Managing heritage brands_ A study of the sacralization of heritage

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 22 (2015) 77–84
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jretconser
Managing heritage brands: A study of the sacralization of heritage
stores in the luxury industry
Delphine Dion 1, Stéphane Borraz n
Sorbonne Graduate Business School, 21 rue Broca, 75005 Paris, France
art ic l e i nf o
a b s t r a c t
Article history:
Received 19 March 2014
Received in revised form
16 September 2014
Accepted 21 September 2014
We investigate the concept of the heritage store, that is, the locations that lies at the heart of a brand's
identity and history. Based on store observations and interviews with managers and sales personnel in
the luxury industry, we analyze the characteristics of heritage stores and their role in the management of
heritage brands. We show how managers sacralize a store's heritage to nurture the value proposition of
the brand. Our analysis yields new insights into retailing, introducing the concept of the heritage store
and emphasizing its sacralizalization. We outline the implications for retail marketing in developing and
maintaining the sacralization of heritage stores.
& 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords:
Heritage brand
Heritage store
Luxury
Sacralization
Myth
Ritual
Gray walls, Louis XVI armchairs and Haussmannian moldings...
In the heart of Shanghai, the magic of 30 Avenue Montaigne
was there to greet the silhouettes of Raf Simons’ springsummer haute couture designs for Dior.”2
As described in the opening quote, the store of Dior on the
Avenue Montaigne in Paris features several iconic elements that
are reproduced in commercials, retail outlets, and fashion shows.
The Dior store on the Avenue Montaigne in Paris features several
iconic elements that are reproduced in commercials, retail outlets,
and fashion shows. In the vein of literature on heritage brands
(Urde et al., 2007), we refer to this kind of location as a heritage
store, that is, a location that lies at the heart of a brand’s identity
and history. We argue that heritage stores are key in the management of heritage brands.
Heritage brands emphasize their history as a key component of
their brand identity. They are not brands with a heritage but
“heritage brands,” heritage being part of a brand's value proposition
and identity (Urde et al., 2007). From this perspective, heritage
brands nurture, maintain, and protect their heritage to generate
stronger corporate marketing (Urde et al., 2007; Fionda and Moore,
2009). In this article we explore the characteristics of heritage
stores and their role in the management of heritage brands.
n
Corresponding author. Tel.: þ 33 6 62 49 88 81.
E-mail addresses: [email protected] (D. Dion),
[email protected] (S. Borraz).
1
Tel.: þ 33 6 64 63 56 44.
2
http://www.dior.com/magazine/be_fr/content/view/full/7036 (accessed 13.02.14.).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2014.09.005
0969-6989/& 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Our empirical setting is the luxury industry. Drawing on interviews with professionals and observations conducted online and in
stores, we analyze the characteristics of heritage stores and their
role in the management of heritage brands. We show how managers sacralize store heritage to nurture the value proposition of the
brand. Similarly to sacralization in a religious context, the sacralization of heritage brands is institutionalized through a set of mythical
narratives, ritual practices, and symbolic boundaries (Wunenburger,
1981). This study contributes to the literature on heritage brands by
introducing the concept of the heritage store and analyzing how
companies sacralize these stores to nurture their heritage. We also
outline the implications for retail marketing in developing and
maintaining the sacralization of heritage stores.
1. Theoretical background
To begin to study the management of heritage stores, we
present our understanding of key constructs, e.g. heritage brand
and sacralization.
1.1. Heritage brands
Aaker (1996) mentioned heritage as a component of brand equity
but the concept has been developed more recently and now
constitutes a distinct conceptual category (Hudson, 2013). Heritage
brands make their heritage part of a brand's value proposition and
identity (Clais, 2002; Dion and de Boissieu, 2013; Urde et al., 2007).
Their heritage holds value for the customer and other stakeholders,
distinguishes the brand, is difficult for competitors to imitate, and
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D. Dion, S. Borraz / Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 22 (2015) 77–84
therefore leads to brand equity (Keller and Richey, 2006). Brand
heritage adds sincerity and differentiation (Merchant and Rose,
2013), brings authenticity (Fionda and Moore, 2009; Kapferer and
Bastien, 2008), and reduces purchasing risk (Steewart-Allen, 2002).
