The trick of making luxe worth your wait

We are such stuff 

As dreams are made on; and our little life 

Is rounded with a sleep. 

The Tempest Act 4, Scene 1 by William Shakespeare

The immortal words by the bard capture the objective of any luxury brand. Luxury dazzles and weaving dreams with a touch of fantasy is what keeps the dazzle alive, ensuring the survival of a luxury brand.

The strategic aim of any luxury brand is to create aspirations. A neat trick that all the luxury brands play to keep the dreams going is that the product that they advertise the most is never available at their boutiques. Across the globe, they will make you wait while they keep fuelling your desire to own it by advertising it more and more.

A recent case is about Rolex GMT Master II, popularly known as 'Pepsi' because of its colour combination. This model was made popular by an American actor James Todd Spader in a series called Blacklist. After the official launch, the demand started to soar across all stores. So instead of producing more, Rolex decided that it will just keep increasing the waitlist. Two months back, I checked in Dubai Mall that the waiting time was four years. Hermes Birkin has been well known for an even longer waiting period. These brands believe the longer the waiting, the more the longing. The downside of it is that these brands also end up losing customers to competition because of unrealistic waiting periods. 

These are the stuff dreams are made of and so when you actually have it, the dream is over. It is funny the way our minds work, especially of the Richie Rich (RR).

Another challenge these brands face is because of a certain characteristic of the consumer -- relativity. Luxury is relative. What dazzles you may not dazzle me and definitely may not dazzle a Maharaja or, in today's parlance, the RR. 

So while it is comparatively easy to weave a dream for me, it is pretty challenging to do the same for an RR who can easily get anything that money can buy. How can you create this El Dorado? This is where customisation plays a key role. While I may be enamored by the sheer presence of a Rolls Royce Phantom, the RR, who already owns a few, will be equally enamored with a Rolls Royce which has his or her initials and not of the Rolls Royce carved by the company on the bonnet in the same font and style. We frequently see cases wherein these companies love to customise their cars for these special customers by covering them with diamonds and rubies. 

And last but not least, another very effective strategy that luxury brands use to keep the dreams alive is by creating the “limited edition” myth. Let's give you a sneak peek into the minds of the RR when it comes to buying luxury goods. The fact that they can buy anything that has a price tag, is a double-edged sword cutting both ways. One, they are happy to know that they are people with means and so can afford almost anything in the realm of luxury brands. Second, because they can afford it, they are unhappy as there is no fun in it, no dream, no aspiration. The myth of limited edition comes to the rescue here. So even if the RR can afford such a luxury item, the dream is weaved by money not being the decisive factor in possessing the same. So this makes the owner feel special, even compared with the other RRs as he or she is the proud owner of a limited edition. 

The RR's mind works in strange ways and so the luxury brands have to keep innovating to keep the dreams alive and their cash registers ringing. 

The writer is a luxury commentator and author of Dark Luxe and Decoding Luxe