For people aspiring success in the competitive world of luxury branding and marketing, Lifestyle Brands: A Guide to Aspirational Marketing by Stefania Saviolo and Antonio Marazza is the tool to begin. Unsurprisingly, I found that several of the concepts of the book are shallow and materialistic, but if one is going into a purely materialized field, one should not expect anything else. I did enjoy the conversational style that the authors used, making the book easier to get through and have less of a monotonous, textbook feel. Visuals are appropriately placed throughout the book, adding an aid to visually comprehend theories. Specific examples of brands are broken down and usually elongated into entire sections and chapters; some could have perhaps been shortened, but they are all helpful nonetheless. The book is a sufficient step to lead readers in the right direction of understanding the psychology and creation behind iconic brands.
Lifestyle Brands gives memorable and thought-provoking quotes and teachings in its mere 130 pages; any more pages and the book would have been excessive and overdone. The general idea of the book is to have the audience understand that what consumers appreciate is “symbolic value” (Saviolo, Marazza, xi). The product being marketed is more about the lifestyle, status, and value than the tangible product itself. It is touched upon that “researchers define certain brands as magnetic: brands capable of engaging, of proposing an original point of view and of influencing a social context” (Saviolo, Marazza, 1). The book discusses how brands can reel in their consumers by relating their product to emotional ties or simply what is “in.” Although some of the points discussed are self-explanatory and sometimes repetitive, the information is useful for complete newcomers to the marketing field.
The book is of a specified topic, so it is clear that only people hoping for careers in luxury marketing are its audience; it would not be a read for pleasure. Readers have to not mind a somewhat boasting and self-centered attitude. A few quotes could be interpreted as either frank and blatant or immoral, such as, “we go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong, and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely.” (Saviolo, Marazza, 67). Constant reminders in the book about favoring the beautiful and “cool” can easily be seen as overbearing, despite the valuable theories between the lines. While reading, it was sometimes difficult to decipher between if the author was self-obsessed or just trying to prepare a striving marketing maven for the reality of the business.
Overall, I would recommend the book to fellow classmates interested in the luxury market. It was influential and a reality-check. A less arrogant tone could have been used, but the lessons were essential enough to overlook it. The intended audience was certainly reached and engaged, and the amount of credible sources and merits referenced to were noteworthy. Chapters were complete with useful and readable graphs supporting the arguments made, such as a map of the overlapping of symbol intensive brands and a graph of the types of benefits given by differing brands. The authors may have been a little biased towards the “ideal” consumer of luxury goods, but that is understandable for one in the business. The evidence backing statements is unbiased and reliable, improving my faith in the book.
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