Components and perceived values in luxury
The notion of luxury brings into play different components:
Rarity, luxury is rare, you have to be patient to get it.
The distance, luxury is inaccessibie.
The price, with an “imaginary value” attached to the product and especially to the brand. The base price is set according to imaginary values rather than on the cost structure.
The aesthetic experience, luxury seeks to provide aesthetic experiences, mobilizing and exhilarating the five senses.
The quality. Once essential, the notion of quality produced in the luxury sector is tending to be relativized, leaving more room for the pure imagination and the experiential.
Luxury is a place of memory. While integrating the need for change and diversification, luxury continues to live as a place of memory, which escapes the destructive power of time. Luxury is dreamed of grand, sublime, mythical, imperishable.
Finally, ritualization: With luxury, everything takes place within a well-defined framework, with rules and implicit conventions that everyone respects such as controlled gestures, a sense of detail or even a taste for staging.
For the customer, the difference between a luxury product and a consumer product is based on the values conveyed.
The values that stand out the most among the French population according to this study are:
– elitism, with the notions of “distinction”, and “select”
– the quality and the high price
– hedonism, the notion of “pleasure”
– the power of the brand, with the notions of “fame” and “uniqueness”
In summary, luxury can therefore be defined according to two main aspects from the point of view of consumers:
– a sociological aspect: luxury as a social distinction
– an aspect due to the object’s production, which has both social and psychological consequences.
Good management of a luxury industry therefore consists of finding a perfect balance between this concrete aspect and this more intangible aspect, both of which have a primary impact on the image and positioning of the brand.