One of the consistent questions I'm asked on my Tiktok Live sessions is what makes a brand luxury. And whilst there is not an agreed definition, part of the operating system of a luxury brand relates to having discipline in all areas; distribution, design, product development, marketing and indeed even pricing. Now, most brands might discount to sell more units. But true, bonafide, luxury players do the opposite. You see, people think luxury is expensive because it costs more to make. That's genuinely not the case, I assure you. Luxury is expensive because demand is controlled. And a mechanism like discounting breaks that system. When a brand decides to discount it tells the customer that this price was always negotiable. And once that happens, that's a watershed moment because customer behaviour changes. They will wait. Your full-price sales slow down. And over time, your brand's pricing power disappears. No longer just margin loss, that is true brand erosion. So when I talk about discipline I want to reference the usual suspects like Hermès, Chanel, and Brunello Cucinelli. All three are undeniably minimal discounters. They maintain tight supply and controlled distribution. It's important to remind yourself that scarcity does absolutely drive desire. And that desire protects price. And then, that disciplined approach to price builds the brand, for the long-term. Discounting is a long-term strategic decision that can genuinely weaken everything you have built.

Happy Sunday night/Monday morning! As it's my birthday week, I have decided to kick it off with a new resource for those of you who are in the process of launching a business or have indeed already started. "The Fashion Founders Mistake Index" is a mobile-friendly PDF document that I hope will save you lots of time and expense. I designed it to cover 50 of the most common (and most expensive) errors founders might make across: brand, cashflow, distribution, operations, and scaling. Each one is broken down into what it actually looks like in reality, why founders fall into it, what it truly costs, and what to do instead. It's free for all Premium members. Consider it another thank you for being here. Download it below, keep it on your phone, and review at your convenience. And if one of these pages saves you from a bad decision, I would love to know! You can find it in Classroom > Resource Library https://www.skool.com/how-fashion-really-works/classroom/c647608e?md=662722babe3241458194a85ef98aa8e8 Happy reading! Jalil