Luxury Studies: The In Pursuit of Luxury Journal - Volume 2, Issue 1-2, 2023

In contemporary brand management practices, the definition and effective marketing of a so-called Purpose is commonly considered as mandatory to achieve a competitive advantage and eventually a superior financial performance. Such practices are particularly common in the fashion and luxury industries. Through the analysis of appropriate business literature, marketing researches and relevant case histories, the author rejects this popular belief, first, because many brands are perfectly successful, even without any Purpose (which should not be confused with corporate communications strategies), its identity having been successfully built around other worthy values; moreover, not necessarily, customers always prioritize Purpose-driven brands in their purchases, particularly if commanding higher prices and during recessions. A well-designed and effectively marketed Brand Purpose surely offers opportunities (i.e. strong and resilient emotional connections with targeted customer segments, including high spending luxury buyers and communication opportunities and visibility of brand leaders and spokespersons) but also implies risks (i.e. ideological values are by definition controversial, therefore such strategies could hurt part of the clientele of brands with broad target audiences, and negative reactions from some governments or from the public opinion in different cultural environments). Finally, and more crucially, managers should be aware that Purpose-centred brands are constantly overexposed towards the media, their target customers and the public opinion, and their stakeholders are more and more demanding, scrutinizing their practices and expecting impeccable consistency; therefore, just ‘building’ a narrative without consistent underlying practices will likely be ineffective, if not counterproductive.

What role does, and can, heritage play in the challenges and crises that confront brands operating in the luxury industry? Are heritage and luxury the same thing, or are they separate concepts? In this brief reflection, I explore what heritage means for luxury brands and how heritage might most impactfully help luxury brands as they create new products, enter new markets and continue to operate as heritage brands. The two main case studies I briefly highlight to spotlight the symbiotic and, at other times, challenging relationship between heritage and luxury are Hermès’ contestation of the creation of MetaBirkins by the artist Mason Rothschild and Schiaparelli’s Haute Couture collection inspired by Dante’s Inferno. Through these cases I propose that luxury consider splitting the atom of heritage into brand heritage and cultural heritage to more fully understand how brand heritage supports its luxury positioning while, at the same time, acknowledging the times that brand heritage, when improperly translated for contemporary consumers, might fail. I also propose that cultural heritage offers opportunities for luxury but also a responsibility to more fully acknowledge luxury brands’ role in our cultural discourse by permitting certain commentary on their designs and products, notwithstanding legal rights they might have in their arsenal. I conclude by proposing that educational offerings, especially in fashion and luxury law, should more fully embrace a cross-pollination between luxury and heritage.

I come to this topic for two reasons. I am possibly the world’s first automobile colour and trim historian. I am also the author of a book-length paper concerning design in the 1970s (interior design, product design, automobile design, architecture, etc.). It is these two research areas that have led me to write this article about the most luxurious cars of the 1970s, the decade that rediscovered luxury. 1970s car design was very much about investigating the car interior after so much previous emphasis on exterior design, and in this decade, car interiors became much more luxurious and generally comfortable across industry, not for just the top marques. The four cars under investigation here are Rolls-Royce Camargue, which was the most expensive car in the world when launched in 1975; Aston Martin Lagonda (four doors); Daimler Double-Six Vanden Plas; and Stutz Blackhawk. It is stating the obvious to say that automobile literature in the form of books and journals is a vast subject matter, and yet there was until recently not a single standalone study of a fundamental aspect of car design – colour and trim, one with universal application. This study being this author’s ‘Colour and trim design for automobiles, 1960–95, and that of recognising an uncharted genre in design history’ published in Aspects of Motoring History (2021, issue 17), the Journal of the Society of Automotive Historians in Britain. Literature invariably tends to be about styling or engineering concerns. Here is an opportunity to move beyond these old concerns into an uncharted territory.

For luxury coffee shops to create positive and memorable brand experiences for their customers, they must carefully design, manage and maintain their brand image throughout the entire consumer journey. The store environment plays a prominent role because it strongly influences customers’ perceptions of the brand. Factors such as the social atmosphere and employee interactions contribute to defining and representing the brand identity to customers. Therefore, coffee shops must consider customers’ cultural identities to ensure their experiences are relevant to the sociocultural context. By integrating design, branding, anthropometry and proxemics, decision-makers can create personalized experiences that engage customers on physical, emotional, cognitive and cultural levels. This research focuses on using proxemics to design luxury coffee shop experiences in multicultural spaces. We propose an instrument to collect data on task patterns, task distinctions and user preferences in coffee shops. The tool consists of three sections that collect data on proxemic behaviour, proxemic perceptions (cultural) and proxemic reflections. We used a case study to exhibit the relevance of proxemics and proxemic behaviour in improving the interaction between person, object and space. The instrument offers the possibility to document proxemic factors that are imperceptible and intangible in the users’ brand experience and journey in a retail space. It also provides data to increase user engagement with different touchpoints, such as retail space, product design and identity design. Proxemic behaviour is relevant in addressing cultural, behavioural and sociological aspects of interpersonal situations related to spatial distance between individuals. These findings suggest the relevance of proxemics in promoting human-centred design in experiential spaces. Ultimately, the work aims to expand the available instruments and methods for improving user experiences in service-based industries within the experience economy.