It is obvious that the term ‘luxury‘ implies a high level of quality, which we also understand is subjective. However, most of the value that sets one brand apart from another, in terms of luxury, is immaterial. That is, to say the symbolic properties that are related to identity, whether through self-identity or through status and group-membership. Fashion itself is centered around this concept: beyond clothing ourselves for protection, what we wear is on some level an indication of who we are or who we aspire to be.

Immaterial values are dependent on the cultural perceptions of luxury in each market. For example, the display of ostentation fluctuates between show-off and understatement, and what is considered to be modest in Miami is different from what is viewed as modest in, say, Vienna. An icon of the show-off class is Paris Hilton, especially in her pre-jail days. Note her shift to represent herself in a more understated way once she faced sentencing: she wanted to demonstrate to the world (and, more likely, the judge) that she had suddenly become more respectable, responsible, and less wild… and that she was willing to “tone it down”. However, when you’re opening a nightclub called “Vanity“ (and Paris is doing just that), it is pretty clear that ostentation and a show-off attitude are part of your identity (or brand, as it were). Contrast that with the late yet infamous Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, who is still known for her classic, understated elegance. She will likely remain a timeless icon of good taste and class, as her parred down and chic look seem less dated, more refined. Consider the difference is what her look and Paris’s look communicate in terms of identity:

The same point can be made for brand identity. Whether in furniture or fashion, architecture or art, each brand or designer has a core identity that fits somewhere between the show-off and understated categories. For example, Versace has built a brand image based on the va-va-voom Botticelli Babe, South Beach, the supermodel society, and bleach, bleach, bleach. Contrast that with Armani’s roots in minimalism, androgyny, clean lines and a subtly striking silhouette, or with Ralph Lauren’s foundation in American Classic and aristocratic elegance.

Of course, even within one brand there are varying degrees of ostentation, and this is typically presented by way of line diffusion.  In order to appeal to different market segments within the broader “luxury market,” a brand will often produce a top-level line (haute couture or designer, for example) and then one or more diffusion lines that target a lower price point.

As you move further down a brand’s diffusion into these lower price points, logos become increasingly important as quality and innovative design diminish. Armani can produce a basic white t-shirt that looks just like a Hanes, but if they stamp a massive logo across it, a consumer can still feel that they are buying into a piece of the Giorgio Armani lifestyle. That’s the idea, anyway.

However, not all brands take this approach. A particular characteristic of French luxury brands is that they are often built around an elegant and notable iconic figure such as Coco Chanel or Dior’s New Look lady, rather than a lifestyle, and these brands often avoid diffusion lines. For this reason, a brand like Chanel is able to offer both understated and show-off looks within the same line, though typically in separate stores, with less variation away from the core look, and always on the same price level.

Distance

The factor of distance often stands out as the definitive characteristic of the luxury product in the minds of many consumers. Rarity illuminates the notion of desire; it validates the idea that something is unique, special and somehow worthy of the term luxury. This is why companies like DeBeers take great measures to limit the number of diamonds on the market. More generally, this is also why limited editions are created: limited supply (plus great design, excellent quality and/or spectacular marketing) can create a frenzied sort of demand and support a premium price.

When considering the point of rarity or distance, you’ll find that luxury brands go to extreme measures to exaggerate this point (as they well should). Aside from the obvious limited editions, distance is displayed (or hinted at) on every level.

In store merchandising, distance is conveyed by hanging only one or two units/sizes (SKUs) per product, instead of crowding the racks with every item in inventory. You must ask a sales representative for help, and he or she serves as a symbolic barrier between you and the product (any subtle intimidation there serves as an added psychological filter… you’re welcome!).

In store displays, rarity comes across in carefully thought-out strategies. The Prada SoHo store displays merchandise like a museum with products arranged in still life settings or behind glass cases. Those Pierre Hermé cake shops in Paris are not designed like jewelry stores just to symbolize the quality of the products; it also communicates a sense of “Hands-off! Rare and precious items here! You can look, but you can’t touch.”

