Luxury Marketing

This chapter extends the emerging literature on luxury services (Holmqvist et al. 2020; Wirtz et al. 2020) by developing the key concepts of hedonic escapism as well as multifaceted exclusivity. We first developed the role of hedonic escapism in rendering luxury services enjoyable and extraordinary. This represents a key implication for managers of luxury services: customers engaging in a luxury service usually have high expectations and demands that the service needs to satisfy. Even though the service quality may be very high, this may not be enough in itself and would rather fall into the ‘good service’ category. While this may often be enough for most services, it is less likely to meet the demands of customers expecting an extraordinary experience. This challenge to deliver the extraordinary, even to customers who become used to the very best service quality, represents a crucial challenge for managers in luxury services.
In addition to hedonic escapism, we also contribute to research on luxury services by extending the role of exclusivity and detail four different manifestations of exclusivity in luxury service contexts. For practitioners in luxury services, we believe that appeal of exclusivity as well as the role of exclusivity in keeping luxury services attractive are best understood through the lens of customer value in social contexts (Edvardsson et al. 2011). Building on this value in social context, we find conspicuous consumption and exclusivity of particular importance for luxury service managers. First, managers should explore how they can manage exclusivity to increase the appeal of the service for conspicuous consumers. Given the risk of hedonic adaptation reducing the appeal of luxury over time (Wiesing 2015), we believe that service managers could employ all the four forms of exclusivity in order to keep the service feeling special for the customers. For example, conspicuous consumption can be enhanced by tangible cues, such as branded souvenirs and giveaways, and materialized through stories and photos. Special attention should be placed on social media which can help enhancing conspicuousness of services. Customers can ‘post‘ and ‘share‘ luxury experiences, for example, related to dining and the arts, and signal their affluence and sophistication. Service firms should encourage this, for example, by offering ‘instagrammable’ cues (Wirtz et al., 2020).
Not every luxury customers is interested in conspicuous consumption. As luxury services are consumed and experienced at the same time, luxury service providers have to proactively manage conspicuousness. For example, a celebrity dining out may want to sit at a quiet table in order not to be disturbed by fans. Many top-end travelers value privacy and Singapore Airlines therefore has private first class check-in lounges in Singapore that even comes with a private link directly to immigration, after which passengers can proceed to Singapore Airlines’ first class lounges. Even on board, privacy is provided in its suites with a sliding door that screens the outside world away (Wirtz et al. 2020)
Second, managers should explore using the gamut of the different types of exclusivity to enhance the luxury experience. Monetary exclusivity is obvious and simply means luxury service firms need to be extremely careful with price promotions. Social exclusivity combines with the constructed exclusivity of luxury goods to allow service providers to limit and to control access to the service in order to enhance its appeal. Upscale clubs screen at the entrance, exclusive social events can be made ‘by-invitation-only,’ and luxury servicescapes can even be designed to intimidate non-target consumers (Dion and Borraz, 2017). Hedonic exclusivity can be used to target a service only at the initiated whereby a certain degree of expertise serves as a barrier for the less initiated to fully appreciating a service.

This study investigates the marketing strategies used to revive " sleeping beauties " , that is, brands that are no longer active on the market but which retain potential brand equity that can be conjured up in the minds of consumers by rearticulating the brand's heritage. Drawing on interviews with professionals in luxury and mass-market goods, we analyze the characteristics of sleeping beauties and provide a typology of reactivation strategies. A primary contribution of our paper is a better understanding of brand revitalization, by introducing the concept of the sleeping beauty and providing a typology of sleeping beauty reactivation strategies. Differentiated reactivation strategies emerge based on the brand's reputation on the market before revival, its orientation toward the past after revival, and the brand feature used in the reactivation. This study also contributes to the literature on heritage brands by showing how managers can transform a brand into a heritage brand. The findings show that in reviving sleeping beauties, the key factor is the way the brand can resonate with the collective memory.

We investigate the concept of heritage store, i.e. locations that lie at the heart of a brand’s identity and history. Based on store observations and interviews with managers and salespersons in the luxury industry, we analyze the characteristics of heritage store and their role in the management of heritage brand. We show how managers sacralize store heritage to nurture the value proposition of the brand. This analysis of heritage store gives new insights into retailing, introducing the concept of heritage store and emphasizing the sacralizalization of heritage store. We outline the implications for retail marketing in developing and maintaining the sacredness of heritage stores.

International luxury businesses are challenged by the identification and satisfaction of the common needs and desires of global market segments. Although luxury goods have become available to a wider range of consumers, the traditional conspicuous consumption model has been transformed into a new experiential luxury sensibility that is marked by a change in the way that consumers define luxury. Based on an empirical study in collaboration with American, European, and Asian researchers, the results provide evidence that consumers in various parts of the world purchase or wish to purchase luxury products for varied reasons but that such consumers generally possess similar values. Regardless of their countries of origin, the basic motivational drivers of luxury consumers are similar among the financial, functional, personal, and social dimensions of luxury value perceptions, although the relative importance of these dimensions varies. C 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Looking at previous research concerning luxury dimensions and especially at two of the most representative studies, of Dubois et al. (2001) and Vigneron & Johnson (2004), we have observed that can we make some additions the most complex measurement model of consumer’s luxury value perceptions, proposed few years ago by Wiedmann et al. By following, the main purpose of this study is to analyze the existing luxury perception scales and to identify basing on literature review, the most relevant luxury values that can be attached to the previous mention model. In addition, we decided to extend the conceptualization of the antecedent constructs of Wiedmann et al. (2007), as we consider that a correct implementation of the model implies a comprehensive approach of the dimensions. Considering that the luxury domain is changing and with it increases the ambiguity and the confusion, becomes more and more important to understand why consumers buy. The model offers answers to this old question raised by marketing academics in the luxury field, but also can be used by marketing practitioners to set the basis of their marketing strategies.