Jean-Noël Kapferer

Purpose The purpose of this research is to challenge the popular belief among luxury practitioners and researchers that millennials are a homogeneous and disruptive generation of consumers which is redefining luxury according to its terms. Design/methodology/approach This study first presents comparisons of luxury perception among 1,450 actual lux...

To pursue growth, luxury brands are expanding their markets, but such expansion puts their exclusivity at risk. To offset this threat, leading luxury brands systematically increase their average prices, such that their profitability depends on luxury consumers’ sustained acceptance of high prices. This pricing strategy requires luxury brands to det...

To reach new clientele, luxury brands make strategic extensions into new product categories with more accessible prices resulting in less selective retail strategies that also feature stores not directly operated by the luxury brands (non-DOS). Entering such stores entails challenges as the luxury brand steps outside its luxury environment and lose...

Purpose For as long as luxury has existed, it has been criticized, by philosophers and moralists, who condemn self-indulgence, hedonism and vanity. Yet these concerns have not prevented the remarkable expansion of the luxury sector, evidence that most buyers revel in unashamed luxury. Modern economists point out the link between the development of...

Sustainable development is on the agenda of all economic sectors. This is a radical change for the luxury market, so far discreet on these matters. In addition, baby boomers have passed the torch to new segments of luxury purchasers: Generation X-ers and now millennials, the latter being described as most sensitive to sustainability issues in gener...

Baby Boomers now retired, Millennials — also called Generation Y — already represent a fourth of personal luxury sales. Yet industry experts warn that Millennials are not merely a new generation but also a disruptive one and that luxury should be redefined on Millennials’ terms. To assess the reality of these new terms, 3,217 real luxury buyers wer...

Since 1990, luxury market growth has mainly come from emerging economies, due to the growing number of consumers who have achieved sufficient purchasing power to acquire brands, thereby fulfilling their needs for pleasure, social recognition, and superior quality, including sustainability. With a sample of 3217 luxury buyers from six countries, bot...

Automobiles being an exception, most luxury brands do not sell second hand products. This market is left to specialized boutiques, retailers and now e-retailers such as Real Real, with the risk that their authentification process is far from perfect and that these e-retailers let fakes pass it.This is why Chanel recently sued RealReal in the USA. N...

Despite some temporary slowdowns, variations by region, and slower growth rates in recent years, the modern luxury market has shown striking growth worldwide since 1994. One determinant of this growth is luxury brands’ efforts to sell not just function or performance but also dreams of a privileged, exclusive life, achieved through the ownership or...

This article comments a very recent ruling from the European Court of Justice in a case involving Amazon and Coty brands ( World N°1 fragrance company) . It discusses a theme largely uncovered by researchers in luxury marketing: slective distribution. What is the fate of selective distribution in a digital world? Since there is no luxury without sl...

The global market for luxury brands has witnessed sustained growth in the last two decades, driven by purchases from emerging economies such as China and rising upper middle classes. Because luxury is associated with rarity and exclusivity, fears arise about whether continued growth might dilute the leading luxury brands' desirability. Prior studie...

The luxury sector thus far has received scant attention from sustainable development activists and watchgroups. Yet, this focus is changing. Even if other sectors may be more relevant to the cause of sustainability, luxury brands that have gained intact reputations for sustainability must take care to maintain it. Therefore, the present research in...

Today luxury is everywhere. Everybody wants his products to be luxury. The concept of luxury is attractive and fashionable. There are luxury columns in all magazines and journals. There are TV shows on the business of luxury and on luxury products and services. Even mass-consumption brands name many of their models ‘Deluxe’ or qualify their experie...

Although luxury goods form a distinct economic sector in many countries, a certain vagueness still remains over the concepts of luxury and the luxury brand. How does the luxury brand differ from the ‘up-market’ brand or the ordinary brand? Are the differences simply those of degree or inherent in the luxury brand’s nature?

Few articles on luxury appeared in Journal of Brand Management before 2000. Since then, the flow has been nearly constant, even as the number of conferences dedicated to luxury topics multiplies, and business schools increasingly offer courses and curricula focused on luxury management. Why does this sector, which originally aimed at a small minori...

