Mark Greedy, CEO of www.JOY2ESPREE.com, shares with us his entrepreneurial journey and cruise experience.
First of all, how are you and your family doing?
Mark Greedy: We’re doing really well, particularly as our world’s major concern of the past 2 years is fading away.
My family is fit and well.
Tell us about you, your career, and how you founded JOY2ESpree.
Mark Greedy: I am a proud Australian country kid who has had a fortunate life and lived it well in Singapore for over 36 years.
Most fortunately, I have a beautiful wife and friend who is Nursing Sister, a published Fiction Novelist, and an accomplished artist. We have two achieving Great kids, and with their partners now have our 4 wonderful Grandchildren.
Fortunately, my career has mostly been one of Marketing and Sales success and commercial Leadership across a unique collection and blend of the finest travel-related businesses in the world.
- Airlines; Up to – Market Development of Singapore Airlines (during their creative days of growth)
- Tour Operator; Lead the creation and sales development of SIA’s highly successful in-house travel products and global initiatives including – Asian Affair Holidays, European Affair, Island Affair Maldives, Island Affair Mauritius, Asia Budget Holidays, Stopover Holidays – Singapore, and others.
- Hotels: Up to – VP of The Leading Hotels of the World (Achieved true Commercial success in this era)
- Leading Luxury Alliance: worked well in affiliation with Silversea Cruises – Crystal Cruises – Relais & Chateaux
- Travel Retail: CEO – Jetset International Asia- Wide Corporate Travel Group (Sold and became Carlson Wagonlea Travel)
- Asian Inbound Travel Management: CEO of Tour East International – then Asia’s (and probably worldwide) finest DMC (Destination Management Company) special arising within the high-end MICE and creative experiential high-end travel sectors across 9 countries, with 600 staff and leaders, over 500K Asian visitors p.a. (Sold to QF Holidays)
Plus, along the way –
- Advertising Agency Start-Up – Director Spencer & Friends, Singapore (I was a friend) – with clients Hyatt Hotels & Resorts APAC Wide, Mercedes Benz SEA Wide, and Air Lanka Worldwide as our key clients. (Sold to BBDO)
So far, not bad- for an Aussie Kid from the bush, right?
I first founded what is today www.Destinations-E.com in 2009 as the B2C Marcom and Retail affiliation of the world “the finest, together. ” A selection from all genres of luxury-only global travel ranging from Hotels, Resorts, Cruises, Adventures, Experiences, Villas, Great Escapes, and Private Jets plus luxury fashion and travel merchandise “Elite Luxury Alliance” (ELA), all supported by E-Concierge services and appropriate booking engines.
This was supported by global communication to over 600,000 “Friends of E,” and Asia region-wide collection of Luxury print Publications, Online consumer affiliations, and effective creative use of social media.
You can read more about this on Reality with My Splash of color.
So far, all good?
It probably does not need saying that the formally wonderfully successful affiliation of a luxury travel www.Destinations-E.com went into hibernation through 2020-21. This pandemic was a global disappointment and heartache for the world’s travel industry and most of the world economies, and others within these worlds.
Sad for all and nothing much to do or say about it — but we are coming back strongly!
I had always tried to blend and promote the benefits of Destinations-E to the consumer of luxury fashion and travel merchandise, in part channeling those luxury fashion and retail boutiques within the lobbies of the finest hotels, resorts, and cruise ships.
I believed afficianos of the finest travel experiences were mostly the same customers for the finest fashion, beauty, and merchandise. The synergies were obvious- at least to me.
While this E-Luxury Alliance had been well received, the retail sales process had always been manually cumbersome, and this undermined our joy and profits or sale. That was then.
In 2021, while hibernating, I introduced myself to the new digital and systemized online retail models and the opportunity that buyers and afficianos of luxury goods and services were comfortably moving to and navigating the online forms of retail in the same manner as they do and did luxury travel customers.
I also recognized that the online Luxury Retail sector was deplete of quality brands and retailers. Those hugely successful mass online brands were struggling to create quality environments, displays, and runways for luxury products. Hence, luxury consumers are not coming to the mass online supermarkets– no matter what they did with their brands, the high-end consumer did not want to shop with the masses.
My vision was www.JOY2ESpree.com, a luxury-only, multi-genre, visually inspiring, textually informative runway for high-end E- Fashion& Style, Beauty & Lifestyle, Sports, Golf, Kids, Read-Play-View-Live, Cameras & Watches, all cross-linked and in synergy with www.Destinations-E.com.
All with E-Concierge support, Multilingual, Multi-currency, and all supported by our Friends of E database, social media global, etc
And valuably and most importantly generally with the essential higher yield.
So far – so great!
How does JOY2ESpree market its product/services online?
Mark Greedy: As I have said above, My vision was www.JOY2ESpree.com, a luxury only, a multi-genre, visually inspiring, textually informative runway for hi-end E- Fashion& Style, Beauty & Lifestyle, Sports, Golf, Kids, Read-Play-View-Live, Cameras & Watches all linked and in synergy with www.Destinations-E.com
All with E-Concierge support, Multilingual, Multi-currency, and all supported by our Friends of E database, social media global, etc.