Heritage brands nurture, maintain, and protect their heritage,
principally to generate stronger corporate marketing (Urde et al.,
2007). From this perspective, we study heritage stores, that is, the
locations at the heart of a brand's identity and history. These
heritage stores have a special aura. They are more than flagship
stores (Dion and Arnould, 2011; Joy et al., 2014; Kozinets et al.,
2002) or brand museums (Borghini et al., 2009) because they are
part of a brand's heritage. We argue that managers sacralize
heritage stores—treat them as sacred places—to cherish and
reinforce a brand's heritage.
1.2. The sacred
Studies have shown the development of the sacred in contexts
other than religion, including politics (Rivière, 1994), music
(Ménard, 2001) and consumption (Belk et al., 1989). Researchers
have studied sacred experiences and practices of sacralization in
brand relationships (Khalla, 2007) and brand communities (Schau
et al., 2009; Schouten et al., 2007; Chalmers and Arthur, 2008;
O'Sullivan et al., 2011). Authors have also focused on the sacralization of secular objects (Belk et al., 1989; Curasi et al., 2004; RobertDemontrond et al., 2007; Fernandez, 2008; Hirschman et al., 2012;
Rinallo et al., 2013) and rituals of consumption (Rook, 1985). Other
studies have investigated the use of religious objects such as
crucifixes (Higgins and Hamilton, 2011), rosaries (Rinallo et al.,
2013), and religious places like cathedrals (Shackley, 2002) and
cemeteries (Toussaint and Decrop, 2013). They analyze how
consumers sacralize and desacralize both secular and religious
objects and show that the frontier between profane and sacred
meaning has become increasingly blurred (Arnould and Price,
2004). In contrast to prior research, we study sacralization from
marketing rather than the consumer perspective. We explore
marketing practices used to sacralize heritage stores.
A sacred place is a key place associated with the identity of a
social group. It holds a legitimate power in relation to the origin
of things (Laburthe-Tolra and Warnier, 2003). We argue that
in a similar way, heritage stores lie at the heart of the identity
and history of heritage brands. Similar to sacralization in a
religious context (Turner, 1967, 1969; Wunenburger, 1981), the
sacred is institutionalized through a set of myths, rituals, and
prohibitions.
2. Methodology
We focus on the luxury industry to understand the management of heritage brands (Clais, 2002; Kapferer and Bastien, 2008)
because it is an “extreme case” (Eisenhardt, 1989). Heritage is
crucial for many luxury brands, as it brings an element of
authenticity and uniqueness (Clais, 2002; Fionda and Moore,
2009). These brands emphasize their history as a key component
of their brand identity (Kapferer and Bastien, 2008; Lipovetsky and
Roux, 2003).
To analyze heritage stores, we adopted an inductive approach,
an emergent and interactive research process rooted in ongoing
engagement with the field of retail action (Glaser and Strauss,
1967; Hudson and Ozanne, 1988). Our analysis is built on continuous comparisons between the data collected through field
observations and interviews with experts, inductive analysis of
data, and the scrutiny of these data through a number of
conceptual lenses (Glaser and Strauss, 1967). Since we do not
study consumers' experiences and perceptions but the way firms
manage heritage stores, we based our empirical study on store
observations and expert interviews.
The data collection began with the observation of 45 luxury
stores in Paris, selected by location: we visited all the luxury
fashion and jewelry stores located in the Triangle d'Or, the historic
headquarters for luxury shopping outlets in Paris bordered by the
Champs Elysées and the Avenues George V and Montaigne. There
is a wide variety among the stores visited in terms of brand range,
history, and parent company. The length of each visit varied from
15 to 45 min depending on the size of the store. Systematic
observations were carried out using an observational grid. This
remained semi-open, allowing us to add unexpected items and
categories that appeared during the observation period (Peretz,
2007). The grid was organized around three dimensions: the
substantive staging of the point of sale (design, materials used,
decorative elements, music, fragrances, lighting, colors, and street
frontage); evaluation of the point of sale (inductive appreciation of
the atmosphere and retail design elements); and the impressions
made by the store and personnel (Arnould et al., 1998; Baker et al.,
2002). The grid was semi-open in the sense that we did not have
predefined modalities. That is, we did not have a precise list of
elements to check when describing a street frontage, for example.
