Luxury Branding

Abstract

Luxury branding is a topic of growing importance for marketing practitioners and academics alike. In affluent societies, and increasingly in poor ones, luxury has an allure beyond mere practical necessities. Indeed, some would argue that the luxury industry epitomizes the phrase “marketing is everything”(Beverland, 2004), and in this sense, it should represent a unique area of interest for research in marketing. The global market for luxury products and services is estimated to reach US $100 billion in 2008 (Merrill Lynch/Capgemini, 2005; Unity Marketing, 2006). Notably, this estimate depends entirely on how luxury is defined. For instance, a report from Research and Markets (2006) estimated the total US luxury market to have reached US $1,002.2 billion in 2005, up 11.6% from US $898 billion in 2004. This underscores one of the important prerequisites for effectively managing a luxury brand — that of understanding how luxury is conceptualized and what it represents to consumers.