The Cult of the Luxury Brand: Inside Asia’s Love Affair With Luxury

The Cult of the Luxury Inside Asia’s Love Affair with Luxury is the first book to explore how and why an extraordinary luxeplosion is rocking Asia. And it’s not just the glitzy upper crust that is getting swept up in the frenzy-secretaries clutch Burberry bags, junior executives sport Rolex watches, and university students stroll around in Ferragamo shoes.Hong Kong boasts more Gucci and Hermes stores than New York or Paris. China’s luxury market is growing so quickly that it will be the largest luxury market in the world by 2014. Even India, relatively new to the luxury scene, has three-month waiting lists for hot items, while in Tokyo, which is the epicenter of the luxury cult, 94% of women in their twenties own a Louis Vuitton bag.Written by world-leading retail consultants who know their way around the Asian market, The Cult of the Luxury Brand draws on over 150 interviews with industry experts and market studies in ten countries. It offers glimpses of Asia’s thriving retail scene from glorious flagship stores in Tokyo to bustling local markets in Seoul, and seeks to understand consumers’ inner motives for this obsession. Not so long ago, your place in society was defined by your role and your heritage; now it’s all about your Chanel suit and your Cartier watch.The luxe cult is so powerful that Asian consumers account for as much as half of the eighty billion dollar global luxe industry. Radha Chadha and Paul Husband describe how to elevate your product’s status while simultaneously pumping it out to the masses. They crack the code of the cult, offering a tried-and-tested approach for creating a devoted following for your brand. Whether you are a business professional targeting the Asian consumer or a shopper trying to understand your own love affair with luxury, this book illuminates the mysterious inner workings of one of the world’s fastest growing industries. At last a book that arms the fashion industry with actionable insights into the psyche of the Asian luxury consumer. Written with charm and verve, the book reveals the soul of Asia in all its nuanced splendor, showing how the culture of nations shapes its people’s fashion sensibilities and passion for luxury brands.- Vivienne Tam, fashion designer Fascinating. The Cult of the Luxury Brand is the first insightful exposition of this dramatic re-framing of traditional Asian values. It is full of insight and vital source material for anyone interested in understanding modern Asians.- Miles Young, Chairman of Ogilvy & Mather Asia Pacific Excellent and timely. The Asian market is red hot, and by focusing on the luxury brand, we can better understand the rapid social changes taking place in Asia today. A great topic, one that professionals in many fields want to know more about. It’s happening now – and Chadha and Husband have got the story, in a way that the competition does not. It’s ‘hands-on’, accessible, informative, professional and lively. – Dr. Kaori O’Connor, leading anthropologist on material culture and fashion, and author of The Way We Wear A fascinating and informative ride through cities like Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Tokyo. There is no other place in the world where luxury is the currency of power than Asia, where what you wear speaks volumes about who you are. The Cult of the Luxury Brand is a must-read for anyone who is looking to enter the retail development market in Asia, an invaluable tool in understanding the psychology of the Asian consumer. – Bertrand Pellegrin, Marketing Director of Lane Crawford Painstakingly researched and easy to read, an amazing look inside the luxury brand trade. – Ambar Brahmachary, President of JWT Japan In this superb book, through a series of case studies and insightful analysis, Chadha and Husband highlight new marketing tools that companies are successfully implementing to create and build the luxury cult. This is a must-read book for executives who want to build their luxury brands in the booming Asian markets. – Sunil Gupta, Professor of Marketing at Harvard Business School Savvy marketers can use this information to plan how to penetrate the Asian market. The prose is lively, engaging and witty, elevating this marketing manual into the fun-to-read category. getAbstract enthusiastically recommends it to those with a passion for fashion, a curiosity about the Asian shoppers’ psyche or an interest in entering the high end Asian market.- Wear Your SuccessPart How and Why1 A Love Affair with Luxe2 Finding Meaning in an LV BagPart What and Where3 An Insatiable Yen4 Hong Kong and Yin and Yang5 From Mao Suits to Armani6 South Indebted to Luxury7 Single-Season Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines8 The Next China?Part Behind the Cult9 How the Cult is Created10 Advent of the Genuine Fakes11 The Future of LuxuryNotesAcknowledgmentsIndex