Guestlectures on sustainability and charity, two important aspects of Luxury Brand Management

Today we had two guest lectures, one about “sustainability and luxury brand management” and one about “charity and luxury”.

The presentation about sustainability was really interesting because not only common topics such as pollution and the right use of resources were raised but a wide picture of what sustainability means and what it includes was drawn.

Anette Lundbey (the guest speaker) made clear that “sustainability refers to the long-term maintenance of systems according to environmental, economic and social considerations” (Lundbey, 2012) and that those three factors cannot be separated but the picture has to be seen as a whole. She also explained that sustainability is a controversial topic especially because most humans struggle with thinking generations ahead (Lundbey, 2012). But as she said "we have to learn to think about generations ahead because without taking care of our environment there soon will not be an eco-system anymore, which means that there would not be an economy either" (Lundbey, 2012).

Some of her examples were very shocking and really made me think about the topic in more depth. When she was talking about 10 to 12 year old children, who are almost blind because they have stitched paper-thin textiles since they were little children (Lundbey, 2012) for example, this really opened my eyes. Instead of just seeing the beautiful sides of luxury we really have to start looking at what is on the other side of the coin, especially as future brand managers.

The way in which Nespresso developed their “ecolaboration” for example seemed to be exemplary as in order to get the best quality of coffee they incorporated with coffee farmers in Columbia, who promise to offer the highest standard of quality because in return Nespresso invests in their Businesses and trains them on how to use their resources efficiently (Lundbey, 2012).

The second guest speaker was Noor Al-Khillidar, the founder of the Iraqi Orphan Foundation in London. Because she was born in Iraq but was happily raised in the UK, enjoying the highest standards of technology and education, she had the feeling she wanted to give something back to her home country and therefore founded a charity to raise money for children in the Iraq.

To raise the money she organizes different events and collaborates with high end luxury brands such as Chanel who sometimes sponsor her events (Al-Khillidar, 2012). According to her, this is a win-win situation for both – for her as a sponsor because higher awareness can be raised for an event if big brands are involved, as well as for luxury brands as they can demonstrate their engagement in charity and therefore show corporate social responsibility (Al-Khillidar, 2012) .  

I personally think that charity events are a very controversial topic. Although they are a great way for collecting donations, which is the most important, people often donate money because of the wrong reasons such as prestige or social acceptance. Although this does not really matter as long as the money can be collected and reaches the ones who need it the most, I think charity events should be evaluated critically. Especially as a luxury brand you have to show that you are really committed to the charity you support because otherwise people will loose trust in you and your brand image might be affected negatively.

All in all both lectures were really interesting and relevant to the current luxury market.

References:

Lundbey, A. (27.11.2012). Sustainability and Luxury Brand Management. London: European Business School.

Al-Khillidar, N. (27.11.2012). Charity and Luxury Brands. London: European Business School.