The Marketing of Luxury From

The Marketing of Luxury From a nation that once defined itself purely in terms of achievement and today is preoccupied with affluence to the point of worshipping it, the efficiencies of how supply chains operate, retailers market, and credit companies extend ever-higher limits to consumers for a price all underscore and strengthen a fascinating dynamic happening today. Consumers for the first time get a chance to completely accessorize not only their clothing, but their entire lives, and houses have become one of the most visible of accessories. The recent sub-prime mortgage bubble is a case in point. As people judge each other not on their principles but their purchases, there is inevitable "bottoming out" of just where every person is in the context of the social fabric that gets weaved from affluence being held higher than altruism, achievement, or effort. For many the sacrifices made by parents and even during their own lives lead to purchasing becoming the antidote to feeling "not good enough" because of thousands of reasons. We have become a nation however unwilling to wait; we want it all now, even if it comes at 30% interest on a credit card. Paradoxically however the greatest satisfaction doesn't come from buying more and more, stuffing bigger homes with more purchases. It comes from being free enough to give away time, give away money, give of ourselves. James Twitchell is correct; the greatest true luxuries are time and philanthropy. The dilemma is when do these two greatest luxuries begin to become part of the accessories of the successful life as projected to others? Only the wealthiest appear free enough from what others think of their apparent wealth or lack of it to embrace time and giving as personal assets, albeit ones inconspicuous. The paradox of how conspicuous consumption defines personalization isn't easily answered, yet in the end, can only be answered by ourselves. True wealth isn't about accessorizing our lives, even with a 10,000 square foot mansion; it is about giving part of our lives away to enrich others. Affluence is an affectation; time and giving need to be aspirations.