Legendary luxury brands: inventing the future by reaching to the past

Unlike many other brands, luxury brands can enjoy remarkably enduring success. This paper presents an interview with a senior executive responsible for marketing Maison Louis Roederer’s champagnes, including the legendary Cristal, in the United States for the last 20 years. We explore the differences between luxury and mass-market brands, the role of creative vision, how brands remain relevant through innovation while remaining faithful to their history, and how luxury brands create passionate buyers who seek to be a part of the brand, not simply consumers of the brand. We conclude with a discussion of the implications for market orientation, understanding consumers as fans, and other future research topics.