Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 8
Beyond the Internet:
mobile technology
and innovation
for luxury
“Utility is when you have one telephone, luxury is when you have
two, opulence is when you have three - and paradise is when you
have none.”
—Doug Larson
If someone were to mention to you that a luxury brand is a living thing that
needs to be fed and nurtured like humans, animals and plants, your first reac-
tion would probably be that the person is crazy. If the person went ahead and
insisted that luxury brands go through the same stages of growth as human
beings, from infancy to childhood, teenage, adulthood and old age and that
each life-stage requires luxury to be and act in a certain way, you will likely
conclude that he has lost his mind or that he has suddenly woken up on the
wrong side of the age of philosophy.
The truth is that a luxury brand can be considered as embodying the same
characteristics as a living thing because it touches on emotions, arouses
strong feelings and moves people to feel and act in ways that may often
seem illogical or surprising to them and others. Just as music and cinema
have the potential to move emotions in people, true luxury represents more
than objects and surroundings but is an embodiment of feelings, emotions
and sentiments that live within people and, in certain cases, manifests with
every pulse and breath.
If we were to put luxury in the context of life-stages, we could say that lux-
ury is currently mature and is going through the stage of adulthood because
luxury has been a part of humankind since time immemorial. However, if
we were to take luxury as a consolidated industry and an economic force on
the global market scene, the life-stage we would designate it would be different.
In this case, luxury would be best described as being in its late teenage years.
