What is luxury brand management all about? How do you define a luxury brand? Is it only about price? Or is there more to it?

Vincent Bastien, former CEO of Louis Vuitton, and currently Professor of Marketing at HEC School of Management in Paris, believes that luxury is a much misunderstood term. A product that commands a high price does not necessarily make it a luxury brand. So what does?

According to Bastien, luxury brand management is a science in itself, which a lot of companies don’t understand.

So what is a luxury brand? How do you define it? What does luxury brand management really entail? Does segmentation work in luxury? And do the traditional rules of marketing work for luxury brands?

In an interview during his recent visit to CKGSB, Bastien, author of The Luxury Strategy: Break the Rules of Marketing to Build Luxury Brands (with Jean-Noel Kapferer), busts a lot of myths that surround luxury brand management, and even offers some surprising advice.