Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Discover the secrets to successful luxury brand management with this bestselling guide written by two of the world's leading experts on luxury branding, Jean-Noël Kapferer and Vincent Bastien, providing a unique blueprint for luxury brands and companies. Having established itself as the definitive work on the essence of a luxury brand strategy, this book defines the differences between premium and luxury brands and products, analyzing the nature of true luxury brands and turning established marketing 'rules' upside-down. Written by two world experts on luxury branding, The Luxury Strategy provides the first rigorous blueprint for the effective management of luxury brands and companies at the highest level. This fully revised second edition of The Luxury Strategy explores the diversity of meanings of 'luxury' across different markets. It rationalizes those business models that have achieved profitability and unveils the original methods that were used to transform small family businesses such as Ferrari, Louis Vuitton, Cartier, Chanel, Armani, Gucci, and Ralph Lauren into profitable global brands.Now with a new section on marketing and selling luxury goods online and the impact of social networks and digital developments, this book has truly cemented its position as the authority on luxury strategy.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Introduction (p. 1)
• Part 1 Back to luxury fundamentals (p. 3)
• 01 In the beginning there was luxury (p. 5)
• A brief history of luxury (p. 5)
• The 20th century and the democratization of luxury (p. 9)
• Luxury, the individual and society (p. 16)
• Positioning of luxury in our present-day society (p. 22)
• Money, fashion, art and luxury: boundaries and ambiguities (p. 24)
• Luxury: learning from religion and art (p. 35)
• 02 The end of a confusion: premium is not luxury (p. 39)
• The multiple approaches to the concept of luxury (p. 40)
• Denying the specificity of luxury (p. 41)
• There is no continuous movement from premium to luxury (p. 42)
• It is not easy to exit luxury through a 'downwards' strategy (p. 43)
• From where has the current confusion arisen? (p. 43)
• Towards a definition of luxury (p. 45)
• Exiting the confusion: the case of the car (p. 48)
• Relativity of luxury in cars (p. 49)
• Is automobile luxury the pursuit of perfection? (p. 50)
• Top-of-the-range, upper-premium and luxury cars (p. 51)
• The luxury car: creation, mythical models and social prestige (p. 53)
• What link does luxury have with technology? (p. 56)
• The constituents of the myth of the luxury car (p. 57)
• Luxury and expressions of national identity (p. 59)
• Beyond the product: services and privileges (p. 61)
• The magic of cult objects: licences and boutiques (p. 63)
• 03 Anti-laws of marketing (p. 65)
• 1 Forget about 'positioning', luxury is not comparative (p. 65)
• 2 Does your product have enough flaws? (p. 66)
• 3 Do not pander to your customers' wishes (p. 67)
• 4 Keep non-enthusiasts out (p. 69)
• 5 Do not respond to rising demand (p. 69)
• 6 Dominate the client (p. 70)
• 7 Make it difficult for clients to buy (p. 71)
• 8 Protect clients from non-clients, the big from the small (p. 71)
• 9 The role of advertising is not to sell (p. 72)
• 10 Communicate to those you are not targeting (p. 73)
• 11 The presumed price should always seem higher than the actual price (p. 74)
• 12 Luxury sets the price, price does not set luxury (p. 74)
• 13 Raise your prices as time goes on in order to increase demand (p. 75)
• 14 Keep raising the average price of the product range (p. 76)
• 15 Do not sell (p. 76)
• 16 Keep stars out of your advertising (p. 77)
• 17 Cultivate closeness to the arts for initiates (p. 78)
• 18 Do not relocate your factories (p. 78)
• 19 Do not hire consultants (p. 80)
• 20 Do not test (p. 81)
• 21 Do not look for consensus (p. 82)
• 22 Do not look after group synergies (p. 82)
• 23 Do not look for cost reduction (p. 83)
• 24 Just sell marginally on the internet (p. 83)
• 04 Facets of luxury today (p. 85)
• On the importance of the 'label' (p. 85)
• Luxury: the product and the brand (p. 87)
• The ingredients of the luxury product: complexity and work (p. 89)
• Superlative, never comparative (p. 91)
• Luxury and cultural mediation (p. 91)
• Luxury and history (p. 93)
• Luxury and time (p. 95)
• Tradition is not passéisme (p. 97)
• Luxury is made by hand (p. 98)
• Real or virtual rarity? (p. 99)
• Rarity and sustainability (p. 103)
• Luxury and exclusivity (p. 103)
• Luxury and fashion: an essential difference (p. 106)
• Luxury and art (p. 107)
• Luxury and charity (p. 109)
• Part 2 Luxury brands need specific management (p. 111)
• 05 Customer attitudes via-à-via luxury (p. 113)