The Balancing Equation

A company is said to be competing in the luxury market when they have a balance of three components: the material, the immaterial, and distance.

When one or two of these components are low, the other(s) must be high to compensate. For example, in lower level diffusion lines, where the quality (a material value) is similar to mass market products, the logo (or the immaterial) must be more prominent. If the material value of a Gucci key-chain is quite low, the immaterial value must compensate.

For a very rare and/or high-quality product, the immaterial value need not be so high. In 2006, a bidder at Christie’s auction house broke the world record for the highest amount ever paid for a case of wine ($345,000 for a 6-bottle case of magnums). Unlike Gucci or Armani, Ferrari or Porsche, the brand of the wine was unknown to most non-connoisseurs. The wine was Château Mouton-Rothschild 1945. The background story is beautiful (man returns to his family vineyard in Bordeaux after WW2 and the Allied liberation to find the place in disrepair and his wife murdered in a concentration camp, rebuilds and produces one of the most glorified wines of all time), the label is special and unique (marked with a V for victory after WW2, commissioned by a French artist and signed by the producer), and the quality of the wine is regarded by connoisseurs worldwide as remarkable.

Material: Is it a high quality wine? Many wine connoisseurs would argue that this Mouton is among the finest wines ever produced, however some would consider it merely good. Is it expensive? I certainly think so, but others might disagree.

Distance: Is it rare? Certainly: there were only so many bottles produced in 1945, so this is definitely a limited edition.

Immaterial: Does it convey status or identity? In some circles, yes; it is very famous. However, unlike many luxury brands that boast near universal fame, this Mouton is known only within more closed, expert circles. But, hey, if that’s the group you want to be associated with, Château Mouton-Rothschild 1945 is certainly a hot entry ticket.

In the case of Château Mouton-Rothschild 1945, the material and immaterial properties are relatively subjective, however the rarity of the product is indisputable. Is it luxury? At $28,750 per bottle, and with a story like that, I would certainly consider it a luxury to experience this wine… however, I have been wine tasting in Bordeaux and would consider just about all of it to be luxury. To each their own.

(By the way, there is a great history of the Château Mouton-Rothschild estate and wines here.)

In the end, there really is no luxury product, just a balance between these three points.

So, if the industry defines luxury partially through Material Values (price & quality), what does that mean?

As we all know, the fact that something has a high price does not indicate that it has a high level of quality, and vice versa. However, a premium can be tacked onto the price of a product or service for a customer experience that is considered above and beyond, whether that experience is through customer service, or through being introduced into an admired community or tribe. After all, luxury is an indicator of status. Therefore, unlike most mass-market goods, the price for luxury goods and services is not based on tangible values alone.

Quality

Quality is subjective, depending on who you ask.

For example, I have relatively little knowledge about luxury watches, and so my perception of quality will be based on the brands I know, as opposed to the perception of a connoisseur who will understand quality from the details of craftsmanship. Ask me about the performance details of a car, and you will receive a meek “beats me” shrug. Now, ask me about shoes, and we’re in business! I KNOW shoes: materials, heel dimensions, construction practices, secrets of comfort, stitching, design and brands. But I digress…

There are many dimensions of quality, and any given product may have points that conflict in degrees of excellence. Here are a few to consider:

• Organoleptic Qualities (feel, smell, taste)
• Performance
• Resistance & Longevity
• Visual Qualities
• Quality of Manufacturing & Finish

How might these points of quality conflict? There are many examples, and I’m sure we all have our stories.

For example, resistance and longevity might conflict with feel, because tougher materials are often rougher to the touch.

Hermes scarves have great visual and organoleptic qualities, but the quality of the finish and the resistance and longevity are questionable. Each scarf is beautifully printed with many incredible colors, but the dyes are not fixed. Unless you want your Hermes scarf to turn into a blotchy mess, you absolutely cannot get it wet. That means you can forget about wearing it on that fabulous yachting tour, much less on a day with a chance of rain.

