Also in this issue:

   
View Previous Articles  

Re-visiting the Sustainability Question Through the Eyes of Luxury Clients

Uché | March/April 2010

Image courtesy of utahluxury.com

In late 2008, when the worldwide economic crisis made an unexpected entry into the luxury sector, the questions on the lips of luxury professionals were in the lines of, “What would be the real impact on the performance of luxury brands in the next few years?” and “How long will it last?” Some went further to evoke a more worrying question at the time, “Will the impact of the crisis be limited to sales performance? Or will it encroach into consumer’s minds leading to a change of mentalities and orientations?” Well, the answer to the latter is a large and clear “Yes”.

Indeed, the impact of the global economic slowdown on the luxury business has been more qualitative (as in changes in client’s mind-sets), than quantitative (as in changes in sales performance). The dramatic changes that have taken place among luxury consumers in the last eight months have led to a remarkable shift in the luxury business that can be best described as a revolution. This revolution is affecting clients of multiple generations at the same time and influencing international clients through several facets of their socio-cultural existence.

To read the rest of the article, please sign in or register: