Luxury Travel & Lifestyle Trends

Deal hunting needs to amuse, to be fun. Look for more gamification as brands will have to engage and entertain to build brand loyalty. Jimmy Choo created a virtual scavenger hunt to introduce its first sneaker collection – “Catch a Choo” – a quasi-scavenger hunt around London. When followers saw that a pair of sneakers had “checked in” somewhere in the city, the first to arrive there before the sneakers “left” could pick a pair in the style and size of their choice.

In the short term, the status appeal should make extravagantly priced goods “hot items”. But for the long term? Doubtful. Even assuming there’s enough quality, exceptional design and workmanship to give inherent value to the products, and assuming there are limited editions, will these be classics that will someday command the prices of vintage Hermes or Chanel (a factor if I were buying a bag like this)? Where’s the brand story of heritage and authenticity?

While reports abound that aspirational ‘trading up’ is over, luxury marketers still need to consider them as opportunities for new revenue streams and new ideas. Why? read further…

Using the word “luxury” has been a hot topic among marketers. On its own “luxury” has joined other debased words like “gourmet” and “spa” to the extent that some see fit to add a distinguishing modifier such as Haute, Ultra, or even HNW (high net worth) Luxury.

As the economy limps along, luxury brands and marketers should be concerned that consumer confidence among the affluent has dropped 18 percent, reaching rates that have not been this low since the middle of the recession in 2007 and 2008, according to a study from Unity Marketing.

Children’s collections are an area for growth for luxury brands – sources of new revenue streams. Lanvin and Versace are the two latest fashion houses to launches childrenswear lines. While children’s haute couture has its critics, others believe that if the parents can afford it, what’s the harm? After all, luxury labels have long created and sold clothes for kids. The Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art has some Christian Dior children’s pieces dating back to the 1950s.

A very original solution was presented at Bergdorf Goodman for French luxury leather purveyor Goyard. Customers were invited to a two day special event and bring in their own design to be custom painted on their Goyard purchase by a Goyard painter.

‘Luxury’ has been a hot topic among marketers since the recent current economic crisis. In most cases, it has become ‘a four letter word’. There was a shift in the psychology of luxury buyers. For some, they felt awkward spending conspicuously, while so many others were in pain. For others, it was more about perception – it just wasn’t “cool” to be spending lavishly on luxury.

In 2010, mobile shopping activity began to have a noticeable influence on ecommerce sales. Shopping-related Google searches from mobile devices were up 230% by mid December, reported Internet Retailer. With this in mind, consider this eye-opener: Among 72 of our best-known luxury brands, none bother with user reviews, even though they are now catnip to most prospective buyers.

Prescient fashion soothsayer Tom Ford is betting on the return of glamour, and I’m with him. Makes sense in this time when the world seems full of gloom and doom, from the economy and politics to environmental disasters. And that’s spoken by an optimist. People are ready for glamorous fantasies.