The document discusses how luxury brands can find their direction and ensure long-term success. It references an anecdote about Albert Einstein losing his train ticket but not worrying because he knew where he was going. Similarly, luxury brands should focus on determining their strategic direction rather than short-term money concerns. The document then provides advice over multiple sections on how luxury brands can define their identity, focus on quality and craftsmanship, develop brand evangelists, educate customers, and adapt their business processes to maintain their luxury status in the long run.

1. Surviving In The Luxury Industry
Finding Your Train Ticket

2. Discussion Summary!
Albert Einstein was once on a train. He couldn’t find his ticket after
searching through all his pockets and bags. The conductor approached
him and said something to the effect of, «Dr Einstein, everyone knows who
you are. We know Princeton can afford to buy you another train ticket.»
To which Einstein replied with something along the lines of, «I’m not
worried about the money. I need to find the ticket to figure out where I’m
going.»
Like Einstein, a luxury brand should worry not about getting
money from present or future investors, but about where the
business is going.
When the Brand figures this out, I am confident the money will
come, if needed.
Youcef DRIDI
« It is essential to
employ, trust and
reward those whose
perspective, ability
and judgement, are
radically different from
yours. It is also rare,
for it requires
uncommon humility,
tolerance and
wisdom.» - Dee W.
Hock

3. A Brief History of Luxury (1/3)
Luxury was born in the dawn of humanity, when we
started to bury our dead:
• It was the Answer to the human craving for
immortality and metempsychosis (transmigration of
the soul)
• From Ancient Egypt and its Pharaohs, Classic Italy,
French Renaissance to Modern Times, two aspects
of luxury:
1. Splendor during life
2. Highly ritualistic approach to the afterlife
Luxury is a term derived
from « luxurie », which
means « lasciviousness,
sinful self-indulgence »

4. A brief History of Luxury (2/3)
For obvious economic reasons, Luxury was reserved to
a small elite. It has always been a major sociological
issue:
• Some looked upon it as pointless extravagance
• Others saw it as a powerful driver of artistic and
technical discoveries
• All times debate between Luxury as an insulte to the
poor and luxury as a source of skilled and steady
jobs, art, culture, products and services
• For each civilization though, Luxury gradually spread
throughout society and eventually reached everyone,
partially at least.
« Some people
think Luxury is the
opposite of Poverty.
It is not. It is the
opposite of
Vulgarity » - Coco
Chanel

5. A brief History of Luxury (3/3)
The 19th Century had a profound impact on Luxury in
Western society, at all levels:
• Adam Smith was very favourable to trade and to
luxury as the driver to economic growth
• David Hume separated Luxury and Morality,
providing a philosophical justification for the latter
• General democratization and industrial revolution
made it gradually accessible for all. Luxury is not
isolated from the rest of the economy anymore.
• The beginning of women emancipation until the late
20th Century gave it a social justification.

6. Issues in The 21st Century
Overcome fierce competition from industrial products and
their ultra sophisticated marketing, and adapt to the 4
major boosting drivers of modern society:
1. Democratization (everyone has access to it and
hereditary social stratification is gradually dying)
2. Globalization (a brand that cannot go global finishes
up disappearing)
3. The rise in spending power through wage increase
(and falling prices for products and services)
4. Communications: we can now come up with our own
social stratification through social media networks

7. Branding Issues in The 21st Century
When a Luxury brand becomes the be-all-and-end-all for some
individuals, guiding them in their social choices, they behave
sometimes as if they belong to a religious group:
1. Apple and the annual Steve Jobs’ shows
2. The use of Chief Evangelist Officer terminology for marketing
roles in several corporations with a strong brand focus
3. The non-return effect: once you taste Luxury, it is hard to turn
away from it
Many fashion brands adopt the behavior of luxury brands.
Sharing some aspects of luxury and a certain element of showing
off, Fashion would like to think it belongs to the world of Luxury in
order to improve its status. The semantic confusion is greater than
ever in the 21st Century.
Luxury branding is
not about getting
you to chose a
brand over the
competition.
It’s about getting
you to see the
brand as the only
solution to your
desire.

8. The DNA of Luxury (1/2)
• Its production centre is always rooted in its country of
origin
• A luxury product, who carries a whole universe with it,
is produced and only distributed in places that are
consistent with its universe
• Small volumes, high margins by all means (quality vs
quantity)
• Distribution of products is made in small nuclueus in
key countries, with impeccable service
If not, the brand (even if global) ceases to be a luxury
brand and is relegated to the consumer goods category,
where it is unsuited and cannot survive.
Quality is not an
accident. It is the
result of high intention,
high craftsmanship
and aesthetics,
sincere effort and
skillful execution.

9. The DNA of Luxury (2/2)
• Luxury is a social marker
• Luxury is the symbolic desire to belong to a unique
class, which everyone would have chosen according to
their dreams
• Anything that becomes a social signifier can become a
luxury
• Anything that ceases to be a social signifier loses its
luxury status
• A Brand is cultural with a profound truth that brings us
into resonance with it
• Luxury = Pleasure with strong hedonistic component,
over functionality. It has to be a multisensory
compression (UX or User Experience).
Rich tradition wraps
the brand with deep
mystique.
Mystique is a
framework of beliefs
built around the
founder, endowing the
person and the
product with
enhanced value and
profound meaning.

