With 2016 halfway through, marketing agency Cocoon investigates the latest global business trends spotted in the luxury industry.
CONSUMERS
3 Luxury Industry Trends Noticed As 2016 Passes Its Midpoint
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Over the last decade, collaborations between luxury brands and contemporary artists have gone beyond mere artistic partnerships towards a new kind of luxury branding.
PARIS – Art and fashion have always developed side by side, for fashion, like art, often gives visual expression to the cultural zeitgeist. During the 1920s, Salvador Dalí created dresses for Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiapparelli. In the 1930s, Ferragamo’s shoes commissioned designs for advertisements from Futurist painter Lucio Venna, while Gianni Versace commissioned works from artists such as Alighiero Boetti and Roy Lichtenstein for the launch of his collections. Yves Saint Laurent’s vast art collection, recently auctioned at Christie’s in Paris, testified to his great love of art and revealed the influence of a variety of artists on his own designs.
In the 1980s, relationships between luxury brands and artists were advanced when Alain Dominique Perrin created the Fondation Cartier. In the Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, a book marking the foundation’s 20th anniversary, Perrin says he makes “a connection between all the different sorts of arts, and luxury goods are a kind of art. Luxury goods are handicrafts of art, applied art.”
The Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemparain building in Paris
With 2016 halfway through, marketing agency Cocoon investigates the latest global business trends spotted in the luxury industry.
With 2016 halfway through, marketing agency Cocoon investigates the latest global business trends spotted in the luxury industry.
Consumers instantly want to fulfil needs and wants. That’s indisputable. But with the perception of ownership being redefined by today’s younger consumer, how are brands preparing to meet their needs?
From embracing the sharing economy, flaunting a fun side or focussing on individuality, brands are pulling out all of the stops to woo this younger generation. So let’s take a look how luxury brands have been pushing the boundaries over the past month.
“ The sharing economy continues to disrupt traditional models, with access over ownership becoming increasingly popular in the luxury sector. ”
Sharing Strategy
The sharing economy continues to disrupt traditional models, with access over ownership becoming increasingly popular in the luxury sector. As with automobiles and private jets, the on-demand economy has also reached the nautical world to better suit the needs of today’s consumers.
A brand tapping into this lucrative opportunity is luxury travel company Immidia. Promising to be the Uber for yachts, Immidia allows consumers to request a private yacht for charter in no more than a few hours.
Hot on their heels is newcomer Getmyboat, which promotes itself as the world’s largest boat rental marketplace via it mobile app. The world of boating is typically traditional and out-of-reach for many consumers. But Getmyboat’s new platform makes it simple and accessible for anyone and everyone that wants to get on the water.
DuBois et fils is another brand leveraging the sharing strategy. The luxury watchmaker is introducing its ‘Rent your Luxury Watch’ programme this summer, allowing consumers to rent limited edition timepieces for as little as $80 per month. Even more interestingly, DuBois et fils will track each timepiece that is rented out, creating unique storytelling around the journey of each piece.
Fashionable Fun
It’s time to say hello to playful luxury and tongue-in-cheek humour. Luxury brands no longer take themselves too seriously and increasingly are creating cheeky campaigns to connect with consumers. Chanel’s Karl Lagerfeld is arguably one of the most influential when it comes to showcasing a brand’s fun side.
British department store Harvey Nichols is highlighting its own playful nature by showing the influence its newly remodeled menswear shopping destination could have on iconic figures’ images. Its campaign “Great Men Deserve Great Style” gives characters as diverse as Barack Obama and Boris Johnson a makeover. This cheeky take on the power of style sheds light on a common problem for men and can help to increase consumer engagement with the brand. The content is initially running as a series of social videos on the brand’s YouTube channel.
Jimmy Choo’s latest campaign is teaching its fans how to ‘speak Choo’ – the new ‘dialect’ for the brand. A minute-long film explores the brand’s values through playful mottos, replacing the word “you” with “Choo”, whilst showcasing it’s 24:7 collection. The video is available on Jimmy Choo’s YouTube channel and shortened versions have been promoted on all other social channels.
Celebrating Individuality
Finally, Stella McCartney has launched a social campaign that moves away from the gloss and instead focuses on shared values and individuality. The #POPNOW campaign introduces a posse of millennial ambassadors who have similar values when it comes to sustainability and animal treatment. It also includes short videos of the ambassadors sharing their beliefs and exploring why they’re so important. Through celebrating individuality and authenticity, it encourages younger audiences with aligned ideologies to engage with Stella McCartney.
To further investigate luxury trends on Luxury Society, we invite you to explore related articles:
– 3 Key Luxury Trends For Q2 2016
– 4 Top Watch & Jewellery Trends Shaping The Luxury Landscape
– Engaging With Digital Natives For Luxury
Marketing Manager, Microsoft
Charlotte is Marketing Manager at Cocoon, which is a global marketing offering that facilitates connections between luxury brands and their consumers. Cocoon understands the unique relationships, networks and cultures in the luxury space – and how to navigate them. So as well as providing tailored, high-quality marketing activity, it is uniquely placed to forge potential partnerships between high-net-worth individuals and brands working within the sector.
