WHAT IS LUXURY?

Luxury is defined as “a condition of abundance or great ease and comfort; a sumptuous environment,” says Merriam Webster.?

Luxury is something that adds to pleasure provided by expensive and beautiful things,” says the Cambridge Dictionary. And Oxford adds “state of extravagant living.”?

To me, the greatest luxury is to Live Beautifully, our tagline, and while it is sometimes expensive to do so, Living Beautifully in itself does not have to always be expensive. It can be setting a gorgeous table, arranging flowers, plating take-out on exquisite dishes and taking the time to arrange the finer details of life into something eye-pleasing and beautiful, in turn feeding your soul that you are surrounded by beauty.?

I recorded my podcast ICONIC HOUR with Renee Dee with architect Mark Candelaria and tastemaker Janet Rantanen from Candelaria Design and lifestyle curator Jamilyn Fournier, who owns The Collector’s House. We all agreed that it was taking the extra effort to make things beautiful and paying attention to the little details.

I’ve created an entire brand on this idea at?ICONIC LIFE?magazine, based on my loves and passions for design, food, travel and fashion, and sharing my personal point of view on luxury living, while promoting the brands that do luxury at its best.?

While luxury is beauty, today it encompasses important values that we all hold dear. Here is some interesting information that I want to pass along to you.

LUXURY IS EMERGING

The key to luxury is and always will be centered around an idea of exclusivity—the feeling that not everyone will be able to get their hands on or experience whatever it is that the brand is selling. However, while this feeling is usually evoked through perceptions of quality, comfort and elegance, the term luxury is evolving to encompass several additional things to consumers around the globe. Luxury has a different meaning today than it did to previous generations.?

Last year, Marriott, along with Skift Research, conducted a global survey?of more than 5,000 high-income luxury consumers to capture attitudinal and behavioral differences toward luxury across the US, UK, China, Mexico and the United Arab Emirates. One of the key things to emerge from the study was that roughly 75 percent of respondents across all markets said that "luxury has a different meaning today than it did to my parents' generation."

Affluent consumers may be spending more on luxury goods and services than ever before, and they may still be using these purchases to help shape their identity. However, increasingly, luxury is no longer defined only by concepts of quality, comfort and elegance. Indeed, luxury expenditures are today going well beyond products that are expensive, produced by coveted brands, or simply hard to obtain.?

Instead, there is a shift from the external to an internalization of what is considered to be luxury. Today's high-earning consumers are looking for experiences that help them learn, differentiate themselves, express who they are, and have a purpose beyond comfort and pampering.?

Ultimately, the concept of "luxury" is becoming less about products consumers want to own or places they want to visit, and more about who they want to be. Luxury brands that understand this, and help their customers live up to self-actualization aspirations can give themselves a competitive advantage in the evolving world of luxury.

ACCORDING TO?FORBES

“At a recent conference in Los Angeles called Innocos, a futurist named Jared Weiner of The Future Hunters talked about what he called the 'Three T's' and a new, expanded, definition of luxury.?

“What's important in this new definition is that brands selling in this new way can compete effectively with brands that are offering the traditional definition of luxury. Brands that are effective at selling luxury know that when it's done right, there's no need to discount. That makes the expanded definition of luxury impactful and important for brands and retailers.

“Weiner says the ‘three T's’ of luxury now are time, truth and trust.?

“Time is of course the scarcest resource, the one thing we can never have more of. Post-pandemic, Weiner believes that consumers may want to use their time differently than before. Luxury consumers' time is the most valuable of all and helping them make the shopping experience convenient and easy makes it more likely they'll come back.

“But the other two, truth and trust, are new. Weiner talks about how each person's truth is now more varied than ever, truth as it relates to brands is about personalization, making a business' products more relevant, or true, to each consumer and the truth they believe, their personal values and how they want to present themselves.?

“And trust. Who you trust relates to brands and retailers and particularly to influencers. Influencers who are viewed as authentic, whether they are personal friends or megastars, have become critical to how brands are marketed.

“Time, truth and trust, are scarcer now than ever. Weiner says that when you give consumers an experience that saves them time, gives them what they want that's particular to them and information that they trust from a source they want to associate with, you've created a luxury experience for them, regardless of where and what you're selling.?

MY POV

These concepts of luxury resonate with me particularly as it relates to modern marketing, where the clients of my clients, and my clients most importantly, want us to save them time, provide truthful information and be a trusted resource that serves as a multiplier to the business relationship that can go on in perpetuity. It is through this lens that we can all grow, and grow together, in 2023.

I’d love to hear from you on how you are making decisions in your business as it relates to time, truth and trust.

Thanks for subscribing to this newsletter. I’m enjoying this outlet to share what’s on my mind.