This study focuses on luxury, a concept that is a relevant part of all human societies. Luxury is a complex concept that have been described in many different ways in the literature, presenting partial views.
The research problem of this study is to identify and aggregate different influences in the evolution of the concept of luxury and relate the different variables into a general theory of luxury.
The concept of luxury has existed for many millennia and has been evolving over time. To fully understand today’s concept of luxury, first we must review its history, from its conception, in the Stone Age, to today’s society (Lipovetsky & Roux, 2003, Berry, 1994, Castarède, 2006; 2008; 2014). This evolution can be summarized in four eras.
The concept of luxury is wide, subjective and complex, because of its rich story of evolution over several millennia. From the literature it can be identified four constructs of the luxury concept – magic, power, success and individualism - that represent the four eras of development.
Luxury developed into a complex concept over millennia and any study or strategy should consider this broad view and not just partial views that equate luxury to superfluous, wasteful or sinful. It has important economic and social contribution to the society, but the network of associated concepts it developed over time have to be respected, in order to satisfy consumers’ desire for luxury.
Today’s market is fragmented into several segments that value in different ways these four constructs.
Berry, C.J. (1994). The Idea of Luxury: A Conceptual and Historical Investigation. Cambridge University Press
Castarède, J. (2014). Le Luxe. Que sais-je? PUF, 8 ed
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Lipovetsky, G. & Roux, E. (2003). Le luxe éternel. Éd. Gallimard
Truong, Y., McColl, R. & Kitchen, P.J. (2009). New luxury brand positioning and the emergence of masstige brands. Journal of Brand Management, 16(5), 375-382