In modern economies, luxury represents one of the most global sectors; the same brands are leaders in most of the countries where they operate, and they deliver mostly the same luxury experience. Yet no global consensus among academics allows for a definition of luxury, including what makes a product a luxury product or what makes a brand a luxury...

Purpose Luxury is a growing sector worldwide. This creates a major managerial challenge: How can luxury brands prevent becoming a victim of their own success? Once objective rarity is lost, what other levers still sustain desire for these luxury brands, nurture their dream and, thus, prevent the dilution of desirability created by their growing pen...

A key feature of the luxury industry is its ability to sell dreams, such that consumers often refer to luxury products as desirable dream objects. This study aims to assess the empirical validity of this proposition. Does luxury actually fuel dreams? Because brands are manifestations of these dreams, this study examines if the dream value of an exp...

Sustainability issues have become a challenge for the luxury sector whose continuous success and growth – despite recessions, economic crises and increasing social inequality – appear as a paradox or even a provocation for some critics. Based on a program of multiple surveys involving actual luxury customers, we explain why customers are not concer...

Luxury branding has changed significantly over recent years and many say that it will never be what it once was: a discreet and tiny economic sector aimed at the rich. The rapid growth of emerging countries, led by China, has created new context for luxury growth that changes its essence and behaviour. The industry also faces challenges from techno...

The luxury sector thus far has received scant attention from sustainable development activists and watchgroups. Yet, this focus is changing. Even if other sectors may be more relevant to the cause of sustainability, luxury brands that have gained intact reputations for sustainability must take care to maintain it. Therefore, the present research in...

Growth is the biggest challenge for a luxury brand in that volume dilutes the brand cachet. In addition, it violates the credo of rarity on which the luxury sector is originally based. This article reveals how the current leading luxury brands use ‘artification,’ a process of transformation of nonart into art, to circumvent the volume problem. Arti...

Counterfeiting constitutes a problem for the luxury industry, one that has arisen in recent years, parallel to the growth of the industry itself. This paper argues that counterfeit purchases stem from a boomerang effect of luxury brands’ ongoing strategy to attract more consumers. To grow in volume, luxury brands offer more accessible and conspicuo...

Consumer studies show that luxury evokes high prices. However, the remarkable growth of this sector is based on its extension to the middle class, with affordable prices. This is a paradox: luxury needs to be expensive, yet grew being accessible. Hence the question: If consumers want to access to luxury, below what price would they consider that it...

Jean-Noël Kapferer is a world renowned expert on brand management. Professor at HEC Paris, he holds the Pernod-Ricard Research Chair on the Management of Prestige Brands. Co-author of The Luxury Strategy, Academic Director of the executive luxury programmes, he gives seminars on luxury management in the United States, China, Japan, Korea... Anne Mi...

JEAN-NOËL KAPFERER is a world-recognised authority on brands, known for his bestsellers, such as 'The New Strategic Brand Management' on brand identity and experience, brand extension, portfolios and architectures and most recently 'The Luxury Strategy' on how luxury brands turn marketing upside down. Professor at HEC Paris, PhD Kellogg Business Sc...

In 1989 Ford bought the Jaguar brand, symbol of British luxury worldwide, endowed with heritage, status, glamour, prestige, almost a cult brand with iconic models, for 2.2 billion dollars. Nine years later, on March 26th 2008, after having spent 6 billion dollars [15], Ford sold it to the Indian conglomerate Tata, along with another mythical Britis...

Le diagnostic de l'expert français des marques Au moment où chacun s'interroge sur la Marque France, sur notre industrie, sur nos marques, sur les délocalisations, il est important d'analyser les causes profondes de cette situation. Un certain management des marques n'a-t-il pas vécu ? En tous cas il n'a pas empêché l'ascension des marques de distr...

On 7 March, 2011, the world-leading luxury group LVMH acquired a majority stake in Bulgari, a famous Italian jewellery house. The deal reflects a major revolution that is occurring within the whole luxury sector: the transformation of manufacturers of rare products into creators of exceptional branded retail experiences Furthermore, as luxury compa...

