Wednesday, February 1, 2012

CARLO TROTTA & HIS COMPANY "MOOOH!!"

CARLO TROTTA & HIS COMPANY "MOOOH!!"

Wear as earrings or as a pendant


"Moooh!!" is an up-market luxury shopping website with a difference. It's not just a place to find stylish custom made goods, it's also an excellent site for networking and ample business opportunities. Apart from offering everything from exquisite jewelry, elegant apparels, fashion accessories to chic home decor, "Moooh!!" encourages people to participate in reward programs and activities, even offering consumers the chance to become affiliates. There are regular special offers and a variety of E-gift cards to choose from, all at your fingertips. "Moooh!!" is more than an online site for shopping, it's an exciting unique experience where you can browse through pages of high-quality products at your own leisure and become involved in something new and innovative.



Carlo Trotto is an independent Italian jewelry designer, fashion maker and luxury brands lover. Although he is not connected to any particular luxury brand and doesn’t follow established trends, he tries to create beautiful items and shares them and his business on "Moooh!!"
Here, Carlo talks about the idea behind this luxury website and what he is hoping to achieve:

Carlo, can you tell us a little about yourself and your roots?

I was born in a small city in South of Italy, a place lacking of opportunities for people without any “important friends” or without any “friends in politics.” It is almost impossible to create, and have a business there, especially if you come from a poor family. I was still a teenager when I promised myself that I must run away from that reality.

You moved from Italy to China many years ago. What brought on that decision and how difficult was it to settle down in a country with so many cultural differences?

In the South of Italy, there are no opportunities to create and develop a business, the global environment conditions and infrastructures are really poor. It was not really difficult to find a place better than Italy to develop a business. I never fear cultural differences. I believe that differences are a chance to improve ourselves, a chance to have a better view of the world and new cultures.
In China, Guangzhou, I found the best place possible to develop a business considering the labor quality and the presence of many small laboratories and factories that help to develop the entire production process of a product. This is impossible to find in the South of Italy, maybe even in Italy, except if you produce large quantities of a product.

Apart from being a jewelry designer, fashion creator and luxury brands expert, you are also the man behind “Moooh!!” Can you explain the idea behind it and where the inspiration came from?


The idea behind “Moooh!”! is very simple and easy. “Moooh!!”

“Moooh!!” is not the sound of a cow, but a dialect form of its hometown language, Bari, a language that is a creative blend of Latin, Greek, Turkish, French, English. “Moooh!!” It may cause a major shake-up in the luxury market, or even for the word “luxury” itself. The word “Moooh!!” means surprise, stupor, the unexpected that happens, something never seen before, never heard because it has never been disclosed yet. Everything new, surprising, uncommon, beautiful and positive can be expressed with just one word – “Moooh!!”
You can say “Moooh!!” when you see a beautiful piece of jewelry at a very competitive price, you can say “Moooh!!” anytime you engage in one of the sweepstakes on “Moooh!!’ or when you read a blog post and discover that many luxury brands produced in China, prefer to hide the origin of their products because they cannot justify the expensive prices of the goods they sell. I think that this practice is not an ethic way to conduct a business, especially if you have a worldwide recognition.

“Moooh” is making valuable the phrase “Made in China”, it lets people know that luxury can be produced in China and that luxury doesn’t always have to be expensive.
Overall, there are many reasons to say “Moooh!!” just browse
www.moooh.net and you will understand.

I understand that you encourage people to get involved with you on “Moooh!!” Can people actually make money from this?

Yes, “Moooh!!” can help in many ways to save and make money. People can make money joining our Fashion Affiliate program (www.moooh.net/pages/fashion-affiliate) and get from 10 to 25% commission, selling the items featured on “Moooh!!” I think this is the highest percentage for affiliation programs that promote jewelry and other products.
Wholesalers and small businesses can enjoy very interesting discounts on our custom made products. Furthermore, we are also a big sourcing opportunity in China, for fashionable and home decor items. Small stores and retailers that want to produce high quality items at factory price can contact us for their fashion and home decor requirements.
Keeping in mind my goal, I started to look for something useful, free, to study and learn, useful for my future working life and to help me someday to run a business. I studied programming when the first personal computers came out in 1985, I believed that the PC could be the future; in fact I was not wrong. Then, I was selected to study on free marketing and communication courses. In 1990, I was selected to be part of a free course for young entrepreneurs financed by the European community and finally, in 1991, I was backed by a small investor and ran my first company.
Later, in 1994, I traveled to Senegal on a business trip and then spent 8 years in West Africa where I was trading in rough diamonds. During that time, jewelry and stones became the object of my passion. So, I actually started to design and love jewelry without any background.
In the beginning, I read and flicked through jewelry catalogs and I fell in love with the idea of designing my own pieces. I thought it was perfect to develop my creativity and combine working with different natural materials, stones and metals. I take the inspiration from the color of the stones and I love to combine them.

