Salon du luxe 2017
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The new rules of the game
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The 3rd edition of Salon du luxe – the biggest B2B event dedicated to luxury industry came with the latest news of the sector, interesting personalities, couple of fellows and lots of innovations. For me it’s been a pleasure and honor to be part of that event since its very beginning, to be able to see its evolution, support and creation of adherents and professionals network, sharing the same values and goals.
People who consider this not just a job, but also a perception of life, of what goes beyond the surface of a beautiful object or experience. Three words characterize luxury today: exception, excellence, emotion.
In this first post dedicated to Salon du luxe 2017 I will share more about luxury and its artisans, luxury and temporality and also – luxury and influencers.
Getting back to fundamentals: consumers are sensible about the quality and particular story behind the brand. It is not enough anymore to make purchases. One must also be able to talk about them. To include their lives into the big story (of the brand). This is why it is very important to continuously involve the consumer in the creation process. In fact, in order to win the Millennials, luxury should be innovative and ethical. Millennials are more and more seeking for small independent brands in order to differentiate. As for the designers it is not about what you are wearing anymore, it is about how you maintain your body and mind. Need for sense of fulfillment is leading.
I liked the description of luxury by Didier Degryse: it is savoir-faire, craft, noble materials, rarity, avant-garde, modernity, tradition.
For generation Z what they live is more important than what they possess.
The double temporality of luxury
Luxury today is founded on the balance between long time of the brand and the short time of the consumer.
Interaction, implication and connivance: key points for brands to enroll double temporality.
To successfully settle in this dual time frame, the brands have to integrate a new contract with the customer:
– Interactive: engage in a conversation (continuous, personalized)
– Involving: delivering a story living (playful, tailor-made)
– Conniving : making the client an ambassador (complicity, commitment, transparency)
Time makes you dream and cannot be bought
Ludovic Du Plessis describes a new relationship to time in a world where immediacy is queen. The challenge of luxury brands: move the scale of human life. Luxury plays with time. It cannot be satisfied with the present, nor with the past, it has to project in the future.
He introduced the terms of:
Instant gratification: fashion, ephemeral emotion, social networks VS delayed gratification positive frustration, waiting, the release of the moment. The world of luxury is in delayed gratification.
Influencers between overexploitation and exorbitant budgets
On the one hand it is the sensation of satiety, exhaustion, overexposure
“At the very beginning I loved it when the bloggers started integrating into the fashion, when I saw them sitting in the front rows at Fashion week… A few years later, they’re just dead, they’re so easily bought by the companies. Of course, there are a few great bloggers but overall it’s just flat. They don’t really know anything, the only thing they know is how to take a selfie!” Nicola Formichetti
On the other hand, the forecasts speak for themselves: in 5 years influence marketing will represent a market of $ 5- $ 10 billion,
as stated by Cyril Attias.
This one generates 2X of sales that the paid media and the clients acquired via influence marketing have a retention rate of 37% (according to McKinsey). One dollar invested in influence marketing generates $ 7 income.
An influencer has the ability to change the perception or have an influence on the act of purchase.
Influence pyramid starts with the micro-influencers through influencers – ambassadors – VIP/celebrities/ muses.
You can take a look at my articles from 2016 and 2015.
In partnership with Air France
Photos: Martina Todorova
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