An article in the Gulf News today looks at the preference of many in the Middle East, particularly Dubai, for high-end luxury items. An international survey found that the response by people that received the highest numbers from people in Dubai was for “luxury is a lifestyle”. Other countries had a greater preference for a response that classified luxury as “something over and above what you need”.
This penchant for things luxurious is said to be one of the hallmarks of Dubai living, which boasts mega-shopping malls with many high-end brand name stores. Dubai shoppers are more likely to buy impulsively and less likely to research items before buying an item that has the best value. The virtue of delayed gratification has taken a backseat to the instant elixir of a full shopping bag.
I feel really good about being one of the exceptions to this preponderance of free-wheeling luxury shoppers with more money than sense. I must admit to never having a great desire for luxury brands and fail to see the need to identify myself with particular brands. A marketer’s nightmare in other words! For me, the term “luxury is a lifestyle” makes no sense, perhaps because I try not to live that lifestyle, or perhaps (and this requires some meditation on tonight) that I am living that lifestyle in Dubai and I am not even aware of it!
Luxury is only a lifestyle if you’re willing to be in constant debt or believe that there is nothing more important in life than owning “the brands” and being seen to own them.
Keep shunning The Brands Luke!
Kim
Luke,
Luxury can mean so many things e.g. luxury is having time with one’s children, reading a good book, enjoying a home-cooked meal with great friends. Luxury can be a morning meditation interrupted only by the bird song at dawn
Enjoy your meditations.
Amanda
And saw this (http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,671326,00.html) in a media round-up this morning to keep with the Dubai and luxury theme:
Perhaps there are enough people in the world who would consider an apartment in such a building (Burj Dubai now called Burj Khalifa) to be the cherry on top of their luxurious lifestyle. But this has nothing to do with normalcy or a sustainable lifestyle.
Thanks for your comments Kim and Amanda. I agree with both of you. Brands make it easier to determine quality but luxury brands are often about making oneself appear superior to others; I have height and that is enough looking down on others for me!
Amanda, I don’t think that is what was meant by luxury in the articles but I totally agree that the good things in life are not those that are bought in the shopping malls but ones that we get to enjoy ourselves from the creation and acknowledgement of life’s simple pleasures.