A haute couture Chanel wedding gown will have tiny inconsistencies in the stitch, simply because the fabrics are too fine to be manipulated by a sewing machine and must be constructed by hand. One person might look at this as a mark of the artistry, while another person will prefer the “perfect” finishing of a mass-produced gown, together with fabrics that are not so fragile.

Verifying Quality through Experience

In non-luxury industries, it is often easy to challenge product quality. However, even in within the industry, it is not enough to prove one’s product legitimacy in terms of quality. Quality should be made an experience that one feels, first through the product and then through the product’s environment, and the consumer’s experience of both.

Pantofola d’Oro began making made-to-measure athletic shoes in 1886. The quality of their shoes has remained so high that many athletes continued to wear them, even after they are contracted to represent other brands. To avoid giving up the quality footwear, they commonly apply the sponsoring brand logo (Adidas, Puma, etc) over their d’Oro shoes. However, d’Oro is not a luxury brand. The shopping experience is poor.

A brand can sell a high-quality product, but in order to move into the luxury industry, they must verify the quality on an experiential level. This begins with the shopping experience.

The Shopping Experience

Think of a couple of luxury shopping experiences, off the top of your head. For me, the first one that comes to mind is the Prada Flagship in NYC, designed by Rem Koolhaas. I went there as a teenager when they first opened, long before I even considered moving to Milan. Although I was barely a college student at the time and unable to make a purchase, the service staff was attentive and the store design blew my mind. That’s the kind of experience that sticks with a consumer, converting the experience into potential long-term sales and loyalty when they grow into the target market of the brand.

Another luxury shopping experience I had the pleasure to encounter was in the Pierre Hermé cake shop in St Germain area of Paris. It is designed like a jewelry store, with the cakes laid out in splendor. Actually, it’s not just the store design that is modeled after the luxury jewelry sector; it’s also the marketing… and the pricing for custom desserts. Want to know why “French Women Don’t Get Fat”? It’s because the sweets are too gorgeous to eat.

This is the legendary type of shopping experience that people make a special trip for, tell stories about, and share with their loved ones, even if it’s just for a macaroon!

How to Convey Luxury in the Shopping Experience

Most of the following points seem like no-brainers after you read them, but we can all think of a bunch of examples for each point where the ball has been dropped, and luxury brand value negatively impacted. Here they are:

