book

The Luxury Strategy, 3rd Edition

Name: The Luxury Strategy, 3rd Edition
ISBN: 9781398624276

by Jean-Noël Kapferer, Vincent Bastien

June 2025

Intermediate to advanced

472 pages

13h 56m

English

Kogan Page

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Cover: The Luxury Strategy
Priase for The Luxury Strategy
Title page
Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
Preface to the 3rd edition
Introduction
Part One Back to luxury fundamentals
01 In the beginning there was luxury
A brief history of luxuryThe 20th century and the democratization of luxuryLuxury, the individual and societyPositioning of luxury in our present-day societyMoney, fashion, art and luxury: boundaries and ambiguitiesLuxury: learning from religion and art

02 The end of a confusion: premium is not luxury
The multiple approaches to the concept of luxuryDenying the specificity of luxuryThere is no continuous movement from premium to luxuryIt is not easy to exit luxury through a ‘downwards’ strategyFrom where has the current confusion arisen?Towards a definition of luxuryExiting the confusion: the case of the carRelativity of luxury in carsIs automobile luxury the pursuit of perfection?Top-of-the-range, upper-premium and luxury carsThe luxury car: creation, mythical models and social prestigeWhat link does luxury have with technology?The constituents of the myth of the luxury carLuxury and expressions of national identityBeyond the product: services and privilegesThe magic of cult objects: licences and boutiques
03 Anti-laws of marketing
1 Forget about ‘positioning’, luxury is not comparative2 Does your product have enough flaws?3 Do not pander to your customers’ wishes4 Keep non-enthusiasts out5 Do not respond to rising demand6 Dominate the client7 Make it difficult for clients to buy8 Protect clients from non-clients, the big from the small9 The role of advertising is not to sell10 Communicate to those you are not targeting11 The presumed price should always seem higher than the actual price12 Luxury sets the price, price does not set luxury13 Raise your prices as time goes on in order to increase demand14 Keep raising the average price of the product range15 Do not sell16 Keep stars out of your advertising17 Cultivate closeness to the arts for initiates18 Do not relocate your factories19 Do not hire consultants20 Do not test21 Do not look for consensus22 Do not look after group synergies23 Do not look for cost reduction24 Just sell marginally on the internet
04 Facets of luxury today
On the importance of the ‘label’Luxury: the product and the brandThe ingredients of the luxury product: complexity and workSuperlative, never comparativeLuxury and cultural mediationLuxury and historyLuxury and timeTradition is not passéismeLuxury is made by handReal or virtual rarity?Rarity and sustainabilityLuxury and exclusivityLuxury and fashion: an essential differenceLuxury and artLuxury and charity
Part Two Luxury brands need specific management
05 Customer attitudes vis-à-vis luxury
What is the size of the market?To be rich or to be modern?Heavy users and day trippersThe four luxury clientelesA strong axis of segmentation: sensitivity to the product or to the logo?A second axis of differentiation: authentic does not always mean historicalA third axis of differentiation: disruption or integration?How countries differ in their attitudesWhy are Western luxury brands globalized?China today and tomorrowWhy India resists Western luxuryRussia: the psychology of oligarchs
06 Developing brand equity
There is no luxury without brandsManaging luxury by the brandProducts, experiences and brandsA luxury brand is a real and living personA luxury brand has rootsA luxury brand must radiateNo life cycle for the luxury brandA legitimacy created from authority, class and creation, more than from expertiseThe financial value of luxury brandsThe core of the luxury brand: its identityBuilding brand coherence at contact points: central and peripheral identity traitsTwo modes of luxury brand buildingBuilding the luxury brand: the dream equationThe luxury brand compass: architecture of product rolesLuxury brand equity in the digital eraWhy and how does the digital world challenge luxury?Managing the dream through communicationDefending the brand against counterfeitingCounterfeiting as a way to diagnose the health of the brand strategyAlways defend your rights and communicate frequently
07 Luxury brand stretching
