seeing is a lot of brands coming into the US expanding. Through in the merch business at least. So it's interesting, like, like L'Oréal Paris, like what you're doing. You've been here a while, but, but it's interesting to see that expansion. You were with Diesel in the early 2000s, if I have that right. Was this the time period when Diesel was buying up Maison Martin Margiela?

Yeah, I've got a good anecdote for you if you want to—

Oh, I'd love to hear. What did you learn about what— like, yeah, share, share that with me. That's a fascinating time period.

So, yeah, I mean, you know Martin Margiela, I mean, you know him of a reputation. He's, he's a very discreet man and a man of very little words, right?

And by the way, for those that are curious, you check out the, the, the Martin Margiela documentary that Pierre, that Francis alluded to about his discreteness. You can figure out he's a very elusive person. But anyways, go ahead.

So I was already based in New York and then was working for Diesel. The headquarters was in Italy. And one Friday I received a call and said, okay, Martin Margiela is going to be in New York, okay? And we want you and you only, you know, to take him on a tour to show him some special, some specific streets of the city. For him to, to tell us where we should open the, the, the first store in, in Manhattan. And then at that time, the brand was acquired by, by Diesel, you know, so he was just a consultant. He was not the brand anymore. So I had the chance to spend an afternoon with Martin Margiela. Maybe we, he said 20 words. Wow. But the, the guy was so fascinating because so clear of who he is, what his brand stands for.

Yeah.

Why he's got such a narrow but very, very strong followership. And so that store that we opened, it was on the side street of a, of a small street in the back of something. So the whole idea was like, I don't wanna be visible. I don't wanna be on the main street. I don't wanna be on the street. I want my people, my, my, my followers to find me. That's 2001. He was not using the word followers, obviously, because that's a new word, but that's the way he was thinking, you know? So creating a cult, you know, by being very, very true to your brand. Fascinating. Fascinating. I would say narrow, very, very focused. Yeah. Also, of course, also like a great designer. Oh, just brilliant.

And that time period, that time period, what a part to, what a, what a time to be in that time period in fashion in particular. Yeah. That, what did you learn about product then? Like by, by work, you were working with the most respected fashion brand in the world. How do you, how do you bring that into your your work today?

Respect the product, you know, like you respect the product because you're gonna respect your clients. So, I mean, I work for Diesel, I work for Lacoste, I work for Ralph Lauren. I had the chance to work with Mr. Lauren directly. They all have in common, you know, they're very, very clear of what is, what brands they are.

Okay.

What are we representing outside into the world? Okay. And what is, my core product, you know, and then what, what do I stand for through my products to the, to, to the clients. So, and then never, never disappoint them there because then you lose them, you know, also they're always obsessed by not losing, by not losing followers as I would call them today, but losing your clients and not the clients in the sense of paying clients, but, but a lover, a lover for the brand. Yep.

I mean, what an experience, what a journey you've had. And now you bring this interesting experience into the merch business where you're not creating a particular product catalog or a season catalog anymore. Are now creating bespoke merchandise per client, per project. How, how do you, when, when you, a client, a client comes to you, what do you and your team do with that as one of the first steps? Do you start studying the brand? Do you start, what do you do with a project when it first hits your doorstep? Yes.

Yes. That's why we, that's what we call ourselves an agency. We don't start by selling. We start by, by learning. We make them speak. I mean, we are lucky. We speak, we work with very famous brands. So yeah, so we are familiar, but now we study them in, in a sense that now we're becoming them. Okay. And then, and then the second thing that we do is, is we really deeply ask questions about their needs. Okay. And before we start working, we summarize all of this and then we are trying to be extremely visual. We call it a mood board. We are trying to represent what we've learned, you know, with our designers into, into a mood board just to go back to the client and say, if we understood you well, you, your brand, and then your project, this is what we got out. And often it starts sealing You know, because the clients say, yeah, but not that. I don't know. Oh, like that. You see, you're using orange there. Oh, we would never touch orange. That's great. And then we study, obviously, their brand book. We love to visit their space. And now we become, we start to be part of them. And we are never looking for the one project. We're looking for, you know, we have a, Charles always says, you know, what's our endgame? You know, like we try to be with them on the long term. So there is a lot of research and investment, you know, at the beginning, because then we know that being the agency of record, you know, to use a, to use a common word, but for the product. Yeah.

What 2 or 3 brands do you follow? I mean, you, you have been steeped into fashion history and culture. What 2 or 3 brands do you follow that inspire you?

2 or 3 brands. Okay.

Or one, or, you know, it could be a million.

Sorry, it's a hard question. The first one that comes to mind, I mean, there is a brand that I'm obsessed with. I buy everything from them. It's Imogen and Willy. I don't know if you know them.

Hey, my, my friends are gonna laugh because I am obsessed with Imogene and Willie outta Austin, Texas.

Yeah. It's, it's, I just love it, you know, and I get a chance to shop in their store, but I shop on, you know, I love Buck Mason as well. Do you know Buck Mason? That's nice.

I, I, I, I am embarrassed how much I love Buck Mason. Yeah.

I love their story.

Yeah.

Great story. Another brand that I'm obsessed with is Made In, you know, Made In the, the, the, the pots and then the, the, the plates and then the, the glasses. Say it again. Made in, like, made in France?

No, that one I don't know.

No.

Oh, it's, it's a restaurant-grade product made for the, for normal, the home chefs, like, like we are. I just, I love their marketing. I love their product, the curation of the product. They give you, they give you one wine glass, you know, one for the red and then one for the white, but it's just perfect. I love it. Do the same with the plates and everything. And then I, I, you know, I love some disruptors, you know, Skims, for example, you know, it's contrary, but I don't know if you're Have you heard about Melbourne? Melbourne Golf? You know, it's like how to make golf cool again, you know, like, and they make super, super, super cool stuff. Love it. And of course, I mean, of course, Ralph, because it's always true. Whoever goes back, it's always true to what it is, you know, it's never, never disappoints you.

Yeah, I'm a RRL fan. They just submitted, I just got in there, they said a print catalog that's about this thick and I haven't seen a print catalog from them in a long time. And so it's beautiful. It's absolutely beautiful. I am over my time. My friend, thank you for— thank you for joining us for this today. I'm absolutely fascinated by your journey and your entry into the merch space. So welcome. I know you've been doing this a while, but it's really interesting to talk to you. Thanks for carving time out of your busy schedule.

Thank you very much. Thank you for having me. It was fun.