• What is the size of the market? (p. 114)
• To be rich or to be modern? (p. 115)
• Heavy users and day trippers (p. 117)
• The four luxury clienteles (p. 118)
• A strong axis of segmentation: sensitivity to the product or to the logo? (p. 120)
• A second axis of differentiation: authentic does not always mean historical (p. 123)
• A third axis of differentiation: disruption or integration? (p. 123)
• How countries differ in their attitudes (p. 124)
• Why are Western luxury brands globalized? (p. 127)
• China today and tomorrow (p. 130)
• Why India resists Western luxury (p. 133)
• Russia; the psychology of oligarchs (p. 135)
• 06 Developing brand equity (p. 139)
• There is no luxury without brands (p. 139)
• Managing luxury by the brand (p. 140)
• Products, experiences and brands (p. 141)
• A luxury brand is a real and living person (p. 143)
• A luxury brand has roots (p. 143)
• A luxury brand must radiate (p. 143)
• No life cycle for the luxury brand (p. 144)
• A legitimacy created from authority, class and creation, more than from expertise (p. 145)
• The financial value of luxury brands (p. 145)
• The core of the luxury brand: its identity (p. 147)
• Building brand coherence at contact points: central and peripheral identity traits (p. 151)
• Two modes of luxury brand building (p. 152)
• Building the luxury brand: the dream equation (p. 153)
• The luxury brand compass: architecture of product roles (p. 156)
• Luxury brand equity in the digital era (p. 158)
• Why and how does the digital world challenge luxury? (p. 159)
• Managing the dream through communication (p. 163)
• Defending the brand against counterfeiting (p. 163)
• Counterfeiting as a way to diagnose the health of the strategy of the brand (p. 168)
• Always defend your rights and communicate frequently (p. 169)
• 07 Luxury brand stretching (p. 171)
• Luxury expansion through line extensions and brand extensions (p. 172)
• The origins of luxury brand stretching (p. 173)
• Luxury stretching: a practice that has changed the sector (p. 174)
• Comparing the Italian and French models of extension (p. 175)
• Two models for brand stretching: vertical or horizontal? (p. 176)
• The pyramid (p. 178)
• The galaxy (p. 179)
• Success factor of luxury extension (p. 179)
• Typology of brand stretchings (p. 182)
• Leading a brand stretch (p. 184)
• Growth by stretching: the Mont Blanc case (p. 185)
• Stretching: preserve coherence, but be creative and unexpected (p. 188)
• Maintaining brand identity across sub-brands: the Armani case (p. 190)
• Building credentials in a new category: the Chanel case (p. 191)
• The risk factors of brand stretching (p. 192)
• Controlling the boomerang effect of brand stretching (p. 195)
• 08 Qualifying a product or service as luxury (p. 197)
• No product without service (p. 197)
• The luxury product and the dream (p. 198)
• Functionality and dreams do not follow the same economic models (p. 200)
• The luxury product is not a perfect product, but a sacred product (p. 201)
• Luxury product and competitive universe (p. 201)
• Luxury product and time (p. 202)
• Occasion of use and perception of value (p. 203)
• Lasting a lifetime... and beyond (p. 203)
• Prolonging the ecstasy of a privileged moment (p. 203)
• Adapting to its time (p. 205)
• Structuring the luxury range: how is the range of a luxury brand organized? (p. 206)
• Innovating through a new product range (p. 207)
• Don't sacrifice the past to the future (p. 211)
• A mode of production as a lever of the imaginary (p. 211)
• The opposition between luxury and relocation (p. 213)
• Licenses signal the departure from luxury (p. 214)
• The challenge of luxury services: creating the gap (p. 214)
• 09 Pricing luxury (p. 217)
• What about price elasticity? (p. 218)
• Increase the price to increase demand and recreate the distance (p. 219)
• What prince premium? (p. 222)
• Fixing the price in luxury (p. 223)
• Managing the price over time (p. 224)
• No sales in luxury (p. 227)
• Price reductions (p. 228)
• The price and its communication (p. 229)
• The price is not publicly advertised (p. 230)
• The price must be sold (p. 230)
• Price: the two challenges of the luxury strategy (p. 231)
• 10 Distribution and the internet dilemma (p. 233)
• Luxury is in the distribution (p. 233)
• You sell to someone before you sell something (p. 234)
• It is the price, not the product, that is sold to the client (p. 235)
• The sales personnel should never earn direct sales commission (p. 236)
• Distribution shows that the brand dominates clients, but respects them (p. 237)
• Distributing is first of all about communicating (p. 238)
• Distribution should not only show off, but enhance the product image (p. 239)
• It is distribution's job to communicate the brand's price level (p. 239)
