Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
it has also become imperative for luxury to ascertain its place in the current
digital-driven world. The beat of the global economy is based on this dig-
ital pulse. Technology and innovation are currently required across every
aspect of the luxury business, starting from material sourcing, production
techniques, retail development, store merchandizing, client management,
logistics and transport, strategy development, operational models and so
on. It translates itself through mobile technology and the opportunities for
m-commerce; it supports the applications required for data capturing and
management; it challenges the approaches to sensory marketing through
neuro-marketing techniques; it provides a different outlook to store merchan-
dizing through distant-assortment methods; it reshapes the looks and func-
tions of products through high-tech materials; and it introduces a new look to
product customization through body scanning methods. There is no escaping
the fact that technology will play a key role in defining the growth of luxury
in its next life-stage, and the earlier luxury brands address the issues linked
to technology the better.
The mobile luxury debate
The mobile phone is the most personal of all the communications media
existing today. If I ask you to tell me precisely where your car keys or house
or office keys are at this moment, you may not be able to do so, but if I ask
you to tell me precisely where your mobile phone is or to show it to me,
you would likely produce it immediately. Let's admit it, we all have intimate
relationships with our mobile phones and, to a large extent, it controls us in
different ways. I've seen too many men and women become frantic in pub-
lic places in a bid to find their ringing phones in their handbags, briefcases
and pockets. The mobile has turned the coolest and chicest of women into
disheveled neurotics in the frenzied panic attacks following its loss. It has
become more than a companion but a treasured solace for those lonely ones
that find themselves with no one to speak to at cocktail parties or at public
events. It has also become a tool for people to exhibit their importance, par-
ticularly in public places - airports, train stations, banks, fashion shows - and
in most cases, their self-worth and their pocket-size - think the Boucheron
and Vertu co-branded phone. Lyrics have been sung about the mobile phe-
nomenon and its rendering of everyone from business executives to fashioni-
stas, celebrities and politicians to slavery status - think Silvio Berlusconi at
the 2009 NATO meeting or Angelina Jolie at press interviews - and its sheer
power over the youth generation who view having a mobile as a necessity
equated to eating food and drinking water.
The arrival of the Blackberry and iPhone and other smartphones have even
made matters worse. Our peace of mind has been stolen forever. Frantically
(or should I say neurotically) checking one's Blackberry every five minutes
