How can Luxury Brands show resilience after the Paris attacks?
This is how Louis Vuitton expressed their solidarity to their countrymen on Facebook in the aftermath of the Paris attacks, incidents that also leave the luxury industry mourning.
According to Forbes Travel stocks across Europe took a big hit on Monday as investors worried about the attacks’ immediate and long-term impact across the continent. I’ve also come across several articles, including the Luxury Daily online magazine, where conversation covers the impact of the Paris tragedy on the tourism industry in one of the world’s one of the world’s leading luxury shopping destinations.
Major luxury companies LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA and Kering SA—owner of the Gucci brand—ended the day lower after falling 3% at the open, according to the Wall Street Journal on November 16.
The impact will probably have long-standing consequences on a European level, given uncertainty of political response and potential counter-attacks that still remain unclear, where travelers opt for alternative destinations also affecting other European cities like Milan, London and Berlin.
It is a values issue.
It has been suggested that at time of crisis, ethical issues become one of the most important topics at the top of the agenda. So doing some forward thinking I would say that it’s a top priority for Luxury Brands to examine how the current political and economic conditions are altering human values and consequently consumer behavior. Luxury purchases are mainly emotional. The risk of a negative atmosphere spreading across Europe could weigh on luxury spending.
For luxury brands to remain relevant, businesses must remain as dynamic as society is in itself. This means being able to provide customers with products and services that add value and make their life better: businesses with a purpose.
But building a business with a purpose requires a change of paradigm that mirrors the underlying culture of an organization. Those luxury corporations that are open to adaptation should be characterized by responding on a managerial level and with a strategic governance structure, acquiring a long-term approach to profit, growth and with an active stakeholder supervision process. Activities that are aligned in conformity to values might play a role in increased levels of brand loyalty.
Regardless of the hedonistic values present in luxury brands, each business must be able to keep in mind the reason for the company’s existence, its skills, mission and purpose; they must reflect its ambition for a place in history. By keeping in mind that it is the brand that drives the business, the firm guarantees the generation of shareholder value by focusing on the uncompromising mission in pursuit of unique achievement. It is here where teams have the potential to be motivated in delivering value beyond the monetary and remain relevant in their offers; the delivery of value even beyond the realm of luxury and hedonism. Luxury represents an ideal that must remain and must works towards the pursuit of the positive. Luxury brands have the potential to lead in terms of innovation and human progress.
Today symbolically, French brands have this challenge on their plate.