• A luxury purchase is a lengthy act (p. 239)
• Distribution is luxury's weak link (p. 241)
• The choice of a new sales point cannot be delegated (p. 243)
• Distribution must manage rarity (p. 243)
• Distribution protects you from competition (p. 244)
• Luxury and mode of distribution (p. 244)
• Luxury and digital distribution (the internet dilemma) (p. 247)
• Luxury brands: when, what, and how to sell on the internet (p. 252)
• 11 Communicating luxury (p. 255)
• You don't communicate to sell (p. 255)
• You communicate because you sell (p. 256)
• You don't talk about money (p. 256)
• You communicate, you don't advertise (p. 257)
• No personalities in the advertising (p. 261)
• The role of brand ambassadors (p. 262)
• Building the social driver of desire (p. 263)
• Permanently encourage word of mouth (p. 264)
• What balance should there be between local and global communication? (p. 265)
• The internet and communication in luxury (p. 265)
• The unique codes of luxury communication (p. 271)
• Making the brand's visual language denser: the nine signatures of the brand (p. 271)
• Making the brand denser through tales, stories and rumours (p. 272)
• Adapting the communication register to the type of luxury (p. 273)
• The dialectic of the local and the universal (p. 275)
• 12 Financial and HR management of a luxury company (p. 277)
• Financial issues in luxury companies (p. 277)
• Luxury and profitability (p. 279)
• Globalizing (p. 281)
• Luxury, volume and profitability (p. 281)
• Managing the human capital in luxury (p. 284)
• Part 3 Strategic perspectives (p. 295)
• 13 Luxury business models (p. 297)
• Luxury products with a profitable core trade (p. 298)
• What are the pitfalls to avoid in this working model of a luxury product with a profitable core trade? (p. 302)
• Luxury products with a too-restricted core range (p. 305)
• The perfume business model (p. 312)
• The business model of luxury trades with very high overheads (p. 315)
• The 'high-tech' business model (highly innovative industry) (p. 318)
• Crises and luxury business models (p. 320)
• 14 Entering luxury and leaving it (p. 323)
• Wanting to be luxury is not enough: the conditions of luxury (p. 323)
• Why envisage a luxury strategy? (p. 325)
• Start small and become profitable (p. 326)
• Once profitable, grow quickly (p. 327)
• Acquiring an existing brand (p. 329)
• Departing from luxury (p. 331)
• The end of a luxury brand (p. 331)
• Taking a brand out of the luxury universe (p. 335)
• Leveraging the image in a low-cost strategy (p. 338)
• 15 Learning from luxury (p. 341)
• Luxury concerns all trades (p. 341)
• Understand the rules in order to adapt them (p. 342)
• How Apple follows a luxury strategy (p. 342)
• Luxury according to MINI (p. 345)
• Mixed Strategies (p. 347)
• Managing a luxury strategy in B to B (p. 349)
• Luxury marketing as the future of traditional marketing (p. 352)
• What marketing issues of today could luxury marketing help to resolve? (p. 353)
• The Lacoste example (p. 353)
• Learning from luxury (p. 355)
• 16 Luxury and sustainable development: convergences and divergences (p. 359)
• Luxury and sustainable development (p. 360)
• Adopting the luxury strategy to foster sustainable development (p. 372)
• References (p. 377)
• Index (p. 383)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

This well-written, comprehensive volume on managing luxury products is a blueprint for successfully navigating what many marketers have found to be a treacherous path. The authors put to rest the confusion about what constitutes luxury, premium, and fashion by clearly distinguishing among them. The real essence of the book is the chapter on the "anti-laws of marketing," which explains why traditional marketing tactics and strategies are inappropriate for luxury products and may even have a negative impact on the products. The authors offer 24 management principles that go against the grain of traditional marketing but are especially appropriate for managing a luxury brand. For example, luxury marketers should forget about positioning as it is known, because luxury is not comparative, but superlative; luxury marketers should understand that the purpose of advertising is not to sell a product, but to create a dream that will materialize when conditions are right. Abundant examples enhance the text. All components of the marketing mix are explored in terms of how they should be applied to luxury brands. The Internet's impact on luxury is also considered. The authors assert that all sectors of commerce can benefit from the strategies of marketing luxury. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Practitioners, students at all levels, general readers, and researchers. N. A. Govoni Babson College