Raising the tone

zoom

zoom

The company only recently employed celebrity endorcements, but Vertu fans are known to include Madonna, David Beckham and Gwyneth Paltrow.

zoom

The company only recently employed celebrity endorcements, but Vertu fans are known to include Madonna, David Beckham and Gwyneth Paltrow.

Nokia-owned luxury phone maker Vertu is enjoying record revenue growth even as its parent company struggles. President Alberto Torres tells us why luxury will always be in demand.

When luxury phone maker Vertu launched its Signature collection this month, all the ringtones were performed by a symphony orchestra at the Petit Palais museum in central Paris.

Crazy Frog was not on the playlist.

The sounds on the company's new mobiles are all taken from a piece of music composed exclusively by Academy Award-winning composer Dario Maranelli.

It was performed by the London Symphony Orchestra with all solo flute pieces played by Andrea Griminelli, one of the world's leading flautists.

Vertu has been highly successful in growing the luxury handset market. Nokia doesn't break out profit and revenue figures for its UK-based subsidiary, but Vertu is profitable and has posted three digit growth in the past two years.

At the unveiling of the latest range, there was a lot of talk about good quality - try scratching one of the phones with your keys and they're unlikely to make a dent.

But there can be no mistaking that owning a Vertu is also very much about image.

"If you look at how people feel about their mobile phones, they're more and more personal objects. They're more and more objects that people really identify with," president Alberto Torres says.

Identifying with a Vertu does not come cheap, however: the new Signature sells for just over $13,500 in stainless steel, $37,000 in yellow gold, and $41,000 in white gold.

Included in the price is one year free usage of the Vertu concierge, who can help with anything from finding the best restaurant to chartering a private plane.

"The concierge is like a personal assistant who knows the world very well," Torres says.

Some of the more unusual requests handled by the service include procuring an elephant for a wedding, and saving another one altogether after the wedding planner quit.

"He was getting married in two months - a wedding organised for 400 people at a very high standard - and the concierge managed to find a new place for the event and a new wedding planner, and it all worked out."

The sapphire that makes up the face of a Vertu phone takes more than two weeks to create in a 2000-degree Celsius furnace. It is almost impossible to scratch and is so hard it can only be cut or scratched with a diamond.

The keypad contains 4.75 carats of solid ruby bearings, each cut and set in its exact place like a jewel.

Hand-built in England, it is the first phone to be assembled by a single craftsman. Learning to put one together takes years, and few individuals make the grade, the company claims.

But in the mobile phone market, where customers have got used to getting their phone for free as long as they sign a contract that's long enough - launching a luxury product has required some "educating", as Torres puts it, of the consumer.

As a result, you won't come across a Vertu whilst browsing the latest deals at your local Virgin Megastore, or see one advertised on TV.

"We believe that we have to be in the very best retail locations and to work with the very best partners everywhere in the world," he says.

"We're not really trying to build a brand by doing significant advertising, but are trying to reinforce our message by being in the right places."

Print | Email | Discuss this article

| Share |

READERS' COMMENTS

Click here to post a comment

Add your Comment All posts are sent to the administrator for review and are published only after approval. ArabianBusiness.com reserves the right to remove any comment at any time for any reason. Please keep your responses appropriate and on topic. Arabian Business would like to point out that only comments relevant to the story will be published. Any containing personal insults or inappropriate language will not be approved.
Name *
Remember me on this computer
Email *	(Your email address will not be published)
City
Country
Subject *
Comment *
Notify me of further comments
Enter the words above *
Please click post only once - your comment will not be published immediately.

MORE FROM ARABIANBUSINESS.COM