
I’ll admit it - I have purse envy. There’s nothing more frustrating than watching a group of 18-year olds strut the latest Louis or Longchamp. The curious thing is that more and more of them do! As a market researcher and avid people watcher, I can’t help but ask myself since when has luxury become so accessible?
Luxury has always been associated with beautiful, hand crafted goods produced in limited quantities and accessible only to the elite of society. Luxury was the promise of history, of tradition, of quality and symbolized status, a status that the mere mortal could only aspire to attain.
Today’s marketplace is the realization of what Silverstein and Fiske so eloquently described as “masstige” – prestige for the masses – over a decade ago.[i] And while you and I (and pretty much anyone else), can now acquire that which was once out of reach, what is the downside for the brand?
Brand dilution is the greatest risk that makers of all things luxury take when deciding to jump on the masstige bandwagon.
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