2.3 Are clients from different nationalities similar?
The question now is of there is such a thing as a worldwide client, if people from different nationalities behave in the same way.
Pierre Rainero, manager of market research and communication for Cartier, has an opinion:
The Italians like watches that are slightly flashy and insist on a mechanical movement. They collect them and may change their watches several times per day. The Germans prefer quartz watches with a very simple design: rigor and effectiveness. The French have a strong preference for the engineer’s watch: sporty and full of several chronometer dials.
Different European nationalities also have different ways of wearing a piece of jewelry.
In Germany, who have a management job purchase their jewelry pieces themselves and wear them in a triumphant way. In the style, they look for the purity of the raw materials and they look like the stone to be set up in a very natural way. The Italians are looking for movement, so they like baroque pieces. They are interested in the curves of the jewel and the way gold is set up. Ring shapes are moving like a piece of fabric. In Japan, but also in France or in Spain, group pressure is stronger than individual taste. The French, afraid of social critics, are looking for reasonable jewels, which must be balanced and appear in good taste.
So, even within the European continent, there are large differences. Extend this to the world at large and the differences become even more pronounced.
Differences in Attitude Among Nationalities
The elitists: traditional luxury. In this category, people are clearly positive toward luxury (only 4 percent say that it does not interest them, while 88 percent say that it is pleasant.) They believe luxury is useful and they like it.
As consumers, they are also positive. They consider that luxury products improve life, and 83 percent of them claim they purchase luxury goods (only 17 percent say they almost never do). In attitude and behavior, they are clearly in favor of this activity and perceive themselves as consumers or would-be consumers. Dubois and Laurent label this group classical and elitist because these people consider that luxury is in fact targeted at a very small group of individuals – the happy few – in which, naturally, they include themselves. They say for example that “few people own luxury products” and that “a real luxury product cannot be sold in a supermarket”. In saying this, of course, they conveniently forget that they can buy a good champagne – a luxury product – in a supermarket.
The democrats: open luxury. In this second group, the attitudes and behavior revealed in Table 5.3 are almost identical to those of the first group. Only 4 percent say that they are not interested in luxury and only 20 percent say that they never buy luxury products.
Where this group differs, though, is in its vision of luxury. They believe luxury is for everybody (only 6 percent say “few people really own luxury products”) and only 8 percent of them believe that “a real luxury product cannot be sold in supermarkets.” In fact, while the elitists have a Hermes Kelly bag or a Van Cleef diamond necklace view of luxury, the democrats think about a bottle of perfume or Dom Perignon. For the democrats, luxury can be mass produced, which is obviously the case for perfumes, cosmetics, and wines. Among the elitists, the concept of craftsmanship would probably figure large in their thinking.
The anti: opposed to luxury. In these category people are very much against luxury: Only 7 percent say that “luxury is pleasant”. (What then of the other 93 percent? What do they find unpleasant, and why?) Only 4 percent say they like luxury products and their behavior is in line with this: 58 percent state they “almost never buy luxury products.”
In its vision of luxury, this group has a very strange position. Relatively few (26 percent) consider that “luxury products are necessarily very expensive,” and half consider that “luxry products are owned by almost everybody.” But, on the other hand, 72 percent consider that “you must be quite a snob to buy luxury products.” So, in fact, they know luxury products are available, can be sold in a supermarket and bought by almost everybody, but their rejection of the category is so strong that it encompasses all those who use such products. It is more of an ideological position than anything else.
The detached: luxury far away. In this group, people are not strongly opposed to luxury as in the previous group. In fact, 68 percent consider that “luxury is pleasant”, and they know that most people buy luxury products. They have nothing against the category (only 20 percent say they are not interested), but such products are not for them.
When 71 percent of them state that “luxury is too expensive for what it is,” what they’re saying, in fact, is: “This is great; it is not unnecessary, but personally I don’t need it.” As with the previous group, a majority of them say they almost never buy luxury products.
