What Recession? Luxury Brands Outperform The High Street

Tara Loader Wilkinson

20 March 2012

The recession has failed to dampen consumer appetite for luxury brands, and aspirational spenders are shunning affordable brands despite the gloomy economic outlook, according to a new report.

A survey of the world’s top 500 brands from intelligence provider Brand Finance, suggests consumers are turning their backs on traditional household favourites and lower end products and embracing luxury lifestyle and indulgent brands.

“The global downturn has spawned a new breed of recession proof and aspirational "Alphabrands" which we turn to for quality regardless of the economic conditions,” said David Haigh, chief executive of Brand Finance.

“Bucking the trend for consumers to look to lower end products during times of economic uncertainty, the results show that consumers are increasingly eager to indulge in high quality cutting edge design and couture,” he added.

Some of the world's top fashion chains have enjoyed soaring profits in brand value like Louis Vuitton ($4.9 billion), Hermès ($3.4 billion) and Polo Ralph Lauren ($3.3 billion) increasing the value of their brand.

Luxury jeweller Tiffany & Co has also made the Global 500 for the first time ($2.9 billion) whilst bespoke Swiss watch makers, Cartier, entered the ranking of the top brands with a value of ($3.1 billion).

As consumers continue to indulge themselves during the downturn, brands such as Rolls Royce have seen an increase of 17 per cent in brand value to $3.1 billion whilst both Daimler and BMW have benefitted from this renewed interest in luxury automobiles with brand increases of 20 per cent and 5 per cent.

Meanwhile the future is less rosy for high street supermarkets such as Sainsbury's (now valued at $5.8 billion), ASDA ($9.4 billion) and Marks and Spencer's ($4.5 billion) which all suffered a difficult year.

"The rise to prominence of luxury and lifestyle brands in this year's report is quite impressive. Whilst the world remains shrouded in economic misery, people are investing their hard earned cash in brands they feel they can rely on to produce quality, long lasting products. It is also an encouraging sign for the economy to see that the overall value of the Global 500 increase by 3.3 per cent to $3.4 trillion from last year,” said Haigh.