Luxury expansion through line extensions and brand extensionsThe origins of luxury brand stretchingLuxury stretching: a practice that has changed the sectorComparing the Italian and French models of extensionTwo models for brand stretching: vertical or horizontal?The pyramidThe galaxySuccess factor of luxury extensionTypology of brand stretchingsLeading a brand stretchGrowth by stretching: the Montblanc caseStretching: preserve coherence, but be creative and unexpectedMaintaining brand identity across sub-brands: the Armani caseBuilding credentials in a new category: the Chanel caseThe risk factors of brand stretchingControlling the boomerang effect of brand stretching
08 Qualifying a product or service as luxury
No product without serviceThe luxury product and the dreamFunctionality and dreams do not follow the same economic modelsThe luxury product is not a perfect product, but a sacred productLuxury product and competitive universeLuxury product and timeOccasion of use and perception of valueLasting a lifetime... and beyondProlonging the ecstasy of a privileged momentAdapting to its timeStructuring the luxury range: how is the range of a luxury brand organized?Innovating through a new product rangeDon’t sacrifice the past to the futureA mode of production as a lever of the imaginaryThe opposition between luxury and relocationLicences signal the departure from luxuryThe challenge of luxury services: creating the gap
09 Pricing luxury
What about price elasticity?Increase the price to increase demand and recreate the distanceWhat price premium?Fixing the price in luxuryManaging the price over timeNo sales in luxuryPrice reductionsThe price and its communicationThe price is not publicly advertisedThe price must be soldPrice: the two challenges of the luxury strategy
10 Distribution and the internet dilemma
Luxury is in the distributionYou sell to someone before you sell somethingIt is the price, not the product, that is sold to the clientThe sales personnel should never earn direct sales commissionDistribution shows that the brand dominates clients, but respects themDistributing is first of all about communicatingDistribution should not only show off, but enhance the product imageIt is distribution’s job to communicate the brand’s price levelA luxury purchase is a lengthy actDistribution is luxury’s weak linkThe choice of a new sales point cannot be delegatedDistribution must manage rarityDistribution protects you from competitionLuxury and mode of distributionLuxury and digital distribution (the internet dilemma)Luxury brands: when, what and how to sell on the internet
11 Communicating luxury
You don’t communicate to sellYou communicate because you sellYou don’t talk about moneyYou communicate, you don’t advertiseNo personalities in the advertisingThe role of brand ambassadorsBuilding the social driver of desirePermanently encourage word of mouthWhat balance should there be between local and global communication?The internet and communication in luxuryThe unique codes of luxury communicationMaking the brand’s visual language denser: the nine signatures of the brandMaking the brand denser through tales, stories and rumoursAdapting the communication register to the type of luxuryThe dialectic of the local and the universal
12 Financial and HR management of a luxury company
Financial issues in luxury companiesLuxury and profitabilityGlobalizingLuxury, volume and profitabilityManaging the human capital in luxury
Part Three Strategic perspectives
13 Luxury business models
Luxury products with a profitable core tradeWhat are the pitfalls to avoid in this working model of a luxury product with a profitable core trade?Luxury products with a too-restricted core rangeThe perfume business modelThe business model of luxury trades with very high overheadsThe ‘high-tech’ business model (highly innovative industry)Crises and luxury business models
14 Entering luxury and leaving it
Wanting to be luxury is not enough: the conditions of luxuryWhy envisage a luxury strategy?Start small and become profitableOnce profitable, grow quicklyAcquiring an existing brandDeparting from luxuryThe end of a luxury brandTaking a brand out of the luxury universeLeveraging the image in a low-cost strategy
15 Learning from luxury
Luxury concerns all tradesUnderstand the rules in order to adapt themHow Apple follows a luxury strategyLuxury according to MINIMixed strategiesManaging a luxury strategy in B2BLuxury marketing as the future of traditional marketingWhat marketing issues of today could luxury marketing help to resolve?The Lacoste exampleLearning from luxury
16 Luxury and sustainable development: convergences and divergences
Luxury and sustainable developmentAdopting the luxury strategy to foster sustainable development
Conclusion
References
Index
Copyright Page

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List of Figures

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The Luxury Strategy, 3rd Edition

by Jean-Noël Kapferer, Vincent Bastien

List of Figures

Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.