Lure Of Luxurious Living

Luxury is in vogue: not just in countries that are prosperous, but elsewhere too. China is notorious as a source for counterfeits and cheap rip-offs of known brands. But, for over two decades now, it is also a thriving market for genuine products from high-end luxury brands. Given its size, it is as attractive to them as its far more prosperous East Asian neighbours, Japan and S. Korea. Many marketers say that the lure of luxury goods seems the highest in China.

India, though our per capita income is about a fourth of China’s is a growing market for luxury products. Top-end cars, super-expensive handbags, luxury apartments,wrist watches that cost as much as a car: all are witnessing a boom in demand. It is not only about expensive products,though. Even daily use products are seeing a “premiumisation” phenomenon, with ever-more consumers buying the more expensive brand of the same product. Whether this is due to the growing inequity, with incomes of some rising very fast while others stagnate, or due to the sociological change of rising ambitions, is yet open to question.

The middle-class values of austerity, no ostentation, of eking out every last bit (be it toothpaste or soap) seem now extinct, and the traditional “value-for-money” mindset has been buried. Many do look out for discounts, but that is probably only on their favoured brand and with the hope that their peers will not know the fact of a discounted price. This and premiumisation, both point to a culture of social climbing, an ambition of being one brand above your peers. “One step up” (above the affordability level) is the philosophy.

What better driver for growing the market for luxury products? Recent data shows that while high-cost Swiss watches face demand problems, the ones doing comparatively better are the more expensive brands like Rolex and Patek Philippe. The fourth richest person in the world is Bernard Arnault  a person who is not a tech entrepreneur, nor a Wall Street wizard, or a Russian oligarch, but the part-owner of LVMH, the world’s largest luxury-goods maker. Indicative of the hunger for luxury, in India demand growth has been higher for more expensive and bigger cars – like SUVs – than for cheaper, small, entry-level ones. Many, like this writer, believe that one reason for the failure of the Tata Nano is because it was positioned as “low cost”, affordable by the “common person”, taking away the pride of owning a luxury item like a car. In contrast, Rolls Royce has just launched its Cullinan Series II, costing over Rs 10 crore (a thousand times the target price of the Nano), confident of its market in India.

But what constitutes luxury? At a generalised level, its defining feature is the exclusivity of the set that owns the product. Most commonly, this translates to affordability. If everyone is clad in Gucci shoes, it will no longer be considered a luxury item. For, it is the ability to afford a higher price that sets one apart from the many who aspire for it. There was a time when just knowing the names of truly top-end brands had snob value (how many had heard of Patek Philippe watches?). Now, thanks to the media, names of super-exclusive luxury brands (Birkin handbags, for example) are commonplace. Undoubtedly, this is the major stimulus for low-cost counterfeits – the bane of luxury brands – now produced in quantity to satisfy the aspirational, one-step-up urge of the many.

With counterfeits flooding the market and being at least at first glance indistinguishable from the original, where does that leave the buyer of the genuine product? After all, in a world of one-upmanship, if what you flaunt is commonplace, how do you establish your snob quotient? This is truly a challenge both to the consumer and the marketeer of the true-blue originals. The solution of limiting the number of pieces produced, as artists do for woodcuts and lithographs, may reduce mass-production of fakes, but is unlikely to altogether stop counterfeiting (three watercolours, ostensibly by famous painter Marc Chagall, were found to be fakes). For consumer products, creating an intentional scarcity (through introducing “limited editions”, for example) can take a product from the category of merely expensive, to luxury.

In general, compared to products, experiences are difficult to fake and less susceptible to cheap copies. Within this, too, there are subsets of exclusivity, new ways of differentiation, which help define the social (and wealth) hierarchy. Having a summer holiday in Europe makes you special; doing so in Switzerland sets you apart even more; but spending time (and money!) in St. Moritz is a luxury that is not fungible and truly announces that you have “arrived”. Little wonder, then, that luxury experiences are seeing a boom. Holidays at special destinations, even outer space; cruise trips (especially to Antarctica); curated food, wildlife, culture, or history tours; luxury trains like Palace on Wheels in India or Seven Stars Kyushu in Japan: these are luxuries that stay exclusive.

A newer form of luxury relates to exclusivity based on more than money. For example, being part of the thirty-day Snowman Trek in Bhutan, going through 11 mountain passes of over 4,500 metres and seven peaks of 7,000 metres, involves the luxuries of cost, time and fitness in ample measure. Those wanting a similar experience, though one level less demanding in physical fitness, could settle for a trek to the Everest base-camp and beyond. It does seem that special experiences of some kind the more unique, the better will become fashionable, be premiumised and branded, and emerge as the hallmark of luxury living in years to come. Yet, it is luxury goods which will continue to dominate.

Amidst the lure of exclusive products and brands, and in this day of materialism, it is well to remember that the ultimate luxury is something else. It has inestimable value but is one which can’t be acquired merely through wealth. As the evergreen Beatles hit of 1964 reminds us, ‘Money can’t buy me love.’  

The author loves to think in tongue-in-cheek ways, with no maliciousness or offence intended. At other times, he is a public policy analyst and author. Among his books is Decisive Decade: India 2030 Gazelle or Hippo (Rupa, 2021).