Luxury Travel, Lifestyle and Marketing Trends

Were the Olympics worth the investment for the publicity of encouraging future investment and tourism? In this age of everyone looking for ROI, it’s hard to gauge. Only time will tell, but many think that it will be tight financially.

Do-it-yourself retailing – personalization to the max – is coming into its own. Following in the footsteps of companies we’ve already written about that lets consumers customize their own products (dresses, handbags, lingerie and duvets, Maps, LEGOs, even original shoe art) Sydney-based online shoe retailer Shoes of Prey is leading the design-your-own trend towards stylish, custom-made women’s shoes.

No one knows for sure what 2010 will bring. Most economists say the global recession has probably peaked, but what will the recovery look like? In some sectors, consumer spending is on the rise, and we’re spotting more and more post-recession flowers blooming. Whether their pocketbooks were squeezed or not, many affluents are now transformed. They want value, quality, and products with a “moral conscience.”

With the arrival of the New Year, there are some encouraging signs that the travel industry is poised for a gradual recovery, although not as quickly as many travel service suppliers would like. The culprit remains the languishing economy. While recent GDP numbers reflect a positive path and job losses have subsided, American consumers have adopted more conservative spending patterns and now maintain the highest savings rate observed in the past eight years.

Hats off to Veuve Cliquot’s promotion at Design Miami. They commissioned U.K. designer Tom Dixon to design sculptures with the iconic orange packaging.

Want to cash in on positioning the next hot luxury product? Springwise, one of the world’s leading sources of new business ideas, had the best advice I’ve read in a long time…

Value added alone is not enough. Early in 2009, many marketers thought that offering “value adds” would be enough – i.e. a four-night stay for the price of three, a resort credit, a free dessert when ordering an entrée, etc. As the year progressed, it was obvious that these initiatives weren’t enough. The overall rate had to be priced right as well.