• Urban & Cultural Areas: Luxury flagships are located in First-Tier Cities (Paris, Milan, New York, London, Tokyo, etc). These world capitols provide a wealthy base customer within the local population, but more importantly, they offer a huge number of tourists. This was especially important when you had to travel to obtain national luxury items (Want couture? Go to France. Want Chianti? Go to Italy.). However, today it is important to house a brand flagship in these capitols in order to provide a sense of the spirit of the brand, whether it is a piece of the American, French, or Italian lifestyle the brand represents. Furthermore, these cities offer a sense of refined culture through history, events (opera, theatre, special conferences) and exhibitions (cultural, professional), and the brands benefit through association.
• Co-Presence: Who is the place shared with? You’ll notice that luxury stores rarely stand alone. If not sharing a roof or directly adjoining one another, luxury stores are at least on the same street or within the same district. Think about Worth Avenue in Palm Beach, Rodeo Drive in Beverley Hills, 5th Avenue in New York, or Montenapoleone here in Milan. Even as the humblest immigrant communities or the richest McMansion neighborhoods, luxury powerhouses gain strength through community and mutual association. Just like buying a flat overlooking Central Park in the Upper East Side is a statement, opening a store on any of these streets tells the world, “I have arrived. I belong with thesepeople/brands.” Many established brands have a presence in multiple districts to target a variety of consumer markets. Consider the Louis Vuitton stores in Paris:
  • Champs Elysee: the largest store, full of tourists
  • Montaigne: smaller, more chic
  • Saint Germain: smallest, highest sense of luxury, quite local and exclusive
• Store architecture & scenography: Although the recent trend for Starchitects to create branded temples is a testament to this point, store architecture goes beyond the fame of the designer and touches on points of the interior. Note that luxury stores do not display every item in inventory. Racks are not crowded  with various sizes. You’ll find very few sizes on display because the staff is there to assist you. The luxury customer should not dig through piles of garments to find an item. Further, the store architecture should represent the brand, especially in emerging markets where new consumers are just beginning to speedily acquire a brand education. What are the core symbols of the brand? Who is the target customer? You should be able to identify that from the store. (Ralph Lauren is the champion of branded store design, by the way.)
• Store entrance & accessibility: Did you ever notice how heavy the doors to most luxury stores are? These are not your typical motion-sensor sliding doors. Rather, these doors make you slow down before entering. Often a meaty man or two is flanking the door to assist/intimidate you. Yeah, that’s right, I said “intimidate.” Why? It’s the bouncer-affect. Are you on the list? The theory is that if they can scare you off, you probably don’t belong there. Plus, the last thing a shoplifter of premium merchandise wants to see is a prize fighter guarding the door. This also has to do with co-presence, but not the co-presence of other brands like we went over above. Rather, this point attempts to ensure that the co-presence of the patrons meets a certain standard. However, it’s hard to spot some luxury consumers or future luxury consumers, and so the probability of offending someone is high and the repercussions can be disastrous for a luxury brand. Obviously it’s best to be discrete in this form of psychological filtration.
• Welcoming Service: In addition to the bouncer-types at the door, a luxury shopping experience should provide friendly service that extends above and beyond the call of duty. This is unfortunately where most luxury stores fall short, and we’ve all heard stories of or actually had rude, snobby or lazy sales assistants, which drive away sales and tarnish the brand image. The fact of the matter is that it is at times difficult to find sales staff that represent the brand values with class, intelligence and politeness. However, I believe this is due less to a lack of available people and due more to a problem of luxury brands not fully understanding and conveying their core values to employees, and lacking quality customer service training programs. This is perhaps the single greatest weakness of luxury brands (and you could relate it to their lagging online presence, because that translates to customer service as well), and yet it seems to be quite low on the priority list of many brands. Curious… they could learn a lot from Zappos!

Other sectors can also achieve a sense of luxury for mass-market goods by applying the above principles. We have seen this increasingly in the last ten years, as luxury companies target downward into the mass market, and commodity companies target upwards into the luxury market.

For example, Sephora applies all points of the luxury shopping experience to its stores, but it is a democratic store lacking exclusivity which carries some luxury brands in the product mix (even if it is owned by luxury powerhouse LVMH). The Sephora stores are centrally located in world capitols and cultural centers, often surrounded by luxury brand retailers; they have a grand entrance that is discretely guarded, and the staff is friendly and helpful without being pushy.

Furthermore, the displays are clean and organized like a luxurious market, and the branded interior design is based on the awe-inspiring cathedral (the Duomo) in Siena, Italy. While most customers will not recognize the trademark black and white horizontal stripes of the store as being related to the Duomo, the effect is quite nice in providing a sense of Renaissance splendor, don’t you think?

So, if Sephora offers all of this, aren’t they a luxury retailer? Not quite. While you can find products from Chanel, Dior, Frederick Fekkai (I love), Sephora still offers mass market goods that you could find in your local pharmacy, making the experience inclusive of the mass market.

Premium Price + Quality Products + Grand Shopping Experience = Luxury Brand? …Not Yet

We’re not there yet. In order to achieve true luxury status, immaterial values of brand identity and group-status, as well as exclusivity must be proven. More on that in the next segment of this series…

However, I came across some notes I took last year, based on a lecture from the French Fashion Institute, and I think I’ll add them to the discussion going on out there about the present and future of “luxury.” Since there is a lot to get into, I decided the best way to go is to break this apart into a series.

