Luxury Marketing Council launches opertions in India with Amex

New Delhi, Oct 12 (UNI) The Luxury Marketing Council Worldwide (LMC), a body for luxury goods and service providers across the globe, today launched its first chapter, 'The Luxury Marketing Council of India (LMCI)', with American Express as founding member in India.

The organistion will perform the role of a nodal body for the industry by developing and sharing marketing, sales and customer retention practices to help businesses in the luxury segment, as well as address the needs of the emerging affluent consumer category in the country.

''We are celebrating our 13th anniversary of services provided to the prestigious luxury marketers and brands in the world and will be expanding our worldwide network to cover more countires in the Asia Pacific region, starting India,'' said LMC Chairman and founder Gregory J Furman.

The council might also foray in other countries like Holland, Chicago, Shanghai and in Sydney, he added.

LMCI will be headed by the company's CEO Devyani Raman who will be responsible for taking forward the growth of the organisation and working with member organisations to develop and lead the LMCI charter for India.

She said, ''LMCI will help its members grow revenue, share of wallet, referrals from and loyalty of the best customers. A key objective will also be to identify the important industry and policy issues that affect luxury brands and collectively work to resolve these issues for the success of all stakeholders.'' American Express India Country Manager Rob Hennin who was also present at the event said, ''The affluent segment in India is witnessing tremendous growth and these individuals accounted for an estimated cumulative liquid wealth of 203 billion dollars in 2005 which is expected to increase to 322 billion dollars by 2009.'' The Luxury Marketing Council Worldwide is an exclusive, 'by invitation only' council with 700 of the most prestigious luxury goods and services companies wordwide under which more than 1,700 CEOs and CMOs set the standards worldwide for the intelligent exploration of the best marketing practices and trends in the luxury arena.

The council currently operates through 15 chapters including the US, London, Paris, Dubai, Seoul, Tokyo and Toronto and some of its members include, American Express, Alfred Dunhill, HSBC, Gucci, Jaguar Cars, Mercedes Benz, besides others.

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