The paradox of luxury brand marketing

Convention states that the success of marketing a brand pivots on pricing the product or service competitively, making it accessible by ensuring it's distributed in places where customers exist, the product or service needs to be extensively promoted with advertising that clearly communicates the USPs (which need to be authentic to its promise).

This doesn't necessarily apply to luxury brands. Their successes are based on pricing that's above the competition or middle-market brands, deliberate scarcity is established through limited retail outlets or distribution, no real USPs are established and the advertising is more on the ethereal side. Still, these brands are successful.

One of the essential ingredients for a luxury brand to be successful is to define and build on certain ethical and aesthetical invariants that are unique to the brand. They don't need to echo or cater to the mass consumption culture but need to be true in their essence and in most cases are emotional, aspirational and self-esteem drivers. This is the 'art' of marketing - therefore we see a surge since the 70s of luxury brands being closely associated with culture within societies - they drive art, they influence fashion, they create change.

Sometimes, anti-marketing is effective marketing.

What's your big idea?

Brand successes are all about ideas and ideas are all about innovation.

Now, ideas surround us everywhere we go, someone has a 'new' idea or a 'great' concept, something they truly believe to be innovative and ingenius; and people share them in coffee-shop type intellectual debates. I think the genius lies not in the idea but its implementation - get up and do something with your last brainwave, start by writing it down because ideas have a great ability to make a sudden arrival and an equally sudden departure from one's memory.

Innovation today also involves a collaborative management culture... companies now appoint idea spotters across the world who peep into urban consumer tribes and their lifestyles and help brands understand how to build relevance. And this is where one needs to listen - not management down, but street up - listen to what the public is saying and then make your product or service more relevant.

Don't create a new product or service; co-create it. Don't provide customization or custom-made products, make customer-made products, empower your consumer to have a say in what they truly want. That's when its relevant, effective, successful, profitable and most importantly memorable (as in our trade it's about the stickiness of our creative ideas).

So, if you have a sharp mind then it might be handy to keep a sharp pencil close by...

Who is in control of your happiness?

I believe if you like what you do, then you'll never tire of doing it. Similarly, if you're happy then you will end up being more productive.

At Insignia we believe a happy work environment is going to positively influence everyone to be more creative and productive. So, we've introduced the Happiness Program. The idea is simple, to involve everyone in the team to play an active role in creating happiness within the office. Here's how it works;

Everyday, one person gets to play the role of Happiness Manager and there's a roster for individuals to take the happiness helm, happily. They get to wear a name badge which states 'Happiness Manager' - they wear it proudly at work, to meetings and just about anywhere the day takes them. The HM for the day is responsible to do something special, whether it be a poetry recital or chocolates all around, something that makes people smile or keep them tickled.

You could bake a cake, share jokes, buy flowers, surprise someone or delight the team with anything your imagination allows you to think up!

So, what's going to make you happy today?

Endorsing your brand

Have you seen the recent reality shows with excessive product placements & endorsements? Coke dominates American Idol & Ford paid the show to make sure the logo looked the same - it's amazing how marketers have found a way to get so blatantly integrated into TV shows that I wonder why we need any commercial breaks at all.

Where I do believe they've missed the point is that just seeing your brand's logo or product as a prop doesn't necessarily engage me as a potential customer. There's no real expectation by the viewer and nothing of promise is stated by the brand... we're not stupid, we've figured out it's a business deal and that's where it fails.

James Bond can wear an Omega watch, drive a BMW (they came on board for a bit) or even hold a preferred brand mobile phone, but you can't make me buy one just because of that.

Imagine this: Coca Cola sponsors a charity drive for a famine struck country in Africa. Two cents from every drink sold goes towards this charity & they build 100 wells for clean drinking water... would you buy a coke?

I bet you would and American Idol would be a lot more fun to watch.

Luxuriously online

And here we were thinking that the giant dotcoms on the internet were only selling books or facilitating auctions.

Its time to be introduced to the 'Digiratis' a segment of consumers with little disposable time but lots of disposable money and they're making a change on the internet! Gucci took a bold step by selling $3,000 watches online and airlines like Lufthansa offer incentives for customers buying business class tickets (some transactions are nearly $20,000 or more). Then there's yoox.com who sell designer wear by labels like Giorgio Armani, D&G and many more.

What's your brand doing on the internet? If you're using the internet by emulating what your competition is doing then you're already on the downward slope - innovate the offer, get your customers to engage with your brand, tell your story & make your products available; there's a global consumer out there with little time but a fair bit of money.

Making it count

Instinct and intelligence are not always quantifiable, there's an aspect of the intangible that allows brands to make leaps & bounds as they evolve.

Nobody stood by Walt Disney when he launched his first animated film, he borrowed $500 from his uncle to make the film and everything else was history. There was no business plan or feasibility study - it was his unfaltering belief in himself and what he could offer. By the way if you were the person who lent Walt that money, it would be worth over $1 billion today.

The learning: Not everything that counts can be counted & not everything that can be counted, counts.

Shopping for a genie

We get approached regularly by companies large & small to present our ideas or strategy for their marketing needs. It could be a new identity or a new ad campaign and we're told to present our wares for them to consider appointing us. We humbly bow out of speculative pitches as our intellectual property is the primary asset we hold & I don't think it's right for us to invest our resource on a Dutch auction.

I don't see an individual shopping for the cheapest doctor when they have an illness or asking a lawyer to fight their case in court & pay only if they think the verdict is appropriate - so why should an Agency do the same? A pitch process can be a lot more refined, why not offer all shortlisted Agencies an incentive to pitch, maybe a nominal compensation for investing their time & if they win the account then the compensation gets adjusted?

Good etiquette in business is scarce.