For luxury brands, print design is always going to be one of the most brilliantly effective mediums to deliver exceptional brand cues. When compared to digital, print design delivers in ways that the latter simply can’t. Digital isn’t going anywhere, we all know that. From a branding point of view it provides a (usually) necessary consumer/audience touchpoint. But when it comes to conveying the subtle qualities of taste and authority, print is simply miles ahead.
Luxury branding requires a visceral, emotional connection with consumers that everyday brands are incapable of. These ‘everydayers’, particularly those with ‘premium’ monikers, will often shout from the rooftops that they are the ceiling point of their sector, the loftiest perch for their segment (think of the majority of the perfume, car and fashion house advertising out there).
In comparison, real luxury brands have to carefully select a few privileged people and provide them with a view from Mount Everest. So no matter what they do or show in digital – a beautiful film, striking imagery, amazing interactivity – they’ll always be using a set platform available to everyone and used for everything. The ability to flick from facebook, to emails, to banking, see a luxury brand advertising on a newspaper’s site before going back to facebook again, will always diminish the strength of the connection that brand can make, no matter how dazzling the creative. Mount Everest comes that little bit shorter, the view a little less exclusive.