How luxury brands do marketing | 24 Anti-Laws of Marketing - YouTube

Quick question:

Is Gucci a luxury brand or a premium brand?

Speaking of luxury brands, some brands might pop up in your mind

And many people differentiate luxury brands by price but is it correct?

What makes luxury brands so special and irreplaceable?

Are there any rules of being luxury brands?

What is the difference between luxury, premium and fashion strategy?

You’ll figure that out via this episode.

Hi everyone! Welcome to fashion brief!

This episode I would introduce luxury marketing strategy

This will be a general guide for you to differentiate brands by brand positioning

The information is based on a book called the luxury strategy.

Written by 2 scholars Vincent Bastien/ Jean-Noël Kapferer are internationally recognized thought leaders on brand and luxury management

and both of them are professors at HEC Paris.

This is actually a book that opened the world of luxury for me

So I think it is also necessary for you to know

If you are interested in the book, I also put the link below.

According to the question I asked the beginning,

are there any special rules of being a luxury brand?

Yes there is.

There are some laws of marketing in luxury

It is called anti-laws of marketing

There are 24 of them

However, personally I do not everything can be applied to the current situations now

when we observe from what the luxury big names are doing

For example, Louis Vuitton the brand in my point of view is playing on the edge of the laws

For either style or collaboration with streetwear brands

But I mean if they are one of the pioneers of luxury brands

What can we say?

Maybe they are also redefining the meaning of luxury

Let’s figure that out!

Luxury brands are dream builders.

Speaking of luxury brands

We really need to forget about ‘positioning’ because they are not comparative

In comparison to premium brands although they are also in a higher-level positioning

They tend to leak information of some functions in their marketing strategy

Premium strategy is about pay more get more

Functionality is key because it enables consumers to benchmark and compare

with different functionalities and brands

For me, the best example of premium brand is Hugo boss

Hugo boss’s brand strategy is divided into 2 sub brands namely HUGO and BOSS

HUGO is young and hipster

while BOSS is more mature and premium

I have to say plenty of brands set their brand strategy in between luxury and premium strategy

Sometimes it is not easy to differentiate

Also although luxury products are expensive with high quality

They are not flawless

I think this example should be interesting, namely “watches”

There are two sorts of watches which are mechanic & quartz

The biggest flaw of mechanic watches is that it's not as accurate as quartz watches

Why do people still buy mechanical watch?

People buy it because of its craftsmanship

Speaking of advertising, the role of advertising in the luxury context is not to sell

Namely they usually provide or demonstrate a pure visual

Instead of emphasizing on some functionalities of some products

Take the Cartier ad for instance

you can see there’s only one panther in the middle

With a red classic Cartier box

This is really obvious that they are not trying to sell any products

Because there is no product in the ad

Rather they showcase just an image representing the Cartier spirit

So what's the aim of advertising in luxury?

The aim is to build up brand awareness of course

And also keep reminding consumers that this is the dream you are chasing for

Luxury customers are normally educated customers.

They are ready to pay more... but getting much more.

Luxury sets the price, price does not set luxury

This is also the reason why people misunderstand expensive products are luxury goods

It really depends on the brands’ positioning and strategy

In luxury when an imagined price is higher than the actual price, it creates value

Normally if we don’t have an idea of the price range for luxury brands

We might guess it in a higher price level than its actual price

And this is exactly the endeavor that luxury brands are doing

to make us feel the products are valuable

If you have the experience of buying luxury goods

You might notice that the price will be raised by certain percentage every year

By doing so, luxury brands are also creating even more value for the products

Luxury strategy is mainly about value creation, namely building up dreams

Dreams have a dimension of non-accessibility yet remaining at a close distance

Hence, it is important to create an approachable dream

Now you might notice that luxury brands are independent from the market

They are walking on their own way

“Don’t follow anyone” is exactly the motto of luxury brands

The brand itself is everything

And there are lots of don’ts

“Do not test

Do not look for consensus

Do not look after group synergies”

And there are some interesting don’ts that are really against how the market works

Don’t pamper your customers’ wishes

Don’t reply to rising demand

Luxury brands need to lead the market and consumers not the other way around.

Due to the fact that luxury brands put themselves in the center

Chances are high that celebrities might outshine the brand in the ad

This is what luxury brands want to prevent at all cost

Just keep stars out of advertising

When we think about certain luxury brands for example Prada, Tods, Bottega Venetta

They are from Italy

It might be easy for us to connect the country of origin of the brands

So now you understand why luxury brands are not leaving their origin

Because it is really impoortant for them

Now let’s talk a little bit about art

Normally the connection between art and luxury is close

As we know that luxury brands don’t like to follow anyone

and prefers to be the curator of taste

They seek to be creative, bold and different

Hence, its decision to stay away from popular art

Instead, it gravitates towards art that suggests timelessness such as classical art

Now I have a question in between

What kind of consumer do luxury brands like the most?

Enthusiasts!

That’s why luxury brands are making every effort to keep the non-enthusiasts out

Because they need someone who share wholeheartedly with their values

Well although luxury brands like enthusiasts, they tend to lower the accessibility

I’m not so sure whether you heard the story

that it’s actually not easy to purchase some of the luxury goods

Take Hermes bag as an example

you actually need to be qualified by the brand until you are be able to buy the bags from Hermes

Because the customers luxury brands want are those who really understand the brand or product

However, it is also important to communicate to those whom you are not targeting

Luxury has two value facets – luxury for oneself and luxury for others

To sustain the latter facet, there should be many more people that are familiar with the brand than those who could possibly afford to buy it for themselves

There, the distinction between luxury, fashion and premium strategy of prestige brands operating on the luxury market is crucial

Since the purchase needs time and effort to be deserved

I will talk a bit more about the relationship between luxury brands and internet in the following episodes

So now from my explanation

you might notice that not every brand follows purely luxury, premium or fashion strategy

It is normal that they combine these strategies together by sticking to a core strategy

I think the digitalization and the change of consumer behaviour

Force the brands to be more flexible

Let’s go back to the unanswered question:

Is Gucci a luxury brand or a premium brand?

I would say since the inauguration of the new creative director – Alessandro Michele

The brand is heading toward luxury strategy

Want to hear more why I would say Gucci is now heading more to luxury strategy?

Stay tuned to future episodes for futher analysis!

That’s basically it

If you like my video, please give me a like and subscribe my channel

Tell me about whether you agree with these laws or not

Also, share with me what kind of analysis you are interested in!

See you next time!