News: Storyline's missing in luxury pitches
(DNA 19/04/2006) Mumbai - Champagne dreams and caviar lifestyles. Brands in the lap of luxury promise all that and heaven too. Their bubbly hedonism is hardly intoxicating Indian ad agencies, however, even though every opulent high-stepper from Gucci to Tag Heuer, Mercedes Benz and Mont Blanc have already swished in.
Global ad networks like Leo Burnett, JWT and Euro RSCG have dedicated ‘luxury communications’ cells worldwide. This velvety micro-niche is, however, still low on agencies’ priority list here and far out-weighed by big-dough areas like retail and consultancy.
Careless about caviar?
So, are Indian agencies missing out on the caviar in their quest for bread? The global luxury market stands at $134 billion globally.
Together with China and Russia, India has become part of the so-called Golden Triangle, attracting Europe’s biggest designer labels, runs findings from an in-depth Ogilvy Discovery report. KSA-Technopak estimates the Indian luxury market at Rs 2,000 crore and rising. And India had some 5 million luxury goods clients in 2004.
Question is, will procrastinating agencies ultimately lose this crème to fleet-footed consultancies and independent specialists, just as they’ve been pipped in speciality areas from design to film-making worldwide?
Whoa, it’s too early to get enthralled by silken epiphanies, say ad men. Luxury brands are still ahead of the clover curve here, with their elite (small) audiences. Agencies hence need to be sure of returns before investing, say ad men.
Listen to Santosh Desai, president, McCann Erickson: Luxury brands are entering one foot at a time and beach-heads are being established. India is still a nascent market and that’s the spirit everyone’s looking at it.
So, for ad agencies to invest now, they would be ahead of the curve; how would they maintain their investment in specialised luxury units? Besides, they would need something to service.
Lucent insights for ads
Pivotal poser: Are ad agencies even attempting to peer into the keyhole of this indulgence sanctum to garner consumer insights ahead of the curve? And if so, what are the diamond-tipped insights being gleaned?
Some Discovery nuggets underline that it’s time we find our own luxury ad quotient. International campaigns can work well for luxury here, but context cannot be ignored.
“While luxury communication (in ambient, as well as in intimate media) in the West, through our semiotic analysis, appears almost cold, distant, and aloof; here in India, it needs to be warm and smiling. Cultural differences aside, luxury still needs to speak in a manner that befits. It must retain the language of poetry. It needs to create stories, and not statements. Just a little nudge—from Shelley, to ‘shayri’ will do,’’ says Madhukar Sabnavis, board partner, Discovery & Strategy, Ogilvy & Mather.
Other lessons for creating ad pitches?
For one, the Indian luxury context, while evolving rapidly, still has its own meaning, and its own implications. India is deviating to embrace the West. If Western luxury brands deviate a little, albeit selectively, they will find rich Indian arms open far and wide.
Next, celebrity endorsements and ambassadorships (Shahrukh Khan and Tag Heuer, Aishwarya Rai and Longines, etc.), while making the brand prominent, create a risk of brand dilution, primarily because of their ‘mass’ appeal, say the Discovery team. New Luxury sits between Non and Uber Luxury.
Seeking the palladium of numbers, marketers of luxury brands are themselves massifying or attempting to percolate to audiences below the upper tip of the triangle which is too small. They’re hence broadbasing their ad appeals with celebrity endorsers.
“Everyone’s treading a very tightrope’, agrees Desai. A larger market is de rigeur for a brand to remain financially viable. But too much of availability can compromise a luxury brand or make it lose its lustre.
Still, it’s the under-the-upper layers themselves which are aspiring for slivers of luxury. “While a growing wealthy class is helpful, it is the middle class, which aspires to own luxury brands, that’s driving the luxury brand demand,’’ says Sabnavis.
“The New Luxury category ($350 billion globally) sits anywhere between non luxury and ‘uber premium’. New Luxury brands and products were born from both sides of the spectrum and today covers anything from a cappuccino to a Jaguar.’’
