the image of companies that waste natural resources to satisfy secondary desires must be among the priorities of luxury brands. They have several arguments for this. The first concerns the essence of luxury, namely scarcity. This refers to a reasoned use of rare natural resources. The case of Ferrari, which, in 2013, decided to reduce its production by 4%, is interesting. Even if the aim behind this decision was to “encourage scarcity”, the brand can also boast an objective of preserving natural resources. The second argument concerns items being passed down from generation to generation. The exceptional quality of luxury products does grant them a much longer lifespan than ordinary products. This longevity refers back to the value of sharing, as promoted by sustainable development. The watchmaker Patek Philippe is a good example of a luxury brand that capitalizes on this sharing value through its “Generations” advertising. This is an advertising campaign that was first launched in 1996 and is still ongoing. Through this message, the brand is looking to remind consumers of the exceptional quality of its products and that their longevity that makes it possible to hand them down: “You never really own a Patek Philippe. You merely look after it for the next generation.”
2.3.2.2. Sustainable luxury: a high quality that should be maintained
The inclusion of a sustainable attribute in luxury products has been associated with a decrease in the quality level by consumers, which requires the target market to be reassured. We can highlight some initiatives to this end. For example, the Stella McCartney brand indicates on its website that the use of vegetable raw materials to replace animal-based materials has no effect on the beauty and luxurious nature of its products: “As a vegetarian brand, we never use leather, skin, fur or feathers. By taking this stance we are proving it is possible to create beautiful, luxurious products that are better for everyone – animals, people and the environment.” To convince consumers that sustainable luxury products are not of a lower quality than their conventional equivalents, Stella McCartney has associated the viscose used in its luxury products (a forest-friendly material) to the excellent reputation and knowledge of its country of origin, Italy.
Furthermore, to consolidate their position as being luxury and of high quality, sustainable luxury products must be sold at the same price, or even a higher one, than conventional luxury products. Offering sustainable luxury goods at lower prices would make them more accessible, which could damage their usefulness as a symbol of ecological dedication. On the other hand, higher prices can allow consumers concerned about the status of using sustainable luxury products to display their wealth. In this regard, the example of the Lexus brand is interesting. Its decision to set the price of its environmentally-friendly LS600h model at over 100,000 US dollars was received with skepticism from experts in the sector. This positioning turned out to be valuable as sales predictions increased by 300% (Puska et al. 2016).
2.3.2.3. Sustainable luxury products: a source of exclusivity and pleasure
Exclusivity is one of the key values of luxury. It can be encouraged by high prices as well as by the scarcity of products. The use of limited editions must therefore be promoted. This is the choice made by, for example, Yves Saint Laurent for its responsible New Vintage collection. Similarly, Cadillac was able to link its altruistic values to exclusivity and personal pleasure. Through its communications on its 2016 electric ELR model, the brand indicated its engagement in favor of sustainability while insisting on the ostentatious dimension sought by luxury consumers:
The 2016 ELR is a concretization of our engagement in favor of sustainability... The exterior of the 2016 ELR makes it a bold presence on the road: elegant, stylish and able to turn heads with ease. The minute you open the door, you notice the elegant atmosphere as well the range of functionalities that ensure safety and comfort. Conclusive proof that technology has an elegant side.
2.3.2.4. A central place for animal welfare facilitated by technology
Reputation is an essential strategic asset in luxury, but a particularly fragile one. In order to protect it, brands in this sector must avoid scandals related to animal welfare, which have multiplied in recent years. Beyond the above-mentioned strategies that make it possible to take this social dimension into account (such as companies purchasing their own farms for raising animals), new technologies, in particular Green Data, are another, less expensive means of vertical integration, which could enable luxury brands to ensure that their raw materials are produced in conditions respectful of animal welfare. This is the case with Stella McCartney, which has joined forces with Google Cloud to develop a traceability tool with the aim of improving its environmental and social management. In this regard, blockchain technology3, already used by some luxury companies to protect against counterfeiting, can also be an interesting tool in improving the traceability of raw materials.
2.4. Conclusion
Sustainable development is an undeniable reality for all sectors of activity nowadays and the luxury sector is no exception. For companies, it is an issue of maintaining their legitamacy in order to prosper in a society increasingly concerned by the social and environmental consequences of human activity. This challenge is even greater for luxury companies in view of their brand notoriety and the colossal profits they create, and the fact that they are subject to intense scrutiny from sustainable development activists, in particular. In addition, considering their ability to offer innovation and creativity, luxury companies can provide an example of environmental and social engagement and bring other sectors into the movement. However, including sustainable attributes in a product does not always equal the valorization of consumers. In the case of luxury, this strategic choice could be ineffective as there can be a perceived contradiction between the values associated with luxury and those promoted by sustainable development. This chapter shows that through its tools and approaches, marketing can help to overcome this difficulty by proposing areas where the two notions can be brought together and made compatible. Luxury values as important as longevity (a long lifespan for the product, the ability of the product to be handed down from generation to generation) and scarcity (small-scale production, careful use of resources) are in line with sustainable development principles, and should be stressed. Other aspects that seem completely opposed to sustainability, such as a lack of animal welfare, must be considered. Luxury brands are expected to make a significant effort in terms of the traceability of the raw materials they use. In this regard, financial investments to ensure that animal conditions are monitored is an interesting avenue to explore. In addition, the use of technology 4.0 can make it possible to have access to complete information about animal origins.
A significant challenge facing luxury brands in the current context, which encourages environmental and social engagement, is proposing a sustainable offer while preserving the image of their products as being of an “exceptional” quality. Recycled materials, for example, are not seen as being high-quality. Environmental considerations should not be limited to recycling; the recovery of sustainable materials (for example, the fibers of pineapple and cactus leaves to replace animal leather) as a synonym for innovation, by adopting a high-price strategy, can help to maintain the positioning of luxury products. In future studies, it would therefore be interesting to explore the role of the luxury consumer in optimizing the innovation process to successfully create sustainable luxury products that are acceptable to the target audience. The literature confirms that the co-creation or even innovation by users (Von Hippel 1976) reduces the risk of product failure on the market.
Overall, luxury consumers are not the ones most concerned by environmental and social issues; their purchases continue to be driven above all by selfish motivations related to personal enjoyment, status and ostentation (Dekhili and Achabou 2016). The communication of luxury brands on sustainable development issues must therefore remain limited. However, dynamically extracted filtered information, made accessible thanks to technology 4.0 (for example, the IoT4), can make it possible to adapt the information communicated to the consumer profile. We think that a promising avenue would be to specify the type and quantity of information
