In her best-selling 2007 book, Deluxe-How Luxury Lost Its Luster, Dana Thomas, who has been cultural and fashion writer for Newsweek in Paris for 12 years, offers important insights on new directions in luxury goods marketing, and a few nuggets for Luxury travel marketers.
".....Tycoons like to boast that their companies aren't brands, they are lifestyles. And their creative directors/designers are today's ultimate arbiters of taste. If they can dress you and your home, why shouldn't they envelop you on vacation, too?"
From there, Thomas takes us through Versace's first hotel venture in 2000, Palazzao Versace in Australia, and a plan for to roll out 14 more including a Dubai opening in 2009. The parade of luxury hotel brands with luxury goods parentage, including Bulgari, Armani, Ferragamo, continues.
Meanwhile, the $157 billion luxury goods business is undergoing a transformation--"going mass, " Thomas says. The democratization of luxury goods is here to stay, but what about those hotel brands? They are certainly dancing to a different tune, some even eschewing the business traveler.
A little quieter, yes. With sensible adjectives like authentic, natural, affordable, even "simplistic and humble," as Jeff Weinstein, Editor of Hotels Magazine puts it. Indeed, he adds, "..opulence may be going on a much needed vacation."
You will notice, however, that important travel brands defining themserlves as "Luxury"-Small Luxury Hotels, Luxury Link, Starwood's Luxury Collection, and Luxury Travel 360, of course---have no intention of changing the name plates on the door.
I, for one, see affluent consumers simply refining the descriptors to reflect what really counts: the best of service, a caring attitude, and the assurance of a level of comfort and mostly quiet ambience that continues to enrich the travel experience. We are, I believe, simply ‘turning down the noise" to a level that suits a less exuberant mood everywhere in the world. When I am told I can get "luxury accommodations for less", that takes nothing away from my feeling of enjoying a special reward.
We may well be moving to a healthier time in travel, where more and more aspiring middle class and mildly affluent people will be sharing experiences of life long dreams that they will live over and over again.
So, as I leave for our annual summer sabbatical-no newsletter issues until September-I am confident that Fall will bring better news and less wringing of hands over the future of the New Luxury-a better place for all.
The headline said "Guilt trip; Luxury travelers are toning it down, keeping it quiet or canceling vacations to avoid flaunting wealth in hard times". The story in March 6 USA Today was by Jayne Clark, who ‘carried it off' in splendid style. Here's the saucy essence, followed by the link to the full treatment.
"In a time when posh has become a four-letter word, forget about keeping up with the Joneses. It's more socially expedient to stay down with them. Economic turmoil is giving luxury a bad name, it seems, and not just among the private-jet set, either. The desire to tone down consumption is affecting how some Americans vacation -- or at least how they say they vacation." Much of the anecdotal material in this USA Today piece comes from travel agents -worth the trip.
Imagination Marketing 
