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The Era Where Luxury Meets Technology

by

Ali Mirza

|

This is the featured image caption
Credit: This is the featured image credit
Luxury groups are investing heavily in the latest technologies to elevate their products and digital strategies to a whole new level. Recently we have seen a strong increase in the…

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

Luxury groups are investing heavily in the latest technologies to elevate their products and digital strategies to a whole new level.

Recently we have seen a strong increase in the trend of combining technology with luxury to create the most innovative products and extraordinary online experiences. Luxury players like LVMH and Richemont are investing heavily in new technologies that will benefit their brands and give them an edge in an omnichannel world.

On the other hand, many technology brands like Apple have crossed into the luxury space, with the new iPhone X priced at upwards of $1,000, and the Apple Watch’s collaboration with Hermès, which is described on their website as “A partnership based on parallel thinking, singular vision, and mutual regard.”

It has become clear that we are entering an era where luxury meets technology.

In our latest 2017/18 Affluent Insights Luxury Study, Agility will be exploring how consumers perceive innovation and the use of digital technology by brands, and whether they will be likely to purchase from a brand if they perceive the brand to be innovative. The study also explores what innovations consumers want from luxury brands, and include brands like Apple alongside luxury premium watches like Rolex and Patek Philippe. Such insights will bring a new understanding into how consumers perceive the marriage of luxury and technology.

But what are some of the examples of where luxury meets technology? Here are three examples and our take on them.

LVMH Innovation Award at VIVA Technology

VIVA Technology is an annual conference celebrating innovation attended by more than 68,000 attendees. This year’s VIVA Technology was special for LVMH since it was the first time the company launched the LVMH Innovation Award. In total, 32 start-ups were selected to become finalists of the award.

The award winner gets the priceless opportunity to forge a partnership with LVMH and all its Maisons. They would also have their own booth within the LVMH Lab space at the event, which gives them access to more investors and audiences.

The winner was selected by a panel of experts in luxury and technology, which is in itself a testatement to the newly established relationship between the two sectors. This year, the winner was Heuritech, a machine learning detector that seeks to understand changing tastes in fashion and beauty.

It is important to note that the winner who got selected did not come up with a product innovation, even though many among the 32 finalists offered just that, but an innovation in management and marketing.

Image credit: LVMH

Richemont’s Innovation Lab in Microcity, Switzerland

Richemont recently opened its new Innovation Lab in Microcity, Switzerland, which focuses mostly on nanotechnologies, microfabrication, and industrial processes, supports brands and corporations through the facilitation of experiments using the latest available technology and research.

The Lab, which will serve all Richemont’s Maisons, is strategically located in the Canton of Neuchâtel, where most of Richemont’s manufacturing is located.

More importantly, they have successfully bridged technology and luxury by describing their research as an effort to achieve perfection, even going so deep by studying the microfabrication of watchmaking.

Iphone X – Our Take on the $1,000 Smart Phone

Apple claims to have unveiled the future of smartphones by announcing the new iPhone X, which sells from USD 1,000 upwards – certainly a hefty price for a phone. This claim to supremacy is backed by a new all-glass design and innovative features like a Super Retina Display, TrueDepth Camera System, Face ID, and an A11 Bionic Chip with Neural Engine.

Has iPhone X crossed firmly into the luxury category, or is it just a tech gadget priced according to its more advanced technical specifications? After all, it checks the boxes of high price, great design and materials, and extensive features. But how about the story?

Every luxury marketer understands that luxury goods are devoid of status without the story surrounding the good or the brand. Luxury brands would spend millions of dollars just to craft that perfect story that will elicit an image that consumers associate with the good or the brand.

This image is then carried over to the user of the good, as other people who have also heard that perfectly crafted story and value the image that comes with it, will also associate the user of that good with said image.

Apple’s story is the story of a never-ending journey to achieve innovation; of being ahead of their time; of modernity; and of novelty. Because of this, users of Apple goods are associated with images of innovativeness, modernity, and being ahead of their time.

In our time, all of these concepts are valued and highly prized. People give tremendous values to the images produced by the stories surrounding the iPhone X, which will be associated with its users. This makes the iPhone X more valuable.

In the case of other “traditional” luxury goods, a premium watch conveys the story of craftsmanship in a world where everything else is mass produced and perfection is sought after; a Birkin bag conveys the story of exclusivity in a world where every other expensive bag is available online 24/7; a diamond ring conveys an undying love in a world where the divorce rate is increasing and people are not getting married as much; and an Aston Martin carries the story of mystery as embodied by James Bond, in a world where privacy and mystery are sought after.

Therefore, what makes something a luxury good, including smart phones, is essentially the interplay between the story the brand surrounds the good with, and how much value people give to that story.

What does this mean for brands?

At the end of the day, while technology and innovation may be important for luxury brands, it is also about how well the story is presented and how much it resonates with your customers. For some brands, perhaps tradition and heritage are the qualities that will keep on attracting consumers to purchase their products. For others, technology and innovation can carry the story forward. The balance needs to be achieved between technology which has a short shelf life and luxury which has a longer heritage for products to be successful.

Cover image credit: LVMH

Ali Mirza
Ali Mirza

CEO, AFFLUENTIAL™

Ali is the CEO of AFFLUENTIAL™ powered by Agility Research and Strategy, a global leader in intelligence focused on the Affluent and Emerging Middle Class consumer: the “Influential Affluent”. AFFLUENTIAL™ works with leading premium brands, adding value through a range of services from analytics, consulting and consumer research.

