Open any quality fashion or lifestyle magazine, and you will see how brands conceptualise and package luxury. The hype is deafening, and in reality can be quite confusing. Everyone wants “luxury” brands, and from a marketing point of view defy sales trends and seem recession proof.

As consumers, we want to be made to feel special. Definitions of “luxury” can vary enormously and depend on who you ask and in what context. The term “Luxury” has never been something easy to define. It is in my view, a mysterious and elusive concept. Studies highlight that no one is immune and when properly executed makes products and services highly desirable by broad market segments.

To put things into perspective, I will discuss the nature of luxury, and how luxury and premium brands differ in the marketplace although both types of products and services can be targeted to similar audiences.

Why Luxury Brands?

The first key point to understand is that people buy luxury brands for a multitude of reasons. In general these brands are expensive and are targeted to high net worth individuals and people who have high levels of DPI. The desirability to possess is based on the consumers need for high quality, exclusivity, craftsmanship, precision and innovation. They involve issues of self perception and self worth. These underlying reasons lie at the subconscious level of the individual and include points such as peer recognition and approval, status, and the envy one’s inner circle.

In the services sector such as in tourism and business travel think 5-star hotels and resorts. We all appreciate the ambiance and “feel good” experience. In medicine, plastic surgery can offer illusions of “eternal youth” and enhanced aesthetics.

Luxury products can be broken down into three categories:

Prestige brands such as Louis Vuitton, Rolex, Mercedes-Benz and Cartier represent a highest form of craftsmanship and command a loyal consumer following that is not affected by trends. Due to their pedigree, they are well established as status symbols. For example, If Daniel Craig or George Clooney wear an Omega watch in an advert or film, sales immediately spike.

Premium brands are those brands like Polo Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger that aspire to be luxury and prestige brands but their marketing is geared more to, as a term, an affluent mass market or mass-luxury brands.

Fashion brands on the other hand are those that address the masses and whose designs can be seasonal. Call them the “hot trends” or “fads” of the immediate moment.

It’s foolish for a company to think that by simply launching a product with a “luxury” label attached will make their targeted market flock to it. It takes diligent planning, execution, clever strategic marketing and PR buzz alongside ambiance and finesse. To be perceived as unique, luxury products and services should have an aura of mystery surrounding them. Oddly enough, the more ubiquitous the product and the more acessible, the less the “mystery” concept holds true.

The Dazzle Factor

A brand that is committed to be a player in the luxury domain should endeavor to build long-lasting loyalty by creating products that resonate with customers on an emotional level. It’s what we call the “Dazzle” factor.

Glamour is another important ingredient. It is the impression of attraction or fascination that a particularly luxurious or elegant appearance creates – an impression which is better than reality.

Today, consumer purchase decisions are increasingly driven by consumers’ hearts. With ambiance marketing, a custom designed attractive setting – yet alluring with captivating style, invites customers to truly feel the brand experience by adding character. This is accomplished by connecting the emotions to a product or service, and infusing it with a tangible and intangible essence that remain in the customers’ minds.

The ambiance you create is one of your best marketing tools. The aesthetic appeal to human senses, the feel of your business and the brand you create is your image. Along with great service, it is one of the most important reasons customers will choose to do business with you on frequent basis.

It’s natural to expect luxury brand purchasers accustomed to being pampered. VIPs as they’re known to be labeled, they’re also used to having access to the hottest entertainment events, parties and sports venues. A brand known to deliver on those type of unique experiences is quintessentially, a world leading private members’ club, which has a global concierge network that provides such a service 24 hours a day, 365 days a year including specialist advice, insider access and benefits to absolutely anything you can think of, from property, art, bespoke fashion and fine wine, through to luxury travel, security, event production and publishing.

Luxury vs. Premium

Luxury is self expression, an exceptional experience and a feeling of sense of emotion. There is also a difference between a “luxury” and a “premium” product but they can be both – as in a tailored made fine wool suit for example by Camps de Luca in Paris.

Luxury product pricing is related to scarcity, brand and storytelling. Premium goods, on the other hand, are expensive variants of commodity goods – pay more, get more. It’s the craftsmanship and quality along with the pedigree of the product. Plenty of brands get in trouble because they can’t figure-out which one they represent.