We had to describe such features in a more precise way. We
analyzed notes taken in the field using a categorization process
(Dion, 2007). We established several store categorizations (e.g., by
brand, country of origin, street, parent company, store design style,
artistic director, etc.).We subsequently interviewed 17 experts in
luxury retail. Our goal was to obtain different perspectives on
heritage stores by interviewing people in marketing and retailing
departments. Our informants worked or had worked in a variety of
positions (general management, sales, marketing, merchandising,
architecture, and innovation) in the following luxury firms:
Boucheron, Cartier, Christofle, Van Cleef and Arpels (jewelry);
Dior, Chanel, Ferragamo, Hermès, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Louboutin,
Moynat (fashion and haute couture); and Printemps Haussmann,
Galeries Lafayette Haussmann (elite department stores). All our
informants were French. However, most of them worked on
international issues and had worked in other countries, mainly
China and Japan.
The interviews were non-directive and organized around the
theme of luxury stores. In order to avoid prompting informants,
we did not mention issues of heritage or sacralization in the
interviews. We let informants talk spontaneously about luxury
shops, beginning with “grand tour” questions about participants'
professional backgrounds (McCracken, 1988). The interviews
lasted between 45 min and 2.5 h. We transcribed and coded
interviews using open coding. These qualitative data were then
interpreted using a hermeneutic approach (Thompson, 1997); we
continuously revised our provisional coding through an interative
process of analyzing transcripts of the verbatim interviews and
relating them to our emerging theorical understanding of our
interviewees' observations (emic meanings) and our own (etic
categories) (Thompson and Arsel, 2004).
After having identified our initial findings, we returned to the field
to conduct further analysis (Arnould and Wallendorf, 1994). This data
collection concentrated on four heritage stores: Chanel Rue Cambon,
Dior Avenue Montaigne, Cartier Rue de la Paix and Boucheron Place
Vendôme. It is a common outcome of the iterative research process to
highlight in-depth analyses of a small number of representative cases
(e.g., Borghini et al., 2009; Kozinets et al. 2002). We selected these four
stores because they appeared to best exemplify our theory. Similarly to
a floating observation, we conducted extensive online research and
collected press articles, blogs and comments on these four locations.
Our goal was to identify instances of sacralization at work and
triangulate our store observation and interview data with the online data (Kozinets, 2002). The aim of our online research was to
D. Dion, S. Borraz / Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 22 (2015) 77–84
identify the way these four heritage stores are staged on websites.
We downloaded web pages where these four locations were mentioned. We also collected the annual reports of the three main
conglomerates in the luxury industry (LVMH, Kiering, and Richmond).
We observed the way companies refer to their heritage stores in these
official documents. We analyzed the documents collected using the
interpretative frames provided by our informants (Schroeder, 2002)
and our theoretical lens. We tried to identify elements that were
consistent and inconsistent and those that we could not understand
from our first analysis (Dion et al., 2014).
We ended the data collection by visiting 37 luxury stores in
Shanghai, located in the city's most important luxury shopping
centers (Hong Kong Plaza and Plaza 66). Our goal was to identify
connections with heritage stores. We wanted to see how heritage
stores are staged in other stores. This new round of data collection,
combined with a fresh literature review, allowed us to propose a
refined theoretical analysis.
3. Results
First, we highlight the characteristics of heritage stores and
their role in the management of heritage brand. Then, we analyze
the sacralization of heritage stores.
3.1. Heritage stores
All our informants spontaneously evoked the importance of
heritage in the luxury industry and all talked about the brands'
historic stores, which we call heritage stores. They explained that
these locations have a specific aura:
“The store on Avenue Montaigne is really an integral part of the
Dior myth because Christian Dior was there. The first fashion
shows were there; everything came from there. You can see the
entire collection there, even the most extravagant pieces. It's a
mythical place… It is as if you were at M. Dior's tomb. So these
stores keep the traces of something that has gone, but more
than that they embody the brand, since you see the full
commercial range there. So I think these shops have a super
special status… for sure.” (Claude, marketing)
Claude describes Dior's heritage store as a mythical location.
She stresses the legendary dimension of the place and the way it
embeds the history and the identity of the brand. The historic
dimension of the store creates a special aura. Similarly, many
brands present their heritage store as a legendary or a mythic
location (online observations).