RETAIL

The Era Where Luxury Meets Technology

by

Ali Mirza

|

This is the featured image caption
Credit : This is the featured image credit
Luxury groups are investing heavily in the latest technologies to elevate their products and digital strategies to a whole new level. Recently we have seen a strong increase in the…

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

Luxury groups are investing heavily in the latest technologies to elevate their products and digital strategies to a whole new level.

Recently we have seen a strong increase in the trend of combining technology with luxury to create the most innovative products and extraordinary online experiences. Luxury players like LVMH and Richemont are investing heavily in new technologies that will benefit their brands and give them an edge in an omnichannel world.

On the other hand, many technology brands like Apple have crossed into the luxury space, with the new iPhone X priced at upwards of $1,000, and the Apple Watch’s collaboration with Hermès, which is described on their website as “A partnership based on parallel thinking, singular vision, and mutual regard.”

It has become clear that we are entering an era where luxury meets technology.

In our latest 2017/18 Affluent Insights Luxury Study, Agility will be exploring how consumers perceive innovation and the use of digital technology by brands, and whether they will be likely to purchase from a brand if they perceive the brand to be innovative. The study also explores what innovations consumers want from luxury brands, and include brands like Apple alongside luxury premium watches like Rolex and Patek Philippe. Such insights will bring a new understanding into how consumers perceive the marriage of luxury and technology.

But what are some of the examples of where luxury meets technology? Here are three examples and our take on them.

LVMH Innovation Award at VIVA Technology

VIVA Technology is an annual conference celebrating innovation attended by more than 68,000 attendees. This year’s VIVA Technology was special for LVMH since it was the first time the company launched the LVMH Innovation Award. In total, 32 start-ups were selected to become finalists of the award.

The award winner gets the priceless opportunity to forge a partnership with LVMH and all its Maisons. They would also have their own booth within the LVMH Lab space at the event, which gives them access to more investors and audiences.

The winner was selected by a panel of experts in luxury and technology, which is in itself a testatement to the newly established relationship between the two sectors. This year, the winner was Heuritech, a machine learning detector that seeks to understand changing tastes in fashion and beauty.

It is important to note that the winner who got selected did not come up with a product innovation, even though many among the 32 finalists offered just that, but an innovation in management and marketing.

Image credit: LVMH

Richemont’s Innovation Lab in Microcity, Switzerland

Richemont recently opened its new Innovation Lab in Microcity, Switzerland, which focuses mostly on nanotechnologies, microfabrication, and industrial processes, supports brands and corporations through the facilitation of experiments using the latest available technology and research.

The Lab, which will serve all Richemont’s Maisons, is strategically located in the Canton of Neuchâtel, where most of Richemont’s manufacturing is located.

More importantly, they have successfully bridged technology and luxury by describing their research as an effort to achieve perfection, even going so deep by studying the microfabrication of watchmaking.

Iphone X – Our Take on the $1,000 Smart Phone

Apple claims to have unveiled the future of smartphones by announcing the new iPhone X, which sells from USD 1,000 upwards – certainly a hefty price for a phone. This claim to supremacy is backed by a new all-glass design and innovative features like a Super Retina Display, TrueDepth Camera System, Face ID, and an A11 Bionic Chip with Neural Engine.

Has iPhone X crossed firmly into the luxury category, or is it just a tech gadget priced according to its more advanced technical specifications? After all, it checks the boxes of high price, great design and materials, and extensive features. But how about the story?

Every luxury marketer understands that luxury goods are devoid of status without the story surrounding the good or the brand. Luxury brands would spend millions of dollars just to craft that perfect story that will elicit an image that consumers associate with the good or the brand.

This image is then carried over to the user of the good, as other people who have also heard that perfectly crafted story and value the image that comes with it, will also associate the user of that good with said image.

Apple’s story is the story of a never-ending journey to achieve innovation; of being ahead of their time; of modernity; and of novelty. Because of this, users of Apple goods are associated with images of innovativeness, modernity, and being ahead of their time.

In our time, all of these concepts are valued and highly prized. People give tremendous values to the images produced by the stories surrounding the iPhone X, which will be associated with its users. This makes the iPhone X more valuable.

In the case of other “traditional” luxury goods, a premium watch conveys the story of craftsmanship in a world where everything else is mass produced and perfection is sought after; a Birkin bag conveys the story of exclusivity in a world where every other expensive bag is available online 24/7; a diamond ring conveys an undying love in a world where the divorce rate is increasing and people are not getting married as much; and an Aston Martin carries the story of mystery as embodied by James Bond, in a world where privacy and mystery are sought after.

Therefore, what makes something a luxury good, including smart phones, is essentially the interplay between the story the brand surrounds the good with, and how much value people give to that story.

What does this mean for brands?

At the end of the day, while technology and innovation may be important for luxury brands, it is also about how well the story is presented and how much it resonates with your customers. For some brands, perhaps tradition and heritage are the qualities that will keep on attracting consumers to purchase their products. For others, technology and innovation can carry the story forward. The balance needs to be achieved between technology which has a short shelf life and luxury which has a longer heritage for products to be successful.

Cover image credit: LVMH

Ali Mirza
Ali Mirza

CEO, AFFLUENTIAL™

Ali is the CEO of AFFLUENTIAL™ powered by Agility Research and Strategy, a global leader in intelligence focused on the Affluent and Emerging Middle Class consumer: the “Influential Affluent”. AFFLUENTIAL™ works with leading premium brands, adding value through a range of services from analytics, consulting and consumer research.

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