Beyond the product: Holistic luxury training for a new era

July 11, 2024

Every luxury product has a great story around its inspiration, creation, features, details and manufacturing process

“People always want to dream and luxury can help transport them to a place of happiness.”

Luxury is not a product or service, but a mindset.

Luxury is not a set of techniques or codes – it is a complete culture. Everything the brand does should aim at making it incomparable, from the products themselves, the stores, the service, and each single act of communication.

The core values expressed and delivered by the brand must connect the company and its staff’s dedication to quality and service with the customers’ values and aspiration.

It is these people, not the product that make a luxury brand.

Changing luxury consumer landscape
In recent times, the luxury sector is seeing a transformative change.

Post-COVID-19 consumer behavior, rise of Gen Z, digital disruptions, shortening attention spans and the emergence of re-commerce as an option, are all necessitating a fresh approach towards the often ignored aspect of luxury training.

Ironically, luxury training has always been an area of importance and focus for brands across categories.

However, most brand training has been centered purely around the brand’s product and current collections as well as its well laid-out standard operating procedures.

Whilst this is necessary, it also limits the sales associates from thinking out of the box, thereby restricting them into a mechanized sales process. With the changing luxury scenario, this no longer can hold true.

Abhay Gupta

Key concepts of luxury training
Any luxury training should ideally revolve around several key ingredients:

The Luxury mindset. Mindset is very important, because without a proper luxury mindset you will give little to nothing out of a luxury service.

Luxury understanding and expression comes from within and not because an item displays a logo or tells you its luxury.

True luxury begins from within the mind and emotions. It is not started solely from something external.

Developing a luxury mindset is a self-learning process. Be a self-learner.

Brand story telling. Sell the brand story – the product is just a byproduct of the brand.

Narrating the brand story, DNA, country of origin and its legendary creator are the most essential elements that draw a customer towards the product.

After all, the ‘little black dress’ by Chanel is different from other black dresses simply because it is by Chanel.

The client’s dream story. A luxury brand is comparable to none. It says – choose me since I am the only one that can fulfill your desire.

Understanding the clients dream and attraction towards the brand is the beginning of a relationship. Help the client relive his or her dream.

The client then sees you as a participant of the same dream and desire as his.

The product story. Every luxury product has a great story around its inspiration, creation, features, details and manufacturing process. Use that as a story to entrance the customer.

Beyond just transactions. It is widely true – build relations, business will follow. The luxury business is all about going beyond just transactions. Think long term and invest in building relations.

Empathy and emotional intelligence. A luxury client does not ‘need’ the product. Yet, there is a rationale behind his irrational purchase. Once you get there through active listening, empathy and emotional bonding, you have a client for life.

Experience and engagement. Luxury clients seek exceptional product and service experience. The perfect touch, the perfect word, the perfect environment, the perfect engagement and perfect service.

There is no shortcut in this business. An intelligent engagement leads to a satisfying and long lasting relationship.

Secrecy and privacy. In the current age of deception , credibility matters the most.

Luxury customers expect privacy and data security. They demand transparency regarding the use of their personal information and the ability to exercise control over it, especially given the heightened risks they face in the event of a data breach.

Credibility. To be credible, you must be authentic, true and consistent in what you believe and deliver.

Trust is the most preferred currency in luxury service.

Exclusivity. A key driver of most luxury purchases, exclusivity helps one to stand out, be unique, be recognized and yet be comfortable and elegant.

A uniquely curated exclusive experience and engagement help build an exclusive relationship.

Personalization, need anticipation and understanding client preferences can help create exclusive experiences.

Digital skills. In a digitally disrupted world, the client expects seamless communications and experiences across all channels.

Being digitally savvy and not just literate is the order of the day.

Grooming, manners and etiquette. Being polite, soft spoken and well behaved with the highest level of etiquette, personal hygiene and elegance are core elements.

There is no room for arrogance and rudeness. Luxury is a zero tolerance zone that can be unforgiving for impoliteness.

Substance with style. A luxury professional, just like a luxury product, is an equal and perfect balance of uncompromised tangibility with seductive intangibility.

Indeed, luxury is a wonderful combination of 60 percent substance and 40 percent style that helps the client elevate their style quotient with extremely comfortable functionality.

FOR SOMETHING TO to be a luxury, consumers must be surprised, mind-blown and awe-inspired by it. They have to feel “wow” and, frankly, should crave for more.

A luxury brand goes beyond the tangible product and creates a deep-rooted emotional, mental, psychological and almost romantically inclined, desire-based relationship.

Good quality, impeccable service, top-notch materials, sound production and a more-than-attractive sales environment are the given ingredients of this relationship.

The hero is the product, but the heroine is the emotional experience that keeps bringing back the customer always seeking for more.

The story is incomplete without the romantic angle of pampering, wooing, seducing and courting the customer. This can only be done through immersive and engaging personalized experiences, servicing and storytelling.

With the advent of tech tools, a constant drama can evoke desire.

Abhay Gupta is founder/CEO of Luxury Connect and Luxury Connect Business School, Gurgaon, Haryana, India. Reach him at abhay@luxuryconnect.in.

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