The Impact Of Niche & Lifestyle

What distinguishes luxury automobiles from others are the so-called “bells & whistles, comfort, additional safety features, leather heated seats, ergonomics, styling and performance to name a few. Besides the car itself, the overall awe-inspiring experience is crucial. From the moment one purchases the vehicle and during time of servicing.

One of the most respected brands in the world is BMW. This ever-growing brand has been successful in creating a cult, a body of owners that are extremely faithful, devoted and committed to their brand. BMW stands for fine engineering and “The Ultimate Driving Machine”. Those principals have maintained consistency over time and across its entire range, which guarantees its authenticity, its attraction, its mystique, as well as its spark.

With women’s designer handbags, it’s the craftsmanship including a confidence booster to its owner as the bag screams to the world, you are unique. The Sophia Coppola collection at Louis Vuitton and the “Birkin” bag at Hermes are notable examples with the latter design house producing limited quantities to generate and guarantee exclusivity through scarcity, i.e. limited editions.

As for high-end condominiums, it’s the sought after location, the trendy architecture/design, its facilities and overall experience. It’s the impression that it’s irreplaceable. Selling only “the” amenities is kind of outdated.

People want more than that. They want to feel they own something that has a personality and a story. That means more than just the usual appliance upgrades or adding a health club. That said, people are looking for self-definition and a sense of belonging when choosing to live in a certain property. The “Trump” name is renowned for its cachet with its properties as they redefine luxury. From the elegant design of the residential units and spectacular lobbies, to the distinguished quality of services and amenities that are available around the clock for its residents, the organization has a reputation for detail.

Differentiating “Nouveau-Riche” from “Old Money”

“Old Money”, with persons from families who have been wealthy for multiple generations, has its established habits and favored brands. It’s deep-rooted and less concerned with peer pressure or living up to the Jones’s.

Unfortunately, research is showing that “old money” is not only becoming scarce but also buying less. For this reason, to survive and grow, luxury brands should be focusing their marketing efforts on the “Nouveau-Riche”. This term is used to identify people who have acquired considerable wealth within their generation. The newly rich spend money to assert their freedom and self-expression and while doing so, enjoy flaunting their success, whereas “Old Money” behaves more conservatively.

Its More Than “Packaging & Presentation”

It’s not enough to simply introduce and sell a luxury brand surrounded by a fancy store with design inspired display cases. The attitude, product knowledge and overall delivery/presentation of the product by the sales consultant/brand ambassador all play an equally important role.

A study by The Luxury Institute finds that Burberry and Bottega Veneta excel far better than other companies at having enthusiastic brand ambassadors in their stores who are interested in helping customers. This was one of the key findings of the report titled, “Leading edge insights into the world of the wealthy.”

Mystery shoppers commissioned by The Luxury Institute said that the layout, location and atmospheres of the Burberry and Bottega Veneta stores were what clients appreciated most.

“A customer-centric culture is something that is a self-reinforcing system that creates consistently extraordinary customer experience,” said Milton Pedraza, CEO of The Luxury Institute, New York.

“Service values, service standards and education on operational and cultural functions need to be in place.” He further added, “Luxury brands should have a set of service values. They need to educate and hire the right people. Whenever a new store opens, brands need to make sure they test employees for personality. They need to be educated in the customer experience and the culture of the brand, not just how to work a register,”
Furthermore, he stated, “We know every luxury brands CEO gets luxury brand customer service”.

Exclusivity is Key To Branding

Classic brands such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola put emphasis on their differentiation with their competitors. They specify its positioning then convey it through its products, its services, its price, its distribution and finally through its communication.

With genuine luxury brands, it’s not the same approach. Being unique is what counts, not any comparison with a competitor. JN Kapferer and V. Bastien, authors of the book, “The Luxury Strategy: Break the Rules of Marketing to Build Luxury Brands”, succinctly state that “Luxury is the expression of a taste, of a creative identity, of the intrinsic passion of a creator; luxury makes the bald statement ‘this is what I am’, not ‘that depends’ – which is what positioning implies.

What made the Christian Lacroix brand is its image of bright sunshine, full of this designer’s bright, vivid colors’, suffused with the culture of the Mediterranean; it certainly is not concerned with its positioning with respect to this or that established designer.”

The role of advertising a luxury product or service is not to sell at all. Unlike traditional ads where the text makes the sales pitch, with luxury adverts, it’s about refinement. A large photo of the product in a lifestyle setting is displayed along with a brief story line with some mystery.