In Paris, many heritage stores combine history and savoir-faire
which are part of the brand heritage because most are linked to
haute-couture or haute-joaillerie (high-jewelry) workshops. This
proximity with the workshops reinforces the aura of heritage
stores. For instance, the Chanel store on Rue Cambon is located
above the haute-couture workshops directed by Karl Lagerfeld and
Coco Chanel's apartment, so it is at the heart of both the history
and the know-how of the brand. This close relationship is
symbolized in many different ways in the store. At one end, an
imposing staircase allows access to the haute-couture workshops
and Coco Chanel's apartment where she used to sit to observe
what was going on in the store. This emblematic staircase is used
in many commercials and videos. Coco Chanel's portrait hangs at
the end of the hall (field notes). Thus, heritage stores in Paris have
a double dimension that situates them at the heart of the history
and identity of the brand.
The aura of heritage stores is so strong that informants qualify
them as legendary, mythic, and even sacred. For instance, describing Louboutin's heritage store, a Vogue journalist talked about the
79
“Holy of Holies” of the brand [“le coeur du sacré de la marque”].3 In
the next section, we analyze the sacralization process of these
heritage stores in more detail.
3.2. Sacralization of heritage stores
Similarly to sacralization in religious context, the sacred is institutionalized through myths, rituals, and prohibitions (Wunenburger,
1981).
3.2.1. Myths
Myths grow out of the founding narratives transmitted by
members of a society from generation to generation, since time
immemorial (Bell, 1992, 1997). Myths are an attempt to make
sense of our origins, existence, and future. Thus, these narratives
“provide models of human behavior and give meaning and value
to life” (Eliade, 1963, p. 12). Luxury brands create many myths,
more specifically around the places that are at the heart of their
identity and history. We observed several ways in which the
heritage of these locations is enhanced. We also analyzed the
way brands identify key iconic features of their heritage stores that
are diffused in their collections, communications, and other outlets (de Lassus and Anido Freire, 2014). Through this process,
brands mythify their heritage stores.
First, the store is a stage for a brand's heritage and bears the
footprint of the founder. In most heritage stores, we observed portraits
of the founder hung in prominent positions (Fig. 1) and displays of the
founder's possessions. For instance, in the Cartier store on the Rue de
la Paix, a room called “Louis Cartier's office” is decorated with his
personal belongings (field notes). The Cartier store is a recreation of
what the building looked like when Louis Cartier moved there at the
end of the 19th century (Fig. 1). The architects immersed themselves
in the archives of the house to realize the perfect store that Louis
Cartier had dreamed of. Thus, in these heritage stores there is a
willingness to focus on the early stage of the brand. The aura of the
founder pervades the building as if he/she were still there.
Second, brands reinforce the aura of their heritage store by
creating collections and naming products that refer to its location.
For instance, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the brand,
Cartier created “13,” an exclusive collection of watches and jewelry
inspired by the symbolism of the store and referring directly its
address: 13 Rue de la Paix. Some fragrances do the same, like 24
Faubourg by Hermès and Le Dix [10] by Balenciaga. Chaumet
created a collection of 12 sets of fine jewelry referencing the
company's historic address, 12 Place Vendôme:
“This is where the Maison's private mansion and its historic
salons, its museum, its workshop and creative studio are located;
where the Maison's heart and soul resides, ever since its founding
in 1780. (…) Chaumet presents its high-jewelry collection, 12
Vendôme. Twelve jewelry sets, combining French classicism and
modernity, embody the style, the creativity and the jewelry
excellence of 12 Place Vendôme.” (Chaumet website)4
Chaumet presents this collection of 12 exceptional pieces as a
tribute to the heritage store of the brand, which is described as the
brand's heart and the soul. This is staged in the video that presents
the collection.5 It begins with views of Place Vendôme, then we
follow the camera up the grand staircase to the workshops. In the
distance, we can see the Vendôme obelisk through a window. The
video features the skills of the jewelers: production sketches,
3
http://eu.christianlouboutin.com/fr_fr/loubi-world/video.html (accessed 13.02.14.).
http://www.chaumet.com/chaumet-news/biennale-des-antiquairesannouncement
5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3612KTDUY9Q
4
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D. Dion, S. Borraz / Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 22 (2015) 77–84
Fig. 1. Memories of the founder: the Dior heritage store on Avenue Montaigne (left) and the Cartier heritage store on the Rue de la Paix (right).
selection of stones, setting, polishing, etc. It ends with images of
Place Vendôme, accompanied by music by Chopin, who composed
several pieces in the house (online observation). Through these
high-jewelry collection, the brand demonstates its know-how and
the richness of its heritage.
