Luxury Bites Back
Back in January I published a presentation forecasting some major trends for confectionery packaging in 2011 and 2012. (You can still view this presentation and check whether we've got anything right so far! - It's embedded below).One of the trends we saw as shaping the world of design and packaging, which may have seemed counterintuitive, was the return of prominent luxury goods and speciality-gourmet, fine-foods.
There's no doubt that this has played out so far.
Against an ongoing background of government austerity measures and stagnant growth, luxury brands are generating bigger than ever revenues. LVMH Posts Forecast-Beating Q3 Sales Growth
There's no doubt that this has played out so far.
Against an ongoing background of government austerity measures and stagnant growth, luxury brands are generating bigger than ever revenues. LVMH Posts Forecast-Beating Q3 Sales Growth
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Only today I tweeted that LVMH - owner of Louis Vuitton, Mumm champagne, Hennessy Cognac and other luxury brands - had posted strong growth:(See our Tweet) An LVMH statement (source: Reuters) claims:
"The momentum continued in Asia, Europe and the United States, while Japan returned to growth over the period."
UK Aims for World Record with $33,000 Dessert Experience LVMH's growth announcement followed the news of a £23,000 dessert created by Wave Jewellery and Chef Marc Guilbert (See our Tweet).Now I'm all for luxury in many contexts - it can be aspirational, create wonderful visual imagery and escapist fantasies, and, perhaps more importantly, is a reasonable source of tax to fund public services.It can also be a good PR mechanism for artisan producers who are actually catering for markets several notches down the wealth spectrum with their everyday output.
But I couldn't help feeling the negative connotations of excess may harm those associated with such projects. Should political correctness stretch to what you can and can't do with your money? This is where the debate gets a little hot and I can't say I know the answer. But I know that when I see it, the ambivalence can be a source of discomfort and does make me question whether eating gold as others starve can ever be acceptable, even when fighting the worst of the moralising and simply allowing fun to rule... Why is Luxury Back Then? So this is where I'm supposed to give me verdict on why luxury has returned so strongly to prominence...We're crap at staying frugal Well firstly, as we suggested in our trends presentation, we can only stay austere for so long. People simply get bored with being frugal when they haven;t lived that way for so many years.And as the world has (albeit falteringly) returned to growth, so those who had been driving the Prius to work have allowed themselves to drive the Porsche again. It's no longer uncool to show trappings of "success". We prioritise certain luxuries over othersWhen we haven't allowed ourselves to go to cinema, we get a film on Sky Box Office and buy a nice meal from Marks and Spencer or Waitrose. When we buy less Easter Eggs for each other, we make sure the ones we buy are premium chocolates from artisan chocolatiers. It's a case of small luxury treats in amongst greater austerity, and these mini rewards are a strong part of gaining the will-power to fight hard on other issues.Perhaps the government has recognised this trend in giving us extra bank holidays in 2011 and 2012 - long may that continue! The link between a performing economy and luxury goods sales isn't straight-forward According to wikinvest.com:"Japan consumes luxury goods twice as much per capita compared to the U.S".
One possible reason for this could have been a large gap between the rich and the poor, but Japan's poorest 20% earn 44% of the average earnings per capita. This is significantly higher than in the USA and UK where it is closer to 24% (source: UN Development Programme, 1996), so it's not just the rich few who are indulging here. This suggests that there may be a possible link between luxury and culture as strong as that between luxury spend and economic prosperity. A lack of good evidence There are actually very few studies looking at why people buy luxury goods, perhaps because it is so culture-specific and varies greatly according to prestige/masstige considerations and the category of goods or experience.Raher fittingly, the last word goes to a consumer website (Wired.com), which brought to light in 2010 some research into peoples' susceptibility to luxury in purchasing decisions. It's apparently down to our "faith in the authentic," which leads us to luxury branded goods in categories of personal importance
So if you consider yourself a chocolate lover, you'll go out of your way to find the very best when you're purchasing gifts or personal indulgence "rewards".(And it had better be packaged properly!!) Contact Meridian to discuss your luxury packaging requirements Read the full Wired.com article. Future choc: confectionery packaging trends ahead
"The momentum continued in Asia, Europe and the United States, while Japan returned to growth over the period."
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One possible reason for this could have been a large gap between the rich and the poor, but Japan's poorest 20% earn 44% of the average earnings per capita. This is significantly higher than in the USA and UK where it is closer to 24% (source: UN Development Programme, 1996), so it's not just the rich few who are indulging here. This suggests that there may be a possible link between luxury and culture as strong as that between luxury spend and economic prosperity. A lack of good evidence There are actually very few studies looking at why people buy luxury goods, perhaps because it is so culture-specific and varies greatly according to prestige/masstige considerations and the category of goods or experience.Raher fittingly, the last word goes to a consumer website (Wired.com), which brought to light in 2010 some research into peoples' susceptibility to luxury in purchasing decisions. It's apparently down to our "faith in the authentic," which leads us to luxury branded goods in categories of personal importance
So if you consider yourself a chocolate lover, you'll go out of your way to find the very best when you're purchasing gifts or personal indulgence "rewards".(And it had better be packaged properly!!) Contact Meridian to discuss your luxury packaging requirements Read the full Wired.com article. Future choc: confectionery packaging trends ahead
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