Luxury is in fashion and is now to be found in almost every retail, manufacturing and service sector. New terms like "mass-luxury," "new luxury" and "hyper luxury" attempt to qualify luxury. But if everything is luxury then surely the term itself has no meaning! There is confusion today about what really makes a luxury product, a luxury brand or a luxury company. The Luxury Strategy analyses in depth the essence of luxury, highlights its managerial implications and rationalizes the highly original methods – often very far from the usual marketing strategies – used to transform small family businesses such as Ferrari, BMW, Louis Vuitton, Cartier, Chanel, Armani or Ralph Lauren into worldwide successes. The Luxury Strategy clarifies the difference between "premium," "fashion," and "luxury," and sets out the counter-intuitive rules for successfully marketing luxury goods and services. Luxury experts Jean-Noel Kapferer and Vincent Bastien provide the first rigorous blueprint for effectively managing luxury brands and companies at the highest level, including human resources and financial management. Finally, The Luxury Strategy unveils how in any market, including B to B, a company can learn from luxury strategies to differentiate itself profitably.
Author(s): Jean-Noel Kapferer, Vincent Bastien
Publisher: Kogan Page
Year: 2009
Language: English
Pages: 337
Copyright
......Page 5
Table of contents
......Page 6
About the authors......Page 12
Introduction: To be or not to be luxury......Page 14
PART 1 Back to luxury fundamentals......Page 16
1 In the beginning there was luxury......Page 18
A brief history of luxury......Page 19
The 20th century and the democratization of luxury......Page 23
Luxury, the individual and society......Page 31
Positioning of luxury in our present-day society......Page 37
Money, fashion, art and luxury: boundaries and ambiguities......Page 39
2 The end of a confusion: premium is not luxury......Page 51
The multiple approaches to the concept of luxury......Page 52
Denying the specificity of luxury?......Page 53
There is no continuous movement from premium to luxury......Page 54
It is not easy to exit luxury through a ‘downwards’ strategy......Page 55
From where has the current confusion arisen?......Page 56
Exiting the confusion: the case of the car......Page 58
Relativity of luxury in cars......Page 59
Top-of-the-range, upper-premium and luxury cars......Page 60
The luxury car: creation, mythical models and social prestige......Page 63
What link does luxury have with technology?......Page 66
The constituents of the myth of the luxury car......Page 68
Luxury and expressions of national identity......Page 69
Beyond the product: services and privileges......Page 72
The cult objects: licences and boutiques......Page 73
3 Anti-laws of marketing......Page 74
1. Forget about ‘positioning’, luxury is not comparative......Page 75
2. Does your product have enough flaws?......Page 76
3. Don’t pander to your customers’ wishes......Page 77
4. Keep non-enthusiasts out......Page 78
6. Dominate the client......Page 79
8. Protect clients from non-clients, the big from the small......Page 80
9. The role of advertising is not to sell......Page 81
10. Communicate to those whom you are not targeting......Page 82
12. Luxury sets the price, price does not set luxury......Page 83
13. Raise your prices as time goes on in order to increase demand......Page 84
14. Keep raising the average price of the product range......Page 85
16. Keep stars out of your advertising......Page 86
17. Cultivate closeness to the arts for initiates......Page 87
18. Don’t relocate your factories......Page 88
4 Facets of luxury today......Page 89
On the importance of the ‘label’......Page 90
Luxury: the product and the brand......Page 92
The ingredients of the luxury product: complexity and work......Page 93
Superlative, never comparative......Page 95
Luxury and cultural mediation......Page 96
Luxury and history......Page 97
Luxury and time......Page 100
Tradition is not passéisme......Page 102
Luxury is made by hand......Page 103
Real or virtual rarity?......Page 104
Luxury and exclusivity......Page 108
Luxury and art......Page 111
Luxury and charity......Page 113
PART 2 Luxury brands need specific management......Page 114
What is the size of the market?......Page 116
To be rich or to be modern?......Page 117
Heavy users and day trippers (also called excursionists)......Page 119
The four luxury clienteles......Page 120
A strong axis of segmentation: relationship with the product or with the logo?......Page 121
A second axis of differentiation: authentic does not always mean historical......Page 122
Luxury by country......Page 123
There is no luxury without brands......Page 129
The luxury brand must radiate......Page 131
No life cycle for the luxury brand......Page 132
The financial value of luxury brands......Page 133
The core of the luxury brand: its identity......Page 134
Building coherence: central and peripheral identity traits......Page 139
Building and preserving the dream......Page 140
Product roles and luxury brand architecture......Page 143
