How Jean-Christophe Babin turned Bvlgari into a global phenomenon

Sign up to receive the Vogue Business newsletter for the latest luxury news and insights, plus exclusive membership discounts. In the presence of guests including Chinese actors Liu Yifei and Leo Wu, Bvlgari’s travelling exhibition Serpenti Factory came to a glittering end on the 18th of July, at the Genesis Art Gallery in Beijing. The splashy party celebrated both the 75th anniversary of Bvlgari’s most successful and beloved icon, the Serpenti, and the brand’s own 140th anniversary. It also underlined the successful decade-long tenure of CEO Jean-Christophe Babin, who took the helm in 2013, two years after LVMH acquired the brand; and served as a formal anointment of Laura Burdese, who, as of 1 September, will be Bvlgari’s deputy CEO, a new role that industry insiders believe preludes a change of guard. If that’s the case, Burdese will have to manage the next phase of Bvlgari, which, under Babin’s leadership, has transformed from a family-run independent jeweller into a global brand. Over the past 10 years, Bvlgari’s revenues have more than doubled from approximately €1.5 billion to over €3.5 billion, according to Morgan Stanley’s estimates. The brand’s clear-cut strategy is often cited by industry insiders as a reliable blueprint for growth, notably inspiring Tiffany & Co., which LVMH acquired in 2021. Babin says his strategy has been to play the “opposite game of the market leader”: “If the market leader keeps its icons separate according to product categories, we mixed them. That’s why our icons — Serpenti, Diva, B.zero1 and Bvlgari Bvlgari — are spread across jewellery, watches, and accessories. This approach simplifies the narrative for our sales assistants and is much more cost-effective when creating advertising visuals. Since we have fewer resources than the market leader, we need to use them more efficiently,” explains Babin in his signature fast-paced, straight-to-the-point style. Without mentioning it, the market leader Babin refers to is Cartier, which boasts revenues of about €10 billion. Following in second place is Tiffany with €5.3 billion in revenue, while Bvlgari comes up third. Yet, from third place in the market, Bvlgari projects a much larger image thanks to the brand’s intense promotion of its icons and carefully planned celebrity strategy. However, market conditions are volatile. In the past weeks, luxury groups have reported a decline in revenues for the second consecutive quarter, linked to China’s economic slowdown and wariness of conspicuous wealth. Sales at LVMH and Richemont decreased by 1 per cent, while Kering experienced an 11 per cent revenue drop. Bvlgari is withstanding headwinds by focusing on the ultra-wealthy, says Luca Solca, managing director of global luxury goods at Bernstein. Some point to potential issues that may arise from its new position within the LVMH group as the second-largest jewellery house after Tiffany, which is double its size. However, Milton Pedraza, chief executive of the Luxury Institute in New York, downplays the new dynamics within the group. “LVMH encourages and requires brands to be staunchly independent, not to worry about competition, even in-house, and focus solely on uniqueness, innovation, extraordinary customer experiences and deep, trusted relationships,” he says. Serpenti’s cross-category charm Recognising the potential of Serpenti — which, over the past few years, has been successfully adapted from zoomorphic high jewellery pieces to more abstract, affordably priced products — Babin proceeded to further develop the snake-shaped design across more product categories, notably handbags. So much so that the Serpenti franchise is the brand’s main driver of growth from entry product to million-dollar pieces, across all the different categories. Babin also introduced a series of exhibitions to enhance and celebrate the significance of the icon across history and culture, juxtaposing Ancient Egypt’s artefacts with digital art by Refik Anadol, and beautiful jewellery from the archive and contemporary collections. “Serpenti serves as a major anchor for Bvlgari — conveying the best and highest price watches in the assortment, as well as gentrifying the Bvlgari handbags,” says Solca. Serpenti handbags play a critical role in recruiting new customers for the brand, and the brand has upped its game by appointing Greek designer Mary Katrantzou as the creative director of the accessory division. The series of exhibitions centred around the topic of the snake have been around since Babin took over. Bvlgari’s heritage department openly acknowledges that such exhibitions also serve a business purpose by increasing the value of their