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Marco Bevolo is Director at Philips Design. He joined Philips Design in 1999, assuming responsibility for the cultural trend research program. He was instrumental in the creation of CultureScan, an ongoing trend forecasting research project investigating cultures and aesthetics at regional and global level.

Mr. Bevolo’s work has been published in ‘The Art of Advertising’ and ‘Nuova Enciclopedia della Comunicazione’, the Design Management Review of Boston. His opinions on cultural futures, trends and branding have also appeared in Axis, Repubblica, ViewPoint, Der Spiegel, AdMap, Contagious and WGSN. He has lectured at the Domus Academy of Milan, Temasek Polytechnic of Singapore, the Pasadena Art Center College of Design, and was module coordinator of the Master of Arts in Design Management at INHOLLAND in Rotterdam.

As part of representing Philips Design he is regularly invited as speaker and chairman by various event and conference organizations worldwide.

In 2006 he was nominated for ‘Best Conference Paper’  of ESOMAR, New York.

He is Advisory board member of:  Authentic Luxury Foundation (London);  Eventica Global Luxury Forum (2008); Caramundo (Amsterdam / Rio de Janeiro); Platform 21, the international center for design, fashion and creation (Amsterdam, The Netherlands); Design Management Institute (USA); Association of Professional Futurists – APF (USA); ESOMAR (The Netherlands).

Dear Marco, thank you very much for sharing your point of view! 

1. The consumers (their habits, buying behavior, aspirations, preferences and attitude) have changed nowadays. Upon you how the luxury consumers’ profile is evolving? What are the major trends for the future?

For the purpose of our editorial research in the context of the Wharton School Publishing book “Premium by Design”, Howard Moskowitz, Alex Gofman and myself created a quali-quantitative framework to capture the future dynamics of this market, from thought leaders vision to actual common people’s statistic response. The outcome of this comprehensive study is multifaceted: after all, luxury is part of culture, and we are facing times of macro-cultural change both at regional and global level. These could be some among the key trends we identified:

- sustainability: as the work of Prof. Jem Bendell for WWF’s “Deeper Luxury” shows, there is a deep need for a sustainable “revolution” in the ways luxury brands operate. This is not purely a corporate strategy agenda item: this is a rising demand from worldwide audiences;

- design leadership: we expect a transfer of multidisciplinary processes and insights from mature design operations, those working at strategic level on brands and in companies, to the craftsmanship-driven galaxy of luxury design masters: the relatively recent appointment of innovation directors at classic luxury brands like Hermes or Moet Hennessy is a clear step in such direction;

- residual value: in the age of discount outlet retail, the ability of a luxury artifact to retain value over time, possibly becoming a vintage item or even a collector’s object, will make the difference between who’s in luxury, and who’s not. This is a dynamic that companies should definitely study and eventually stimulate in their own design and marketing strategies – difficult as alchemy, however feasible and definitely more and more crucial.

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Zahid Adil, Strategic Marketing & Brand Consultant at Thinkmor™ . He is one of the top 10 MarketingProfs experts, recognised by its strategic marketing knowledge and professionalism. The company he works for – Thinkmor (London, UK) has 45 years of combined experience, most from well known brands or corporate backgrounds, working together to help B2B & B2C companies in Services, Retail, NPD, Fashion, IT to deliver higher profits, streamline costs and secure future growth.
 

Thank you Zahid, for sharing your opinion!

How the habits of the luxury consumers are changing and how the luxury brands adapt to these changes?

Before addressing the habits of Luxury Consumers it’s important to briefly summarize the Luxury Brand perception over the last 50 years.
Traditionally Luxury Brands/Items were mainly bought by the Rich, Aristocratic and Royalty. Luxury was all about status and separation from the masses. Luxury used to be defined by brands such as Rolls Royce, Bentley, Yves St Laurent, Dior, Chanel, and even travel in the 1960-1970’s was seen as a Luxury. Luxury brands used to be rare and only accessible within controlled channels.

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  Mr. Joffrey Chartier is a top professional with more than seven years of experience in the strategic management of premium and luxury brands. He set-up successfully new business directions and he managed to maximize the results on highly mature market of the premium cosmetics on the North America.

Thank you, Joffrey, for sharing your knowledge!

1. What will be the future of the luxury brands upon you? How they are evolving with the years?
 
I foresee certainly very bright future for the luxury brands for several reasons:
 
There are lots of developing countries that are aspiring to luxury. In countries such as Russia and China there is already a well-defined elite segment. In Russia and China the luxury consumption is a way higher than in the Western European countries or even in the USA. These consumers of premium brands inspire the rest of the population (lower segments),  whose purchasing power is getting gradually stronger with the years. As a consequence- the market segment of potential luxury consumers is growing bigger everyday in these countries and thus, worldwide.
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