The Luxury Product vs. The Luxury Brand

The diamond is a luxury product, and DeBeers wants to become a luxury brand specializing in diamonds.

YSL is a well-known “luxury” brand, yet a large chunk of their revenues are earned by sales of masstige products (ie, lipsticks, nail polish, etc).

Truffles are luxury products, but if they were branded you probably wouldn’t want them anymore. Don’t worry; you wouldn’t be alone in that. The same thing happened to smoked salmon about 30 years ago when it became branded. Market perception changed, and it is no longer considered a luxury product.

So, how do we define a luxury product?

The Luxury Product

There are many factors that go into the production and marketing of luxury goods and services. However, in order to be successful in this industry, both the customer and other industry players must be able to identify some key characteristics inherent in “luxury.”

Perceiving Luxury, from the Customer Perspective:

• exclusivity
• superfluous
• symbolic
• subjective
• scarce/rare
• high-priced
• quality/craftsmanship

There are a huge number of terms that come to mind when the consumer thinks about luxury. In fact, according to my thesis research, the most commonly associated terms are now negative ones related to waste and extravagance.

However, according to the FFI, there are three criteria to consider in the definition of a luxury product.

Criteria for Luxury Products- Validation from the Industry Perspective:

• Material Value: price, quality
• Immaterial Value: symbolic, superfluous
• Distance: rarity, scarcity

Next up in this series: What is Luxury? Defining Quality

At this moment, it is one hour before the start of Apple’s latest keynote address, the much anticipated announcement rumored to be for the mythical Apple Tablet, the iPad, or whatever else it’s been called. Like the little Fangirl that I am, I’ve had Gizmodo’s live blog coverage of the event up on one of my screens in order to follow along virtually. So far, all I’ve learned is that the early audience has a beard to baldness ratio of 1:3.

I know what you’re thinking! Does an apparent lack of ‘recession beards‘ indicate that the recession is, in fact, receding?

I’m not sure about that, but this whole fiasco has got me thinking about Apple’s phenomenal marketing, which is largely done through the ‘expert community‘… in this case, a bunch of nerds.

I wonder how many publications and blogs are currently reporting on the keynote speech that is yet to occur? So far, there has been no confirmation as to the topic of today’s presentation, and yet the brand has already gotten tons of free publicity. Naturally, Apple is trending hotter than Obama’s State of the Union right now in both Google and Twitter without so much as a validated hint from behind the doors of Apple.

Most companies will never get this level of buzz- either positive or negative. In fact, most companies don’t need this level of frantic attention, but as we all know, in fashion and luxury, buzzworthy events make the brand. That’s why companies spend millions every year on everything from fashion shows to parties and celebrity appearances. In most experience industries, marketers and press agents are hired specifically to generate press attention through these events.

But if you think about it, Apple’s version of a fashion show is the notorious Steve Jobs keynote presentation… However, there is a big difference in the relative buzz generated by Steve Jobs and the buzz generated by say, John Galliano. That’s because the audience is different. Steve Jobs caters to the experts who generate content: the fans, the journalists, the bloggers. He presents content in a way that excites people, and that excitement drives them to spread the message. Hell, people even talk about how he presents, not just what he presents.

I think the fashion and luxury sectors could learn something here. The fashion show is evolving. Online content is evolving. Customer expectations are evolving.

I would argue that it is no longer necessary to fill the seats of fashion shows with merchandisers and retailers. Just like Apple, fashion brands should also be catering to the content-generating experts, thrilling them, pumping them full of information, and not just allowing but encouraging them to spread the word.

One potential argument I foresee here is that the buyers need access to fashion week in order to understand the product. That is not necessarily untrue, but gone are the days when brands should invest as many resources into the entertainment of retailers versus the final customer. In fact, I don’t think the retailers need to be entertained at all. The thrill can be passed directly to the final customer without catering to the middle-man. Besides, retailers get a better feel for the clothes in a presentation where they can get up close and touch the garments at their own pace. It’s also more efficient today to analyze real-time quantitative data and qualitative customer reactions to a collection online than it is to use the typical Excel file of sales from seasons-past together with a little help from the crystal ball. Which would you choose?

