Günter Müller-Stewens

The meaning of luxury and the customers that buy luxury have continually been evolving and the luxury sector is today healthier than ever. However luxury companies have had to completely rethink their strategies and rely on state-of-the-art marketing and management tools to help them keep up with consumers' shifting expectations. The Management of Luxury presents the view of 51 international experts on what luxury management is, how to manage luxury organizations, and key strategies for luxury brand success. Using unique research and case studies they examine how luxury is evolving, and which fundamental aspects of the business need to be prioritised in a time of change and transition. By bringing together the latest academic research and scientifically founded insights The Management of Luxury provides a multicultural, holistic and contemporary perspective on luxury marketing.

A luxury good must be rare and desirable. Ideally, it should be close to unobtainable. And yet, the luxury market grows faster than most others, suggesting an ever increasing accessibility to an ever growing populace. A luxury good must be extreme among the other offerings in its category. And yet, there is something inherently relative about luxury goods, driving the definition of luxury away from the offering itself and toward a consumer's situative perspective. Although a luxury good is meant to be uncompromisingly superfluous in terms of effort and materials invested beyond any standard of responsibility, luxury and responsible managerial and consumer behavior is becoming a more and more viable combination, creating eco-conscious fashion and hybrid high-performance sports cars.

Conventional business wisdom suggests low prices stimulate demand, business size increases competitiveness, and consumers shop for functional use. In luxury, however, these and many more conventions are turned upside down: demand can increase with price, a brand's diffusion acts negatively on its desirability, and consumers make extraordinary efforts to purchase products that usually do not exceed the functional performance of considerably less expensive and, thus, more reasonable alternatives. Luxury, thus, is a phenomenon that is quite real in today's world. Luxury companies have to work more or less within the same mechanisms as other companies, but they apply a set of considerably different parameters. We aim to give an overview of the phenomenon that is today's luxury business, taking snapshots of the market, the luxury organization, management challenges and the must-reads of research in luxury.

Mastering fundamental crises on the market, like technological upheaval or competition from discounters, poses a major challenge for every company. On the basis of a practical example, we show that perseverance in the luxury segment may be a successful strategy for a medium-sized company to deal with crises. Important success factors include a long-term strategy oriented towards the luxury segment, consistent brand management and a contemporary communication strategy tailored to the target groups.