Maintaining a premium, prestige ima

Maintaining a premium, prestige image with luxury branding is crucial; controlling that image is thus a priority. Ideally the image will be designed to be globally relevant.
• Luxury branding often relies on an aspirational image that benefits from a “trickle-down” effect to a broader audience via PR and word-of-mouth, but there must be a good balance between accessibility and exclusivity.
• Marketers of luxury brands must control all aspects of the marketing program to ensure quality products and services and pleasurable purchase and consumption experiences.
• Distribution for luxury brands should be carefully controlled via a selective distribution strategy that may include company stores.
• Luxury brands are enhanced by a premium pricing strategy with strong quality cues and few discounts or markdowns Brand architecture for luxury brands must be managed
very carefully with only selective, strategic licensing and extensions (especially vertically). Brand hierarchies and portfolios must be employed, with appropriate sub-brands to minimize cannibalization and optimize equity flows
Luxury brands can sometimes benefit from secondary associations with linked personalities, events, countries, and so on.
• Brand elements besides brand names—such as logos and packaging—can be important drivers of brand equity for luxury brands.
• Competition may need to be defined broadly, because luxury brands can compete with luxury brands from other categories for discretionary consumer dollars.
• Luxury brands must legally protect all trademarks and aggressively combat counterfeits