Sensible, actionable advice for anyone hoping to move a brand into the upper echelons of retailing.
A fashionista offers marketers advice for connecting with the elusive luxury customer.
In a world where suburban teens tote designer handbags and Prada is available at the local outlet mall, how is luxury defined? As more consumers gain access to ostensibly high-end goods, many luxury brands are struggling to distinguish themselves while retaining the aura of exclusivity. How does a luxury company ensure that its products get into the hands of the “right” customer? And how does it hold on to a shopper “whose needs are constantly growing and changing”? These are questions that Phillips tackles in this marketing guidebook for those who want to grab the attention—and the dollars—of the ultrahigh-net-worth shopper. Each brief, easy-to-read chapter delivers a single marketing lesson, whether it’s the benefits—and hazards—of licensing a luxury brand, the importance of cultivating a smaller, elite clientele rather than courting mass appeal, or the dangers posed by counterfeiters. Charts and graphs illustrate concepts such as the “luxury consumption pyramid,” and callouts draw attention to key points. Like a textbook, chapters end with a list of lessons learned and a question for readers. Some of Phillips’ insights are common sense; most luxury marketers have probably realized the importance of having easy-to-navigate, smartphone-optimized websites, for example. But the handbook also offers on-point guidance on tapping the fast-growing global luxury market, noting that elite shoppers from countries like Brazil and China are big consumers of luxury goods, but simply opening new stores in these markets may not guarantee growth. Instead, a smarter approach could involve developing online sales, producing regionally tailored products (such as Hermès saris for the Indian market), and building overall brand awareness to capture tourist shoppers. Other useful tips include guidance on creating spin-off children’s brands, which provide a luxury consumer a chance to “indulge in a form of shopping that can be rationalized as selfless,” the changing habits of the high-end shopper, and how embracing a sustainable business model can benefit both the environment and the bottom line.
Sensible, actionable advice for anyone hoping to move a brand into the upper echelons of retailing.Pub Date: July 14, 2012
ISBN: 978-1475113327
Page Count: 256
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
IN THE NEWS
Cogent, well-timed ideas for meeting today’s biggest challenges.
Helping liberals get out of their own way.
Klein, a New York Times columnist, and Thompson, an Atlantic staffer, lean to the left, but they aren’t interrogating the usual suspects. Aware that many conservatives have no interest in their opinions, the authors target their own side’s “pathologies.” Why do red states greenlight the kind of renewable energy projects that often languish in blue states? Why does liberal California have the nation’s most severe homelessness and housing affordability crises? One big reason: Liberal leadership has ensnared itself in a web of well-intentioned yet often onerous “goals, standards, and rules.” This “procedural kludge,” partially shaped by lawyers who pioneered a “democracy by lawsuit” strategy in the 1960s, threatens to stymie key breakthroughs. Consider the anti-pollution laws passed after World War II. In the decades since, homeowners’ groups in liberal locales have cited such statutes in lawsuits meant to stop new affordable housing. Today, these laws “block the clean energy projects” required to tackle climate change. Nuclear energy is “inarguably safer” than the fossil fuel variety, but because Washington doesn’t always “properly weigh risk,” it almost never builds new reactors. Meanwhile, technologies that may cure disease or slash the carbon footprint of cement production benefit from government support, but too often the grant process “rewards caution and punishes outsider thinking.” The authors call this style of governing “everything-bagel liberalism,” so named because of its many government mandates. Instead, they envision “a politics of abundance” that would remake travel, work, and health. This won’t happen without “changing the processes that make building and inventing so hard.” It’s time, then, to scrutinize everything from municipal zoning regulations to the paperwork requirements for scientists getting federal funding. The authors’ debut as a duo is very smart and eminently useful.
Cogent, well-timed ideas for meeting today’s biggest challenges.Pub Date: March 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781668023488
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Avid Reader Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
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