When you visit a Porsche dealer, the sales consultant will talk to you about racetracks, describe road-holding capabilities, build-up a fascinating story – after which time he/she will tell you about reliability, and the “technical” details.

To be successful in luxury marketing today, marketers should target and combine experiential marketing to attract and retain customers with emphasis on the individual lifestyle.

The Polo Ralph Lauren corporation, which was named Luxury Marketer of the Year for 2010, knows a thing or two about successful luxury marketing. The runner-up was Louis Vuitton, and third-place was awarded to Burberry.

The accolade was won on the strength of an integrated strategy which included interactive marketing while continuing its rich and distinct brand story in print and beyond – all leading to double-digit growth in 2010.

“Creating a luxury brand is one thing, but maintaining its marketing aura across good times and bad, traditional media and new, takes genius and Ralph Lauren,” said Mickey Alam Khan, editor in chief of Luxury Daily, New York. “Ralph Lauren’s marketing has become a byword for excellence with consistent creative messaging and effective call to action in an era where luxury brands struggle to retain their mystique,” he said.

Experience Is Fundamental

Luxury isn’t about price anymore. It’s about spending on brands that are authentic and meaningful through function, design, intrinsic value received versus others in the category.

Luxury products must provide the right experience. Sophisticated customers want products that dazzle their senses, touch their hearts and stimulate their minds – which they can relate to and can incorporate into their lifestyles. The degree to which a company is able to deliver a desirable customer experience is vital.

While public relations and advertising in selected media has been the mainstay, astute marketers have also adopted prestige event sponsorship which offers exposure to the right targeted audience. Mercedes-Benz with its New York Fashion Week is one such example.

Craftsmanship is making a comeback too, as people look for better, longer-lasting things. In the past years it was about “collecting” quantities of things, but now, its about exclusivity and quality things, which please. Design must be timeless for longer visual enjoyment.

At this crossroads, “luxury” and “premium” meet at the junction in unity of purpose.

http://www.whitefieldconsulting.com/wordpress/?p=14143

Nordstrom earns the top overall score of 8.41 out of 10, followed by Neiman Marcus’ Bergdorf Goodman subsidiary (8.37), and Barneys New York (8.23). It is also the most widely visited luxury retailer, with 36% of wealthy consumers reporting shopping at Nordstrom in the past 12 months.

Only 7% of shoppers have visited Barneys, and 6% have shopped at Bergdorf Goodman, but exclusivity helps with pricing: 76% of Bergdorf’s shoppers and 74% of Barneys’ say that goods in those stores are worth a significant price premium; 65% say the same about Nordstrom’s merchandise.

“Retailers, especially in luxury, are selling experiences to customers more than they are selling any particular good,” says Luxury Institute CEO Milton Pedraza. “In the case of a retailer like Nordstrom, we see that a program of continuous improvement in the customer experience can lead to higher degrees of loyalty and improved financial performance.”

In addition to its top overall LCEI score, Seattle-based Nordstrom ranks first on two critical measures of customer loyalty: 96% of high-income shoppers plan to shop at Nordstrom again, and 94% recommend Nordstrom to family and close friends.

Survey participants reported average income of $292,000 and average net worth of $3 million.

About the Luxury Institute ( www.LuxuryInstitute.com )

The Luxury Institute is the objective and independent global voice of the high net-worth consumer. The Institute conducts extensive and actionable research with wealthy consumers about their behaviors and attitudes on customer experience best practices. In addition, we work closely with top-tier luxury brands to successfully transform their organizational cultures into more profitable customer-centric enterprises. Our Luxury CRM Culture consulting process leverages our fact-based research and enables luxury brands to dramatically Outbehave as well as Outperform their competition. The Luxury Institute also operates LuxuryBoard.com, a membership-based online research portal, and the Luxury CRM Association, a membership organization dedicated to building customer-centric luxury enterprises.

“While we’ve performed fairly well in customer service, we sensed a bigger opportunity,” said Kurt McNeil, vice president of Cadillac Sales and Service. “We call the approach Defining Moments – the fact that every interaction with a customer can potentially define our brand.”

Spurred by the brand’s ongoing momentum in product and marketing, Cadillac gained insights from outside the automotive space to enhance its approach to customer experience.

