Hello to everyone, and welcome to this lecture that will be the, the first lecture together. Today we are going to talk about luxury. And this is, as we will see, itâs a very complex and multifaceted concept. Let me first tell you a little bit what this lecture will be about. So, I will introduce to you the luxury concept it said also with different perspectives from students and people that were asked by us. Then, I will try to provide a little bit of frame work about what luxury is all about in terms of product categories. In terms of customers in terms of business model and know how and let me also add what luxury is not. I would like to tell you right from the beginning a little bit of the difference between luxury and fashion. That is actually the topic of our whole course. why, when you think about fashion, you think about time. A short time, a short product life cycle. Usually luxury is first associated to a price segment. So, has to do with exclusivity, selectivity. So, high price, we will see, we will discover, how high, how exclusive. Sometimes, not too much. But for sure, the first thing that comes to mind is, what is luxury? What is a luxe? It's something that is aspirational, not easy to get with that high price. But then, this is not enough. We will see, how many perspectives it might take, considering luxury concept. And how luxury as I said, is a multi-faceted concept. Now, let's ask to youngsters, what they think about luxury. They will be luxury companiesâ next customers. >> Good morning everyone, my name is Nabeel Bendago, and as you see, we are at Bocconi. I am a master student at Bocconi University, and I'm taking classes in fashion and luxury. Today, we're going to ask students about what do they think about luxury if we put it in a few words. >> I think that luxury is a way of satisfying the need for comfort. Luxury goes beyond basic necessity and is there to indulge our personal happiness and pleasure. >> Luxury is an indulgence rather than a necessary. >> For me, luxury is prestige. >> Luxury is having personality and not being afraid to show it. For me, luxury is something that is of high aesthetical value but at the same time it's very limited and that's why many people want to have it but just very few can go afford. >> I think luxury is two things. First, it's about quality and the second for me, luxury is also exclusive. So quality and exclusivity mixed and yeah. We can argue whether all brands respect this, but for me this is what luxury is. >> I think of luxury is a comfort in our life, it's time saving, but money spending. >> Luxury to me means excessive details. >> Luxury to me. It's a delight, and indulgence, it is timeless beauty just barely within reach. It is possession, or an experience that is extremely precious. As our students said, there are some elements that are common in luxury that they all find associated with this concept. The concept of exclusivity, selectivity, comfort, But there are also a lot of insights so that are different. So: it makes me feel fine, so an experiential dimension. Timeless beauty. So the fact again, that luxury is associated with the beauty that will last and will represent an investment. So these youngsters do have quite a clear idea about what luxury stands for for them actually. So defining the territory I think it's useful to start thinking about the etymology of luxury. So, the roots behind the word, luxury. Luxury comes from lux, that is a Latin word. Lux is Latin meaning something like light, or brilliant. But at the same time, in the latin root of the word, you have also luxus, from which you might extract the concept of luxuria. We have an Italian, word that is âlussatoâ that means when your shoulder comes out of the original place, and something wrong. so, luxes means something excessive, something, that is not on the right track. And we will see how, the combination of these two meanings, so lux as light, brilliance, splendor, together with; the second meaning of, something wrong, something extravagant, something excessive, is the true nature of luxury. So, luxury brands, as much as they can, they should try to combine these two dimensions. A second concept that I would like to introduce is how much luxury is subjective. So it means many things to many people. Many different things to many different customer groups. So what is luxury for some is just ordinary. for others. If I want to fly for instance a business. For me, this is a luxury, but maybe for other, just flying first class or private jet is a luxury. A third concept I would like to add is how luxury is context dependent. So luxury is different for different age groups. We have luxury for millennials that is we are seeing very different from luxury for seniors. And luxury is very also different and associated to different concepts in terms of geography. Now the luxury goods market is booming in Asia, China in particular. It means something totally different for mature or sophisticated costumers in Europe, in Japan, and the US. So, the geography plays a very important role.
