The document discusses luxury brands and how they are defined. It notes that luxury is a subjective concept often defined by exclusivity, indulgence, higher prices, and catering to desire. Luxury allows people to express themselves and their taste or status. True luxury brands are traditionally anchored by heritage and integrity, though newer brands can establish luxury through personalized experiences and ethics. Luxury brands must balance innovation with protecting their exclusive image to avoid debasement.

3. Meet our luxury panellists
Claudia Laurence Mary Ciaran

4. A subjective and universal concept, to which we can easily
attach attributes:
ExclusivityIndulgence
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How we begin to define luxury
Freedom of choice and having the time to invest in these decisions
can be the base indication of how an individual experiences luxury
Ultimately, Luxury can be defined as:
• Always “non-essential”
• A relatively “higher price tag”
• Catering to “the realm of desire”
OpulenceQuality

5. Luxury is a transformative instrument to express and affirm:
…to hone and explore a unique version of yourself
…to comply with the norms of your social set OR to assert
leadership of those norms
…to evolve and demonstrate knowledge
…to achieve a sense of absolute individuality and absolute
belonging
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Luxury, self-expression and personal taste
Luxury allows people to curate – and control – how you see yourself
to be and how others perceive you
Status Taste Exclusivity Knowledge Personality

6. ‘True luxury’ has traditionally been anchored by a brand’s
heritage and integrity
However, in emergent categories and for newer entrants to
established ones, other credentials can provide access to this
realm:
Who will be the luxury brands of the future?
Personalised
experience
Ethics
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Critically, luxury brands need to claim their category quickly, to set a
standard and establish their legacy
What makes a true luxury brand today?
Uniqueness
Innovation

7. Protected by its heritage and exclusive status, the luxury
brand can flex its superior creativity and innovativeness
• Permission to ‘flirt’ with transient, fashionable trends
• Careful collaborations has the power to showcase a brand’s
vision, intuition, wit and foresight
• Vital to choose a suitable avatar for the brand’s
core values
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However, ill-matched collaborations can be confusing and
ultimately damaging
From a nucleus of stable values, the more peripheral and ephemeral
elements of the brand have permission to play
Luxury and contemporary cultures: borrowing,
becoming, being

8. “Be careful what you wish for”
“You can have too much of a good thing”
“It’s the destination, not the journey”
If people are given access to their ‘heart’s desire’ too readily, the
illusion of exclusivity is shattered
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The danger of fantasy fulfilment
True luxury brands must maintain a cycle of both fuelling and fulfilling
our aspirations

9. Over exposure, diversification and expansion of audience
put a brand at risk of discrediting its ‘luxury’ credentials
Protection and cultivation of exclusive audience
• Not a commodity – stands for much more than a logo
• Little interest in expanding for short term commerciality
• Curates intimate and discreet two-way relationships
• Offer of unique, one-off experiences
Diversification and overexposure
• Luxury is inherently snobby – allowing the ‘wrong’
people access
• Logo shifts from internal to external identifier
• Excessive expansion into sub-brands
• Have a larger commercial footprint
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Protection from Debasement
Luxury brands are not inherently protected from debasement, by
their price-tag – they must work to protect themselves
V.s.

10. The online world is an increasingly challenging space in which to
maintain a brand’s integrity, and manage its clientele
However…
- A source of inspiration and new information
- Connects audiences to one another and experiences
- Appeals to a generation of impulse buyers and fuels appetites
- Digital can enact a highly personal shopping experience
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Digital and Luxury
Digital is a stage on which luxury brands in today’s world must play –
but this must be done with discretion and creativity
Online is the antithesis of the ‘effort’ and ‘exclusivity’
which are hallmarks of luxury experiences

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