A BBC Collective member shared this article from Entrepreneur Magazine about selling luxury. The article was written in September 2015 and is based on the author’s (Vincent Bastien) book, The Luxury Strategy.
Even though it is a few years old, Bastien’s premise that the strategy to sell true luxury is different from selling luxury as fashion and/or premium is an evergreen.
Luxury is different and, for creative business, knowing that the rules of selling luxury (Bastien calls them anti-laws and there are twenty four of them) is fundamentally different than any other strategy is vital for every single creative business owner.
For our purposes though, two topics stick out — do not compare yourself to anyone and target those who are not your buyers. My interpretation of these two statements is a) be iconic, and b) quit trying to use all media to get clients and focus on conversation instead.
Being Iconic
This the linchpin for me. If you are unwilling to stand for why you matter simply because you matter, you cannot be in luxury. If you believe there is a substitute for what you do, you will act in comparison to that substitute and will be, therefore, limited by the comparison. Think of that in terms of your business. If the words “package” or “full-service” exist anywhere, you are not selling luxury, only premium relative to the rest. Just not good enough anymore. Luxury connotes uniqueness as much as it does price. Being expensive is the easy way out and does nothing if you cannot communicate singular. You do what you do because you are the only one in your world that does. It boils down to knowing the difference between preference and substitutes. Luxury is about preference. Clients hire your creative business because they believe your art (and the process of creating it) speaks to them and all that they seek from your work. They do not choose you because you are cheaper, nicer, smarter, hungrier than the next creative business. They choose you because you matter to them. If you cannot get to this place as a creative business owner, you might have to acknowledge that this world might not be for you. Here is why: we are coming to a time when those who refuse to be iconic and stay only as a matter of relative value to competition are going to be squeezed into oblivion. If a client can know there is an alternative, they will push for more and more and more. Add in all of the technological improvements and you have a recipe for only those at significant scale (who can make it with very thin margins) to have an opportunity to succeed. The rest will have to live on crumbs, which is no life at all. Step into the light or you will be shoved off the stage.
Iconic cannot just be about what comes out of your media mouth though. It HAS to be about your business, which is where the whole walking the walk part comes in. Without the willingness to make an outrageous promise as a business, you cannot be luxury and likely not a true creative business in the future. Here’s the thing: when you make an outrageous promise and request, you likely get permission to make the next one. An example, a floral designer no longer does line item pricing and has increased her design fee by fifty percent. Clients do not push back and have come to actually see the wisdom in both. Now she is about to ask for ALL of her production money (including her fees) as soon as design is approved instead of half upon approval and half thirty days out. This applies to interior designers too who, instead of getting paid upon item approval, get all of their production money up front. Life changes dramatically for all creative businesses when all production money (including fees and a percentage for unknowns) is paid significantly in advance. One outrageous promise to the next, this is how we all change the game. Walk the walk so you can create a brand new, better path.
Create Conversations
Of course, brand awareness is critical to every creative business. However, if all is geared towards those who would be buyers, you miss the opportunity to create profound statements of those who would aspire to your art but cannot afford it. You will always be too cheap for some, too expensive for others, that is not the point. The point is to demonstrate how much you are who you say you are so that those who care enough will and those you cannot afford to but also care enough dream that they could. Drip by drip by drip. It goes back to being the expert I talked about last time and is validated by those that seek you out because of the effort.
All creative business is luxury because all creative business is a choice. No one needs what you do, they want it because of what impact your work will have on their lives. Transformation. Joy. Enlightenment. Own the responsibility and see where it takes you. Thinking outside the box is an oxymoron since you will always be derivative to the box. First, erase the box, then imagine the world, your world, as it ought to exist. Then make it happen. Or live in a world where you all is you do is make pretty happen like everyone else. Your choice.