Of course, all elements of our online model have importantly been created and underpinned by the essential SEO tools of Key Words, Back Links, and these have been closely reviewed and administered.
In synergy with www.Destinations-E.com, we feature large and rich images rotating with key emotive captions and expressive quotations.
I personally have searched for, identified, and selected a collection of products and brands that can be suitably retailed to relevant customers worldwide – also handpicked and validated with the guidance of experts in their field.
I am fortunate to have a broad global circle of friends and family who are themselves “Experts & Connoisseurs” of the best products in their fields of endeavor – Hence knowledgeable – Surfers, Gym, Golf, Fashionista, Musicians, Artists, Beauty, Grandsons, Grand Daughters who know their stuff were asked to identify and select items from their “Field” they would wish for this Christmas with no thought or expense spared.
This they did with excitement and they sent me their specialists’ Gift Lists. I then sourced these, procured their feature within JOY2ESpree, and now we have a collection of over 11,000 products and 1200 brands within 8 luxury genres for www.JOY2ESpree.com.
I now have a circle of expectant friends waiting for their gifts!
In late 2021 JOY2ESpree was first introduced via a series of designer Social Media Posts and a selection of Asia-wide high-end print publications.
In early 2022 we have created significant Hi-End Consumer reach and impact in the most important USA markets together with Australia and Singapore by effectively and creatively using Google Ads global, and SocialMedia boosted.
Our Friends of E databases have also been well utilized.
This thematic and promotional-themed creative will continue through to the end of Q3 2022.
How has the coronavirus pandemic affected your business, and how did you get through it?
Mark Greedy: On the upside, the pandemic certainly gave me the time and opportunity to follow my vision and create www.JOY2ESpree.com with the assistance and guidance of my www.Destinations-E.com Tekkie team from India and the UK and those far more knowledgeable than me.
Without CV19, I most likely would not have had the time and opportunity to make it happen.
To survive CV19 was a matter of conserving what you have for today and the future, plus identifying opportunities.
Oh, and we also escaped to the Greek Islands for 2 months last summer, which helped with its stress.
What specific tools, software, and management skills are you using to manage your online marketing?
Mark Greedy: We have always used every affordable devise and thread of creativity plus our splash of color to reach out to more and more Friends of E and others with what today is a truly wonderful hi-end E-Tail shopping site.
The application of Shopify in combination with Dropify and selected Apts plus software for the store and use of our extensive and diversified databases plus focused Google Ads and social media is important to enabling JOY2ESpree to achieve its goals and opportunities.
We are a small team with strict control of costs, fortunately in a game with higher yields than the Masses, but our most significant achievement will be to reach a business performance of high yield with high volume.
Who are your competitors? And how do you plan to stay in the game?
Mark Greedy: There are examples of online businesses in this luxury market sector, including that of Net-a-Porter and YOOX, owned by Richemont – Gilt owned by HBG and Rue La La, and – Jetsetter to Trip Adviser -Smart Media LLC. However, none have had the across genre orientation nor retail capability to be a truly global success. Some have legacy cost concerns.
Both Amazon and Alibaba have recognized the Luxury market and consumer opportunities and tried to play in that world but have not yet achieved their objectives.
“They need to acquire JOY2ESpree branding and obvious specialization.”
With disciplined creativity, focus, and dogged fight, JOY2ESpree can achieve its 3 Year forecast, but realistically we recognize the missing components are Capital and a quality partner, particularly one with a pre-existing significant consumer database and presence but a need and want to encourage the use of their various benefits and most likely use of their payment gateways.
Maybe a region-wide Financial Institution, Bank, and or Credit Card wishing to be an innovative and competitive advantage?
JOY2ESpree door is open to such quality capital partner/s with which to achieve our mutual goals and far more when the multi-genre partner of Destinations-E are included.
An alliance of the finest worldwide and online is a unique affiliation of
“the finest, together”
Your final thoughts?
Mark Greedy: Along with our own splash of color, I have always thought there must be enjoyment along with the focus and dedication no matter the endeavor.
– Gift Certificates have always been a valuable asset to any commercial retail endeavor. As such, these were essential to our offering as GIFTCERTIFICATES-E, but I thought there should be some fun for those who acquired them and to whom they were gifted.
GiftCertificates-E has 88 different types – valued from US$88 through to US$8,888, and the Types were great fun putting the titles together and selecting the images for “COOL DUDE,” to “DIVA,” “Best Teacher,” “Great Wife,” “My Mates” “Best POP” and many many more. These sell well and are fun, and now with Travel reopening, the higher-priced items can cover Holidays, etc. We also customize as per the customer’s want and their higher price point.
https://joy2espree.com/pages/gift-certificates-e
– I also wanted to make it extremely easy for visitors to find their Genre–Specific Product type and Brand. Hence SUPER SEARCH-E was created and has proven an asset.
There are also more elements to come.
– By mid-2023, JOY2ESpree will have designed, developed, and produced its own brand “E “of high-end, limited-edition fashion, fragrance, leisure & lifestyle products which will be sold and fulfilled from the JOY2ESpree portal and via Destinations-E. These will provide JOY2ESpree with extremely high sales and encourage visitation with its own site as well.
– Flash Sales of Luxury products and brands will be seasonal features.
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