Luxury brand marketing gives objects an aura. It elevates the ordinary. Some buyers don’t want the hype. They want things that are well-made, but not over-marketed.
Our latest article for Luxury Briefing magazine rubs off the gloss'n’polish. It's the seventeenth in our series and you can read all the others by following the links at the end of the article.
A rose is a rose is a rose: the paradox of luxury marketing
‘A rose is a rose is a rose’ is a famous quote from writer/art collector Gertrude Stein who saw how a word can carry so much symbolic baggage and cultural weight that the original meaning of it becomes nonsense.
The repetition of ‘rose’ strips the word bare to a series of sounds so you lose its mythology and statement of it being… well, just a flower.
A good-looking weed!
Not carrying the baggage of love, romance, hearts etc. It was her smart way of getting something back to basics and forcing us to see it afresh.
This is not what luxury marketing is about of course. The above thinking is possibly heresy. Because we are the opposite of deconstruction. We are in fact constructors; because we add layers. Because our job is to tell people that a rose isn’t just a rose - it’s heritage, exclusivity, beauty, affection, aspiration, and self-expression…
You can replace "rose" with " "car" or "bracelet," Repeated enough times, the word begins to lose its association with status, wealth, and prestige. What remains is the object itself.
A watch is a watch is a watch. We take a watch - a relatively simple time-telling device - and transform it into a wonderful magical ordered world of precision, engineering and accuracy. The time is irrelevant.
A Rolex does not just tell time; it tells a story. It is a declaration of achievement, a marker of status, a signal of success.
A Ferrari is not just a means of transport it is power, speed, and control.
A diamond ring is compressed carbon, unless it’s called Cartier.
But I’m not here to tear the walls down. Crafting illusions and stories is hard. And we play an honourable role.
For example, the Richard Mille RM 056 watch is amazing. A technical achievement; never had such a complex case design for such an intricate movement been manufactured in pure sapphire. ‘Its baseplate, created from grade 5 titanium, is entirely suspended within the sapphire watchcase by specially developed single braided cable of only 0.35mm thickness, woven within a system of 4 pulleys on posts at the movement’s corners and another 6 pulleys placed along the movement’s periphery. The tension of the cable is perfectly controlled by a miniature ratchet at 9 o’clock’. You’re not wearing it to tell the time.
Or the breathtaking Vacheron Constantin Celestia watch. This watch is a ‘horological exploration of astronomical complications, which would also embody not just complications as such, but also express the deeper connection between the astronomical cycles that are behind what we see in the sky, and experience on Earth’. Don’t ask the wearer for the time, you might regret it.
Because we aren’t selling functionality. We’re selling identity. That’s the method - and the madness. And the madder the object, the more potent the brand needs to be: for £1,581.00 you can buy some Maison Margiela Tabi Sneakers in crystal. Don’t wear them to Tesco. Louis Vuitton’s Nike Air Force 1 Low By Virgil Abloh White Green for £4,044.90 anyone? Jacquemus Le Chiquito’s leather mini bag £329 can just about hold a credit card. Fendi water bottles in raffia & leather holsters beat putting it in your bag.
So why do customers buy in? Because luxury brand marketing is mythmaking. It gives the object an aura. It elevates the ordinary. We take that rose and tell people it’s nurtured by nuns on sacred Alpine peaks, watered by pure glacial ice streams and harvested at sunrise whilst they sing Gregorian chants, and sold exclusively in limited editions in a branded velvet box for $29,999, plus shipping. That rose isn’t just any old rose - it’s a statement.
Rock the right handbag and you’re buying legacy, status, craftsmanship, tribe. You’re buying meaning. And meaning counts.
This is not to say that craftsmanship, design, or innovation are not important. Luxury products are exquisitely, sincerely, passionately made, with extraordinary, exquisite attention to detail.
The eternal question for marketers, and indeed finance departments, is how much of value is derived not from function, but from perception. Marketing forces us all to ask: what are consumers actually buying? Timekeeping, or a story? Utility, or identity?
But it’s not just a philosophical exercise. Because younger, newer, luxury consumers may just want the rose!
The most effective brand strategy today may not be the loudest, the quietest (stealth wealth is having moment) or the most exclusive - it may be the most honest.
Not everyone wants a lunar complication.
Goodness knows, life’s complicated as it is. Some just want to know the time. Increasingly, a segment of the market is rejecting the noise. These consumers aren’t anti-luxury - they’re anti-hype, pro-truth and pro- transparency. They want things that are well-made, but not over-marketed.
It’s a paradox.
They want the rose, but without the sonnet. Because that might just be enough.
Read more from our Brand Matters series:
- There is still room for grace, awe and wonder here
- The luxury Brand Playbook here
- Behind the beauty of luxury here
- How privacy and escape from the coarse excesses of the world is becoming more desirable for luxury brand consumers here
- The enduring importance of craftsmanship here
- Why craftsmanship's vulnerability will win in the tech world here.
- Creativity: From Origins to AI here
- Luxury is ageing gracefully here
- Thinking luxuriously here
- How distance creates desire here
- Why the pursuit of authenticity is paramount for luxury brands here
- Exploring the symbolism of colour for luxury brands here
- Why beauty, elegance, timeless high quality, durability and a little self-indulgence can be good for you here
- Why nature continues to inspire luxury brand design here
- The importance of being reassured here
A little more on Anew - a London-based luxury branding Agency
Anew’s two founders deliver: insights from market research, strategic brand thinking, new brand names, luxury logo design, messaging, online and offline content, coffee table books and luxury brand websites. We help companies increase brand profitability through sharper insights, distinctive propositions, creative ideas and faultless execution.
To get in touch do drop us an email. We'd be delighted to meet for a coffee, either face-to-face or virtually to discuss your brief.
