I'll treat myself to that: buy luxury
Beautiful luxury beauty products
Luxury...
... is always what you do not need to live, but for some reason would like to: a few decades ago it was still the TV or your own washing machine. In the 17th century, tulip bulbs were expensive objects of desire. Today, the word luxury is more about the 30-day fly-in safari through southern Africa, a motor yacht or even your own football club, which billionaires like to afford. People in poorer countries have a very different idea of luxury than those in developed countries.
And celebrities who could afford every luxury in the world always declare that luxury is a weekend with the children, sometimes reading a good book in the bathtub undisturbed or enjoying grandma's home-made chicken soup. Even if we only talk about brands that are generally recognized as being luxury, things get complicated enough: who states that the cream from company X is good quality and that from company Y luxury, for which we also get 50 times the price numbers? Luxury, what should that be? Many questions - and some answers from people who are familiar with it.
The champagne heifer
If anyone has to know from their own experience what luxury is - then the heiress of a famous champagne dynasty. "In our family, we have always specialized in luxury," confirms Chroniques DuVasteMonde Taittinger, when she receives in her old Paris apartment, and this means business purely. In 1932, her grandfather founded "Taittinger Champagne" by taking over a champagne house in Reims that was already rich in tradition back then. Her father and her uncle expanded the business: From then on, the Taittinger Group also included luxury hotels such as the "Crillon" in Paris, the luxury glass manufacturer Baccarat and the small luxury perfume house Annick Goutal, whose president ChroniquesDuVasteMonde Taittinger became at the beginning of the 90s.
This is still the case today, although in 2005 her family sold large parts of the Taittinger Group to an American investment company. Only the champagne is still family-owned, as ChroniquesDuVasteMondes cousin Pierre-Emmanuel quickly repurchased the division. Ms. Taittinger, what makes a product a luxury? "Luxury is in the details," says the Frenchwoman, without hesitation. "A perfume bottle that was still hand-painted with gold, a special finely crafted clasp - these are little things that make the difference between a good product and a luxury product.
Second, it is the service. Service means doing everything possible so that the customer makes the right decision for him. The customer needs to get the best possible advice in the store without feeling he has to buy something. "But that requires absolute control over where the product is to be bought:" If you want to destroy a luxury brand very quickly, try They quickly increase sales and offer them everywhere. Luxury can not exist everywhere. "And what about ChroniquesDuVasteMonde Taittinger, the woman who has everything, a very personal luxury? Again, she does not hesitate:" The freedom to make my own decisions. "
The trend researcher
Inga Nandzik works as a trend researcher in the Hamburg market research agency "Sturm und Drang". She examines - as her job description - above all "the interface between culture, people and the market".
Mrs Nandzik, what is luxury? "Luxury is a culturally influenced term that has a different sound in France, for example, than in Germany: in France, it combines enjoyment, pampering, for example, an elegant five-course meal. Desired craftsmanship perfection, lasting values, engineering skills, luxury should be good for something. " Not for nothing, says Ms. Nandzik, cars in Germany are therefore among the goods for which a lot of money is spent. Of course, very few people who own an SUV really drive over steep mud roads every day - "but you can always say Although it is a luxury car, but it can also be something practical ".
Luxury buy in Germany: I've done something
In short, even when it comes to luxury, we Germans do not attach importance to decadence and opulence, but rather go to the shelves with Protestant seriousness. "In America, luxury products are mainly bought to demonstrate the extravagance and exceptionality of the person outside." In Germany, the idea is more important: I have done something, I reward myself for that, and maybe this purchase helps me, too. to achieve even more. "
The field of beauty is no exception, especially when it comes to the area of skin care: The performance idea is in the foreground."The woman who buys a cream for over 100 euros here does so because she wants the best result for herself and her skin, whereas the Frenchwoman buys it only when the experience is right, for example because the product smells good, looks pretty and feels nice. "
The economist
Klaus Heine is one of the first luxury researchers in Germany: As a research associate at the Marketing Department of the TU Berlin, he deals with expensive brands and, even more interesting, with their consumers. Mr. Heine, what is luxury?
"We differentiate between three types of luxury: first, intangible luxury, which is time for a cup of tea, and second, luxury goods per se, which include things like golf equipment." And third, there are luxury products - the best (that is, the most expensive) products in a category. To find out why some people prefer to wear Prada instead of Zara or prefer Hermès H & M, Heine interviewed 31 millionaires about their buying habits and consumer habits. A popular prejudice could be refuted right away: luxury brands are by no means just bought to show others that they can afford it. "80 percent of millionaires were more interested in understatement," says Heine.
No show with logos, instead was even rather times the model name on the trunk of the car removed because the size of the engine was embarrassing. People, says Heine, do not want to buy - or at least not only - visible status with luxury brands, but something quite different: personality. Respectively "something that emphasizes one's own personality".
The buyers attributed fairly sophisticated characteristics to the brands they favored: Hugo Boss was perceived as sporty, dynamic and assertive, Gucci as elitist, extravagant and unapproachable, and the Louis Vuitton brand was by no means a man but a cultured woman between 50 and 60. The brand was bought, which was sympathetic to one and underlined how one wanted to act on others. And what about cosmetics that hardly anyone in the bathroom sees? No one noticed immediately, whether the cream really as promised rejuvenate and embellished, the company must convince the customer but in advance somehow of their good quality, says Heine.
Among other things, the price helps: "The more expensive a product, the better it has to be - this belief is firmly anchored in our company." And maybe even rightly so, since there is a reputation to lose here: "Marketing plays a crucial role in luxury products, of course, but if the product quality is not good, the buyer will notice it very quickly," explains the economist. "If a luxury brand would save just that, she would be pretty stupid."