Let's talk about your collections. What materials are you on the lookout for when traveling and do you have any environmental considerations when designing a piece?

I love to “study” the local designs, especially artistic custom make pieces and get inspiration from it. I’m interested in everything beautiful, different and truly ethnic. I think there’s not a better place than China to get inspiration, considering the large number of minorities and each minority has its own traditions and “personal” artistic products, from jewelry, clothing and home decor. A silver or brass ethnic jewel, a pair of shoes, a lantern, anything can attract my attention. When I look at a particular piece, I think globally, how I can modify that piece, which kind of materials I can use to recreate that produce, how I can make it appealing for a wider market, the latter are proper marketing considerations.
Materials are usually silver, brass, Gobi jade, local agate, Shandong sapphire, woods and many others, not only for jewelry.
I love to “study” the local designs, especially artistic custom make pieces and get inspiration from it. I’m interested in everything beautiful, different and truly ethnic. I think there’s not a better place than China to get inspiration, considering the large number of minorities and each minority has its own traditions and “personal” artistic products, from jewelry, clothing and home decor.
A silver or brass ethnic jewel, a pair of shoes, a lantern, anything can attract my attention. When I look at a particular piece, I think globally, how I can modify that piece, which kind of materials I can use to recreate that produce, how I can make it appealing for a wider market, the latter are proper marketing considerations. Materials are usually silver, brass, Gobi jade, local agate, Shandong sapphire, woods and many others, not only for jewelry.

What exactly is a luxury brands expert and what makes Luxury a special field in marketing?

A brand expert must love fashion or generally beautiful things and products not necessary related to fashion. A Brand expert doesn’t have to only promote and advertise a brand or blog positively during a fashion week, just like many bloggers do. I think this is talking about nothing, just nonsense. This is just a different and free way for the brands to be promoted. I have a totally different concept of a brand luxury expert, maybe too personal.
As a brand expert, I prefer to “discover” what a brand likes to say and what it doesn’t like to say, one of the things that a brand doesn’t like to say is for example that they have been produced in China. This is not an ethic way to conduct a business, especially if you are famous and have a worldwide recognition.

What do you predict will be the most desired luxury brands in China this year?

I’m quite sure that nothing will change in the Chinese market for luxury brands. Many brands will try to enter into the market and many will fail, just a few will be successful and the same brands, already famous for many years, will still be the favorite of the Chinese people. Vuitton , Gucci, Chanel in the top places. The reason is simple, Chinese people have a typical Chinese concept of luxury, often luxury must be useful and for everyday use. My opinion is that there’s a great deal of attention from the luxury Chinese consumer on custom-made fashion, personalized and truly unique.

How do you think the recent economic crisis has affected the luxury industry? Is it still possible to develop luxury markets?

The economic crisis will not affect the luxury brand’s industry, people who have money and love luxury brands will always buy luxury brands. Furthermore, thanks to the Chinese market, famous luxury brands can gain market quotas and recover where the market is already mature.
Instead, I can see the development of a new social luxury concept. Small and unknown brands can think better of leveraging their social media presence and make it one of their primary marketing elements. This is what I’m doing and it works.


Do you believe the internet is of benefit to brand manufacturers as a way of reaching an elite global audience?

Definitely yes, the Internet and especially social media can help small brands to develop faster and develop their audience exponentially. Already “social luxury” websites like “Fashionstake”, nowadays purchased by “Fab”, help designers and small luxury brands to reach a wider audience. I’m sure this trend will grow this year and in future years. Once again, thanks to the social media, I wouldn’t make my brands just for the “elite”, instead, I would prefer to create “elite items” and promote them for a wide target of people that love beautiful and fashionable things, but cannot have access because of the expensive prices. This is “Moooh!!’s” mission, creating, hand picking, beautiful “elite” pieces and “selling” them social for many people and not just for the elite.


RECOMMENDATION:
''Moooh!!" is an exceptional up-market website offering consumers a great deal in the way of luxury shopping and other business opportunities. Just like taking an elevator and stopping on all the floors in a high-street department store, "Moooh!! takes its visitors to the the site, on an exciting journey through its pages. This unique website and blog is the key to social shopping in the future and Carlo Trotto will enjoy sharing his expertise and designs, including his custom-made jewelry (www.moooh.net/collections/carlo-trotta) with all its members.

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