Where to with Luxury

The Millward Brown brand report has an interesting section on Luxury – well it’s not luxury at all rather an interesting section on luxury brands.

According to the report the current market of the top 10 luxury brands have a combined brand value of nearly 65.5 billion Dollars - I wonder does this really imply that they are manufacturing luxury goods or simply, as I have said before, mass producing tat to be consumed by the masses.

Millward Brown suggest that 'in general, Moët & Chandon, Louis Vuitton, Hermès, and the other luxury brands ranked high in brand contribution emphasized heritage and craftsmanship and limited distribution in the “mass luxury” market'. I do understand how a luxury brand can emphasize heritage because heritage adds value but how they can emphasize craftsmanship and limited distribution when their products are mass produced is confusing. But how can a brand limit distribution when their combined brand value exceeds 65.5 billion Dollars and they retail their goods around the world? Surely this is a contradiction in terms. They also go on about ethics and how consumers are no longer consuming conspicuously but are concerned with the origins of the product and how craftsmanship is once again becoming important. Are luxury brands really concerned with ethics, sustainability and the origins of their materials? I may not be looking hard enough but I have yet to find a luxury brand that has a Walmart type sustainability index. If Walmart can do it...

The report also says that ‘in a world of mass-produced consumer goods, bespoke attention to individuality became the ultimate luxury’ – HELLO – why else would consumers start to move away from luxury brands? They are starting to realise that the goods are not luxury at all. The marketers are now starting to realise that they cannot dupe all of the people all of the time and it is now time to change their tactics. So the answer to them is to try to recreate the ‘salon’ or ‘workshop’ atmosphere through advertising and in store – enhance the shopping experience through a false sense of security – pretend that they are addressing the needs, wants and desires of the shopper. Millward Brown discuss the Gucci model where ‘areas of some of its stores are turned into small workshops...’ Is this really luxury?

Millward Brown also note that luxury brand value is down 13% overall, they say that 'while the brand value of the luxury sector still lagged its pre-recession level, customers came back as evidenced by Burberry’s 86 percent leap and the brand appreciation of Cartier, Estée Lauder and Hermès.' Since when was Estée Lauder a luxury brand? This further emphasizes the confusion in the market. How are brands defined as luxury? And who decides?

The glory days of Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Chanel, Dior (not Christian Dior – that says it all) and even Hermes producing true luxury products are gone. That is not to say that don’t produce nicely made stuff – it’s just not luxury stuff. In my mind, cynical as I am, luxury brands are about money, making it for themselves and their shareholders.

Luxury, I am sure, will be re-claimed by the gifted craftsmen who embrace innovation, know how to ‘make’ and have an incessant desire to learn, teach and produce the most wonderful things.