Although Western economies have not yet transitioned out of crisis, the luxury sector is growing again, especially at the high end. In emerging countries, the luxury sector's expansion has reached double digits. However, as luxury products continue to penetrate global markets, the prestige of brands like Louis Vuitton has not declined at all. This...

La marque est un atout strategique dans la lutte concurrentielle. Cet article explore cette notion nouvelle qu’est la « marque nation », explique pourquoi elle est d’actualite et en quoi elle est differente d’une marque classique. Il analyse pourquoi il y a urgence a travailler sur la marque France compte tenu de la situation economique et des resu...

Il est temps d'aller au-dela de l'identite de la marque France : cette notion est certes fondamentale mais ses resultats sont connus. Il faut plutot poser la question de la pertinence de la marque France dans le monde d'aujourd'hui et surtout de demain. L'auteur propose aux responsables economiques et politiques une plateforme de marque - mission,...

In an interview in The Economist (2008), John Ross, the economic consultant to the London Mayor, reacted to the old rivalry between Paris and London by stating: ‘We do not consider ourselves competing with Paris anymore. We have won that battle. Now we measure our strength against New York.’

The economic recession has hit luxury, as most other sectors. Many luxury brands have reeled by lack of clients and cash. Since then, many experts have predicted that post crisis luxury would be of a totally different kind. It was the end of luxury, as we knew it, the end of bling-bling, of prominent logos and high prices excesses. It is chorused e...

Although modest in terms of sales, compared to most other sectors, luxury does get a high share of investors', financial analysts' and media attention. Why would this sector receive a share of attention much bigger than its actual weight? Is it because of its glamourous image, or the incredible prices attached to its products, now displayed in all...

Luxury brands have so far been reluctant to adopt any of the classical tools of mass marketing. One of these is customer relationship management (CRM). Prestigious brands are, however, now starting to examine the benefits of the `lifelong customer value' approach, beyond building the social prestige of their names. This paper develops `why' luxury...

Today luxury is everywhere. Everybody wants his products to be luxury. The concept of luxury is attractive and fashionable. There are luxury columns in all magazines and journals. There are TV shows on the business of luxury, and on luxury products and services. Even mass-consumption brands name many of their models ‘Deluxe’ or qualify their experi...

Luxury is in fashion and is now to be found within almost every retail, manufacturing and service sector. New terms qualifying luxury regularly appear such as 'premium', 'ultra-premium' and 'hyperluxe'. Today, luxury is everywhere - but if everything is 'luxury' then surely the term itself has no meaning? What really is a luxury product, a luxury b...

Luxe ou pas luxe ? La question est régulièrement posée pour des marques notoires, voire prestigieuses. Il est vrai que le luxe est à la mode. D'où la multiplication de termes hybrides tels que " nouveau luxe ", " mass-tige ", " opuluxe ", qui créent en réalité la confusion dans les esprits, jusque chez les managers eux-mêmes. À croire que " luxe "...

Qui mieux que Jean-Noël Kapférer pouvait répondre aux questions de fond les plus posées sur les marques aujourd'hui dans le monde entier par tous les dirigeants d'entreprises, les responsables marketing et les étudiants ? Il synthétise dans ce livre les questions majeures les plus fréquentes (FAQ) pour leur apporter une réponse forte et sans ambigu...

In 1983, Theodore Levitt published `The globalization of markets' in the Harvard Business Review. This article, based on only two cases, became the milestone of a wave of globalisation of brands by all multinational companies. One after another, these companies imposed brand globalisation at all costs. In 2005, it is possible to examine the costs a...

In the current context of globalization, firms have concentrated their efforts on the development of international brands. As a | result, international brand portfolios have been restructured, and many successful local brands have been eliminated. This article's objective is to improve the understanding of local brand differences and competitive ad...

La montee inexorable de la distribution de type hard discount en Europe est actuellement le premier sujet de preoccupation des etats-majors de tous les secteurs. En effet, grâce a leur business model tres specifique et bien rode, les ecarts de prix avec les grandes marques mais aussi les marques de distributeurs sont considerables et desequilibrent...

