LUXURY BRAND MARKETING — THE

EXPERIENCE IS EVERYTHING!

Glyn Atwal and Alistair Williams (2008)

Presented by: Waqas Anwar

 INTRODUCTION

• The authors ask the question: What does experiential marketing have to offer
marketers within the luxury goods sector?

• The marketing of luxury goods has become increasingly complex- Conveying an

image of quality, performance and authenticity, and also attempting to sell an
experience by relating it to the lifestyle constructs of consumers

• Current marketing in the luxury goods sector relies heavily on traditional

marketing concepts rather than experiential marketing
 PARAMETERS OF LUXURY

• What is a Luxury brand?

• Luxury has traditionally been associated with exclusivity, status and quality

• New-Luxury- ‘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

• The trend of middle-market consumers trading up for products that meet their
aspiration needs, referred to as the ‘luxurification of society’- requires redefinition of
strategies
 CONSUMPTION OF LUXURY

• There are various conceptual frameworks for luxury consumption

• Personal-oriented and Non-personal-oriented perceptions

• Western consumption of luxury in the 1980s and 1990s was motivated primarily by
status-seeking and appearance
• ‘Motivated by a desire to impress others, with the ability to pay particularly high
prices, this form of consumption is primarily concerned with the ostentatious display
of wealth ’
• Social status associated with a brand is an important factor in conspicuous
consumption
 CONSUMPTION OF LUXURY

• Personal-oriented Perceptions: Luxury goods are acquired for what they

symbolize

• This reflects a mindset change on how luxury is valued from a transactional

relationship to a holistic experience

• ‘ The expression of ‘today’s luxury’ is about a celebration of personal

creativity, expressiveness, intelligence, fluidity, and above all, meaning’
 LUXURY AND POSTMODERNISM

• Contemporary consumption patterns of luxury products signify phenomenon

of postmodernism
• What is Postmodernism?
• In terms of experiential marketing, two aspects of the postmodern discourse are
most relevant: hyper-reality and image
• Hyper-reality: ‘the blurring of distinction between the real and the unreal, in
which the prefix ‘hyper’ signifies more real than real’
• When the real that is the environment, is no longer a given, but is
reproduced by a simulated environment, it does not become unreal, but
realer than real
 LUXURY AND POSTMODERNISM

• ‘Bollywood captures not only the imagination in the form of song, music and
dance but fairy tale settings, romantic melodrama and heroic storylines
immerse the viewer in ‘simulated reality ’
• In postmodern society, people have become fascinated by signs, and as a result,
they exist in a state where signs and images have become more important than
what they stand for
• The result is that consumers in contemporary society consume imagery, and do
not focus on what the images represent or mean
• Therefore, use of experiential marketing which is based on postmodern principles
can be helpful for luxury brands
 THE EXPERIENCE ECONOMY

• Experiential marketing is a growing trend worldwide, evident in most sectors of

the global economy. Can you give any examples?

• SEB Bank (Germany) -Customers are greeted personally in an area of open

space, dark wooden floors and subtle lighting. Against a backdrop of easy
listening music, customers can sip cappuccinos in a Starbucks-feel café , surf
at one of the internet terminals or simply catch the latest news headlines from
one of the TV monitors

• Experiential marketing is about taking the essence of a product and amplifying it

into a set of tangible, physical and interactive experiences that reinforce the
offer
 DIMENSIONS OF THE LUXURY EXPERIENCE

• Two main dimensions- Customer involvement (interactivity) and intensity

(strength of feeling)
• Four experiential zones- Entertainment, Education, Escapist and Aesthetic
 STRATEGIES FOR EXPERIENTIAL
LUXURY MARKETING

• Smith’s 6 step process: Customer experience audit, create a brand platform and
positioning, design brand experience (aligning people, processes and products with
the brand proposition), communication of brand, and monitoring of performance.

• Lippincott Mercer (consultancy) presented the following four principles of

experience design: Identifying customer segments, develop a touchpoint chain
(pre-purchase, purchase and post-purchase) and gauge those with the greatest
impact, turn findings in project priorities, and monitoring of performance
 STRATEGIES FOR EXPERIENTIAL
LUXURY MARKETING

• A compelling example of introducing experiential marketing in this way is

BMW
• This involves establishing a cohesive set of images and meanings for the
experience
• The recently opened BMW World in Munich, a cathedral-like showroom,
evokes a marketing experience that includes a cohesive theme, an education
project, engagement of the senses and the soliciting of feedback
• It unites tradition and innovation, emotion and precision, dynamism and
aesthetics, exclusivity and openness
 STRATEGIES FOR EXPERIENTIAL
LUXURY MARKETING

• The use of new technologies has also aided the potential for experiential
marketing
• The Luxury Institute found that 88 per cent of wealthy consumers cite a
preference for using the internet to research a luxury services firm, and 38 per
cent prefer to purchase luxury goods online, versus 33 per cent who favor
face-to-face transactions
• A pioneer in developing virtual experiences was BMW ’ s short internet-based
film series The Hire
• Only those firms that develop customer-valued web-based experiences will be
successful in this domain
 CONCLUSION

• ‘The postmodern individual has involved into Homo consumericus, a

creature defined by consumption and the experiences derived there from
• Experiential marketing focuses is on customer experiences and lifestyles,
and creates synergies among meaning, perception, consumption and brand
loyalty
• Many organizations suggest that they are using experiential marketing, when
the reality is that they are simply repeating the mantra of traditional
marketing strategies