Crea Geneva and Inseec were organizing a big conference day on luxury this 15th September, and I had the chance of being one of the guests. Among the speakers was Jean-Noël Kapferer, a famous French professor and researcher on media and luxury. His books were part of my preparation for exams, and I was feeling lucky to meet him in person. The event was held at the Fédération des Entreprises Romandes in Geneva. Entering the conference room, guests were offered a nice Caran d’Ache pen in a custom box, giving it already a luxury twist (many thanks to the organizers for that!)

After the usual introductions, Jean-Noël Kapferer talked 30 minutes about challenges the luxury industry faces nowadays. He talked about Internet, of course, both as a challenge and an opportunity. To my surprise, many luxury companies fear the success: they are afraid of selling all their stock, and how that contradicts the part of exceptional that goes along with luxury concept. He also explained that luxury differs from fashion because it is intemporal, and it differs from premium because it has to remain incomparable.

Luxury is needlessly expensive.

I liked the peacock example: Mr. Kapferer was referring to it as a luxury animal, going against Darwinian laws of evolution. He honestly remembered when giving this speech in Pakistan, where attendees noted that peacocks are like pigeons to them. Never forget references are not the same everywhere, even in a globalization context. Lastly, I will remember that it’s a brand’s customers that make it luxury: once everyone has it, it can’t be exceptional, could it?

I was later compelled by Catherine Becker‘s insights about luxury in China. Far from the traditional bling-bling, she told us about a complicated society, with fathers missing from home and grow-ups personalities looking to compensate with luxury products. She gave the Parker example, a famous pen brand, which identified that writing in a diary is a big trend in China, and writing with a luxury pen gives people the strength to focus and wake up stronger the next morning.