Luxury items are so much more than simple comfort. True luxury is primarily a European and Italian concept: an astute balancing of truly authentic quality with ethereal but undeniably human emotions, that results in quite simply irrational buying behavior. It’s not all that easy, and it’s certainly no trick, but the advantages are genuinely very real. What luxury buys are a combination of three separate but closely tied factors:
Luxury brands have a relatively fixed cost per unit, meaning the price is the same no matter what you buy, whether it’s a luxury watch, a pair of diamond cufflinks, or an exotic massage chair. Luxury brands also have a known and reliable market niche, which makes them a great place to start when you’re investing in a brand new product. In most cases, this means a larger target audience with a common psychological makeup that makes impulse buying more likely, as well as the ability to more effectively (and socially) advertise to this demographic. Luxury brands also have the advantage of a history built in the service industry, where product features and function become the emotional touchstones of a brand rather than pure functionality. This provides luxury brands with an emotional element that brands in most industries don’t have, a rich but not entirely empty supply of “pat” and “fan” territory.
Luxury brands have a built-in marketing professionals who can help craft your image and sell your products: advertising and design professionals who can make a luxury item feel like the thing it is, rather than just a functional object. Luxury branding also tends to be more scalable, and the brand can expand its appeal by taking small steps, rather than trying to launch a major rebranding campaign and spending a large amount of resources in the process. Finally, luxury items tend to enjoy an air of exclusivity that allows consumers to look forward to a steady stream of new items from a brand, instead of being something they’re stuck with, like a product or a service that might go out of fashion in a few months. While this doesn’t always translate into sales, it does provide an advantage that many other companies can’t provide: staying power.