I have been fortunate enough to work on great projects in the luxury industry and belong to several groups about luxury goods and services on LinkedIn, but I have often questioned certain aspects of the industry and have always wondered what makes a particular product or service part of the “luxury” market. I was once asked on an online discussion if luxury can be eco-minded and be a bit greener. The terms luxury and environmentally minded are almost contradictory. I said sure it can, so long as it doesn’t take away any part of the experience that the product or service provides. Several people in the discussion cited spas and hotels that got their electricity from “greener” sources and thought people would pay a premium for such services. But I don’t think this brings this service to the level of luxury. For me, luxury is when something is added to a particular product or service that enhances its basic function, usually trying to eclipse all other competitors. Anything other than that, just makes the product or service more expensive. And when something is added with the sole purpose to make the product more expensive, I like to call it “ridiculux”.
One of the most conspicuous examples of ridiculux are Vertu phones. Vertu phones offer brushed stainless steel bodies, ceramic keys, “bespoke” ringtones, and even diamonds. Yes, diamonds, which are forever, on a phone, in which technology changes every year. The Vertu Ascent boasts a 5 megapixel camera for still or video images and it has “the ability to sense its movement so when you need a landscape display, a 90 degree turn enhances your viewing”. This description is from their website. I shit you not. The phone basically has the functionality of my Samsung T509 from 2005.
I have often wondered about who the audience is for this phone. I would believe it would be someone like Al Pacino’s character in Ocean’s Thirteen, Willy Bank. Basically someone who needs a phone just to accept calls. There is no real need for a calendar, calculator, or weather reports. You would have an Ellen Barkin for that. The ultimate luxury is that you don’t really need this phone for work, and you might be rich enough to have it as an overly designed accessory. I don’t think that Vertu is a luxury phone, I just think it’s an expensive one.
I think it is important to question what is luxury when working on these products. It is important to question if it is a luxury product or not. There have been many other descriptors advertisers use such as premium, deluxe, or more recently lux, and it is important to question if that descriptor lives up to that promise. Hopefully there is a better understanding of that product which leads to better ways of designing and marketing for it. Keep this analogy in mind – diamond studded toilet paper. It is more expensive, but not likely to enhance the experience.
A 4G network or snake skin and diamonds. Which would make your life more luxurious. It depends on who you ask, or whose personal assistant you ask.
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