Everyone feels the pinch of the
downturn. Luxury brands feel them the most since they are conspicuous
consumption. Luxury brands chose the communication of conspicuous consumption to
stand apart and be a luxury brand. The secret of a luxury brand is to always
remain aspirational and elusive. And yet have a target market to generate your
profits. Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Gulfstream, Porsche, Gucci, Rolex, Jimmy Choo
among others are brands who stand for absolute luxury.
These brands command a premium
for the badge value. And the only way it is lost is if it becomes ubiquitous
and thus loses the aspirational value. There is always the pull factor
associated with such brands. They should never go for push. Discount, sale, freebies,
value-for-money should never be associated with luxury brands. Mercedes was
most luxurious known brand in India for a long time before Indians started knowing
about BMW, Ferrari, Porsche, Rolls Royce. Having already lost this tag,
Mercedes is doing itself no good by having the ad as above. Zero insurance
cost, zero maintenance cost and zero interest cost seems like an ad by any of
the other mid-level car brands such as Maruti or Tata or Hyundai. Anyone owning
a Mercedes wouldn't just have that car but at least one more. Such costs wouldn't matter to the targeted audience. Reduction in these costs wouldn't be the
deciding factor or compelling factor to buy a Mercedes. Although it seems that this ad hasn't been done by Mercedes but by the Distributor, Mercedes shouldn't have allowed it. Building a luxury brand
takes eternity but losing it doesn't take more than an ad like this one.
Source: Times of India – Bombay Times
– January 06, 2013
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