I came home this evening a very disappointed consumer. I had just seen “Man of Steel” and “The Wolverine“. I know it seems so off-message to start my post on luxury with talk of comic book heroes, but read on to see where this leads. Continue reading
engagement
I Love The Business of Luxury Like A Fish Loves Water
So, the HBS Retail and Luxury Goods Conference is over and I’m wondering why I go to this conference every year.
Well, its simple.
The Dream Team (and yours truly) – Members of the LuxRe Club from The College of William and Mary at the HBS Retail and Luxury Goods Conference
I like to listen to the array of views on what’s going on in the luxury industry. I also enjoy meeting new minds, and reuniting with old friends. However, the real reason I go to the conference is simply because it makes me feel good. It fires up my creative neurons and allows me to think about things in different ways. The best way to describe it is that I feel comfortable – like a fish in water.
Re-imagining the In-Store Experience: One of the panels at the HBS Retail and Luxury Goods Conference
Key Idea: Find those environments and business cultures that make you feel good about who you are. Find the people and places that excite your true passions. You won’t go far if you fail to be honest with yourself about who you are and what you believe in. Act like a luxury brand and stand for something.
My View: The main reason I joined the industry is because it stands for something that is important to me. Though there are opposing opinions out there, I believe that the luxury segment benefits a vast array of stakeholders in different geographic, cultural, and socio-economic segments – governments, companies, the environment, and of course, consumers. The industry doesn’t just provide beautiful products and valuable services for consumers – it also provides jobs and supports economic development.
Finally…. Luxury Car Brands are Taking Tips from the Kings of Customer Service
Key Takeaway from The Luxury Doctrine (a new resource in development):
If you want to be successful, especially in luxury, you have to think of, and act like the customer, at all steps in the value chain… you have to manage the customer’s experience
– Edmund Amoye, Lessons in Luxury
For those who have been following my posts on the different luxury segments, you’ll notice that the key catalyst for success in today’s environment is innovation in managing the customer experience. If you are new to this customer-centric theme, I have a list of related posts at the bottom, to get you up to speed.
In every business there are seasons and cycles – ups and downs. At their rollout to end-users, luxury goods and services are sometimes heralded as innovative novelties and “must haves”. However, as brands permeate, manufacturers innovate, and marketing teams penetrate (I had to use that rhyme… too easy to pass up), commoditization sets in. Luckily, the Ford Motor Co. is doing something about that with its Lincoln automotive brand.
– Top View of the 2013 Lincoln MKZ Continue reading
SEcon 2012 at W&M
In my last post, I mentioned a conference coming up in April, 2012. Well there’s one that’s just came to an end at the Mason School of Business at The College of William and Mary. The inaugural session of SEcon (Social Entrepreneurship Conference) has just concluded. What an amazing two-day experience being among leaders, innovators, and change agents with a passion for doing great good for business and society.
The conference hosted participants from across the globe, including:
- Sheikh Hamad Bin Ali Bin Jassim Al-Thani – Vice-Chairman of the Qatar National Food Security Program.
- John Bridgeland – President & CEO of Civic Enterprises
- Jonathan Greenblatt – Special Assistant to the President and Director of the Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation at the Domestic Policy Council
- Stanley S. Litow – IBM’s Vice President of Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs and President of IBM’s Foundation
- Mike Perlis – President and Chief Executive Officer of Forbes Media LLC
- Ali Siddiqui – Principal shareholder of JS Group and board member of the Acumen Fund, a social enterprise fund
- Wayne Silby – Founding Chair of Calvert Funds
There’s a complete list of participants here.
Social entrepreneurship is not a new idea that requires considerable thought or effort to understand. It occurs and develops in many different ways – with individuals, communities, companies, and even nations. After attending all the breakout sessions and listening to the various speakers, I think there’s a lot of opportunity for luxury brands that want to be more relevant to consumers.
The SEcon 2012 conference website will be up for a long time to come. I suggest you access the trove of videos and information generated by the event. I’m going to study all of the material to find those nuggets of wisdom that will help me in my luxe-focused career.
What Apple Can Teach You About Not Having To Compete On Price
I found this great article at www.fastcompany.com. The major take aways for businesses that do not want to compete on price are:
- Develop Powerful Branding – Effective and unique branding puts your product in a competitive space that has little to do with price, and more to do with being cool, trendy (or timeless), and of great quality.
- Strategic Marketing – This encompasses the four Ps of marketing and much more. In luxury marketing you need to be thinking about the four Es (exclusivity, emotion, engagement, and experience). While Apple won’t admit that they intentionally create product shortages in order to create a buzz, it is certainly part of the reason why customers are willing to pay huge premiums to have their products as soon as they are released.
- Excellent customer service – Customer service is something you can not afford to lack. From getting customer’s to try your products and services to keeping them loyal, customer service is the lynch pin that sets you appart from competitors.
- A product that doesn’t disappoint – All of the above won’t mean anything if you don’t have a stellar product. Take a page from companies like Apple and Patagonia who are committed first to making the best product possible.
If a product can’t live up to the expectations set by its marketing, it won’t be successful for the long term
Part 1 – This Thing Called Luxury
Yesterday, I got into an intense discussion with two of my classmates about the strategic justifications for my focus on the “luxury” segment. While my colleagues were making an argument for the limited market size demerits of luxury products, I tried to explain my thesis of luxury goods/services in a transactional framework. In the end, both sides came to similar conclusions. I’ll attempt to take you through the debate first from an abstract level.
