How is Personalization Enhancing the Experience of Luxury?

I'm sure we all have experienced this at least once- While scrolling through your feed on Instagram, you come across a Louis Vuitton handbag and check out the profile. Within the next hour, you get an email saying ‘Handpicked handbags just for you’. In this era, everything is getting personalised- right from your hand towels to slippers, personalization has become the new necessity. Luxury brands are not far behind, from giving a personalised luxury shopping experience to their products being customised especially for you, everything is getting personalised nowadays.

“People do not want to feel targeted; they want experiences that feel tailored to their needs.”

There is a difference between being creepy and sending your customers an email that they didn’t expect and sending them an email that they signed up for and are looking for an experience that is tailor-made for them. This difference is called the luxury of choice. Brands have to be spot-on with their approach to personalization and strike the right balance between customising their experience and creeping them out.
The luxury industry is abuzz with the idea of personalisation, where brands aim to deliver better customer experiences by tailoring content and products to fit each customer. Certain brands have taken personalization a notch higher, and no we don't mean just adding your initials on the product but by taking an extra leap to provide their customers to experience luxury like never before.

Why is Personalization Important?

Consumers, mainly the new audience- Gen X and millennials are now looking forward to unique brand experiences which they can talk about, feel good about and keep sharing. When they look forward to buying a product, they’re not just looking at buying it, but also on being part of something, while still being treated as a special individual. Offering personalised goods is also seen as a way of entering a premium marketplace. Giving your consumers a chance to fully own their purchase, whether a hairbrush or a handbag will create loyalty and love. Luxury brands are trying to be the perfectionists of personalization, from products to services, personalisation is the way to deliver an ultimate brand experience and build relationships with the consumers.
In a world where customer expectations are increasing, ultra personalisation both online and offline is expected as normal– especially when it comes to luxury brands.

Check out these luxury brands who took personalization to the next level by either using technology, artistry, or a combination of both, to create the most exclusive, valued luxury of this generation. 

1. Marriott’s Spirit to Serve:

Luxury brands understand that the most important factor for their consumers is not money but the experience they receive for the money that they’ll provide. Many don’t mind spending a little extra also for an expe­ri­ence catered to their interests and pref­er­ences. Marriott hotel chain understood this factor right on point and hit the bullseye with their personalised service program- Marriott’s Spir­it To Serve Guests.
The company would call the guests on their booking to check on their preferences and tastes, emailed suggestions to help the guest to plan their trips and also check their preferences when the guests finally checked-in. Since customers willingly gave this information, they were more comfortable and enjoyed their stay at the hotel so much more.

2.  Hermès

‘Personalization is everything and in everything.’
Hermès took this quite literally. One of the leading brands that offer customization, Hermès went further than just customizing their products and custom saddles. At the Hermès studio, they are busy shaping your dreams and making it a reality. Hermès Sur-Mesure is a special division initiated by the brand where your wildest imagination may come true. They offer a service that will sketch your thoughts onto paper, make prototypes and engineer them to turn them into reality. From form to function and volume to whim. You have a say in everything. They’ve created the smallest and also the most bizzarest things- speedboats, foosball tables, hot air balloons, rickshaws, skateboards, boxing gloves, you name it! Trust Hermès to talk about bespoke customised luxury. Since the program is so low-key, their prices have also not been revealed. And why not? Luxury is all about little mystic vibes and personalisation is priceless.

3. Neiman Marcus:

How many times have you seen something on someone else and loved it so much but you just couldn’t find it anywhere or you didn’t know how to explain it to the shopping assistant both virtual or human? Your fashion savior is here- Neiman Marcus. The American luxury department store, launched their “Snap. Find. Shop.” mobile app that lets users upload images that they have liked before and the app helps them find similar products that Neiman Marcus offers from its catalog. So whether you liked something on Instagram or your ‘fashion inspo’ mood board from Pinterest, you’re just one step away from having it in your wardrobe. Simply, snap, find and shop!

4.Gucci:

An initiative by Gucci’s creative director, Alessandro Michele, Gucci DIY lets the consumer literally become the designer as personalisation drives luxury fashion. Known for his drive for non-conformity and punk style, Alessandro Michele started with Gucci DIY where the shopper could make their own design on the brand’s jackets, bombers or sneakers. It gave you a variety of material options too- denim, leather, silks, printed linings and of course the style or tailoring you wish for. To finish it off with the perfect Gucci trademark, it also gives you an option to add various appliqués of signature Gucci symbols (bees, hearts, daggers, etc.) In our eyes, it is the perfect way to blend the brand aesthetics with your own personal taste and style.

5. Louis Vuitton:

LVMH is known as one of the pioneers of personalisation in the fashion industry. Louis Vuitton Digital Assistant chatbot feature makes use of AI technology to give its Facebook customers a luxury experience that truly feels like a real-time shopping experience complete with a personal shopping assistant. With counting of more than 23 million followers, Louis Vuitton has a chatbot who addresses a wide range of questions. Whether you need to know the availability of a product or are confused about an ideal product for yourself, the chatbot provides you with every possible information that you may need. To top it, it also allows you to share products with your Facebook friends and get on votes and their opinions on what to buy.
 

6. Verado:

While buying luxury watches, customers are generally set on one brand that they would prefer one brand and stay loyal to it. Luxury watch seller, Verado went spot-on with this fact and created their own personalisation program for their customers. Their customers could now choose and sort the products according to brand, price, model, year, papers, and a variety of other details that are specific to luxury watches. But they also went ahead a step with their CRM approach. Sometimes, when you’re looking for a product and if it’s not available you simply let it go. But Verado made sure that when a certain product is not available online, they take note of that and once a similar product becomes available, the customer is contacted via email so they can make a purchase.

7. Burberry:

Personalisation has been a key weapon in Burberry’s arsenal. Whether it's monogrammed scarves or perfume bottles, Burberry has been too acing the personalisation key. Built by the brands in-house designer, it started with an interactive campaign, where the customers had the freedom to create and preview their personalised scarf ahead of the purchase and in real-time, within their email. They also allowed the customers to monogram their ‘My Burberry Perfume’ and to enhance the personalisation aspect, they let their customers create virtual bottles which would be stamped by their initials. What began right in 2014 by the likes of models like Cara Delevingne and Kate Moss sporting Burberry monogrammed ponchos, is now a rage and customers all over the world are trying to get hold of these products from the ‘Burberry Heritage Collection’.

8. Rolls Royce:

“You don’t just purchase a Rolls-Royce, you commission it. A motor car that is yours, and yours alone.”
This is what the webpage of the brand says. The elitist among the elites, Rolls Royce’s every car is so unique that every car can truly be only yours. When I say, no request of yours is left unexplored while purchasing a RR, I truly mean it. An engineering marvel, Rolls Royce offers personalisation to the next level, they let you choose every single feature of your car and not just the colour, and seat fabric but also the interior designs, seat leather and you can even have your family crest stitched on the headrest. Its latest model, Phantom has a built-in clear gallery-style box inside the dashboard of your car where you can display your object d’art- collectors watches, family jewels, rare stamp collection, and more! The requests for personalisation differ from having a pink shade Rolls Royce to having the wood for the car sourced from the customers' trees at his estate, just to match the car’s woodwork to his property. 

Personalisation truly has no limit and it can be limited only to the buyer’s imagination. Luxury brands are called luxury brands because they offer bespoke, customised products and services. Personalisation forms the core aspect of luxury brands.