Their takeaway for creating brands and advertising: Luxury brands (and their ads) need to be ‘inclusive exclusive’. Discreet salience is extremely important to create that ‘irresistible-yet-unattainable’ image for brands that want to take India seriously.
Global ad networks like Leo Burnett, JWT and Euro RSCG have dedicated ‘luxury communications’ cells worldwide. This velvety micro-niche is, however, still low on agencies’ priority list here and far out-weighed by big-dough areas like retail and consultancy.
Careless about caviar?
So, are Indian agencies missing out on the caviar in their quest for bread? The global luxury market stands at $134 billion globally.
Together with China and Russia, India has become part of the so-called Golden Triangle, attracting Europe’s biggest designer labels, runs findings from an in-depth Ogilvy Discovery report. KSA-Technopak estimates the Indian luxury market at Rs 2,000 crore and rising. And India had some 5 million luxury goods clients in 2004.
Question is, will procrastinating agencies ultimately lose this crème to fleet-footed consultancies and independent specialists, just as they’ve been pipped in speciality areas from design to film-making worldwide?
Whoa, it’s too early to get enthralled by silken epiphanies, say ad men. Luxury brands are still ahead of the clover curve here, with their elite (small) audiences. Agencies hence need to be sure of returns before investing, say ad men.
Listen to Santosh Desai, president, McCann Erickson: Luxury brands are entering one foot at a time and beach-heads are being established. India is still a nascent market and that’s the spirit everyone’s looking at it.
So, for ad agencies to invest now, they would be ahead of the curve; how would they maintain their investment in specialised luxury units? Besides, they would need something to service.
Lucent insights for ads
Pivotal poser: Are ad agencies even attempting to peer into the keyhole of this indulgence sanctum to garner consumer insights ahead of the curve? And if so, what are the diamond-tipped insights being gleaned?
Some Discovery nuggets underline that it’s time we find our own luxury ad quotient. International campaigns can work well for luxury here, but context cannot be ignored.
“While luxury communication (in ambient, as well as in intimate media) in the West, through our semiotic analysis, appears almost cold, distant, and aloof; here in India, it needs to be warm and smiling. Cultural differences aside, luxury still needs to speak in a manner that befits. It must retain the language of poetry. It needs to create stories, and not statements. Just a little nudge—from Shelley, to ‘shayri’ will do,’’ says Madhukar Sabnavis, board partner, Discovery & Strategy, Ogilvy & Mather.
Other lessons for creating ad pitches?
For one, the Indian luxury context, while evolving rapidly, still has its own meaning, and its own implications. India is deviating to embrace the West. If Western luxury brands deviate a little, albeit selectively, they will find rich Indian arms open far and wide.
Next, celebrity endorsements and ambassadorships (Shahrukh Khan and Tag Heuer, Aishwarya Rai and Longines, etc.), while making the brand prominent, create a risk of brand dilution, primarily because of their ‘mass’ appeal, say the Discovery team. New Luxury sits between Non and Uber Luxury.
Seeking the palladium of numbers, marketers of luxury brands are themselves massifying or attempting to percolate to audiences below the upper tip of the triangle which is too small. They’re hence broadbasing their ad appeals with celebrity endorsers.
“Everyone’s treading a very tightrope’, agrees Desai. A larger market is de rigeur for a brand to remain financially viable. But too much of availability can compromise a luxury brand or make it lose its lustre.
Still, it’s the under-the-upper layers themselves which are aspiring for slivers of luxury. “While a growing wealthy class is helpful, it is the middle class, which aspires to own luxury brands, that’s driving the luxury brand demand,’’ says Sabnavis.
“The New Luxury category ($350 billion globally) sits anywhere between non luxury and ‘uber premium’. New Luxury brands and products were born from both sides of the spectrum and today covers anything from a cappuccino to a Jaguar.’’
Their takeaway for creating brands and advertising: Luxury brands (and their ads) need to be ‘inclusive exclusive’. Discreet salience is extremely important to create that ‘irresistible-yet-unattainable’ image for brands that want to take India seriously.
posted by InCar Group Press Room at 12:32
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