10. The Role of Luxury
Recreate The Stratification of Society
• Luxury is both modern to the society, with a stamp of
timelessness
• Luxury is opposed to the consumer society: it is loaded with
meaning, to which ones becomes attached.
• It is hand-made and sold by one individual to another
individual. It is a personal experience and decision.
• It corresponds to a deep aspiration, whereas the consumer
product is the object of a spontaneous desire created and
manipulated by traditional marketing, making consumers
switch compulsively from one fashionable product to the
other .
• The keyword is a multisensory DREAM, not Envy…
Movie stars,
musicians, sports
personalities, royal
families, fashion
models, and designer
themselves garner
attention and impact,
replacing aristocracy
in our societies.

11. The Role of Fashion
Respond to urbanization and massification
• Human psyche is suited to live in small family units,
closely bound with nature
• In our large housing developments, fashion has
artificially given back a rhythm to time by marking the
seasons, that done away with by urbanization
• Modernity simultaneoulsly sets in motion a linear time
(technical progress and history) and a cyclical time,
which is that of Fashion – Baudrillard
• Fashion creates an horizontal differentiation, as
opposed to the vertical differentiation created by Luxury
Original
Company
Distribution
System
Licensing
Distribution
for Licensees
HOME OVERSEAS
CORE
LICENSED

12. Differences Between Money & Luxury
Impact on The Stratification of Society
• Money is the collective and unidimensional
abstraction of value. It is not a product of social
stratification, but rather a raw material for it.
• Money fuels the luxury engine, but is not the engine.
The engine is the recreation of vertical hierarchy,
social stratification.
• Luxury converts money into a culturally sophisticated
product that is social stratification.
« Luxury is a
necessity that begins
where necessity
ends. » - V. Kapferer

13. The Financial Duality of Luxury
• Luxury as a Social Statement in relation to other
people, products and services
• Luxury as a Personal Statement (individual pleasure,
cocooning, UX)
Money is Society’s Language, Luxury is its Grammar
The Luxury Institute (USA), produces 2 barometers in
this respect:
1. The LCEI (Luxury Customer Experience Index)
2. The LBSI (Luxury Brand Status Index)
«Just as grammar does
for vocabulary, it is
Luxury that brings
monetary signs to
create a language.» - V.
Kapferer

14. Finding Your Train Ticket
« Alice: Would you tell me
please, which way I ought
to go?
The Cat: That depends on
where you want to go to
Alice: I don’t much care
where
The Cat: Then it does not
matter which way you
go. » Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
Like in the discussion summary with Einstein’s anecdote, a
Brand should find out where she is going and how to get
there:
• French Luxury is the most studied topic in the world
(several additions to Unesco’s World Intangible
Heritage List)
• Paris is the most visited place in the world
• French Brands are experts in the taste, selection and
creation of luxury products.
• Starting point: Strong rooting in France (Paris)
• Ending point: Giving pleasure profitably across the
globe

15. Preparing The Journey
« The best brands never
start out with the intent of
building a great brand.
They focus on building a
great – and profitable –
product or service and
an organization that can
sustain it. » - Scott
Bedbury
A Luxury Brand needs to eliminate anything that does not
contribute to its identity, which in turn will bring the business back
to profitability:
• Focus on the country of origin to (re) establish the identity
• Reduce the number of non-core outlets
• Reduce or even stop licenses and franchises
• Reduce debt
• Recruit Evangelists to create and foster a community
Applying the classic Ps of marketing (Product, Place, Price and
Promotion), but replacing Promotion by Proselytization, which is
the process of converting others to the Brand’s passion.

16. Shape The Client
The model for effective brand evangelism is the
relationship between a good parent and child, with respect
and utmost care:
• Advise, Socialize, Educate
• Luxury is the domain of culture and taste
• Many well-off buyers do not have the gastronomy
codes themselves, but would love to have them
• Clients have to know how to appreciate the products
and consume them
• Videos and articles to be posted through social media
networks on the Brand’s view of Luxury, Art & Culture
« Why is it that those who
have something to say
can’t say it, while those
who have nothing to say
keep saying it?» -
Anonymous

17. Talk The Walk
The starting point of a profitable business is evangelism
inside and outside the Brand’s world:
• Re-establish it locally in Paris or it birth place in
France, before venturing forth
• Get all employees understand the value that the
brand delivers and communicate about it internally
• Do not sell (people see videos or read blogs
because they want valuable information first)
• Communicate to those whom you are not targeting
• Cultivate closeliness to the initiates of art & culture
which is not yet popular. The new wealthy buyers are
younger and eager for powerful impressions.
Evangelists should not
be stars or celebrities.
They should have
valuable information they
value and want to share.
The test for good
information should be:
« is it good for our
audience? » and not: « is
it good for our
organization? »

18. Walk The Walk: 5 Steps
• Step 1: from « me-too products in multiple segments/
categories » to « unique products in a few
segments/categories of expertise
• Step 2: from « customers adapt to business
processes » to « business processes adapt to
customers »
• Step 3: from « price premium is imposed » to « price
premium is earned »
• Step 4: from « key assets are brick and mortar » to
« key assets are people and relationships »
• Step 5: from « brand validates customers » to «…
and customers validate brand »
Taste is what money
can’t buy: it is the
qualification of the clients
themselves that makes a
luxury object.
The popular saying is
« Vox Populi Vox Dei ». In
Luxury business, it is the
reverse:
Getting the recognition of
a clientele whose
choices shape the public
opinion that follows them,
will generate buzz. Then
the press will write about
it and customers will flow.

19. Thank you for your attention !
Questions? Comments?Usually, a business
can get back to
solvency in 6 months
or less, without
additional capital
investment.
Rebuilding a Brand
should not take more
than 12 months.