creations on the secondary market. This enhances the investment appeal of purchasing high jewellery, which is often bought with the expectation that its value will appreciate over time. So far, this has proven true. For instance, a rubellite, diamond and ruby necklace sold at Sotheby’s in April for 10,130,000 HKD or or approximately £1 million, more than triple its low estimate. Bvlgari has also deployed the same cross-category strategy for its other icons. This works especially well in the Middle East, where brides look for full matching sets, including jewellery, watches and handbags, for their wedding day. Babin also pushed the development of the Octo watch as its leading men’s signature watch, a focused strategy that helped establish the brand in the horology world. High jewellery credentials Bvlgari was the first to introduce the idea of global celebrity connecting with many ethnicities and geographies. Ambassadors like Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Lalisa Manobal of Blackpink, Liu Yifei, and Priyanka Chopra Jonas promote Bvlgari at the glitzy events they attend throughout the world. They also boost the visibility of Bvlgari’s high-jewellery events designed as social-media-friendly spectacles, pioneering the idea of displaying high jewellery on the catwalk — a concept now adopted by all jewellery houses, big and small. According to media company Launchmetrics, Bvlgari often performs better than Cartier and Tiffany on the red carpet — at the last edition of Cannes Film Festival the Roman house garnered $10 billion in media impact value (or MIV, a proprietary measure of Launchmetrics) vs Cartier’s $5.8 million and Tiffany’s $5.3 billion. Launchmetrics notes that dressing former Miss Universe Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach at the latest Cannes Film Festival had been particularly rewarding as it generated 43 per cent of the brand’s $10 billion MIV. “Whether you sell it or not, high jewellery is beneficial for the brand. And when you sell it, unlike haute couture, it’s very profitable,” comments Babin. However, he’s cautious about overexposing high jewellery. “We could sell even more high jewellery, but then we risk becoming like Bentley, a brand people think they cannot afford. We’re more akin to Porsche, which offers expensive sports cars and nice family cars.” Although Bvlgari has, like all luxury brands, increased its prices in the past five years, it has paid particular attention to keeping the entry-price pieces accessible. The opportunity in Asia Bvlgari’s balanced offer, high calibre Asian celebrities and its embrace of online selling platforms like WeChat and Tmall, have made it China’s most desired hard luxury brand ahead of Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels and Tiffany, according to a study by the Chinese research company Hurun mentioned in a 2024 report of jewellery houses by Morgan Stanley. Babin says icons such as Serpenti, which evokes the snake — so valued in Chinese culture — and Diva, inspired by the fan-shaped motif of Rome’s Caracalla Baths reminiscent of the ginkgo leaf, have helped establish the brand in China. However, he acknowledges that the Chinese adoption of Western luxury culture has paved the way. In contrast, the Indian luxury market has yet to realise its full potential. “The reason Western jewellers struggle in India was obvious with the Ambani wedding,” Babin says. “Everywhere in the world, women’s engagement symbol is an engagement ring, but in India, it is a necklace style known as Mangalsutra, and men wear a Kada bracelet.” Nevertheless, Mr Babin is bullish on India. Bvlgari has “Indianised” a Bvlgari Bvlgari necklace and a B.zero1 bracelet to fit Indian traditions. “There is a way to make our jewellery work in India and among the Indian communities abroad, but, of course, this needs to be done in a way that does not compromise the brand identity. The products we have adapted are representative of Bvlgari and work very well,” he says. While he acknowledges that more could be done in terms of distribution, Babin thinks that small advances can bring big rewards, “India is the number one market for gold jewellery, even if we manage to get 10 per cent of it, it will be huge.” Having already tailored some of its jewels to fit Indian traditions, Bvlgari is showing that flexibility and mimetic talents — just like those of its iconic snake — are helpful skills when growing a brand. Comments, questions or feedback? Email us at feedback@voguebusiness.com. More from this author: Inside Hermès’s quiet watch boom Chaumet’s new CEO on growing a 244-year-old hard luxury brand Diamond dilemma: Where next for De Beers?

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