Extreme Luxury?
The folks over at BCR Yachts ask what word can they use to describe their yachts. They say yachts are, by their very nature luxurious so how do you accurately describe classes of yachts? Good point. However, the bigger issue is that the word luxury is so overused that its meaning has eroded. As the gap between the low and high end shrinks, almost anyone can afford some kind of ‘luxury’ item.
Downscale retailers are offering high-end products and upscale retailers are courting the less well-heeled. Other overused words like “Extreme” have also been rendered useless by almost every marketing category out there from razors to gum, it’s almost a joke to see the term used these days. Kind of reminds me of an old Potclatch Paper promotion called “Ben Day”. In it, the main character, Ben Day, is a creative at an ad agency and is given the assignment of coming up with a, “new word for ‘New’.” Tough job. Pity I can’t remember what that word was…
