Luxury and iconic products: how to continue to make people dream?
Chanel n°5, Rolex Submariner, Love bracelet by Cartier... So many cult creations and vectors of stories imbued with deep symbolism. But if one of the challenges of luxury is to succeed in making a lasting impression and seducing people over the long term, what are the problems involved in achieving such a positioning and how can an icon be made to last? Here are some answers.
Materialize the history
For the launch of the new Miss Dior fragrance, Millefiori Garden, the French fashion house organized a worldwide promotional tour around this vision of the iconic fragrance. Ephemeral pop-up stores, Dior signature menus, floral scenographies and ultra-worked stagings, nothing was left to chance to materialize the storytelling of this flagship product of the house. Because, beyond a simple launch, it is above all a question of perpetuating the image and status of a perfume dating from 1947, whose rich history and symbolic identity must be constantly reworked. In the restaurant of the brand new Dior boutique on avenue Montaigne, for example, one can enjoy a drink with an evocative name: the Miss Dior cocktail. Or how to spread the storytelling down to the smallest detail to continue to make people dream...
Guarantor of timelessness
The term icon, so coveted by the luxury industry, is the symbol of a specific identity and a certain aura. But what do we really mean by iconic products?
Chanel 2.55 bag, Birkin or Hermès scarf, it is a question of a cult object, immediately identifiable. This path of the mind is due to several factors.
First of all, the notion of temporality and duration is crucial. Indeed, it is the capacity of a product to cross the ages, to transcend the modes and the tendencies to assert itself on the long term which confers it (among other things) this privileged status. On the other hand, it is important to note that items that reach the status of icon also gather a community of afficionados and even collectors. Indeed, this positioning reflects a very particular loyalty on the part of customers. And although a product achieves success thanks to those who wear it and promote it (customers, media and celebrities: Lady Diana with the Lady Dior bag for example), it is indeed the companies that work upstream to its iconization through subtle and precise strategies.
Iconic products : what are the major issues?
As Thibaut de La Rivière, Director of Sup de Luxe, reminds us: "An iconic product must be the subject of a specific communication strategy and must adopt values that customers can identify with. Transparency, ethics, personalization... These are all notions that must be taken into account in the overall strategy".
Indeed, to perpetuate their collections, highlight a particular product or establish a premium position, the luxury industry must in particular :
Managing the transmission:
Since we are talking about timelessness, it is essential for the great houses to master the archives, to be able to perpetuate the diffusion of their identity through the promotion of their know-how, their craftsmanship but also by building a cult storytelling and a calibrated discourse in order to restore its magic.
Mastering scarcity:
Indissociable from luxury and even more so when it comes to iconic products, it is essential to orchestrate exclusivity in order to maintain the appeal.
Maintaining a long-term strategy:
Collaborations with artists of the moment or original co-branding, the challenge is to remain in the air of time. An example is the Supreme brand and its partnerships with emblematic houses such as Louis Vuitton or Rimowa. An offbeat way to divert and energize a product or a brand by updating its potential and also by seducing millenials, the industry's new target.