New Luxury

I’m reading the book “Trading up: why consumers want new luxury goods and how companies creat them”. This is the reflection of two consults about the phenomenon of the trading up of premium brands in certain categories.

What we call New luxury is the products and services that possess higher levels of quality, taste, and aspiration than other goods in the category but are not so expensive as to be out of reach. Around the world, people have been trading up — seeking to enrich their lives and engage their senses and emotions through wonderful goods — for centuries. What is different about trading up today is its availability to a much larger population, and there are vastly more premium goods and services to trade up to.

Consumption is a way of life and it can be done well or poorly, and trading up to premium goods is one way to do it well. This phenomenon is driven by middle-class consumers who are educated, discerning, and ready to engage in the goods and services they consume. They balance their budgets and trade down in more categories than they trade up in.

Pioneers of customer relation online

According to the 8th Prize Qualiweb/Stratégies, a prize rewarding the best quality of customer relation online from a barometer created by Cocedal Conseil ten years ago. The notation was based on the responses to puzzler emails sent to 250 web sites.

Among the 50 best web sites evaluated, more than 20% of them are from the sector of fashion and beauty, and the first 5 companies are luxury brands. The first one is Nespresso, premium brand of Nestlé Group, represented by Georges Clooney. Nespresson is a typical brand of New Luxury which are always based on emotions (see my later posts about the New Luxury). The second one of the hit parade is Guerlain, the bronze medal is le Printemps and the forth Chanel.

From two years, il seems that the customer relation and service is an issue of utmost importance for the luxury industry, which is very concerned about the total quality and image of its brands. The web site is the image of the brand so the customer relation by e-mail is the continuation of the looked-for service. The e-mail is today a way of contact natural and incontrovertible in the center of the customer service.

Luxury by “vente privée”

From some time, the first thing I do every morning is to turn on the computer - not for checking my emails, but for “shopping” on vente-privée.com, the number 1 web site for discount luxury goods. The sales are open at 7 am so my alarm-clock wake me up at 6.55 am (for thoses who are interested, it is very important to be online on time, otherwise, the best things go very very quickly because there are about 1 millon women like me who waite before their computer for the sales).

Is this a danger for the luxury brands ? When we can buy a bag Lancel for merely one third of the normal price on these web sites,  shall we still go to buy them in the shops ? When the clients see that their favorate brands are so accessible and “cheap” for everyone, won’t they be disppointed ? After all, the luxury things should be rare and expensive.

Many brands have already thought about the question that we call “the Democratization of the luxury”. One one side, the luxury wants to have more clients and to sell more to people who were not their clients. On the other side, they have to maintain their brand image and quality so that the demand of the top clients who are looking for the personalization and unique articles can be satisfied. As a result, the luxury today has three catogories according to the accessibility. The Haute Couture has also their line of ready to wear, even the jewelris have adopted this strategies, like Mauboussin.

After all, what we find on the venteprivee web sites is always old collections and moreover, we donnot have the same feeling of buying them in a shop. The luxury is luxury because it has other “added values” like the service, the packeging. Of cause I would go to buy the new collection of my favorite brands in a shop if I had enough money. So these brands arenot really accessible for me if I can purchase them by other channels. The luxury remains luxury.

Dogs in the luxury

In the TV programme 100% MAG of M6 last week, there was a reportage about a luxurious day of a little York Shire. The dog has spent more than 400 euros for the haircut, the dresses and the services in a palace in Paris (the rent of the suite of hotel is not included).

When I saw the trenches, the coats and pulls and all others useless clothing extremely expensive for the dog, I wondered if this is considered as the luxury or even the comfort for the dog. When it arrived at the hotel, a métaille carved with his name was already prepared for him. A server took care of it as if it was the more important client. It had his own gamelles with his name, one for water, another for food, all two on the trolley for room service. It played in the suite just before sleeping on the big luxurious bed…

It seems that the accessories and services for pets is a real business. Dogs of reach men do need having the same standing of material life as their owner’s. Or, more exactly, the pets are a part of the luxury life of certain people. Because the luxury does not exist for dogs.

Eternal star and eternal luxury

I interviewed Isabelle Adjani, the most beautiful French woman for the Chinese. Yes, when we work in a luxury Hotel like le Meurice, we meet always personages. But this time I played the role of journalist and had the actress face to me, with the Director of Lancel, the famous French brand of bags.

Isabelle Adjani had been chosen to represent the brand all over the world for her visibility and reputation. It seems that China is the second market of Lancel with totally 52 stores. The brand has decided to conquer the whole world and needed to associate its image to a face well known by everyone.

They have chosen le Meurice for their international press day because the Communication Director worked at Lancel. They asked me to translate for a Chinese journalist who wanted to interview in French. So I met, for the first time in my life, a really brilliant star of cinema. She was so kind that I wasn’t even scared. The article will be published in the Cosmopolitan China. I’m looking forward to reading it.

Le Meurice vs Franck et Fils

I’m now really in the luxury. I have begun my intership since Monday at the Hotel le Meurice, one of the 7 “Palaces” of Paris.

The legendary Le Meurice is a luxury hotel in the heart of Paris with a prestigious location between Place de la Concorde and the Louvre on the fashionable rue de Rivoli. Following centuries in which Le Meurice has played host to international royalty, fashion designers and countless public figures, this five-star Paris hotel is a place where history and the latest fashionable trends meet.

I had two offers at the same time, the other one was Franck et Fils, a department store in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. Franck et Fils is a subsidery of the Groupe le Bon Marché, LVMH, and the fashion is one of my favorite sector. But I chose le Meurice for its international dimension and perspectives towards China. The Hotel is developping a Chinese customer as there are more and more riche Chinese travelling and living in the world. Furthermore, the internship itselp would be more interesting because I could learn to create communication supports like prints ans web sites.

Sometimes, or rather always in the life we have to be patient and waite for the opportunities. I had been being desperated for the issu of my intership but I have what I wanted now. This is the fate.

How it is hard to find an internship!

I’m looking for an internship in communication in the Luxury industry or, if the brand is not so luxury, at least in the fashion.  I should begin my internship in Feburary, but I have always nothing interesting.  I didn’t think il would be so difficult, but really, this is a domain that all the girls “would kill for”. What is worse, I’m Chinese! I’m really pride of my country, but in a society like the France, if you don’t speak French with no accent, as well as the French, thay would not believe that you can work as well as a French, especially in communication.

That is why I haven’t writen a lot here since I created my blog. I love the luxury, but it dosen’t want me.

However, I believe that I can realize my dream. Yes, I will find it, my internship.

Hello world!

Hi! This is my first blog and I beg you to be patient. More things are comming soon…