CHAILAN Marketing Exclusivity Through the Arts
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Marketing exclusivity through the arts Dr Claude Chailan Professor of Marketing EM Strasbourg Business School 61, avenue de la Forêt Noire 67085 Strasbourg [email protected] 03 68 85 87 45 Préserver l’exclusivité grâce à l’art Résumé: Dans la mesure où les produits et services de luxe deviennent plus facilement accessibles, les fabricants de ces produits doivent s'assurer que l’exclusivité reste associée aux marques de luxe, pour que le consommateur se sente spécial et unique. L’art se prête volontiers à cette mission, parce que son accès est difficile et sa compréhension complexe. Sur la base d’une analyse en profondeur des pratiques des grandes marques mondiales de luxe, nous avons identifié quatre principaux types de collaboration entre marques de luxe et art, qui sont: la collaboration commerciale, le mécénat, les fondations, et le mentorat artistique. Cet article présente les mécanismes sous-jacents de ces collaborations entre les marques de luxe et de l'art. Mots-clés: Arts, Luxe, Exclusivité, Marque, Marques de luxe Marketing exclusivity through the arts Abstract: To the extent that luxury products and services become more easily accessible, luxury brand marketers must make sure the brand make luxury even more exclusive by making the consumer feel special and unique. Art lends itself willingly to this mission, because its accessibility is complex and its comprehensibility difficult. From an in-depth analysis of the practices of the major worldwide brands in the luxury industry we identified that four main types of collaboration between a luxury brand and art exist, which are: Business Collaboration, Mecenate, Foundations and, Artistic Mentoring. This article presents the underlying mechanisms of these collaborations between luxury brands and art. Key-words: Arts, Luxury, Exclusivity, Brand, Luxury Brands Marketing exclusivity through the arts Introduction Prophesising in “The Philosophy of Andy Warhol” that big-name stores would become museums and museums would turn into big-name stores, Andy Warhol foresaw the right idea, but perhaps he didn’t take it far enough. Today, top luxury brands no longer open up boutiques , but rather flagship stores designed by the best architects, even those who build today’s biggest museums, such as Renzo Piano creating the Centre Pompidou in Paris and Maison Hermès in Tokyo. Other brands have the most en-vogue artists associated with themselves. As such, in summer 2012 the house Céline was inspired by Mondrian’s color blocks for its handbags while Buren was creating silk scarves for Hermès, Anselm Reyle was designing bags Dior and Stuart Vevers was re-interpreting some Escher drawings for Loewe. Yves Carcelle, the CEO of Louis Vuitton, said recently " The world of luxury shares the values of emotion and passion for creation with the world of art. If the brand inspires artists, they stimulate our house back. This is a very productive process of mutual inspirations ”1. And, over the last twenty years the market for luxury products and services has grown dramatically with an estimated sales of more than 200 billion Euros in 2012. During the same timeframe art has become a major component to this evolution because art allows being out of the ordinary (Fillis, 2010) at a time when the proliferation of signs, commoditization and massification of luxury (Nueno and Quelch, 1998; Thomas, 2007) require luxury brands to distinguish themselves from and beyond the mere product. As stated by Patrick Thomas CEO of Hermès 2: "... I am wary of the paradox of luxury: The more one is desired, the more one grows, but the more one grows, the less desirable”. This is so as to inspire consumers 1 In Les Echos-Série Limitée, n° 195, February 2012, p. 151 2 Feb. 2011 1 with a different flavour and make them dream via something else. Art and luxury have been flirting between seduction and mutual benefit since the late twentieth century, enhancing art- based luxury goods’ differentiation because luxury marketers need to do something vastly different to get their luxury branding messages to consumers and drive consumers to action. While the worlds of art, fashion and luxury are growing closer together every day, a key question which thus arises is the need to better understand the links between art and luxury brands. Within this context of mutual enrichment between art and luxury brands, we examined the diversity of the relationships which can exist between luxury brands and art because a clarification of these relationships could expand knowledge in luxury brand management including its strategic dimension (Riezebos, 2003; Berthon et al., 2007). Our overall goal is to examine the nature of this relationship between art and luxury brands, particularly the similarities, differences, complementarities or conflicts between the different modes de liaison linking art and luxury brands. By mode de liaison we refer to the type and nature of the relationship between an artist or an artistic event and a luxury brand. Particularly we aim at establishing a typology of these links and connections between art and luxury brands, in order to classify these links, to better understand their nature and to assess the appropriateness of a chosen mode de liaison with brand link specificity. 