The Luxury Strategy by Jean-Noël Kapferer

Author:Jean-Noël Kapferer
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Kogan Page

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Qualifying a product or service as luxury

In luxury, everything begins with the product. Here we will take the term ‘product’ in the broader sense: it could mean a concrete product, like a watch, a cultural good such as a concert, a service such as a night in a hotel or a product–service combination such as Vertu by Nokia. What does a product need to become intrinsically the object that stimulates dreams among the greats of this world, a source of intimate pleasure and the aspiration of others?

No product without service

In luxury, the ‘product’ always comprises one (or more) objects and a service. A luxury service should become material in an object, a souvenir (a present when leaving a reception) or transactional object (which embodies the service, such as a mobile telephone embodies the actual service, which is remote communication). A luxury object is always accompanied by a service, or is even the expression of it. Going even further, this means that a luxury product becomes a complete, holistic ‘experience’, lived in a multisensory manner over time by the client.

For example, the ‘layetier’ (packer) Louis Vuitton was not originally a luggage-maker, but came to the client’s home to wrap possessions so that they could be transported without suffering too much damage. Then he invented the flat, waterproof suitcase (until that time suitcases had been round and were not waterproof), making suitcases easier to handle and to stack, important functions for the new transportation of his time, the belle époque: the railway and the packet steamer. He therefore became a luggage-maker, opened a manufacturing workshop, and became hugely successful as the maker of a product: the steamer trunk; but the service was always maintained for important clients. Until the closure of the Avenue Marceau shop, they were able to leave their belongings in their trunk or suitcase. Likewise, luxury hotels keep certain personal effects and objects at clients’ request, so that, as soon as they arrive, their room becomes their home. The relative importance of these two components, object and service, may vary widely according to the market (essentially object in personal accessories, essentially service in leisure, both to the same degree in a restaurant). The point of commonality is that it is this object–service pairing that is the luxury ‘product’ that the client pays for in a clear and perfectly conscious manner. The other components of the marketing mix are an environment that is not accounted for as such.

Of course there are areas of overlap, in particular in terms of distribution: service at a restaurant is paid for and therefore forms part of the product; service in a shop is free and is therefore not part of the product. Another key aspect: the product must be strongly humanized, that is, the object must have been made ‘by hand’, the service must be rendered by a human being, and the client must have a genuine interlocutor.

In order for a luxury product to succeed, it is important to master three concepts: the separation

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