Recommending Books for Purchase (Bulletin 67 - May 2020): Luxury

This professional book introduces marketing and luxury brand professionals to a new definition of luxury and the art of designing the ultimate luxury experience in both the physical space (e.g., in-store, hotel, restaurant) and the digital space (e.g., social media, website, e-commerce). Specifically, it offers an overview of customer experience issues and explores big five experiential strategies that can be applied by luxury houses in order to provide the best luxury experience to their customers. Themes such as quality of customer luxury experience, immersion and co-production/co-creation in luxury, creation and management, digital and immersive marketing, and innovative market research are also examined. How do consumers define luxury? Is there one luxury or several "luxuries"? What kind of luxury experiences consumers want to live? How can luxury houses design the ultimate luxury experience? More than in any other sector, luxury consumption is a response to a search for emotions, pleasure, uniqueness, consideration and greatest services. The luxury consumer wants to live luxury experiences - not just buy luxury products or services. In this way, this book presents the luxury consumption experience as a combination of symbolic meaning, subconscious processes and nonverbal cues and characterized by fantasies, feelings and fun. Featuring case studies and interviews from international luxury sectors and brand managers such as Burberry, Dior, Porsche, Breitling, St. Regis Hotels & Resorts, and Louis Vuitton, among others, this book offers both a research and management perspective on luxury experience to professionals in the luxury sector (e.g., CEOs, brand managers, marketing and communication professionals), as well as marketing professors, students, and people eager to learn more about how to design the ultimate luxury experience.   Praise for The New Luxury Experience "This book provides a holistic perspective on marketing of luxury brands, offering both useful practical advice as well as illustrating important cases."  -- Ravi Dhar, Director, Yale Center for Customer Insights, Yale University "Wided Batat's book offers a fresh, insightful and comprehensive analysis of the concept of the consumer's experience with luxury whatever that may be. The Five experiential luxury strategies proposed by Wided highlight that luxury management should go above and beyond the design and branding of luxury goods and services.  I also commend the consideration given to the younger generations' approach to luxury and to corporate social responsibility aspects.  Luxury marketers should find this book very useful indeed." -- Francesca Dall'Olmo Riley, Professor of Brand Management, Kingston Business School, UK

Offering an original contribution to the field of luxury and fashion studies, this edited collection takes a philosophical perspective, addressing the idea that humans need luxury. From this framework it delves deep into two particular dimensions of luxury, emotions and society, and concludes with cases of brand building in order to illustrate the two dimensions at work. Comparative analysis between countries is brought together with an emphasis on China. Chapters address the ongoing growth in the market, as well as the significant changes in the sector brought about by fast international expansion and an increased focus on ethical supply and sustainability, making the book an insightful read for scholars of fashion business, luxury and branding.