Third, brands diffuse key features of their heritage store in their
collections, communications, and other outlets. For instance, the
Dior gray, that dominates the store on Avenue Montaigne was
created by Christian Dior and has become the brand's iconic color:
“In 1946, when Christian Dior handed the task of decorating his
boutique to Victor Grandpierre, both men were of the same
mind when it came to imagining a décor that was chic, sober
and pure – the perfect foil for the house's future fashion shows.
And gray was the ideal color for this neo-Louis XVI style, as it
would set off Monsieur Dior's strikingly colored couture to
dramatic effect. Gray, for the couturier, was “the most practical
and most elegant of neutral colors.” (…) today, gray's classic
elegance and inimitable chic are to be found on the house's
bags, shoes and make-up palettes. Conceived by the brush of
Tyen, the creative director of Dior Make-Up, gray comes with
names like “chrome”, “chic jean” and “argentic”, making its
way to that final frontier – one's own skin.” (Dior.com)6
This architectural feature of Dior's first store became an iconic
feature of the whole brand. The color is used in Dior's other outlets,
its commercials, and its products. Dior gray is so emblematic that it
has become a specific color on many commercial paint palettes.
People talk about Dior gray in the same way as they talk about Klein
blue, a reference to the painter's famous monochrome canvases.
Other architectural elements of the Avenue Montaigne store are
reproduced in other Dior outlets (Fig. 2). These images of Dior stores
in Shanghai show how the Haussmann style of the heritage store is
reproduced and the use of Dior gray. Inside the store are several
Louis XVI armchairs, again features of the Avenue Montaigne store,
while on the stairs, a video installation by Oyoram dramatizes all
the mythic tales associated with the brand: Paris, Christian Dior,
iconic pieces, the store on Avenue Montaigne, and so on.
In sum, brands stage their heritage stores to reinforce their aura
and therefore their heritage. They identify key iconic features of
their heritage store that they diffuse in their collections, communications and other outlets. In the next section, we will examine
rituals, the second practice of the institutionalization of the sacred.
3.2.2. Rituals
Mauss (1950) defined a ritual as the set of rules that prescribe
how people should behave with sacred things. Rituals go far
6
http://www.dior.com/magazine/en_gb/News/Gray (accessed 15.09.14.).
beyond narratives, in so far as they signify the operationalization
of the sacred. The concept of ritual has been extended to areas
other than the sacrosanct—consumption, in particular—but not so
far as to assimilate the ritual into a routine process. These rituals
are often rites of passage, ensuring smooth transitions, and
establishing status and prestige by allowing us to remember and
belong (Gennep, 1907; Lardelier, 2005). Rituals are conducted in
response to certain situations and the combination of rituals forms
a system (Bonté and Izard, 1991). Two broad categories of ritual
have been defined: large collective celebrations and personal/
interpersonal micro-rituals (Lardelier, 2005). Both these forms
are important in the sacralization of luxury stores.
The haute-couture fashion shows are undoubtedly the most
important collective rituals in the luxury industry and represent a
major symbolic event for the brands (Dion and Arnould, 2011).
Iconic features of heritage stores are often reproduced in fashion
shows. For the 2009 Paris fashion show at the Grand Palais, Chanel
models walked a catwalk with a backdrop of the Rue Cambon shop
front, Chanel's heritage store. The following year, the show was
organized around a giant sculpture of a lion, a reproduction of a
bronze in Coco Chanel's apartment (Fig. 3).
A visit to a heritage store is marked by a series of rituals, which
are more individual and provide a symbolic timeframe. At Chaumet:
“We need to keep the ‘jewel box’ spirit of the Place Vendôme.
Luxury stores should maintain these luxury codes, but these are
almost more intimate than elitist codes. Their status of ‘jewel
box’ stores gives them a magic aura. There are not many people
in these stores. They are fairly quiet stores, there is a little
music and everything … the carpet is super soft. You feel like
you are a nuisance and you're going to tarnish the place.
[Laughs]. You're a little impressed by the windows in which
you have pretty amazing stuff. If you want something, you have
to ask, you need a tray, a pair of gloves… That's the way it is…
You can't walk just anywhere, you have to take care. And then
you feel invaded and overwhelmed by the etiquette, the
chandeliers, they are all flickering. But it's like a museum, you
can't run, you can't talk too loudly, there is a respect in the
presence of works of art.” (Sylvie, marketing)
As Sylvie explains, rituals are important and essential to draw
clients into the magic of luxury in heritage stores.
