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Why write a fourth edition of a book that was initially published in 2008?

Five reasons justify the effort:

1 Luxury is changing. First of all, luxury consumption and the industries related to it continue to play an increasingly important role in today's economy, societies, and ways of living, and are an important engine of innovation and fulfillment of basic human desires toward beauty and excellence. The dynamism of the luxury industries' evolution deserves constant observation just to keep up with its nature, mechanisms, and meanings and to be able to share those with our readers. In just the first months of 2020, as we were busy writing the new text, LVMH bought Tiffany's; Neimann Marcus, J.Crew, JC Penney, Brooks Brothers, Muji USA, and Barney's filed for Chapter 11; Sonya Rykiel went into liquidation and the brand was bought by two young new investors; Fenty, the new brand managed by Rihanna and co-owned with LVMH, occupied all the windows of Bergdorf Goodman in New York in February. The advent of COVID-19 has also shown numerous solidary initiatives from small and big brands. In this catastrophic pandemic, luxury brands have also shown their resilience, not only on e-commerce but in traditional physical retail, when the conditions allow for reopening.

2 We know more. Since the third edition in 2015, both authors have been involved in managing and advising luxury products and services brands in personal goods, perfumery, distribution, and education. The experience garnered by being actively engaged in brand management realities in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe led us to evolve in our understanding of current and future brand management issues. The academic literature has been prolific on luxury subjects and more knowledge has emerged as a result. A lot of the lessons learned are integrated in this book.

3 We live in digital times. This is one of the most important factors affecting all businesses in general and luxury brands in particular. The changes brought about by digital technology are affecting the industries, the brand strategies and operations, the consumers' ways of thinking and buying, and more.

4 Sustainability is becoming our way of living. This is the second major factor influencing luxury brand management and consumption. Luxury brands have been somewhat late in addressing it, but are now fully on board and very often innovative leaders in the field.

5 COVID-19 has been a major disruptor. It will eventually be controlled, but it serves as both a revealer and an accelerator of existing trends. It will have profound effects on geopolitics as well as on everything related to mobility and, therefore, on industrial and commercial processes.

All these conditions have generated the new content that is included in this edition. Most of the examples and financial data have been updated.

Chapter 1, which delves into the notion of luxury, was completed with considerations of new luxury in which exceptionality prevails over exclusivity.

Chapter 2 explains the specificities of the luxury industry, how it can be defined, and what makes it different from other businesses, in particular from the fast-moving consumer goods and the basic fashion industry.

Chapter 3 describes the different industry sectors with their sizes and with the major players: fashion, perfumes and cosmetics, leather goods, wines and spirits, and jewelry and watches. In this edition, we have added a complete analysis of the hotel hospitality sector, and we give a size for this market, a description of the major players, and the key management issues.

Chapter 4 indicates the economic value of each luxury brand and how it can be assessed and developed.

Chapter 5 gives a description of the major luxury clients, by country and by level of income and wealth. It also describes how different segments of this population react to the idea of luxury.

Chapters 6 and 7 present brand analytical tools that we currently use. Because the number of them has increased, we split Chapter 6 of the third edition into two parts. In Chapter 6 of this edition, we introduce three tools: the brand hinge, the EST-ET^© diagram, and the Brand Aesthetics Analytical Grid, the new tool that we applied to the Thai brand Jim Thompson. We introduce the three ends to any aesthetic treatment and complete the chapter with considerations of the strengths and weaknesses of the brand identity notion and position the brand identity approach within the broader field of other approaches to brand management. Chapter 7 continues with seven analytical instruments, such as the Brand Life Cycle, the prism, and the Rosewindow, and semiotic tools like the semiotic square being applied to different brands and in particular to market-centered or self-centered brands. It ends up with considerations on what constitutes a valid semiotic analysis for luxury brands.

Chapter 8 deals with creation and merchandising and has incorporated numerous new examples drawn from our latest management experiences. Real examples of reports on collection structures and calendars have been added. Considerations are made on style issues, drawing from work done for Yves Saint Laurent and Pininfarina. A whole bibliography is included for those interested in getting deeper into brand aesthetics management. The ever-growing relationship between art and brands has been addressed.

Chapter 9 deals with communication in digital times and has been completely revamped, providing the opportunity for an overall review on how digital is impacting the world, luxury brands, and consumers. The scheme of the communication chain has been updated, as have the communication plan and calendar, to consider the effects of digital media. The key performance indicators of a commercial website have been compared to those of a traditional retail one.

Chapter 10 deals with different ways to develop a worldwide brand. It describes how a brand can become completely international, sometimes through its own subsidiaries, but generally also through local importers and distributors. It also explains how online operators can become a major resource and how one must deal with them. It discusses how brands can also be present and strong in travel retail outlets. It presents pros and cons of developing a brand with licensing activities.

Chapter 11 examines different retail activities in a time of physical and digital resources. It explains how a consumer does not select one or another system of distribution, but considers these two resources as complementary. The more the client spends time with a brand on the Internet, the more likely he is to buy in a physical store, and the more the client has direct contact with a brand in a physical store, the more likely he is to purchase on the Internet. And clients must be seduced and interested and convinced when they visit a store: A client who has a bad impression or who has a negative experience in a store would never buy that brand on the Internet. Brands have to adjust to this phenomenon.

Chapter 12 deals with sustainability and authenticity. It summarizes first the future trends of luxury and then delves deeper into these two basic consumption and civilization trends. Some of the indicators of an increasing sustainability sensibility are highlighted, as well as the initiatives taken by some of the main luxury brands. We defend the complete compatibility of luxury and sustainability and introduce a possible consumer segmentation based on attitudes toward sustainability. Authenticity is considered to be a quality of a relationship between the object considered and certain referents, which can be intrinsic qualities of the object or internal to the brand, like its identity or even belonging to the consumers' mind.

We have also integrated the overall conclusion of the book in this chapter.

Appendix A presents an extract from a brand identity study led by Mazzalovo in 2020 on the Sasin School of Management, the leading Thai business school of Chulalongkorn University (Bangkok, Thailand).

Appendix B is a glossary of some of the most current expressions in the digital vocabulary.

The book, as its preceding editions, is not meant to be read as a novel. It presents a mix of macroeconomic and microeconomic considerations, and its modest ambition is to function as a reference text, where considerations can be found on specific management issues for luxury brand employees and executives, consumers, students, teachers, and anybody interested in our society's evolution, a reflection of which is given through the mirror of luxury brands.