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| Edited By: Mahul Brahma |Source: DNA |Updated: Mar 29, 2019, 05:35 AM IST
For luxury brands, all that glitters is gold. Bling is a tried and tested strategy to attain glittering success.
To understand this better, let me first take you through the mindset of luxury consumers. There are four categories in which I have classified luxury buyers globally in my book 'Decoding Luxe'. They are -- Experientialists, Connoisseurs, Aesthetes and Flaunters.
This genus typically values new and exciting experiences more than buying products or brands. They spend on the experiences. Luxury to them brings up images of being suspended in time and space and escaping the daily grind and work responsibilities as they enjoy the time away.
They are passionate in certain areas of interest and make it a point to be well-informed and knowledgeable about it. These categories could be art, scotch, wine, watches, writing instruments, cigars, horses and the likes. These connoisseurs get together and appreciate the finer aspects of their passion.
For them, the brand is much less important than the design. Aesthetes are luxury consumers purely because they have arrived at a stage where they have the income that can support their indulge and love for design.
They tend to value brand name over all other factors. Purchase of a brand is a signal of their status in society. So the visibility of the brand name is important. It is also important for the brand to be aspirational, otherwise, what's the big deal? Badge seekers are mostly the neo-rich and young, having a strong desire to prove to the society that they have jumped aboard the elitist, luxury brand-wagon.
The last category is the one that is driving luxury in India. And this is the category of logo seekers and flaunters to whom the bling appeals the most.
There are distinctly two categories of luxury brands -- One goes all out to scream the bling the other stays muted in its appeal to be classy. Let me elaborate a bit.
Consider Louis Vuitton. The brand has since inception believed in being the flaunter's favourite. If you look at old Bond movies, from luggage to briefcase to chequebook covers to files, every leather accessory will carry the LV monogram. LV is historically designed in such a way that the brand is evident from a distance. A similar brand philosophy is with Rolex. The bling is an integral part of its brand philosophy.
No wonder, the two most trusted brands for the flaunters, including the debonair British spy James Bond, since time immemorial have been Louis Vuitton and Rolex.
On the other extreme lie brands that prefer to be muted in their bling quotient as they prefer to attract the categories of connoisseurs and aesthetes, and not the flaunters. Examples are Montblanc and Bottega Veneta. While the former decided to be muted as writing instruments are meant to exude a sense of dignity and class, the latter's motto is “when your own initials are enough”. So rather than having a logo, Bottega Veneta chose to celebrate Brand “you”. In a way, even Rolls Royce has a similar sentiment, RR logo is enough and does not cater to the flaunter category. I am not considering the diamond-studded, solid gold, custom-made ones. For these brands, it is all about class, which the bling takes away.
And then with time, these classy brands realised that as the demographic of the customers is shifting from 40-plus to 20-plus. Hip-hop stars who epitomise the bling in luxury are becoming icons and driving their sales. So Rolls Royce tries to take on blingy and flashy Ferrari by entering sports car segment, Montblanc launches a new collection with “MB” monogram, and so on.
The world of luxury is slowly and steadily getting caught in the bling.
Let your quest for luxury continue.
The writer is a luxury commentator and author of Dark Luxe and Decoding Luxe