In sum, both forms of rituals are important in the sacralization
of heritage stores. Collective rituals integrate elements of heritage
store and thus enhance their aura. Individual rituals draw clients
into the magic of luxury. Finally the last element of the sacralization is based on prohibitions within heritage stores that reinforce
the aura of the brand.
D. Dion, S. Borraz / Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 22 (2015) 77–84
81
Fig. 2. Iconic features of Dior's Avenue Montaigne heritage store reproduced at Plaza 66 in Shanghai.
Fig. 3. Iconic features of the Chanel heritage store reproduced at the Paris fashion shows in 2009 (left) and 2010 (right).
3.2.3. Prohibitions
In heritage stores, some areas are not freely accessible to the
public. Customers cannot penetrate the heart of the sacred place, that
is, the haute-couture or high-jewelry workshops. At Chanel, this
prohibition is reinforced by the presence of a guard who monitors
access to the workshops and Coco Chanel's apartment upstairs (field
notes). No doubt there are practical and strategic reasons for this but
more fundamentally this prohibition has a very important symbolic
significance: we cannot have access to sacred places and objects.
Etymologically, sacred means separated, isolated (Laburthe-Tolra and
Warnier, 2003). Durkheim (1915) notes that sacred things are
protected and isolated by several prohibitions. Similarly, in a Catholic
church, we cannot have access to the tabernacle: it is a place reserved
for the servants of God. Prohibitions preserve the magic that
surrounds sacred places (Wunenburger, 1981).
However, some brands open these sacred places under certain
conditions and organize visits. For example, Chanel VIP buyers are
sometimes invited to visit Coco Chanel's apartment. These visits
are part of a ritual staging of the holiness of a place. For instance,
here is an account by Alix in her blog The Cherry blossom girl of her
visit to Coco Chanel's apartment after the release of the Coco
Cocoon collection:7
“Coco Chanel's apartment at 31 Rue Cambon may be very well
guarded but I was granted the amazing privilege of passing
through the front door. This awe-inspiring home is filled with
trinkets, Chinese art, various vintage furniture, a lot of gold, and
even camel statuettes! … The atmosphere was so warm and cozy
that I really felt as if I was in my own home, and could almost
envision myself settling down on the couch (all which did not
happen, of course… That would have been sacrilegious!)”
7
http://www.thecherryblossomgirl.com/chez-coco-chanel/10671/ (accessed
13.02.14.).
Alix reveals her sense of extreme privilege at visiting Coco
Chanel's apartment. She also conveys the sense of sacredness the
place invoked, explaining that it would have been “sacrilegious” to
sit on the couch.
In the same spirit, LVMH opens its workshops to the public on
selected “Journées Particulières” (“special days”). As LVMH explains
on its website, visitors are taken “behind the scenes of the dream”
and given access to the know-how of the brand. It “pays tribute to
those who create excellence and dream.”8 Marc points out that
these special days allow the public to enter “the heart of the magic”:
“LVMH Journées Particulières are important. They are rather
similar to Heritage Days. Visitors are allowed to go behind the
scenes… In fact it is not at all like ‘I will show you what happens
backstage.’ That's what is very interesting in luxury: when you
go backstage, the dream doesn't collapse. It's not like in Disneyland and the Walt Disney Studio, a second park entitled ‘Backstage Magic’ with warehouses, tips, and stuff… And that park
didn't work because people wanted to dream and they were
taken to a place where you do not dream. But here, behind the
scenes, people dream because we take them to the heart of the
magic, to the heart of creation; we show them how the products
are made and where. So obviously they do not see everything
because not everything is staged. We do not show them secrets,
but they really approach the heart. And it's funny, this concept of
‘I will take you backstage,’ because in fact even if it is behind the
scenes, it's even more magical for people because they are where
the creation process takes place. So that's what is interesting
with these Journées Particulières. And speaking of places, I think
it's also as impressive in terms of the luxury experience as a
beautiful shop is.” (Marc, sales and marketing)
8
http://www.dior.com/magazine/fr_fr/News/Les-journees-particulieres
(accessed 08.07.13.).
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D. Dion, S. Borraz / Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 22 (2015) 77–84
Table 1
The sacralization of heritage locations.