The entire fashion industry is changing, with an increasing strategic importance in controlling the message. This makes sense to maintain a strong brand identity, but the implication should go beyond media. Not only do today’s consumers expect a 2-way conversation with preferred brands, but they also expect excellent customer service and anticipatory actions, which can best be predicted by analyzing behavior online and off. Fashion and luxury, while maintaining an ahead-of-demand image, should take this opportunity to communicate directly with their final customers while learning from them. Start with the customer, and work your way backwards, as Jeff Bezos from Amazon would say.

Well, it’s time for Steve Jobs now, so I’m going to get back to the liveblog, written by nerds for nerds, and without a penny from Apple.

Not many weeks ago, I was introduced to Paul Ward’s blog on his website covering a subject I love: Customer Experience Management. As a frequent reader of many a business blog, I was struck by this guy’s humor and was impressed with the quality of his writing. He presents a much more engaging picture of customer experience than what you’re likely to find in your typical business school, which – now that I think about it – is pretty ironic (ie, if you’re going to TEACH customer experience, and your students are more or less your customers, you probably should not bore them to tears). Plus, this guy clearly knows his stuff!

Never being satisfied with my own blog – the design is never quite right, I can’t tweak the theme enough, I write too much, etc – it wasn’t long into my look around Mr. Ward’s blog before I thought, “Damn, this is a nice site.” I checked the source code, which led me to a website publishing company in New York called Squarespace.

Wow.

I checked out the blog examples they have posted on the Squarespace site from other customers who have used their software and hosting service. Not only did I find some really sweet new blogs for my morning read, but each one was designed completely unique from the rest …and all were beautiful! Then I watched their little tour on how you can use their service to design your website, and this (to me) was the most impressive part. You can virtually do anything to design your site just as you like it, and with absolutely no knowledge of coding. Now, I know there are other companies out there who are developing this kind of “do it yourself” software with cloud computing, but I have never seen something so well-designed and user-friendly. Of course, at this point I was kicking myself from going with another hosting company and buying a theme mere weeks before this discovery.

However, I really felt like I should do something to let them know how seriously impressed I was. I submitted a message through their contact form, thanking them for putting an awesome product out there, and no kidding- within 10 minutes I had a response from an actual human. Maybe this is not as impressive until you consider that they are a small team in New York, and it was 5 a.m. there when I sent my note. Here’s what they wrote:

Hi Ashley,

Thanks for taking the time to write in to us about this.  It’s rare that even our clients take the time to write in to compliment our service, but even more so that folks that aren’t yet clients do so.  We really appreciate the compliments on our system and I’ll be sure to pass them along to our staff.  We look forward to having you switch to Squarespace just as soon as you’re ready.  If you have any questions when you do, we’ll be here.

Cheers!

To break that down into simple steps, here’s what happened in a very small amount of time:

1. They pre-sold their services just by having a good product- the results speak for themselves, and people (like me) seek them out after seeing their product put to use
2. They sealed the deal with their ease-of-use and INCREDIBLE customer service (although I am not even a customer yet)
3. The experience has made me a fan, and I’ve already told a bunch of people about the company, several of whom have already signed up. (Because honestly, a fan makes a better salesman than… a salesman.)

Leave it to a Customer Experience expert to go with the web publishers who offer the best!

I am now counting down the days until my current hosting subscription expires (only 305 to go!), at which point I will jump ship for the beautiful world of Squarespace. (And I wish that was an actual picture of my desk with the matching peonies and day-planner, but it is someone else’s that I saw on Apartment Therapy.)

