Renowned Author and Marketing Expert Idris Mootee Spoke About the "Massification of Luxury Brands" at the 16th International Annual Luxury Brand Meeting Held in Barcelona

Marketing Guru Idris Mootee explained about how living has become a question of what one spends than what one makes. Consumers have gone from product to process, from problem resolution to emotion seeking, from object to experience.

BOSTON, MA (PRWEB) March 26, 2004 - IESE, a leading business school (Ranked 4th in Europe-

Financial Times) organized this meeting annually to create an opportunity for top management in the sector to reflect on strategy and to discuss future of luxury brands.

Attendees this year had the opportunity to hear from acclaimed business author and special guest speaker Idris Mootee as he offered thought-provoking concepts on how businesses can make sense of the "Massification of Luxury Brands". Titles to his credit include: High Intensity Marketing, Escape Velocity and the upcoming revised edition of 60-minute Brand Strategist.

He talked about current trends such as 'Mcdonaldization' and 'Walmartization' where individualism and diversity are being replaced by efficiency and social control and 'Consumer Rocketing', which is when people spend a disproportional amount of money in brands and products of great meaning to them. As a result today's consumer now fit into "Consumption Communities" as they are no longer divided by wealth, birth and political eminence but by consumption.
According to Mr. Mootee, "Living has become a question of what one spends than what one makes. It all begins with a need and then feeling anxious about resolving it. The experience ends, if successful, with a feeling of relaxation or satisfaction. If it does not satisfy the need, the process is then repeated until it abates. Consumers judge the act by the experience and have gone from product to process, from problem resolution to emotion seeking, from object to experience."

He also explained how advertising often provides gratification and recodes a commodity as a desirable psycho-ideological sign. But in fact, it feeds the desire to sometimes the unobtainable. Visuals are very powerful simply because they never satisfy. Meaning is created through continuous search for links between 'identity' and the 'self'. "It is like drinking carbonated water when you're thirsty will only make you more thirsty." He added.

He further suggested that humans are basically tool users and tools are not the end but the means. So materialism does not crowd out spiritualism at all; spiritualism is more likely a substitute when objects are scare. "When we have few things, we make the next world luxurious. When we have plenty, we enchant those objects around us therefore bringing many things such as a Hermes Birkin or a pair Manolo Blahnik to an enchanted level."

For more information, request an interview or a full copy of the presentation please email author@highintensitymarketing.com or visit http://www.highintensitymarketing.com

About Idris Mootee:
Idris Mootee is a business strategist and recognized expert in strategic marketing. He has a long history of working with senior executives of a diverse client base in a broad array of industries and is widely respected for his insights in current and future consumer lifestyles and brand preferences. He is the author of three books and holds master degrees in management and business administration. He is based out of Toronto, ON and Boston, MA.

About IESE:
IESE Business School, the graduate school of management of the University of Navarra, is located in Barcelona and Madrid. It offers the MBA, Global Executive MBA, Executive MBA and PhD in Management degrees, as well as a wide range of executive education programs for global senior executives and Continuing Education programs for alumni. Founded in 1958, IESE established Europe's first 2-year MBA program, with the support of Harvard Business School, in 1964, began offering the world's premier bilingual MBA program in 1980, and pioneered the concept of joint-venture executive education in 1994. In 2000, IESE launched its Global Executive MBA featuring modular residential sessions in Barcelona, Palo Alto and Shanghai.

Press Contacts:

US/Canada inquiries:
Idris Mootee
1 (617) 933 8921
imooteeatHarvard.grad.org

Europe inquiries:
Carina Gemperle
( 34) 617 301 914
cgemperleatiese.edu

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