“Cadillac is the real thing when it comes to the products, and its approach to the cultural aspects of the luxury customer experience,” said Milton Pedraza,  founder and CEO of the Luxury Institute,

The institute conducts extensive research on affluent consumer behaviors. One of Pedraza’s key findings is that today’s luxury consumers have countless options for desirable products, placing more value on experiences.

“To earn credibility among luxury customers, brands not only have to offer the best products, but they must also be kind and provide an overall positive purchasing experience,” said Pedraza. “The opportunity for luxury brands not only lies in out-performing the competition, but also out-behaving the competition.”

Cadillac began “Defining Moments” training for internal and dealership staff was co-developed with the Ritz-Carlton. Famed for excellence in customer service, Ritz-Carlton team members maintain a consistent global culture at all levels devoted to earning guest loyalty.

“The training was important because it showed that luxury customer experiences are built on the culture and the behavior of people,” McNeil says. “It’s not about programs or discount offers. Great service comes from ordinary people delivering excellence at all levels.”

While emphasizing new cultural approaches, Cadillac has supported that with upgrades to what can be seen and experienced physically. Hundreds of dealers are rebuilding or renovating dealerships. Cadillac has redesigned consumer websites and instituted specific standards for local dealer advertising. For example, Cadillac Shield is a set of ownership benefits that includes complimentary roadside assistance from a Cadillac technician, and Cadillac courtesy transportation programs for cars being serviced.

“With Cadillac expanding in 2012 with two all-new products, it’s a perfect opportunity to prepare to welcome new guests,” says McNeil.

Cadillac has earned steady increases in consumer and industry satisfaction surveys, ranking among the top brands in many measures of customer satisfaction.

The brand was recently recognized as a 2012 Customer Service Champion by J.D. Power and Associates. The luxury automaker was one of only 50 companies out of 800 studied to earn the distinction. The 2012 Champions were identified based on customer feedback, opinions, and perceptions gathered primarily from J.D. Power’s syndicated research in 2011.

http://media.gm.com/media/us/en/cadillac/news.detail.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2012/Apr/0425_cadillac

“Luxury brands must acknowledge the impact of technology advancements in the mobile space and find a humanistic way to connect and engage with their consumers through mobile,” says Milton Pedraza, CEO of Luxury Institute.

Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Gilt Groupe are the most frequently downloaded apps by wealthy consumers who have luxury brand applications on their mobile device. Most affluent smartphone owners who are downloading luxury apps are using them to find information on products, services or brands (56%).

Almost all wealthy consumers who have used luxury brand apps report that they have had a good experience with the mobile apps (93%). In addition, 71% report that they feel better connected to luxury brands after downloading and/or using their applications and 64% view luxury brands that offer a mobile application more favorably than brands that do not.

The survey respondents indicate there are a number of features they expect from luxury brand applications and highlight loyalty programs (46%) and early access to sales (45%) as the most important.  In addition, providing sales professionals with a mobile application that can specify details about products (53%), have the ability to check for sizes and availability at other stores (50%) and in-store product inventory (47%) would enrich the luxury shopping experience for affluent consumers.

Of the 63% of wealthy consumers who have made a purchase through their mobile device, just under 20% have bought a luxury product or service. While preference for the in-store experience (45%) is why wealthy smartphone users have not yet fully embraced luxury mobile commerce, the majority of luxury consumers who choose to shop via mobile report that there is no upper monetary limit to how much they would spend (72%). This indicates a tremendous emerging opportunity for luxury brands to connect with consumers through mobile.

“Mobile has been receiving a lot attention in the retail space lately. The study suggests the mobile strategy for luxury brands must be about enhancing the in-store customer experience and using the platform to help strengthen customer relationships,” says Melody Adhami, President and COO of Plastic Mobile.

About Luxury Institute (www.LuxuryInstitute.com)
The Luxury Institute is the objective and independent global voice of the high net-worth consumer. The Institute conducts extensive and actionable research with wealthy consumers about their behaviors and attitudes on customer experience best practices. In addition, we work closely with top-tier luxury brands to successfully transform their organizational cultures into more profitable customer-centric enterprises. Our Luxury CRM Culture consulting process leverages our fact-based research and enables luxury brands to dramatically Outbehave as well as Outperform their competition. The Luxury Institute also operates LuxuryBoard.com, a membership-based online research portal, and the Luxury CRM Association, a membership organization dedicated to building customer-centric luxury enterprises.

