News

Innovation II Forum – October 2007

26 October 2007 By db staff writer

INNOVATION II
ASPIRATION & LUXURY

Monday 8 October 2007
at The Media & Business Complex, London Stock Exchange

Following on from last yearâ€™s highly successful Innovation conference the drinks businessÂ was delighted toÂ hold its second annual conference, Innovation II: Aspiration and Luxury. Many brands come and go but only those who truly engage the consumer survive.Â We explored the tricks of the trade used to create a brand that can attract aspirational consumers and those wanting to buy into a little luxury, whether luxury is a part of their life or not.

The event took place over one day and comprised panels of industry experts covering such topics as: what makes the consumer want more; the relationship between aspiration and luxury; the retail persepective on what makes the consumer aspire to buying one brand over another; and much, much more.

From our editorial director & publisher …

THE CONCEPT of luxury is age old; â€œa natural and expected element of upper class lifeâ€¦ a domain of the wealthy and famous that the hoi polloi dares not enter,â€ as Dana Thomas says in her book Deluxe: How Luxury Lost its Lustre.

But todayâ€™s world is one of â€œaccessible luxuryâ€ and classifying the meaning of luxury is much more complicated. How do you define luxury? How do you innovate? How can you make your product resonate with consumers sufficiently to make them put their hands in their pockets?

No longer is it the privilege of the wealthy. Luxury is now not so much about the price you pay but about the experience you have and how the individual defines their own luxurious moment or product.

A stroll around the recently launched Wonder Room at Selfridges epitomises the fact that consumers have moved away from the obvious symbols of status, such as a logo, a bag or an item of over the top jewellery. Luxury is now much more about an emotion or an experience, creating an aspirational value for your product.

There is no doubt that the wine and spirits industry has its own luxury and aspirational icons. But they are few and the surprise to me is that given the inherent qualities and the bespoke methods of production that are involved as an industry we do not maximise the potential of our own aspirational value.

Hence the second Innovation Forum â€“ Aspiration & Luxury.

Charlotte Hey
editorial director & publisher

For aÂ completeÂ pdf version of theÂ INNOVATION IIÂ FORUM
report, which was
published with the
November 2007 issue of
the drinks business magazine

click on the ‘download’
button above

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Â Â A selection of our speakers at the eventÂ …

Victoria Mather, travel editor, Vanity Fair	Dane Hudson, ceo, McGuigan Simeon Wines	Tim French, buyer, Fortum & Mason	Gaston Van de Laar, strategy director, Claessens Product Consultants	Ibrahim Ibrahim, managing director, Portland Design Associates	Sarah Brown, managing director, Pai Skincare Ltd
Arnaud de Trabuc, chairman & md, After SA	Julian Cordy, director, Box Marketing	Denis de Groote, president & md, After SA	Lulu Egerton, partner, Strutt & Parker Lane Fox	Graham Page, drinks analyst, AC Nielson	Paul Schaafsma, regional director, McGuigan Simeon