Here are several of the awesome blogs I found on the Squarespace site:

• The Candid Commentary: a girl after my own heart, Dee writes about technology, fashion and beauty
• Cake Spy: an adorable blog about deserts (or as they say in the Italian version of English, “sweeties”)… good recipes too!
• Gwen Bell – Big Love in a Small World: there are many things to love about this blog, including the yoga/geek combo and the incredible writer/designer (check out her blog on Coco Chanel… I’m smitten)
• 30 Second Life: it is what it says… man buys Flip, man records daily life, man presents it for us in 30 second mashups. It’s beautiful.
• Octopus vs. Squirrel: a blog of unique and beautiful illustrations
• Squaregirl: full of optimism and written by one of the designers at Squarespace

I love finding good stuff!

The last time I went to the circus, I was about 4 years old. I remember riding on an elephant, juggling clowns, a lion, and the feeling of delight.

I did not think it possible to feel that same delight more than 20 years later, but I stand corrected! I just got back from a quick weekend outing to Monte Carlo, where the International Cirque (the Olympics for circus artists worldwide) is taking place. This time around, it was a little different from what I’d remembered- these were the best of the best circus performers in the world… not to mention there was a certain royal family in the audience as honored guests.

Among my favorite acts were a couple balancing and contorting their bodies in seemingly impossible and agonizing poses (note: must do more yoga); a lion-tamer who stood in the ring with 15 lions at once, and had them all snarling in a perfect line-up; a guy who balanced a spinning figure-8 cage on his head inside of which 2 girls were doing suspension acts; a man who did acrobatics on a narrow pipe while swinging across the entire ring from about 50′ in the air without a safety net; a team of more than 20 acrobats who did crazy jumps on stilts and giant pogo-sticks; a group of 12 girls who did these impossible backbends while balancing their entire body-weight on their chins and stacking up on top of each other; and an incredible clown who immediately engaged the audience and showed that a fairly simple act can become the most popular one just by making a personal connection (unfortunately, I was too mesmerized to capture him on film).

After sitting captivated in the audience for more than 4 hours, watching +150 performers do their thing with ropes, knives, stilts, wild animals, humor, incredible concentration and – most of all – sheer determination, I must say that I walked away with a sense of inspiration and clarity! I can completely understand why it is not just exciting but also important for kids to go to the circus. You learn that, through determination and hard work, any dream can be made a reality. This is not a lesson only for the kids, though- perhaps it’s even more important for us as adults, especially today.

I also thought about these performers in a new light, as organizational geniuses. There is barely a moment between acts, and lives are on the line if a mistake is made. Each person knows their role, knows where to be and when, and performs their tasks impeccably, as though setting up and dismantling the sets was practiced as much as each act. (Even the extensive lion cage was dismantled in under a minute.) Everyone seemed to share a sense that they were a part of something greater, and so they were really supportive of one another, even in competition. After their acts, individual groups of performers came out and sat in the seats next to ours, and I noticed they were among the first to give standing ovations. You won’t see THAT in most industries! I would love to be with them as a fly on the wall (or blogger in the stands) for the mere 2 days they had all-together before the opening circus, just to understand how they can organize like that! I mean, most of them had never met before the events, and they were speaking about 15 different languages.

Finally, a note on that clown… he spoke in little sound-effects, no language. His act began by directing the audience to raise and lower our applause, which he pretended to put in a box and had trained us to “sound the applause” based on how wide he opened the box – within about 2 seconds. He threw his hat into the audience and got people to throw it back onto his head, and would not let them give up, thus inspiring a sense of tenacity. Afterward, he juggled unsuccessfully and had us all rooting for him to get it right until, at last, he did. …And the crowd went wild. It went on like this, so simply, and everyone from the little kids to the Princess were in hysterics, captivated and hopeful. At that point, I thought, he had really shown us something wonderful.

