Well, I’ll be doggone. It turns out that dogs are a luxury good. Who knew? The wealthier you are, the more likely you are to own a canine. While 51% of American households own a dog, a recent survey by the consultancy Spectrem Group reported that of Americans with more than $5 million in net worth, 74% own at least one dog. Need further proof? Beyoncé and Jay-Z just bought their first dog.
Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines has launched a new advertising campaign that appears to be the perfect intersection of luxury, marketing and tech, and also the quintessential sign of our times. Outdoor ads all over Manhattan show screen shots of fictional Instagram pages with gorgeous photos of luxury life onboard their ships and on excursions to various photogenic ports of call. The ads are complete with multiple hashtags, and of course the obligatory tally of the number of (fictional) likes each post has garnered.
I bought a pair of the new Valentino Garavani flats on my last trip to Boston, and I wore them for the first time a couple of weekends ago. They are super-cute, black with a crisis-cross ankle strap and silver metal grommet details. The man who sold them to me at their store on Newberry Street raved about them as an upgrade to the Rock Stud flats that I already own in multiple colors. “These are so much more comfortable than the old version,” he assured me as he lovingly put them in their red box.
Everyone has their favorite technology: Amazon’s Echo, Snapchat, HTC’s Vive headset. Mine remains my smartphone. Specifically, the features on my Apple that save me time and aggravation.
Our friends in Silicon Valley have given us a glimpse of the future of luxury, with the advent of “smart.” There is a smart version of almost everything on the market right now: watches, bikes, desks, suitcases – and, of course, cars.
