What if We Told You a Secret About Added Luxury Value?

Many years ago, a crate was buried on hallowed ground by fleeing royalty. The contents were known only to them, though tales circulated about where the crate was buried and what might be found inside. Hope was nearly lost, until an intrepid explorer found the crate and used the map inside to find treasure. A small stash of wine bottles of a nearly extinct sub-varietal, kept cool over the years in a stone cellar, each hand-crafted bottle a relic of earlier times, a piece of artwork unto itself. The final count of bottles has not yet been made public, but sign up here to be the first to know. 

See what we did there?

You don’t know what variety of wine it is, what it tastes like or who the winemaker was. You don’t know if it is organic, sustainably-made or even vegan. But you do know that it is available in limited quantities, that it has a great story, that it’s going to be the centerpiece of any gathering at which you decide to serve it and that over time, having had it will make you a part of the narrative. You know it is an object of desire. And your interest has been piqued by a teaser of more information to come.

Added Luxury Value (ALV) is something consumers will pay a higher price for because they perceive it as having additional value, often due to luxury attributes such as high quality, exclusivity or superior craftsmanship.

In our main areas of expertise, wine and spirits, we can point to examples such as Dom Perignon P2 and certain vintages of Macallan Whisky as examples of products with high ALV.

When a consumer pays for ALV, what they get in return is not just the product, but a sense of status, desirability and satisfaction. And while not every product has the pedigree of the above products, it is important here to explain how luxury wine (for example) may overlap with, but is not exactly the same as, fine wine. Fine wine is revered at an almost art connoisseur level, used as an expression of beauty, collected for collection’s sake. Luxury wine is more associated with consumption, indulgence, exclusivity and staking a claim to a certain level of enjoyment and place in society.

And, in all transparency, products with ALV need not be the most expensive to produce, but rather their luxury status is developed, created and curated through spin, in the form of storytelling. This is where the creative team comes in, using the power of the most classic form of human communication, storytelling to get their message across.

Storytelling sets a time and place, adds mystique and rounds a product into a 360-degree experience all while playing to two tenacious psychological consumer needs: the desire to belong and the desire to be exemplary.

And that can make all the difference for ALV products as they speak directly to the consumer, who is primed to find that crate, that map, that cellar, that wine. And to have a tale to tell. We’ll let you know more as the story unfolds.

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