About Plastic Mobile
Plastic Mobile is an award-winning mobile marketing agency of thinkers, artists, creators and builders with one common aspiration: to create extraordinary user experiences. Plastic Mobile is at the heart of the evolution of interactive mobile technology, pushing the boundaries and setting the bar for the standard of quality.

Known for many quality, first-in-kind mobile initiatives, Plastic Mobile delivers exceptional client service and highly customized mobile solutions for all platforms. With a diverse, high-profile client list, including Air Miles, Axe and Royal Le Page, they are the proud recipients of myriad awards, including the 15th annual Webby shopping award, “the Oscars of the Internet.” www.plasticmobile.com

More than half (53%) of wealthy Americans say that the pursuit of better health and a more youthful appearance have prompted them to spend money on some type of anti-aging regimen, which can range from simply maintaining a healthy diet to liposuction.

The tendency to obsess on the effects of aging decreases with age, and is significantly more pronounced in women. Women are more than twice as likely as men (67% vs. 32%) to have engaged in some form of anti-aging routine, either presently or in the past. Gender disparities are also particularly notable when it comes to eating healthy foods (76% vs. 55%), getting adequate sleep (58% vs. 41%) and drinking moderately or not at all (53% vs. 39%).

Memory (59%), eyesight (54%) and weight management (53%) are the top aging-related concerns of both men and women. Women are substantially more likely than men to name wrinkles (59% vs. 21%) or skin elasticity (55% vs. 18%) as top aging-related concerns. Females are also much more likely than men to spend money on upkeep of appearance, such as coloring their hair (58% vs. 9%), using over-the-counter anti-aging products (41% vs. 5%), paying for skin resurfacing therapies (10% vs. 2%), receiving injections like Botox (8% vs. 1%) or undergoing cosmetic surgical procedures such as liposuction or a facelift (4% vs. 1%). Men show more concern than women with hair loss, and 5% of wealthy men have tried grafts, transplants or medication to grow back lost hair, compared to 3% of women.

Most wealthy Americans hold healthy and realistic notions about aging, with 78% saying that a person is “only as old as they feel,” and 71% saying, “age is just a number.” Nonetheless, many feel the pressure to look younger: 58% of respondents identify a youthful appearance as important in achieving professional success, and 68% say that there is more pressure to appear youthful than there was in prior generations. Women are far more likely to feel this pressure than men (81% vs. 54%), but they seem a bit more pleased with their progress in the battle against aging: 72% of women say that they look younger than their age, and 62% of men say they do. Only 12% of both sexes say that they look older than their age.

“The anti-aging market is similar in many ways to luxury retail, because consumers who pay premium prices for better food or membership at an exclusive health club are the same consumers shopping for premium merchandise at places like Nordstrom and Saks,” says Milton Pedraza, CEO of the Luxury Institute. “Companies who market youth to the wealthy have a rich opportunity to tap into a powerful set of demographics and psychographics that never goes away.”

“As a forerunner in the luxury skincare industry, it was significant for ReVive to participate in this survey to garner insight and attitudes on aging, and understand what participants value in their pursuit to look and feel younger,” states Claudia Poccia, CEO and President, Gurwitch Products, L.L.C. “As a brand created by a plastic surgeon, the results of this survey suggest and support the demand for products with the cutting-edge beauty advancements.”

Respondents had a median income of $233,000 per year and a median net worth of $1.3 million.

About Luxury Institute (www.LuxuryInstitute.com)
The Luxury Institute is the objective and independent global voice of the high net-worth consumer. The Institute conducts extensive and actionable research with wealthy consumers about their behaviors and attitudes on customer experience best practices. In addition, we work closely with top-tier luxury brands to successfully transform their organizational cultures into more profitable customer-centric enterprises. Our Luxury CRM Culture consulting process leverages our fact-based research and enables luxury brands to dramatically Outbehave as well as Outperform their competition. The Luxury Institute also operates LuxuryBoard.com, a membership-based online research portal, and the Luxury CRM Association, a membership organization dedicated to building customer-centric luxury enterprises.

