WHEN LUXURY IS JUST GLOSSY MARKETING

WHEN LUXURY IS JUST GLOSSY MARKETING

True luxury requires an infrastructure that demands continual investment, but the financiers of luxury demand efficiencies that remove the very things the guest is paying a premium to receive. So, as far as I am concerned, luxury is being compromised. But at least we can pretend to be luxury and gloss it over with marketing that creates emotion through an image, whilst the reality is that luxury itself is becoming increasingly selective.

Every luxury business must be commercially successful. But there is an important difference between making luxury profitable and removing the cost of luxury while continuing to charge for it.

True luxury requires things that cannot easily be industrialised: skilled people, time, knowledge, anticipation, discretion, craftsmanship, recognition and the freedom to personalise an experience around an individual guest.

Yet these are the very things being cut back as profits are expected to continually increase. Magical experiences are created through moments of connection, and those moments are created by people — people who often give everything through sheer dedication, sometimes without the tools, resources or even the time to do the job properly.

Eventually, the image of luxury and the experience of luxury become two very different things.