Sara Bernát on today’s luxury fragmentation: “There’s almost no overlap between the Aesop shopper and the Lamborghini owner — and there’s a reason for that.”
A sharp, academic analysis on our current moment in the modern luxury timeline. Bernát’s argument: “Luxury in the Age of Fragmentation is a bit different. The gatekeepers no longer have much of a stronghold, so luxury definitions are unique and one group’s idea of it can vary wildly from another’s. The Maiyet customer’s socially sensitive and worldly view of the world stands in stark contrast, for instance, to the exclusive worldview of Lamborghini customer’s. These two brands will also most likely not share an overlapping consumer base.”
Ana Andjelic: Legacy retailers define strategy in competitive terms. Retail upstarts define it in terms of their customer.
To successfully compete in today’s customer-first context, retailers have to start thinking beyond incremental innovation. They must become comfortable with new models that cannibalize their business as it is right now.
Ana Andjelic – Rethinking luxury’s technology gameplan.
Longstanding luxury brands tend to treat technology as a marketing play or a value-add that sits on top of their business models – rather than harnessing technology to actually transform their businesses. Ana Andjelic’s argument: It’s a terrible approach. (652 words)