If a customer asked me: “why do you consider your product/service a luxury?”, I’d say to them: Continue reading
Adding Value – Train Rides and iPads
Train rides are very enjoyable for me because I get the chance to remain terrestrial. I’m not driving myself, nor am I on a bus going pretty much the same way I would have driven myself. Since train tracks do not always follow “car routes”, I get to take a more scenic view, stumbling upon sights that don’t come into my view on a regular basis. I also like to take trains at times they are sparsely occupied, so that I have a lot of space to myself. The combination of those components makes the ride an enjoyable one. However the real luxury experience can be summed up in one picture from my last trip on Amtrak: Continue reading
Some Stuff I Read Today
30-day Challenge – Day 28
It’s been a wonderful and exhausting day. Our LuxRe Club did some consulting work for a large VA winery today, and I’ve been busy doing some necessary follow up.
Today I’m posting a link to an article, entitled “Top 8 Luxury Travel & Marketing Trends for 2012”. I recommend it not only because I read it, but because I do not believe I could give you the gist of it without omitting some important information.
If you are thinking of starting a new business catering to affluent consumers, I recommend you take the 10 minutes necessary to increase your knowledge. The article may validate or refute some of your perspective, but I can assure you that it covers a lot of ground.
I also recommend you read “To Market or not to Market? The No-Marketing Approach“. I read the following lines and couldn’t stop because it’s one of the best luxe conceptualizations I have come across:
We can live without luxury, and we are consciously aware that when we buy it we are spending our money on something we don’t need. So why, in an age of financial instability and austerity measures, is luxury spending on the rise? The decision to purchase luxury good is closely tied to the importance of freedom – freedom of choice, or the freedom to spend our money as we wish.
– Dr. Isaac Mostovicz, consulting academic
Night and Day: Fine Dining in Williamsburg, VA
30-day Challenge – Day 25
There is a well known adage about business success in relation to a customer’s experience:
A happy customer tells one friend, but an unhappy one tells everybody
Today, I write as both a happy and unhappy customer with experiences in the same product category, from two different brands. More importantly this post is so realistic, it serves as a practical case study on how to deliver the best customer experience possible – whether you are in the luxury, mid, or low product/service segments. Today’s post is about restaurants, and based on the title of this blog, I’m talking about fine dining. I’ll talk about two specific fine dining experiences I had on Sunday (12/11/11), while taking my darling wife on a day of dedicated DSE (dining, shopping, and entertainment) in the Williamsburg, VA area. Continue reading
The Pulse of Luxury
30-day Challenge – Day 19
As long as time continues, tastes will change, new desires will emerge, and premium goods and services will be valued above their regular substitutes. However, the definition of luxury will be a moving target depending on cyclical economic patterns and societal mores on the exhibition on wealth.
I have been reading a couple of books to help my thought on luxury and they all say the same things differently. Most of those books were published in times when special circumstances were affecting the luxury market (think 2001 dot-com bust or the 2007 housing bubble).The intention of this post is to bring attention to one of those varied views on luxury, but this one is important because, unlike the books I’ve been reading, this perspective has its relevance in the now, and it is supported by empirical data.
Ipsos Mendelsohn is an international market research company ranked high in the global playing field. For the past 35 years, the company has put out its annual Affluent Survey, a study of affluent households (incomes of $100,000 or more) in the US. The survey has been a key reference for many luxury brands because it is considered a reliable measure of the pulse of the US luxury consumer.
As a side note, I will say that the definition of affluent doesn’t seem to have changed in the last 7 years. Most, if not all of the books I have been reading use the same income definition. I wonder if we should think about changing that number especially because of the effect of inflation, or the fact that some luxury items are no longer accesible by just the wealthy – but I digress.
The results of the latest Affluent Survey warrant a view not just from those currently in the industry, but also from people looking to get hired in the space. These results may not tell you what the next best innovation will be, but if you are truly passionate about serving this specific segment of consumers, it might be useful to draw upon these insights in your interviews and casual conversations with luxe professionals.
I wouldn’t recommend anything I haven’t tried, so be rest assured your reading time will be well spent on these publications. You can get the gist of the survey in two different ways:
- Justluxe.com interview with Stephen Kraus, chief research and insights officer at Ipsos Mendelsohn
- Article entitled, “Affluency: New Definitions of Luxury“
Let me know if you see something unique or worthy of comment.
Remember the 4Ps of marketing? Well here are the 4Es.
30-day Challenge – Day 16
The fact that I’m currently traveling in NY is no excuse to miss out on making my 15th post in the 30-day challenge. However, as I type this post on my mobile phone, from a cab going down E 57th, I must say that I will be rather brief today.
From time to time I get emails from friends, faculty, and strangers about interesting articles on luxury products and services. A good friend of mine, Eric sent me an article by Duke Greenhill, founder and CEO of Greenhill+Partners, an agency for bespoke luxury brand marketing.
We have all learned about the 4Ps of marketing. In fact, I think some marketing nerds might have it tattooed on their foreheads. In his post on Mashable.com, Duke discusses the 4Es. I read it and believe it is worth the time it takes you to click the links above . At the least, you can add another marketing acronym to your bag of buzz terms.
You can now congratulate me on my first mobile post from a yellow cab (now on W 57th). See you tomorrow.
Lessons in Luxury 