Since 1997, literature and research on the concept of brand personality is flourishing, and specific scales have gone widespread use in academic circles, unchallenged on their validity. Brand personality is certainly a key facet of a brand identity. However, as this paper will demonstrate, the current scales of brand personality in fact do not meas...

Manage-t-on les marques en 2003 comme on le faisait il y a a peine vingt annees? Quelles modifications substantielles de l'environnement, des consommateurs, des marches, de la concurrence, de la technologie ont impacte le management de marque de facon durable et profonde? A ce titre doit-on parler de reinvention de la marque et de son management? J...

Since Ted Levitt's seminal article on the globalisation of business, the case now seems closed. In all managerial and consulting circles, and in most business reviews, global brands are the only thing that count, and the process of global branding the only thing worth spending time on. Indeed, all multinational companies are now engaged in a fierce...

Are the "classical" rules of brand management obsolete? These rules were created over 50 years ago in the United States under very different market conditions and realities. Since then,textbooks and thinking have maintained the same simplistic models of branding and are looking increasingly out of date. The realities governing global and national m...

The aim of this paper is to explore the links between brand equity, consumer learning and consumer choice processes in general and considering two recent trends in the market place: store brands and the Internet. We first review the advances that have occurred in brand equity research in marketing in the past decade, with particular emphasis on int...

Die Luxusmarke besitzt eine herausragende Besonderheit. Aber obwohl Frankreich, Deutschland, Italien oder die USA berühmte Luxusmarken geschaffen haben, bleiben die Konzepte vom Luxus bzw. der Luxusmarke ein wenig verschwommen und unübersetzbar in die englische und die meisten anderen Sprachen. Sicherlich kann jeder nachvollziehen, wovon die Rede i...

Die Frage, wie viele Marken ein Unternehmen im Markt halten soll, ist für das Marketing-Management vorrangig geworden. Viele Unternehmen verfügen bereits über ein umfangreiches Portfolio von Marken, deren Status sehr unterschiedlich und im allgemeinen Ergebnis ihrer geschichtlichen Entwicklung ist. Im Laufe der Vergrößerung von Unternehmen kam es z...

Why are we seduced by luxury brands? What functions do these brands fulfil? What added values do they convey? What brands deserve the appellation ‘luxury’ and which ones do not? Such were the questions posed by an empirical research study seeking to understand luxury from the consumers' standpoint. The results, summarised in the present article, sh...

Although luxury goods form a distinct economic sector in many countries, a certain vagueness still remains over the concepts of luxury and the luxury brand. How does the luxury brand differ from the ‘up-market’ brand or the ordinary brand? Are the differences simply those of degree or inherent in the luxury brand's nature? In reality the vagueness...

Each year, hundreds of own-label products appear on the shelves of major multiple retailers that “look” like successful brands. The close imitation of a national brand trade dress aims at creating a “halo of resemblance,” on the basis of which consumers may make inferences and attributions of similarity of use, of content, if not of origin. In most...

There are three classical measures of brand awareness: aided, spontaneous, and top-of-mind. The relationships between these measures, across a set of brands in the same product category, are close, but highly nonlinear. We show that these relationships can be linearized, in all product classes, by performing a logistic transformation on each measur...

Les marques sont désormais reconnues comme le capital des entreprises. Bien qu’intangibles, elles sont un levier essentiel de croissance et de valeur ajoutée. Néanmoins, cette reconnaissance ne saurait rester purement formelle : elle a de profondes implications pour le management. Le présent article les détaille une par une : gestion du portefeuill...

As globalisation becomes all the rage, is the European brand already a reality or in the process of becoming one? In this paper the author sets out the principal results of a pan-European survey conducted among the directors of the main brands present in the majority of European countries. It reveals their relative sensitivity to various intercount...

This follows previous articles on the Consumer Involvement Profile. We list the items included in the profile, and we discuss the results of factor analyses based on replication data drawn from five large samples.