Luxury products and brands are crafted for consumers. They are designed to be perfect, resemble an indulgence, and represent performance and status. This approach to a luxury offering delights customers and enables exceptional willingness to pay. But what implications does this luxury-driven hyperbolism have for applicants, employees and managers in the luxury domain? We follow this question by transferring what is known about consumer behavior and derive propositions for the impact of luxury brands on their employees. We find that organizations with prestigious images attract a workforce with psychological desires akin to luxury consumers. Furthermore, we argue that managers in leadership positions are not only exposed to a challenging environment for decision making but can also easily be influenced by the characteristics of luxury brands imprinting on their decision making behavior. The contribution highlights an often overlooked aspect of managing a luxury brand: the unintentional but unavoidable impact of luxury image on the brand's own employees.
A luxury good must be rare and desirable. Ideally, it should be close to unobtainable. And yet, the luxury market grows faster than most others, suggesting an ever increasing accessibility to an ever growing populace. A luxury good must be extreme among the other offerings in its category. And yet, there is something inherently relative about luxury goods, driving the definition of luxury away from the offering itself and toward a consumer's situative perspective. Although a luxury good is meant to be uncompromisingly superfluous in terms of effort and materials invested beyond any standard of responsibility, luxury and responsible managerial and consumer behavior is becoming a more and more viable combination, creating eco-conscious fashion and hybrid high-performance sports cars.