1. Analysis We have chosen to study the links between art and some of the main French and Italian luxury brands. A total of 152 luxury brands have been identified, either product- or service-oriented, of which 76 are members of the Comité Colbert while 76 are Altagamma Association members. For historical reasons, France and Italy represent the largest portion of the world's luxury 2 goods. It is considered that both countries represent up to 55% of worldwide luxury goods sales, and it was therefore logical and reasonable to focus on luxury brands from these two countries. The data come from the study of publicly available data from companies who are members of the Comité Colbert in France and the Altagamma Association in Italy. These two associations unite most of the key players in the luxury field in each country, with very strict membership criteria. Morever, membership is by co-op nomination, providing a guarantee for brands who are already members that any new members will uphold the standards in place. Alone, the 75 luxury houses of the Comité Colbert hold a quarter of the global luxury goods market with a turnover of 39 billion dollars and 115,000 employees in France. As a first step, the brands were split into two categories of those who were linked to the world of luxury products and services and those who were not 3. In fact, the analysis showed that certain member brands are representative of the country in question (e.g. San Pellegrino or Ducati for Altagamma and Italy, and Bonpoint or Flammarion for Colbert and France), yet are not luxury brands. Moreover, certain brands appear twice, as both a main brand and also a derivation of the brand line (for instance Dior, and Parfums Christian Dior) and in this case the brand was used only once. In total, 14 Italian brands and 13 French brands were eliminated for these reasons. Then, for each of the remaining brands we researched if they were engaged in any initiatives connected to the arts. Table 1 summarizes the data resulting from this analysis. 3 In fact, the analysis showed that certain member brands are representative of the country in question (e.g. San Pellegrino or Ducati for Altagamma and Italy, and Bonpoint or Flammarion for Colbert and France), yet are not luxury brands. Moreover, certain brands appear twice, as both a main brand and also a derivation of the brand line (for instance Dior, and Parfums Christian Dior) and in this case the brand was used only once. In total, 14 Italian brands and 13 French brands were eliminated for these reasons. 3 Table 1: Analysis of the number of luxury brand members from Altagamma or Comité Colbert and their involvement in artistic initiatives. ALTAGAMMA In % COMITÉ COLBERT In % in number of in number of companies companies Total number of brands who are 76 100% 76 100% members of the association Of which are not luxury goods 14 18% 13 17% or services-oriented or are redundant Total number of luxury brands 62 82% 63 83% Of which have no specific arts - 26 34% 32 42% oriented linkages Total number of luxury brands 36 47% 31 41% with arts-related actions In comparison with the total number of brand members of the two organizations, an average of 44% - 67 luxury brands in all – is involved in an initiative related to the art world. However, this percentage rises to an average of 53.6% (58% for the Altagamma brand members and 49% for those in Comité Colbert) in regard to luxury brands only. More than one luxury brand out of two has thus developed in a systematic manner an institutionalized link with art. In a second phase, we looked at which brands were connected to which arts-related initiatives. A connection consists in any type of institutionalized link between a brand and art. In total, 106 connections between luxury brands and art were identified (52 initiatives for Altagamma 4 members and 54 for Comité Colbert brands). This figure of 106 representing the number of connections is higher than the number of luxury brands involved in the arts (67) because one brand may intervene in one or more artistic fields. For instance, Gucci is providing some patronage as well as artistic collaboration, and also created a foundation. In the same vein, Cartier has a foundation and is also patronising some artists. A careful study of the artistic initiatives of each member brand in the two associations allowed for the identification of four types of connection or modes de liaison between luxury brands and arts.