Lessons From Luxury #9: Innovating Novelties

Elegant Insights: Luxury Lessons for Life and Business' is a series of #12 invaluable lessons from looking deeply beyond the glitz and glamour. For better margins, stronger loyalty, and elevated leadership - personally and professionally.

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✨ Innovation in luxury is driven by an obsession with excellence. It involves the relentless pursuit of refinement, research, and development to continuously enhance the products and services offered. Good is the enemy of great - mere adequacy is never enough.

"Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it." - Salvador Dali

What is ordinary for the luxury industry today often becomes extraordinary for the non-luxury industry tomorrow. Books, for example, were once luxury objects affordable only to the wealthy, but eventually, they became available to everyone. Automobiles and cell phones, once exclusive to the elite, are now ubiquitous.

Innovation, or more precisely, innovativeness is an attitude. It’s not just some virtue-signalling buzzword that you put in your website’s ‘about’ section. Too many companies are preoccupied with ‘innovation theatre’ instead of actual innovation. The bandwagon effect on brands like Prada Group or Gucci releasing NFTs merely to look more digitally innovative is just that – innovation signalling rather than real innovative action. Actual innovativeness comes from excellence, out-of-the-box or maverick thinking, leadership, being at the leading edge etc. Such traits must be anchored to guide your internal culture. Dive deeper in my full article here.

“The future is already here, it's just not evenly distributed.” - William Gibson

Companies with maverick cultures tend to be more creative and innovative. They can look at things from several viewpoints, think independently, reframe a problem and ask the hard questions. Some of the non-luxury brands that borrow from luxury to create innovative concepts are Dyson , Tesla , GoPro , Apple , Uber , Nestlé Nespresso SA and so on. Musk’s obsession for (business and engineering) performance introduced the Roadster first, creating a halo – Model 3 followed much later, and a much lower price point. GoPro took image stabilisation to the next level while also simplifying the whole user experience. Nespresso’s innovation is the most stylish and user-friendly coffee machines for capsule use. Dyson brought innovations to several categories from hair stylers to air filtering and vacuum cleaners.

Three Tipps to Get Moving

1️⃣ Start looking outside of your industry

Look outside of your industry and compete with those that are ahead or leading. Rolls-Royce Motor Cars is not competing with Bentley Motors . It’s competing with jets and yachts when it comes to innovating customized interior features. Ferrari is not competing with Lamborghini. It’s competing with Formula 1 when it comes to R&D. What one industry hasn’t discovered yet, another industry has mastered in practice. This means when the answer cannot be found within the field, it is to be found outside of it. 👉🏻 Where are you looking?

2️⃣ Read the signs from the future

Turn what’s in sci-fi into your brand’s novelties. Many of the devices we use today were depicted in sci-fi films such as Star Wars, Minority Report, Star Trek, Avatar and so forth. Take Martin Cooper, the director of research and development at Motorola Solutions who credited the Star Trek communicator for the design of the first mobile phone in the early 1970s. “That was not fantasy to us,” Cooper said, “that was an objective.” So what’s fantasy and imagination for some are an actual road map or a clear direction for others. 👉🏻 What is a reality elsewhere that could be a reality for you tomorrow?

3️⃣ Build the cultural foundations of innovation

Innovation flourishes in environments where creativity, curiosity, and risk-taking are encouraged. Companies like Google , with its famous "20% time" policy, allow employees to spend one-fifth of their work hours on projects they are passionate about. This freedom to explore and experiment often leads to breakthroughs that fuel the company's growth. Similarly, 3M 's commitment to creating an innovative culture has resulted in the creation of iconic products like Post-it Notes and Scotch tape. 👉🏻 Where and how does your culture actively create room for innovation?

What are some good examples of innovative brands you know? What do you think is the best innovation of the 21st century so far? Curious to hear 👀 😊

Onwards and Upwards 🚀

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About: Markus Kramer is the MD at specialist consultancy Brand Affairs, advising Boards, Executives and Operational Teams on all aspects of Strategic Positioning, Reputation and Brand Management. He is a senior visiting Fellow in Strategic Brand Management at Bayes Business School and holds degrees from the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, University of California, Berkeley Extension and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the author of The Guiding Purpose Strategy© and Co-Author of the Responsible Investment Brand Index RIBI™.