On our very first day at NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY for the Global Luxury and Management program, my classmates and I have been introduced to one of the many definitions of luxury. This definition as explained on the renowned website “Luxury Daily” (Beau Fisher, The Gate, 2014) states 8 key criteria:
- Rarity: one of the major elements that distinguishes fast fashion from luxury fashion (or mass market versus any exclusive market) is the rarity of the product.
- Excellence: quality must be impeccable, there is no room for mistakes and imperfections.
- Expensiveness: anything exclusive comes with a high price. Real luxury is for the small elite that can afford it.
- Timelessness: think of luxury watches, they are a product that conveys
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However, very few have been publishing reports showcasing their improvements. As written by Kapferer, Jean-Noel and Michaut-Denizeau Anne in “Is Luxury Compatible with Sustainability? Luxury Consumers’ Viewpoint” (Journal of Brand Management 2013): “This sector, though clearly aware of the stakes, thus remain discreet, which some critics interpret as uninvolved.”
One of the possible reasons why luxury companies today avoid talking about sustainability is because they do not want to be accused of “greenwashing”. But what does the customer actually think? Do the customers even care about sustainability?
Still based on Kapferer and Michaut-Denizeau’s wrintings, consumers are now willing to spend a little extra money on their regular purchases (like coffee for example) because they believe that their choices to do so will have a direct positive impact on the whole supply chain. When it comes to luxury however, most consumers don’t even see how their purchase could create or worsen a problem: in other words, consumers assume that luxury means perfect and consequently doesn’t have any impact on environmental or ethical
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With such demand, it is no surprise that the production has increased and so did the supply for raw materials. Unfortunately, certain brands, though considered luxury by the public, have chosen to let go of their traditions and craftsmanship in order to increase their profit by delocalizing their production.
On the one hand, Doval’s study (Doval, J. (2013). Green buzz in luxury brands. Review of management) shows that there is a difference in shopping behaviors between online and offline shopping: in stores, customers want to show off their values through their choices and want to be positively perceived by people; online, there is less social pressure and consumers tend to forget or ignore these values. On the other hand, Doval explains that green products used to be thought of as lower quality, which is one of the reasons why the shift towards sustainability still isn’t so