Elaine, a stockbroker from Long Island, is eating a freshly baked scone with clotted cream in the Panorama Lounge on a luxury Silversea cruise ship bound for Sydney, Australia. She’s happy to reveal that she paid more than $10,000 for this particular voyage. Charles, another cruiser and an “investor,” loves karaoke, wears fine leather loafers without socks and lives on Hong Kong’s Peak, some of the most expensive real estate in the world. Yet another guest is the former director of Heinz U.K. A scan of nameplates reveals a lord and lady. The demographic skews older, late 60s and 70s, and the money appears abundant.

Luxury retailers inhabit an elegantly lit world of richly paneled walls, sleek stone floors and plush goods. For them and their upscale customers, digital commerce is a foreign land, full of flashing offers prompting consumers to download a — gasp! — printable coupon.

Slowly, however, high-end merchants like Neiman Marcus and luxury brands like Burberry and Stella McCartney are adapting to the new virtual shopping scene, incorporating mobile apps, “augmented reality” and iPad link-ups that extend, rather than sully, the plush experience of their stores.

Last month Neiman Marcus introduced a pilot program called NM Service, an app that lets shoppers know which of their favorite clerks are on the floor when they arrive. The app can also be used to make appointments remotely with salespeople or pick out the items that interest them before they get to the store.

Neiman’s new mobile strategy, which imitates a system long available at Apple stores, is being praised as a cutting-edge move for a luxury retailer into SoLoMo marketing — social, local and mobile. “The consumer these days is a moving target,” says Scott Forshay, strategist for mobile and emerging technologies for Acquity Group in Austin, Texas. “How do we engage them while they are out there in the world?”

It’s a difficult question for a sector that is used to making its sales by luring customers into its opulent, carefully controlled environments. Even as the rest of the public has shifted its buying online, high-end brands have been insulated from technology trends by their relatively older, late-adopting demographic.

But ignoring the tech revolution is a luxury, so to speak, upscale brands can no longer afford. A study conducted earlier this year by The Luxury Institute showed that 60 percent of high net worth individuals own smartphones, and of those, 67 percent used them to shop. Eighty percent had downloaded an app.

And that’s just the Boomers, who make the bulk of expensive purchases today. The fastest growing segment of affluent shoppers are the group that marketers call the Millennials. Now in their early 20s, they are known for their desire to be digitally connected, a passion they expect their favorite brands to share.

“The customer is leading the shift,” says Wanda Gierhart, chief marketing officer for the Neiman Marcus Group, who helped develop the new app with the Silicon Valley firm Signature. In the next decade, she says, “it’s the customers who will be doing the marketing. They are going to do the communicating about our brands.”

As in other e-pursuits, from reading the news to playing Angry Birds, apps have become the primary conduit of sales. Another study, by the St. Louis digital marketing firm Moosylvania, showed that more than 20 percent of smartphone owners had downloaded at least 30 apps—more than half of them for free. “The number of free apps on people’s phones is an indicator that downloading them gets easier and more familiar every day,” says Moosylvania’s founder and CEO Norty Cohen.

The challenge is to reinterpret digital commerce for the luxury customer. The high-end home-appliance manufacturer Jenn-Air has developed an app for the iPhone that lets consumers upload photos of their kitchens and replace their stoves and refrigerators with images of Jenn-Air products. Sotheby’s International Realty’s free app shows nearby restaurants, wineries, and other amenities with each property listing. “It’s about tying into the consumer’s lifestyle,” says Cohen.

The fit can be less than seamless. The token of virtual shopping today is the blotchy, black-and-white, scannable square called a QR code. It is useful for beaming information about products straight from an in-store display or magazine page to customers’ smartphone, but, Forshay notes, “QR codes were designed in Japanese automotive plants to keep track of parts. To translate that into luxury is a quantum leap.” Special offers and price breaks that lure mass consumers have little power over the wealthy.

Instead, say mobile-marketing experts, what affluent shoppers value most is access. In a pioneering 2010 campaign, Burberry handed customers iPads which they could use to watch video of exclusive fashion shows and, if they saw something they liked, order items straight off the catwalk.