Defending the brand against counterfeiting......Page 146
Counterfeiting as a way to diagnose the health of the strategy of the brand......Page 148
Always defend your rights and communicate frequently......Page 149
7 Luxury brand stretching......Page 150
The origins of stretching......Page 151
Luxury stretching: a practice that has changed the sector......Page 152
Two models for extension: vertical or horizontal?......Page 153
The pyramid......Page 154
The galaxy......Page 155
Typology of brand stretchings......Page 157
Leading a brand stretch......Page 159
An example of stretching: Mont Blanc......Page 160
Stretching: brand coherence, but also the creative and unexpected......Page 162
Should extensions have a name?......Page 165
The risk factors of brand stretching......Page 166
Controlling the boomerang effect of extension......Page 169
No product without service......Page 171
The luxury product and the dream......Page 172
Functionality and dreams do not follow the same economic models......Page 174
The luxury product is not a perfect product, but an affecting product......Page 175
Luxury product and competitive universe......Page 176
Lasting a lifetime… and beyond......Page 177
Prolonging the ecstasy of a privileged moment......Page 178
Adapting to its time......Page 179
Structuring the luxury range: how is the range of a luxury brand organized?......Page 180
Innovating through a new product range......Page 182
Don’t sacrifice the past to the future......Page 185
A mode of production as a lever of the imaginary......Page 186
The opposition between luxury and relocation......Page 188
Licences signal the departure from luxury......Page 189
9 Pricing luxury......Page 190
What about price elasticity?......Page 191
Increase the price to increase demand and recreate the distance......Page 193
What price premium?......Page 196
Fixing the price in luxury......Page 197
Managing the price over time......Page 198
Price reductions?......Page 202
The price and its communication......Page 203
The price must be sold......Page 204
Luxury is in the distribution......Page 206
You sell to someone before you sell something......Page 207
It is the price, not the product, that is sold to the client......Page 208
Distribution shows that the brand dominates the client… but respects them......Page 209
Distributing is first of all about communicating......Page 211
It is distribution’s job to communicate the brand’s price level......Page 212
A luxury purchase is a lengthy act......Page 213
Distribution is luxury’s weak link......Page 214
The choice of a new sales point is not delegable......Page 215
Distribution protects you from competition......Page 216
Luxury and mode of distribution......Page 217
Luxury and internet distribution (the internet dilemma)......Page 220
11 Communicating luxury......Page 223
You don’t talk about money......Page 224
You communicate, you don’t advertise......Page 225
No personalities in the advertising......Page 228
The role of ‘brand ambassadors’......Page 229
Tightening the social driver of desire......Page 230
What balance should there be between local and global communication?......Page 232
Making the brand’s visual language denser: the nine signatures of the brand......Page 233
Making the brand denser through tales, stories and rumours......Page 234
Adapting the communication register to the type of luxury......Page 235
The dialectic of the local and the universal......Page 236
Financial specificities of luxury companies......Page 238
Luxury and profitability......Page 240
Luxury, volume and profitability......Page 242
Managing the human capital in luxury......Page 246
PART 3 Strategic perspectives......Page 252
13 Luxury business models......Page 254
Luxury products with a profitable core trade......Page 255
What are the pitfalls to avoid in this working model of a luxury product with a profitable core trade?......Page 260
Luxury products with a too-restricted core range......Page 262
The perfume business model......Page 269
The business model of luxury trades with very high overheads......Page 273
The ‘high-tech’ business model (highly innovative industry)......Page 276
14 Entering luxury and leaving it......Page 278
Wanting to be luxury is not enough: the conditions of luxury......Page 279
Why envisage a luxury strategy?......Page 280
Once profitable, grow quickly......Page 282
Acquiring an existing brand......Page 285
The end of a luxury brand......Page 286
Taking a brand out of the luxury universe......Page 291
Luxury concerns all trades......Page 295
Understand the rules in order to adapt them......Page 296
How Apple follows a luxury strategy......Page 297
Luxury according to Mini......Page 299
Mixed strategies......Page 301
Managing a luxury strategy in ‘B to B’? Think ‘B to B to C’......Page 303
Luxury marketing as the future of classic marketing?......Page 306
The Lacoste example......Page 307
16 Conclusion: Luxury and sustainable development......Page 310
Luxury and sustainable development......Page 311
Bibliography......Page 313
Index......Page 318