Like a true nerd, of course I thought about the symbolic lesson for brands and social media, marketing and customer experience… in regards to the clown (yeah, I know). When you involve your audience, you can still run the show (contrary to what many companies, especially in luxury , believe). When you focus on making them successful within your scope of interest, you automatically gain a sense of reciprocity. But only through involving the audience and being a little honest about the challenges you face can you build the kind of adoration and support that makes people want to see you succeed, instead of mere indifference. They feel a personal stake in the success. Of course, that strategy doesn’t work with some jerks out there, but hopefully those guys are few and far between.

Well, Monte Carlo is certainly a place of dreams. I am now a reformed circus-cynic, and will be a staunch supporter from here on. Anything is possible!

PS- I need this hat!!!!

The whole experience kind of reminded me of a movie… a foreign movie, largely without subtitles. It’s interesting to be the foreign observer in these kind of ritualistic times because you get to see a lot of things that you normally would not. I guess the only problem is that, by not speaking the language, I certainly missed a lot. I like to play this game where I’m actually imagining what they are talking about; ad-libbing inside my own head.

So, back to the story! We packed the car full of presents, tons of food and wine, with the dog situated nicely on top, and headed out of Milan in the middle of the night for a 9-hour drive to the town of Gummersbach, near Cologne.

In Germany, it’s customary to celebrate Christmas on the 24th, so we were trying to get there by late morning. Of course, when we came out of the first Alpine tunnel heading north, there were suddenly fat snowflakes falling, which slowed us down a bit. It was a complete shift in the weather from the south-end of the tunnel, where we had been not 3 minutes earlier.

In spite of the weather, we made our destination by about 10 a.m. and then quickly headed out to the local fish farm. This place is located in a nearby valley, down a snowy one-lane street lined with kids on sleds.

Apparently, a native family has owned this place for generations, but now that extensive supermarket chains are moving into the area and the people who know how to clean and prepare local fish are fading in numbers, their customer base is dwindling. I hope the Slow Food movement makes it up there soon enough to save this place. Nevertheless, it was packed on Christmas Eve. I guess fish is pretty popular!

The afternoon was spent tracking down a Christmas tree (we got the last one in town), having kaffee und kuchen (that’s coffee and cake… with creme, butter, sugar, and more butter). Then we put the tree up, which consisted of hacking the trunk apart, stuffing it into a big blue vase, and arranging firewood around the base so the tree wouldn’t lean…

This is a much more labor-intensive approach that your typical American “shove it in the Christmas tree stand and go” approach, but also much prettier.

The finishing touch on the tree was a little surprising… it was not a star on top, it was not tinsel around the branches. It was actual candles. When I saw these being put up, I thought, “Huh. Kind of weird to put up candle sticks when you can’t light them.” Wrong. They were lit. With matches. With each one, I actually grew more nervous – probably a lingering side-effect from growing up with a very worried grandmother. The visual effect was lovely, but the psychological effect was not. Now I was thinking, “Where is the fire extinguisher?”

After dinner, we went to see a Christmas mass in a little chapel from the 1600s. Christmas carols in German- that is a new experience for the ears!

On Christmas, we went to another house for what amounted to an amazing 5 hour dinner (mostly in German, but I’m sure the conversation was interesting!) complete with rounds of sekt, white wine, then red wine, and then liquor followed by a cocktail. Whew! Of course, there was another candlelit tree right next to the table, which kept me slightly sober. The most surprising part of the night (for me) was when the flute came out. Seriously, they played the flute and sang together around the dinner table in between courses! (I’m telling you- Rockwell!)

In the next days, we were lucky to get some sunshine, and so we headed out to take part in a local tradition that apparently occurs whenever the sun shines in the winter, which is not often. We went for a walk in the forest. It was incredible, with the late afternoon light and the crisp air. 3 miles later, we headed back indoors to atone for the mild workout and had another round of kaffee und kuchen.

Our last night there, we had another big dinner which was probably the most unusual of all. It consisted of smoked salmon covered with mounds of broccoli and cauliflower, another layer of salmon, a layer of fish pate, and then rows of sliced potatoes on top. Whatever it was, it tasted good!