Not without my brand bag. How luxury firms engage young people ·Global Voices

Cristina L. tiene 25 años y atesora un bolso de Saint Laurent, uno de Louis Vuitton, otro de Gucci y un Dior, que lleva con ropa de Zara o de otras marcas low cost. Para ella "invertir en estas piezas es como hacerlo en obras de arte, que con el tiempo se revalorizan". Ahora, cual mecenas que asiste a las subastas, ella tiene en el punto de mira los modelos que ha visto en Internet: el último de Prada, un Dior y un Fendi, sin olvidarse nunca de su "sueño a largo plazo: un Birkin de Hermès".

We talk about some bags that cost several thousand euros and for which many young people sigh, who ask their parents as a Christmas or birthday gift if they have high purchasing power, or that are content with the imitations they get for 50 euros inonline or market platforms.

But how have luxury brands arrive at such a young audience?Or looking at it from the opposite angle, how have millennials and generation Z approach these firms, before only addressed to people of a certain age and with bulky income?

In two directions

Nuria March, founder and director of Nuria Maria Communication, speaks of a "democratization of luxury thanks to which brands partakers to young people of more affordable and aspirational products" on the one hand, and on the other remember that "they are adolescents and teenagers andTwenty -year -old who star in the campaigns of these firms and disseminate them through social networks. "

And he cites brands such as Burberry, Gucci or Balenciaga as teachers "in marketing and communication campaigns that work, and very well, to loyalty to young people, who become their victims."A term east of victims to which March takes away their negative connotation to focus on the good work of these firms to achieve their goal.

In the memory of many is the video broadcast on Tiktok by Nuria Pajares, with two million followers, who gave his daughter his "first Louisvi" - in reference to a Louis Vuitton bag - for having approved the selectivity with a good note.A gesture that was subject to innumerable memes and so criticized that in the end that bag was auctioned among her audience.

But many certainly wanted to be in the place of Nuria Pajares' daughter.And, as Patricia San Miguel, a digital marketing professor in ISEM, "the essence of youth includes aspiring to the top, desire what cannot be had and show it to others, and differentiate it."

IN & OUT

To explain it, it puts as an example a series of Netflix of great success among youngoutside a group. "

San Miguel enumera las formas que tienen las firmas de lujo para acercarse a los jóvenes: "Tradicionalmente", afirma, "lo hacían con productos asequibles, como unas gafas de sol o un perfume. Ahora también lo logran lanzando colecciones realizadas en colaboración con marcas de fast fashion". En este punto se enmarcan las cápsulas anuales de H&M con creadores de la talla de Karl Lagerfeld, Stella McCartney o Versace.

It is also remarkable, says the expert, the proliferation of online platforms such as Fartetch or Privalia, in which young people can buy this type of products without accessing the physical store.

In the beginning was the shirt

In addition, the big brands have made in recent years a strong commitment to the street wear: "You create t -shirts and sneakers, so that you convert that luxury desire into affordable and hooks to consumers", and at this point remember the collaboration of the collaboration ofSupreme with Louis Vuitton, a milestone in this strategy.

Patricia San Miguel points to the influencers and Instagram: "On one occasion Dior sent the same bag [the Saddle Bag, an iconic maison model created by John Galliano in the late 90s and now relaunched] to a hundred influencers, which, whichThey uploaded photos with him to his Instagram accounts on the same day, which aroused the desire to have him among young fashion lovers. "

Finally, he quotes the "transgressive communication, which skip the rules" as a form of attraction of the youngest consumer."It's about making a lot of noise, something in which she is a Gucci teacher; or of different proposals, such as the 10 -minute chapter of the Simpsons that Balenciaga showed in her last parade in Paris."In this fashion film, Homer Simpson gives Marge for her birthday a dress, which she will have to return because they cannot afford the $ 19,000 that she costs.Then the team of Demna Gvasalia, creative director of Balenciaga, travels to Springfield and takes its citizens to Paris, turning them into models of the collection.

Millennials and generation Z

Once the desire to possess these luxury articles is created, we must analyze how new generations consume.Susana Campuzano, director of the Superior Luxury Directorate Program of the IE Business School Luxury Advise, gives us the clues and in this aspect clearly differentiates millennials -born between 1981 and 1996 -of the Z generation -born from 1996-.

"In the hands of the former," he says, "will be 50% of the luxury billing in 2025. The generation Z for the moment only cups 4% of this expense, but they are the future."

The luxury industry, therefore, approaches young people because they are their future clients.And it does, for example, through gamification, that is, "brands such as Burberry or Gucci enter with avatars in online games, where they also sell their products," says Campuzano.

"Just as millennials are a rather homogeneous group and wantsomething they do, for example, sports. "

Brands with values

Therefore, the youngest want luxury but meaningful, handmade objects, that take care of values that have made their own such as sustainability, vintage, technology ... "luxury," says Campuzano, "goes through them but they don't accumulate, they resell, buy second hand and rent, do not keep but bet on permanent change. "

Just what J.M.N.(21 years old) When he searched on Grared.com, a platform for the sale of second -hand luxury items and clothing, a brand bag to give his girlfriend."It's not for showing off or appearing," he says, "you give them value because you can take them with both a shirt and a suit and because they never go out of style."

And returning to what Patricia San Miguel said, to F.N., 18, it seems that the difference is in "having something that not everyone can possess" and agrees that these products do provide some status.

So diverse and different from the above is the Z generation, which has been stomping and that, as Susana Campuzano points out, "forces brands not to stop creating and reaching those young people who will consume in a more rational way"That his parents and grandparents.