associations, unlike non-luxury goods, which are evaluated on a concrete,
product-related and functional level.
In the product development of conventional consumer goods such as basic
toiletries, several factors are taken into consideration. They consist of the ease
of product use and customer requirements. In the development of luxury
products, however, there are certain features that cannot be compromised.
They comprise the following:1 Innovative, creative and appealing product designs and packaging.
2 Classic and timeless products.
3 Extremely high-quality materials.
4 Meticulous craftsmanship.
5 Manufacturing precision.
6 Rapid design turnover.Other luxury industry-specific product features include: creative and
emotion-evoking product names such as Christian Dior’s ‘J’adore’ and ‘Dior
Addict’ fragrances; Gucci’s ‘Envy Me’ perfume; André Ross’ ‘Champs
Elyseés’ bag and Chanel’s ‘La Ligne Cambon’ product range. Creativity also
extends to packaging design such as the bottle designs of Givenchy’s
‘Organza’ perfume, Jean-Paul Gaultier’s ‘Male’ and ‘Female’ signature
fragrances, Nina Ricci’s ‘Eau de Temps’ and Paco Robanne’s ‘Ultra Voilet’
perfumes.
The luxury goods product division has five major traditional dimensions.
These include Apparel, Leather Goods, Perfumes & Cosmetics, Eyewear and
Watches & Jewellery. However, this traditional product range has been
expanded through the recent trend of product and brand extension. Luxury
goods now include completely new categories like restaurants, hotels and
spas, and multi-category required products like iPod cases. Figure 5.5 shows
the main luxury fashion product groups.
Several marketing experts have identified the conventional product as
having four concentric levels represented through what is known as The
Anatomy of the Product. This model can be applied in the development of
luxury products with the four levels as follows:1 The Core Product, which constitutes the major features and benefits of
the product. This comprises the tools that are used to differentiate the core
product, such as design specifications and packaging. For example, the
Dior Saddle bag and the Vuitton Speedy bag both have distinctive signa-
ture designs. The André Ross bag comes with 23k gold-plated hardware
and Hermès has a characteristic packaging in orange. These are all aspects
of the core product.
2 The Basic Productis the functional attributes of the product from which
consumers derive their tangible benefits. These include the time-keeping130
luxury fashion branding