Luxury, Lies and Marketing Shattering the Illusions of the Luxury Brand

Uncovers the truth about luxury brand marketing and shows that like any other commercial brand, they manipulate and influence their customers with traditional commercial techniques. Full of case studies and practical tools for understanding luxury brand marketing the author provides frameworks to help companies with their own branding strategy

Introduction Part I Doing Away with Some Received Ideas French Luxury : An Ego as Big as the Ritz A Neglected History On the Art of Denying One's Mother Going Back Still Further The Origin of European Luxury : Court Society And on the Paternal Side ? Luxury's Quest for Meaning False Ancestors The Limping Devil Luxury is Always a Swerve The three 'Swerves' of Luxury Part II International Luxury : The Clash of Cultures The Pyramid The Galaxy Two Models, Two Societies The Classical and the Baroque A Work in Progress When the Erosion of the Industrial Model Reaches Luxury Brands Invisible Luxury New Brands on the Horizon ? Part III How Luxury Brands Work Defining Luxury : Insufficient Criteria One Luxury, or Three Luxuries ? A Brand is an Impression The Fingerprint Method • The Physical Pole • The Temporal Pole • The Spatial Pole • The Norms Pole • The Positions Pole • The Projects Pole • The Relations Pole What does the Future Hold ? The Slider Console Ralph Lauren : a Luxury Brand ? The Summaries of Summaries The Brand Ladder of Values Descending and Rising Marketing and Luxury : the Big Misunderstanding A Paradoxical Form of Marketing Down with Luxury Marketing ? Conclusion

MARIE-CLAUDE SICARD is an Associate Professor at Paris IV-Sorbonne University, and Adjunct Associate Professor at Stern University, NYU, and EM-Lyon, Shanghai. Sicard is a well-known European expert on luxury and brands, and a consultant for French & international companies with her own consulting company MCPS Conseil, Brand Analysis and Strategy Consultancy. As a strategic marketing consultant, her clients have included L'Oreal, Lancôme, Ralph Lauren, Armani, Kellogg's, Porsche, Jaguar, Renault, Dior, Louis Vuitton, tourism companies (Club Med ) and banks (such as BNP Paribas ). In addition to the permanent teaching positions she holds at the Sorbonne (Paris & Abu Dhabi), she lectures and consults around the world, most often in the USA & Asia ( China, Japan, India ), speaks at international seminars and conferences, and is often interviewed in the media for her outspoken views on branding and the luxury industry.