Luxury Brands and Man's Search for Meaning

The act of purchasing is no more than a transaction that involves an exchange of value, and value is particularly important when talking about luxury. In the luxury field, the usual reasoning on price vs. quality, or on supply vs. demand, makes very little sense. Given this fact, we need to ask ourselves, what are the types of value customers are looking for in the consumption experience? Let’s analyze this from a more transcendental point of view and whether or not the consumption of luxury items are fulfilling human needs in the attempt of man’s search for meaning and self-realisation.

Consumer behaviour is usually analysed and quantified using data collection and technology. Purchase behaviour however, remains frustratingly unpredictable due to human desires driven mainly by emotion and remaining on a subconscious level. To understand the role of the economy in man’s search for meaning, happiness and transcendental experience it is first necessary to understand the contemporary socio-cultural, economic and anthropological dimensions of consumption and the fact that consumption of luxury items translates into lifestyle affiliation, a culture, philosophy and a set of principles. According to the book City of Desires- a Place for God? (Ganzevoort, Ruard, Brouwer, 2013), the challenge lies in defining this exploration ‘as a drive that could be utilized as an asset for sustainability and the common good… that opts for an evaluative economy that considers the enhancement of socio-cultural and environmental capital and the future of humankind’.

Consumption of hedonic products like are luxury items, carry a highly emotional value in opposition to simple functionality. A study on luxury consumption published in Attitudes Towards the Concept of Luxury: An Exploratory Analysis. (Dubois, Bernard, Laurent, Gilles ,1994) concluded that there is indeed a strong relationship between luxury consumption and hedonistic and emotional values, and perceived feelings towards rewards and fulfilment of personal satisfaction.

To better understand people’s behaviors and needs, the famous American sociologist Abraham Maslow proposed in his 1943 paper, A Theory of Human Motivation a triangular diagram, called Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. (See figure 01)

He classified and ranked people’s needs in five stages, with the most fundamental needs at the bottom and the need for self-actualization at the top. Maslow’s broad-spectrum idea is that people will always try to meet their most basic needs first. The five stages being, in order: physiological, safety, belongingness and love, esteem and self-actualization needs. This model is based on two assumptions: first, that someone who suffers from a deficiency in one of the fundamental stages will not try to fulfil higher types of needs; second, that as soon as one stage of needs is secured, people will naturally seek to satisfy desires of the next and higher stage.

Figure 01- Maslow Hierarchy of Needs

Based on this theory, the question now arises: to what stage of Maslow’s Hierarchy does luxury belong to? In good sense, luxury consumers must be far beyond physiological and security needs. In Marxist terms we can imply that in luxury, value exchange is disconnected from the real functional value and one does not purchase a rare £16,000 per kilo Almas caviar in a gold tin from Caviar House & Prunier in London in order to satisfy hunger. So, let’s take a look at how luxury presents itself in the pyramid.

One could argue that luxury is used as a means of belonging and being loved by a particular social group. Luxury here becomes something to ‘show off’ and seen very often in new rich circles trying to affirm their social status through flashy fashion or ostentatious cars. Acquiring wealth is not enough to portray status, but displaying it is the defining factor and where the desire for association with a similar class or dissociation from lower social groups is done using these possessions. However, connoisseurs and consumers with knowledge that have upheld their high-brow for long, tend to patronize ‘quieter’ luxury goods that might signal or point their status to others.

Once all your Basic needs and Psychological needs are met, is there room for luxury consumption within the realm of Self-fulfillment?

What Maslow means by Self-actualization is that once our desires are fulfilled, we all feel an urge to do what we are good at and try to achieve as much as we can on a more humane level. This person will be interested in adventure, discovery, but also the higher good, world peace and ecology. Having said that, it seems to me that a bigger ratio of the population is reaching this level by completing the first four levels of the pyramid, giving the luxury market a huge opportunity to rise by adapting the way their products and experiences facilitate self-fulfilment, a psychologically and deeply embedded need of their clients.

The Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability demographic group (LOHAS) estimated to have covered a market segment of $546 billion worldwide, with a 10% annual growth and where the terms ‘organic’, ‘fair-trade’, ‘sustainability’, ‘health’, ‘wellness’ and ‘natural’ have been proven to drive consumption in a market of more conscious and informed consumers. While only luxury, it does give us a good perspective of the direction in which the market is going, and sight of an opportunity luxury brands don’t want to miss out on.

By understanding the emotional demesne of consumers, luxury brands have the potential to be drivers of change- for good, guiding individuals and businesses onto leading more meaningful and more socially and environmentally aware lives. To be successful in this attempt would for luxury brands mean, to reinforce their positioning by actually driving the advancement of society and consolidating of a new type of aspiration within high-end circles.