La Réserve Magazine Rethinking Luxury

Artketing: when luxury invites art into marketing strategy

While luxury has sacred origins in Egypt, ancient Greece and Mesopotamia, one must go back to the Renaissance to realize that art and luxury are intimately bound up with each other. The two worlds share common notions such as creativity, aestheticism, pleasure, rarity and of course the importance devoted to craftsmanship. Art has been progressively invited into the luxury industry across all aspects of the marketing mix and its 4 Ps: Product, Price, Place, Promotion. Christophe Rioux, a professor specializing in luxury and creative industries at the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) and the Sorbonne, has even theorized this phenomenon by calling it “Artketing”: the use of art to support marketing purposes.

This prerogative is illustrated through unprecedented collaborations in which great names of the artistic scene reinterpret a product or when the products themselves are stamped with a work of art, dramatized, or even ‘sacralized’ in museum displays, often enhanced in scenographies worthy of the greatest cultural exhibitions. In the same way, the major brands become patrons by linking their name to contemporary art foundations. A philanthropic aura thus becomes a vehicle for promoting identity, opening the field to a wider audience. Fair enough, but why this integration of art into marketing strategies? On the one hand, because luxury brands and fashion houses embody a history, expertise and an “art of living” that inspires people. But also and above all because art is a reliable source for instilling modernity, a safe haven, a mirror of our emotions, a formidable desirability booster. This is confirmed by the perception we have of an object and the way we look at it, the patrimonial or artisanal dimension linked to its making and its history, which makes it a work in its own right. As a result, prices soar and encourage people to buy, according to what specialists have dubbed the “Veblen effect”. Whether because of its economic value or the concept of rarity, the object becomes both an exceptional asset and a social marker. Is this a dangerous relationship, or a perfect osmosis of creativity and money? Supporters and detractors have their own arguments. Nevertheless, within this transversality of universes, as Christophe Rioux points out: “Works of art have never looked so much like luxury products, due to their inaccessibility, and luxury products seem never to have been sold so widely as artworks.”

Arty collabs

There is nothing rare about hybridizations, inspirations, collaborations and tributes between the worlds of art and luxury. One need only look back to 1937, when Elsa Schiaparelli, a trailblazer of the genre, collaborated with Salvador Dali to design the Lobster Dress. In 1965, Yves Saint Laurent, popularized the Dutch painter Mondrian, one of the pioneers of abstraction, with an eponymous dress. Other examples include the occasions in 2006 and 2012 when Louis Vuitton welcomed art signed by artists such as Olafur Eliasson, Yayoi Kusama into the scenography of its boutique windows, or in the form of prints in its leather goods lines. One may recall the bags signed by Jeff Koons, flanked by masterpieces by Fragonard, van Gogh, da Vinci and Rubens, or the personalization of certain pieces by Stephen Sprouse in 2001 and Takashi Murakami in 2004. Watches and spirits have also picked up on the phenomenon, which is far from unilateral, as it is no longer only art that influences luxury, but also the other way round. Some, like Andy Warhol, have drawn inspiration from it such as by immortalizing the Chanel No. 5 perfume bottle. Others make a mockery of it, like Tom Sachs and his Chanel-branded weapons or Wim Delvoye and his pigs tattooed with the Louis Vuitton monogram. “While the visual arts have been dominant, we are now seeing an evolution and a spill-over into the cultural and creative industries (publishing, dance, music and live performance). This will doubtless be the future”, says Christophe Rioux.