6th anual Prestige Brands Meeting
The Return of Prestige Brands:
This Time It's Personal

Today’s consumers want personalized, emotional experiences, said speakers, who included real estate developer David Stein and designer Ágatha Ruíz de la Prada.

Do you believe that it’s more necessary than ever to have a Master’s degree ifShowy displays of wealth are no longer in vogue in the luxury brands market, according to speakers at the "6th anual Prestige Brands Meeting: Reformulating Strategies," which was held on March 18 at the Barcelona campus of IESE Business School.

Today's consumers want "personalized experiences," and they want luxury goods that reflect their personality rather than their bank balance.

"There is a different mindset," said David Stein, president of The Stein Group, which develops and operates a group of luxury hotels across Europe. Gold taps, silk curtains and marble, once the trappings of the good life, are now more likely to be considered over-the-top and offensive, he said.

Instead, with his group of smaller niche hotels, Stein said he is "trying to make consumers feel good about having a cultural experience rather than just spending a lot of money."

The homogenized luxury of hotel chains such as the Ritz-Carlton, where consumers can expect the same style and service whether in Tokyo or Berlin, is giving way to buildings with more character, and a service that is more indigenous. Consumers want something on a "human scale," he said, "so if you wake up in Mallorca, you at least know that you're in Spain. I hope this is the future direction of the luxury industry."

This personalized approach was endorsed by well-known designer Agatha Ruiz de la Prada, who shared the platform with Stein during their joint session titled "Luxury and Prestige Entrepreneurs: A Vision for the Future." The designer - who is known for the colorful, abstract, Miro-inspired approach that she brings to everything from children's clothes and shoes to perfume and watches - said her idea of luxury was rooted in reaching as many people as possible.

Giving luxury a human face was later picked up by Lee Coomber, creative director for Wolff Olins, who spoke in the session titled "New Strategies" about his agency's experience of putting the glitter back into the tarnished image of gold for the World Gold Council. Consumers today are richer, work less, and the majority are materially content. The challenge, he said, is not to sell them expensive products but to sell an "emotional connection" with the product. True luxury has a human story or mythology attached to it, not just a hefty price tag, and it's the story that consumers aspire to acquire.

The challenges of connecting with consumers in new ways was expanded by Peter Toner, who built the website for London's famous Harrods department store and currently manages Toffsworld.com, an online portal to some of the world's leading luxury brands. He felt that luxury brands could ill afford to neglect the opportunities provided by the Internet. For example, he said, in February 2004 there were 7 million searches on the Internet using the keyword "hotel" and only a million of those searches used a specific brand name. That leaves 6 million searches that luxury brand marketers should be seeking to reach if they are to tap into the big spending power of many ordinary people discovering luxury for the first time via the Internet.