Creating Perfect Balance
A family-owned company established in 1967 in Granada, Spain, Menbur is a leader in the niche market of evening, party, special occasion and bridal shoes and accessories in Europe. Here, RLI sits down with company CEO Ángel Romero to discuss the company’s ongoing expansion and what its plans are for the future in an ever-evolving retail sector.
After nearly 60 years of creating footwear and accessories, the mission of Menbur remains the same, to listen to women, its customer. The company looks to understand her and to surprise her in those special unique moments in everyday life. Their history cannot be understood without her. Their shoes and accessories for ceremonies and special occasions are based on her harmony and on the perfect balance between elegance, glamour and naturalness.
The business looks to create concepts, senses and pleasures and these are visible in every one of their collections. They create elegant products that are sophisticated and feminine, allowing its customers to enjoy every moment of those special occasions.
Through consistent and ongoing expansion, the company today operates 104 stores across 25 countries in four continents. One of their most recent openings was in The Village in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and in the coming months they are going to open the first unit of its new store concept, which will reflect the evolution of the brand positioning in recent years. This will see it move from a rather elegant polished store image, to a more modern and urban approach, whilst still keeping the essence of the brand intact.
In addition, Menbur products can be found in more than 5,000 multi-brand retailers worldwide, including many of the most reputable department stores and distributors worldwide.
“Moving forward, we will be focused on South East Asia and Latin America as these are the regions where most of our new store openings will take place,” explains Ángel Romero, CEO of Menbur. “On top of this, we expect to continue strengthening our presence across the Middle East and Africa. As for new markets in the future, we are looking at India which is a challenge, but we still feel we could do really well in this market, so India is an option we will begin looking at shortly.”
As the topic of conversation turns to how the business continues to innovate when it comes to new products and initiatives, Romero highlights that for them as a brand, actively listening to their customers and reading the current market is crucial to this. Doing this allows them to better understand customer needs and the expectations of the market. He continues by saying that in this respect, the brand has the advantage of having a powerful network of more than five thousand multi-brand customers who provide them with information about their needs and expectations.
A constantly evolving market, brand experience currently plays a pivotal role for retail companies around the world. With this in mind, how does Menbur engage with its customer base to ensure loyalty and their continuing business?
“Due to our origin as a brand that offers products for unique and special occasions, our focus on customer service is paramount and we must ensure that we are able to inform and advise our customers on any relevant aspect that may be of interest to them. In this sense, our customers especially appreciate our style of working (guide books and apps) that help assist them on how to combine colours and adapt footwear to different foot types.”
Romero adds that they also produce more than 10 communication campaigns per season that run across Menbur’s social networks. The system communicates every two weeks through their different channels, so that they can keep their customers interested in visiting their sites more often.
In recent months the company has been developing two different lines of work to promote both inbound and outbound content. “We continue to launch campaigns and competitions on social networks, thus generating participation and enthusiasm among our followers. We also have a wide network of influencers and brand ambassadors who make the brand known.”
Another major on-going concern that brands across the globe must take into consideration is that of sustainability. For their part, Menbur are working on how to incorporate recyclable materials into their production and their offices and warehouses have a zero carbon emission system.
In such a crowded sector of the retail market, the business has been able to leverage its leadership position in the party and special occasion footwear product niche to develop a much broader collection, with casual collections that exude a lifestyle with the same DNA that the brand has maintained for over 50 years: elegance, femininity and a passion for detail.
“We try to transmit the Mediterranean origin of the company, which is all about the way Southern Mediterranean people look at life. This is embedded in our DNA, we try to enjoy every single moment by focusing on the bright side of life. We breathe and feel the joy in life, the optimism, the love of art and beauty, respect for traditions and curiosity for new and exciting trends,” Romero comments.
As our time with Ángel runs out, we ask him what lies ahead for the business and what is the greatest challenge facing the business currently?
“We continue to face a very challenging future both because of the current macroeconomic and geopolitical situation, as well as changing consumer patterns. This leads us to make a continuous effort to remain relevant to our customers and this will continue in the years to come as we continue to grow the business,” Romero states.
