Following on from a previous post about my definition of luxury, I had an experience this morning that’s had me thinking about the whole idea of ‘luxury’ all day and I thought you might be interested.
What’s important to me is that my definition of luxury, which will still always have aspirations of £3k watches etc, is based more within the realms of reality - I don’t earn a huge amount so my luxury experiences are relegated to mass luxury or bad debt, but why should that mean that I can’t experience luxury?
On my way to work I always have to get into a packed lift - if you’ve been to Covent Garden tube station you’ll know what I mean. What I’ve noticed is that I always go to the last lift that is running, which more often than not is a lot less packed, maybe even empty.
This morning I did this little trick, smug in the knowledge that I wouldn’t be a pickled herring with everyone else, and waited at the last lift. When it started going up I realised there were only two of us in the lift, and the other guy made a comment how rare that was, it was like a step out of my everyday reality.
So it got me thinking that in my everyday life, I really value having those little moments of having space/being alone etc. It’s very rare and when I do get them I cherish them. A lot has been made of time being the most valuable currency at the moment (with a lot of brands focusing on that - Vodafone, British Airways etc). But what about space - for me that is definately a luxury.
How could a brand get into this? With the mass luxury goods market starting to wobble, the gap between uber/pure luxury brands and Joe Public is getting wider. So why not shift peoples perception of luxury from tangible goods to intangible ‘experience’ but not in the traditional events sense of the word.
Giving everyday, harrassed people what everyday money cannot buy - space.
Ideas on a postcard for bringing that to life, but hey - it’s just a thought!