Luxury goods are very popular in Italy, particularly shoes, clothing and handbags. When I was in Florence I was fortunate enough to stay in an apartment that had been recently renovated so I had my first interaction with Bang & Olufsen audio-visual products.

 

Apart from looking like something from the set of Doctor Who, the first thing that was very noticeable was the weight of the remote control. It was incredibly heavy, and while I believe it was made of plastic it looked metallic and felt like 300g. Recalling a journal article that said people took longer and thought more deeply when holding something heavy, I felt that the weight of the remote was not intended to make viewers think carefully before channel surfing, but rather to reinforce the value and luxury of the products. I have also seen this ‘weight’ phenomenon with luxury phones and watches, which may be a link to the higher quality materials used, or a conscious decision to leverage associations with mankind’s historic use of precious metals, which are heavy. With the exception of road bikes, I believe heavy things are often expensive and thus weight reinforces luxury. Only writing this post now do I think of this (@ 38 seconds).

Silver goods now appear to be more in vogue than white goods (or blackgoods) and certainly in my study of premium beer brands the use of silver and gold foil acted as an indicator of ‘premiumness’. Embossing in the glass of the bottle and excess wrapping around the bottle cap were seen to act as indicators of high end beers. One brand manager I interviewed said that a premium (or luxury) beer should ‘feel’ premium, even without seeing or tasting it.

 

 

 

 

 

I also recall a trendy new rooftop bar serving beer in very heavy steins (which made a beer feel like a significant purchase, but had the added benefit for the bar of making customers think they had more in their glass than they did!

If you are looking to raise the luxury perceptions of your product, I would make it heavier through packaging or weight and use metallic (or carbon fibre!) appearance effects (real if possible, as fake could work against the intention).