Experts note 'reviving tradition' as key for luxury consumers
According to Geraldine Bouchot, prospective studies manager and Elodie Nigay, marketing project manager at Carlin, this generation is very sensitive to luxury in terms of local reality and brand logo verses brand experience.
“It’s about the lifestyle,” Bouchot tells this publication. “They have grown up with a taste for theatrics.”
Nigay adds that society in general is at a crossroads, trying to combine living fast with efforts where possible, to soul-search and this is where the world of luxury can bring pleasure.
"Now it is more about the experience as an access to the brand, as the luxury market becomes more complex, the industry must meet the constant changing of dreams," she gives by way of example.
Combining the past and present - key to success
As new desires take hold, Bouchot says there has been a step towards meditation, philosophy, spirituality and the reactivation of myths and legends inspired by books, legends and programs like Game of Thrones.
As a concept of time, luxury has previously been about aspiring to get the product. Now experts say that brands are starting to incorporate iconic value and the importance of time into their product development and campaigns.
Those currently doing it right, Nigay says, include the likes of Paco Rabanne with its most recent 'modern god' ad for its 'Invictus' fragrance for men. "From a quest for beauty, to the allure of mysticism and the renaissance - time in a nutshell, matters for this generation," the expert explains.
The nouveau riche...
The latest research by Euromonitor has shown the luxury market in general to have grown to become a €230bn industry in 2013, with its value expected to increase by more than a third over the next five years.
This volcanic increase in luxury sales spending, according to the market researcher, results mainly from the emerging middle and upper-class in developing countries, particularly Asia, Africa and Latin America.
Nigeria- where most of the population lives on less than €1.46 per day - is now reckoned to be the world’s fastest growing market for champagne, reflecting the growing wealth of a minority of its population. The Middle East and North Africa have also expanded by around a third since 2008.
