17. Cultivate closeness to the arts
In traditional marketing, the brand seeks to appeal and to create an affective relationship. For that it often uses music, music that is as popular as possible, or at least appreciated by its target audience. The brand follows people’s tastes. The luxury brand is a promoter of taste, like art. As we explored in earlier posts, it maintains close links with art. But luxury is not a follower: it is creative, it is bold. That is why it is best for luxury to remain close to the unpopular arts – or rather the non-popular arts – those that are emerging and have yet to appeal to the majority, if they ever will. Louis Vuitton has long been sponsoring concerts of contemporary music, for example bringing the pianist Maurizio Pollini to the Abbaye de Royaumont to perform music by the little-known composer Luigi Nono, rather than by a great such as Mozart or Chopin. Similarly, following the pioneering work done by Cartier, the Fondations d’Art Contemporain are now flourishing in all the great luxury groups. In this way they are making themselves patrons of emerging trends, where they are forming symbiotic relationships that serve their purposes – making luxury-brand objects that are themselves works of contemporary art.
That is why it is so important to develop this curiosity about the here and now among those working in the luxury business and to encourage them to visit art galleries, biennales, and exhibitions of modern art.
Excerpted in part from: The Luxury Strategy: Break The Rules of Marketing to Build Luxury Brands by JN Kapferer and V. Bastien, in partnership with Kogan Page publishing.
Sponsored By: The Brand Positioning Workshop
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