Luxury Versus The Empowered Consumer

Here's a link to an article on the Marketing Daily site written by Greg Furman. I posted a response that's shown at the bottom and thought I'd add a little more here. What I alluded to in my comment on the article but I'll say more boldly here is this: most luxury brands just plain don't have a clue.

Why? They look at the world only through a lens of how they perceive themselves; they are the center of the universe. Greg tells us not to worry, that this universe is safe and, at worst, just inconvenienced by the economic turmoil everywhere; if you're a luxury brand, just keep doing what you're doing and the world will come back around.

Some other thoughts:

• If I have a closet full of Armani suits, are they luxuries? Or just my clothes?
• If I spend $2500 a year on new golf clubs because I'm passionate and competitive about the game, is that a luxury or a necessity?
• If I spend a few hundred thousand dollars on a Tesla, a brand that's been around for only a couple of years, how important is heritage?
• By this definition, ''the best that the mind of man can imagine and the most sophisticated hand of the virtuoso craftsman can achieve", is Juicy Couture a luxury brand?

In short, I think luxury brands is a misnomer; what we really have are products and services that people are willing to spend a premium or super-premium price on in order to get some level of satisfaction, gratification, enjoyment or experience from. But that is in the eye of the beholder not the purveyor.