Old rule: Get to the nitty gritty before the nitty gritty:

To talk about luxury brands, we must first start from luxury, and we have to start from the word luxury.

What is interesting is that luxury is not imported, from "Mandarin · Jin language" : and Huan Zi, Jiao Tai luxury, greed without art, little is action. The basic meaning is to waste money, excessive pursuit of enjoyment. In the past, when productivity was low, luxury was reserved for a small group of people at the top of human society. Only they had the resources to enjoy such luxuries, the royalty of China, the Pharaohs of Egypt, the Kings of Europe and so on.

In Mr. Ratzler's "Luxury brings Abundance", it is mentioned that "luxury is a lifestyle that is considered as luxury in whole or in part by the respective society, mostly determined by products or services." In a class society, money could not buy such luxuries, and most people at that time were struggling to survive. Luxury at this stage is just a derivative of privilege and has nothing to do with the brand.

As society evolved from a class society to a democratic society, rigid social hierarchies loosened. Luxury goods are gradually coming to the general public. The simplest example is that you can no longer get your head shot if you use bright yellow, but in the imperial society it is evidence of rebellion.

In addition to the change of social class, due to the improvement of social productivity, people's consumption power has also been significantly enhanced. Can buy, but also can afford to sell. Luxury goods really have the characteristics of commodities. Only luxury goods with commodity characteristics can have the concept of brand, and the luxury brands we discuss today are meaningful.

The formation of any brand must have a correct and long-term brand strategy. Brand strategy must be composed of three modules: brand positioning, brand image and brand communication. Luxury brands are no exception.

Here we go. Luxury used to be reserved for the privileged. So almost all luxury brands will be more or less linked to the royal family, the king, the nobility and so on. Hermes, Evian and Louis Vuitton are no exception. As a result, many enterprises that want to make themselves look very foreign are desperate to rely on the aristocracy. Like this one:

This is just learning the surface, and consumers will not be willing to pay a penny more for you because you advertise yourself as an aristocrat. I will only pay for what I think I use to feel that I am an aristocrician, which is the core of luxury brand positioning: consumers can build their ideal identity through luxury goods.

This is the biggest difference between the positioning of luxury brands and consumer goods brands: the positioning of consumer goods brands is to better meet the needs of target groups than competitors, so as to occupy a larger market share. The positioning of luxury brands is more about their own uniqueness. A long history, a status symbol, and unparalleled innovation can all make a luxury brand different.

The key words of consumer goods brand positioning are: target groups demand the benefits of competitors

The key words of luxury brand positioning are: brand personality, customer image, customer awareness

Joe's much-lauded philosophy: "Instead of researching what customers want, give them what they want." In fact, it is the brand concept of luxury goods.

02 Luxury brand image

The brand image is mainly expressed through vision, touch and hearing, so is the luxury brand. Next, we will talk about the characteristics of luxury brand image from three modules.

Vision is actually the simplest, and most brands are no different. By repetitive visual patterns, clear brand colors and so on. This module is the easiest part for luxury brands to imitate. It's easy for most businesses to do if they put in the work and the money.

The auditory part is not so simple. Consumer goods brands strive to incorporate brand promises into a slogan and then repeat them over and over again. Luxury brands, on the other hand, use legends, stories and observations to express their brand promises.

The Turi Tiffany Blue gift box above advertises this in 1906: "Tiffany has a product that you can't buy, no matter how much you spend, because it just gives away, not sells." This is the Tiffany gift box." Whether it is a casual glance on a busy street or a quiet gaze in the palm of your hand, the Tiffany Blue gift box will make you feel enchanted, symbolizing Tiffany's elegant, unique and flawless craftsmanship tradition.

Luxury brands constantly use stories to spread their brand connotations, so that these stories can be dumped and paid for by every consumer. Cartier's famous cheetah series is first of all unique in shape, and there is a third generation of Cartier family Joseph Cartier and artistic director Jean Toussaint's beautiful love story as the background. When consumers see the product, they hear the story. The brand image will be deeply imprinted into the hearts of consumers.

The tactile part is based on a variety of scarce materials: silk from Hermes, python skin or ostrich fur from Prada; Extreme to paranoid details: close-up and locking details such as Louis Vuitton seams; Excellence of hand-made requirements, etc., will be added to the brand image when consumers come into contact with the product.

03 Communication of luxury brands

In addition to the well-known spending money on advertising for the most popular stars to endorse, there are several communication rules that are particularly interesting.

Rule number one: Make everything about your business a conversation piece. Why are companies so keen to open conferences now, is to hope to cause enough influence. All kinds of big brands took the initiative to participate in the launch conference of luxury brands, and various media rushed to report. Criticism or praise. In a short time, it will be a topic of conversation and will be discussed for a long time. In this regard, the Apple event and the Chanel event are essentially one and the same.

On the contrary, some brands hold conferences in order to hold conferences, and this effect is intriguing.

Rule 2: Promotional content is not promotional

Although we all know that all brand communication is to increase sales conversion. The promotion of consumer goods brands will be required to clearly give the reasons for the purchase to achieve the publicity effect. However, all the publicity of luxury brands is more self-identity flaunts, so as to satisfy consumers' self-identity identification and resonate.

In addition to the well-known perfume, luxury goods prefer to do a lot of public relations campaigns and cultural sponsorship rather than through a lot of TV ads to promote. It's also about choosing channels that align with the core message of the brand, because it's so hard to tell an identity story with a TV AD.

04 One last word

The brand is the promise made and fulfilled by the company. This definition works for all brands, whether consumer or luxury. The formation of any brand must have a correct and long-term brand strategy. Brand strategy must be composed of three modules: brand positioning, brand image and brand communication. Luxury brands are no exception.

Luxury brands cannot be separated from a long history, a status symbol, and unparalleled innovation. But we have also seen two "young" luxury brands: Foss and Apple, without a long history, successfully build their brands into luxury brands through status symbols and unparalleled innovation.

Apple, in particular, relies on status symbols and unparalleled innovation to support its high premium. With the continuous improvement of people's consumption awareness and domestic mobile phone technology, these two points have been more and more challenged. And Apple is not sitting still, why say so. If we go to Apple's website, we'll see the woman next to Cook: Angela Ahrendts, senior vice president of retail.

The vice president is a big deal, having served as CEO of Burberry before joining Apple. She reinvigorated Burberry, a traditional luxury brand.

The purpose of this is to make it clear to you that the brand strategies of consumer goods and luxury goods are not compatible. Although Apple is facing challenges, and some products have begun to slash prices. But his luxury brand strategy, which accounts for more than 90% of Apple's profits, never changed.