Luxury, Lies and Marketing

MARIE-CLAUDE SICARD is an Associate Professor at Paris IV-Sorbonne University, and Adjunct Associate Professor at Stern University, NYU, and EM-Lyon, Shanghai. Sicard is a well-known European expert on luxury and brands, and a consultant for French & international companies with her own consulting company MCPS Conseil, Brand Analysis and Strategy Consultancy. As a strategic marketing consultant, her clients have included L'Oreal, Lancôme, Ralph Lauren, Armani, Kellogg's, Porsche, Jaguar, Renault, Dior, Louis Vuitton, tourism companies (Club Med ) and banks (such as BNP Paribas ). In addition to the permanent teaching positions she holds at the Sorbonne (Paris & Abu Dhabi), she lectures and consults around the world, most often in the USA & Asia ( China, Japan, India ), speaks at international seminars and conferences, and is often interviewed in the media for her outspoken views on branding and the luxury industry.

Introduction Part I Doing Away with Some Received Ideas French Luxury : An Ego as Big as the Ritz A Neglected History On the Art of Denying One's Mother Going Back Still Further The Origin of European Luxury : Court Society And on the Paternal Side ? Luxury's Quest for Meaning False Ancestors The Limping Devil Luxury is Always a Swerve The three 'Swerves' of Luxury Part II International Luxury : The Clash of Cultures The Pyramid The Galaxy Two Models, Two Societies The Classical and the Baroque A Work in Progress When the Erosion of the Industrial Model Reaches Luxury Brands Invisible Luxury New Brands on the Horizon ? Part III How Luxury Brands Work Defining Luxury : Insufficient Criteria One Luxury, or Three Luxuries ? A Brand is an Impression The Fingerprint Method • The Physical Pole • The Temporal Pole • The Spatial Pole • The Norms Pole • The Positions Pole • The Projects Pole • The Relations Pole What does the Future Hold ? The Slider Console Ralph Lauren : a Luxury Brand ? The Summaries of Summaries The Brand Ladder of Values Descending and Rising Marketing and Luxury : the Big Misunderstanding A Paradoxical Form of Marketing Down with Luxury Marketing ? Conclusion