The best luxury digital plays, in other words, may be the ones most people never hear about. Forshay imagines stores pinging loyal customers to invite them to private trunk shows or to meet their favorite label’s creative director. “You’re seducing people with product, but also experience,” he says. “You’re taking them on a journey.”

http://www.cnbc.com/id/47024583

Not surprisingly, by 2015, Millennials are expected to be the largest consumer demographic and nearly a third of the U.S. population. As the founder of one of New York’s top luxury branding and marketing consultancies, I hear a lot of chatter about how luxury brands will soon have to adapt to this market change. What these statistics should really signal is the need for luxury brands to start adapting their strategies now. Below are three key shifts to keep in mind when preparing for the dawn of the luxury-loving Millennial…

French conglomerate PPR Group will join the House of Balenciaga to sponsor a museum exhibition called “Cristóbal Balenciaga, Collectionneur de Modes” in Paris that presents the heritage of Balenciaga through historical clothing items and the designer’s life story.

Beginning April 13, the exhibit will be displayed at the at the Docks – Cité de la Mode et du Design through October. The exhibit will showcase one of PPR’s fashion house’s timeless appeal through a historical fashion collection that honors the late designer, Cristóba Balenciaga.

“I think supporting these gallery exhibitions is the right way to spend PPR’s marketing funds that are for nonprofit endeavors,” said Milton Pedraza, CEO of the Luxury Institute, New York.

“It is a great way for PPR to invest marketing funds in something that is noncommercial,” he said. “It is a legitimate museum that has great art and history and [the sponsorship] creates wonderful awareness.”

In addition to Balenciaga, PPR brands include Gucci, Bottega Veneta, Yves Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen, Brioni, Stella McCartney, Sergio Rossi, Boucheron, Girard-Perregaux, JeanRichard, Puma, Volcom, Cobra, Electric, Tretorn and Fnac.

Cristóbal’s couture
Cristóbal Balenciaga, Collectionneur de Modes will pay tribute to the late designer near the 40th anniversary of his death.

The exhibit is one of a series of external exhibits organized by the Galliera Museum.

There will be more than 70 costumes and clothing items and 40 coats and dresses on display that were designed by Mr. Balenciaga between 1937 and 1968.

The pieces in the museum exhibit were gathered from the Galliera’s collection or are on loan from the designer’s family.

“This sponsoring partnership represents another opportunity for PPR to show its support for its fashion houses whose heritage and history are quintessential to their formidable creative impetus,” PPR said in a statement.

“In this way, PPR advocates a vision of fashion that is, at once, sustainable, generous and inspired and which has timeless appeal,” the conglomerate said.

“An exhibition that emphasizes the exceptional heritage and strong identity of the Balenciaga house, especially in Paris where the Balenciaga house was founded in 1936, is of natural interest for both Balenciaga and its parent company PPR.”

Visitors to the exhibit will view items such as casaquins, satin torero costumes, velvet boleros, capes, bustle dresses, cashmere stoles, lace mantillas and samples of embroidery.

Accessories, photographs and the designer’s sketches will also be displayed.

“This exhibit is for affluent, educated consumers to view the art of the most famous fashion designers,” Mr. Pedraza said. “It is an opportunity to educate the public and create awareness and affection for the brand.

“It is what I would call the logical, educational marketing that only a great luxury brand can implement,” he said. “I think it humanizes Mr. Balenciaga and it humanizes the brand.

“It is a powerful combination of these factors.”

Museum manifesto

PPR will leverage itself through this sponsorship by showing its support for its fashion houses, claims the brand.

Museums exhibits seem to be a way for luxury marketers to expose themselves to a highly-educated, affluent audience.

For example, French fashion label Chanel presented a Little Black Jacket exhibit in Tokyo that displayed 113 photographs taken by creative director Karl Lagerfeld from the book “The Little Black Jacket: Chanels classic revisited by Karl Lagerfeld and Carine Roitfeld,” which will release this fall.

Chanel marketed its museum show with an e-exhibition of the photos, behind-the-scenes video footage of the photoshoots and promotion via social media.

In addition, French brand Hermès will open its Hermès Leather Forever exhibit May 8 in London that will emphasize the handcraftsmanship and strong history behind the brand.

“I think PPR and Balenciaga are trying to reach average fans of the brand and fashion, in general, and both men and women,” Mr. Pedraza said. “They’re a very educated set of people who love art, history and fashion.

“What they are doing is wonderful storytelling through the garments and the story of the designer,” he said. “People love to see the story of how these designers evolved.”

http://www.luxurydaily.com/ppr-balenciaga-leverage-public-awareness-through-museum-exhibit/