Luxury Status Quo Challenged by Startups

To be an entrepreneur has never been so cool as it is today. A new era for entrepreneurs and startups has begun.

By Vanessa Delclós

Brand Management Specialist. Journalist and “Club de Marketing Málaga” Board. Marketing, communications and branding professional, with experience in national and international environments, such as banking, technology, mobile marketing and lifestyle sectors.

In a world driven by the internet and social media, people not only wanna see success, they wanna follow the journey of how to make it. That’s why the best currencies for entrepreneurs are authenticity and transparency and the best tool is branding. This discipline is about emotions, what your followers, whether they are clients or not, feel about your products and services, and about the entrepreneur, the leader behind the brand. Elon Musk, one of the greatest entrepreneurs of all time, CEO & cofounder of SpaceX and Tesla, Inc., has always reaffirmed this concept: “I don’t have customers, I have followers”.

Creating a personal brand that resonates with your followers base and impacts your reputation is key when launching a startup. Focus on engagement and your community will become your PR team. When it comes to creating a business, your reputation is your most valuable asset. Spread your vision and values via all avenues authentically and your storytelling will be the cornerstone of your brand and the reason why they buy your product and services. Creating trust via a consistent brand promise is easier for an entrepreneur than for a large corporation.

This phenomenon has also hit the luxury sector. Startups on the one hand struggle to gain a foothold in the premium market and, on the other hand, are challenging the dominance of the luxury brand portfolio conglomerates such as LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE, Estée Lauder Companies Inc o Compagnie Financière Richemont SA, the top three luxury goods companies by sales.

The emergence of luxury entrepreneurs has led to luxury emerging as a culture again. The new luxury entrepreneur builds their business by embracing artistic-driven culture rather than commercial values. Staying loyal to the brand’s unique identity is their maxim. Within this culture, the product is the means by which the brand expresses itself. The brand precedes the product as the seed precedes the flower bloom.

Get the Magazine to read full article