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| Edited By: Mahul Brahma |Source: DNA |Updated: Jun 07, 2019, 06:35 AM IST
If it looks expensive, it surely is.” The entire luxury business runs on creating perceptions. Brand custodians are having sleepless nights in creating perceptions and then, creating some more. It is the only job of dream merchants in the luxury industry. At the end of the day, it is the perception that justifies the steep premium paid by price-sensitive Indian customers.
Branding luxury is about conjuring images in the minds of the customers. So, every luxury brand prefers to conjure some magic, a perception. “The most expensive…” is a tag that customers drool for, and is certainly not easy to get. The natural corollary to this tag is why it is so expensive? So it just won't matter if you just keep hiking your price, there has to be a demand created for it. So let me take you through three key strategies that luxury brands have been exploiting since time immemorial.
Every individual wants to be special and not ordinary. They want to receive special treatment, they want to be looked upon and envied. They desire to be emulated, they desire to belong to a certain club where the entry is by invitation only. Luxury brands such as Rolex and Louis Vuitton rely heavily on this enabler. If you own a Rolex you will “live for greatness” and be an integral of an exclusive notional club of all owners of Rolex such as President John F Kennedy or Martin Luther King Junior or even tennis star Roger Federer. Louis Vuitton tells you, if you own their trunks or duffle bags then you will know that “there are journeys that turn into legends”, which a famous ad campaign featuring “core values” of the LV brand with Sir Sean Connery, Bono, Francis Ford Coppola, and Angelina Jolie. This is selling the perception of rising beyond the ordinary and becoming exclusive.
The perception of rarity can be classified in two categories. First, ancient artefacts made by artisans who are no longer alive, paintings or sculptures by great artists such as Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, or an object, say a writing instrument or a watch used by a famous personality who is no longer alive such as Napolean Bonaparte or Mahatma Gandhi. These artefacts, paintings or writing instruments or watches were not rare when they were alive. Most of the great artists such as Vincent van Gogh died penniless while now their art is fetching billions of dollars. Blame it on the perception of rarity. Secondly, when a watchman tries to create a complicated mechanism such as a tourbillon that will give precision to a mechanical watch, this is a rarity. Every such rare watch, such rare mechanical movement is painstakingly crafted by masters over months and may be years. Such pieces are rare. This is the same for any artefact or a piece of art. The hours invested in some work gives the perception of a rarity to these objects.
Remember that news of Azzam, the largest yacht in the world, the diamond and ruby-studded 24-carat gold bodied Rolls Royce Phantom, the most expensive wine Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, DRC ($551,314), or most expensive bottled water Beverly Hills 90H20 Luxy Collection Diamond Edition ($100,000 per bottle). These are the stuff that dreams are made of and they create the “world's most expensive” perceptions. This razzle-dazzle is the easiest means of creating a perception to conjure dreams that make spending millions and billions.
The writer is a luxury commentator and author of 'Dark Luxe' and 'Decoding Luxe'