Places
Places related to the history of the brand:
brand historic places: founder's home, original store, emblematic store
creation places: workshops, creative desks
Other places where managers can anchor the brand in the myth of the location
Myths
Features embedded in the brand's mythology:
architecture and decoration
events that took place in the location
Identification of the iconic feature of the location and diffusion through the collections and other outlets
Rituals
Staging the heritage store in collective rituals (e.g. fashion shows)
Interpersonal rituals in the store: reminders of the historic/emblematic features of the store in the sales pitches; reminders of the proximity with
workshops
Prohibitions Publicly accessible and restricted spaces
Conditions of accessibility to restricted spaces: for whom, when, and according which rituals
We can draw a parallel between these “special days” and the
Catholic practice of removing relics or statues from their sacred
places and processing them through towns and villages. These
rituals connect secular and public spheres with the sacred. The
Journées Particulières, rather than being the passage of the sacred
through the secular world, represent a profane intrusion into sacred
territory. This meeting of the sacred and profane is accompanied by
its own set of rituals and prohibitions. As emphasized by the name
of the event, this event allows customers to “go behind the scenes
of the dream” and so maintain its sacralization. As Marc explains, it
makes the products more magical.
In sum, prohibitions protect the magic of these locations. By
limiting and organizing the access to the heart of the store, they
reinforce their aura.
4. Discussion
In this analysis, we investigate the concept of the heritage
store. We analyze the characteristics of heritage stores and their
role in the management of heritage brands. We show how
managers sacralize heritage stores to nurture the value proposition of the brand. This analysis of heritage stores gives new
insights into retailing and provides another response to the
legitimacy crisis of luxury goods after the strategic extensions of
luxury brands into mass marketing: the charismatic persona of the
creative director (Dion and Arnould, 2011) and heritage stores are
both specific attributes of luxury goods that can be grown and
managed carefully.
4.1. Heritage stores
We define heritage stores as locations that lie at the heart of a
brand's identity and history. Our findings show that heritage
stores are key in the management of heritage brands. Heritage
stores are different from other places where the history of the
brand is staged, such as flagship stores (Kozinets, 2002) or brand
museums (Hollenbeck et al., 2008) because they are part of the
heritage of the brand.
Our research shows that luxury brands use sacred codes to
sacralize these locations. Similar to sacralization in a religious context,
the sacred is institutionalized through a set of myths, rituals, and
prohibitions. Through these practices, brands embed their heritage
store at the heart of their brand myths and rituals. Our informants
describe the heritage store as the place from which everything
originates, a message confirmed by the brands themselves in a variety
of ways. As LVMH puts it, heritage stores are the epicenter of a brand.
This echoes Eliade (1959) definition of the sacred as an absolute
reference point, an axis mundi, the “center of the world.”
4.2. Managerial contributions to creating sacred places
The sacralization process begins with an analysis of the
heritage locations: original store, emblematic store, or special
places related to the life of the founder (Table 1). For instance,
Dior concentrates on two places: Christian Dior's first store on the
Avenue Montaigne with the haute-couture workstores on the first
floor, and his house in Normandy. However, not all brands have
historical and mythological anchors in a place where they can
embed their heritage and implement a process of sacralization. We
suggest that these brands should seek integration with mythical
places, even if they are not related to brand myths. It is possible to
root the brand in a mythology associated with other places (a
district, city, region or country) or past celebrities. For instance,
Van Cleef & Arpels created a high jewelry collection called “744
Fifth” as “a reminder of Van Cleef & Arpels’ mythical New York
address on Fifth Avenue. As a homage to women's grace and
elegance, they named each piece of the collection after famous
heroines: Isabella, Tess, Eliza….”9 Here, Van Cleef & Arpels builds
on its heritage at two different symbolic levels: the history and
heritage of the location and celebrities from the 1950s.
Once the key places are selected, brand managers can proceed
to a deep analysis to select features that can be embedded in the
mythic storytelling of the brand (Table 1). For instance, Dior took
the Louis XVI armchair, the Haussmannian molding and the gray
from the Avenue Montaigne, and the rose from Christian Dior's
house in Normandy. All have become iconic features of the brand.
Managers can also retrieve secondary features; even though they
are not key features, they can help enrich the myths—for
example, the lion sculpture from Coco Chanel's private apartment. Finally, myths about these sacred places are disseminated
to the other stores and throughout brand communications. The
symbols and main characteristics of the historic Dior store, for
instance, are used on communications about all the other Dior
stores: the Dior gray and the Louis XVI armchair are now
signatures of the brand. This process strengthens the power of
brand myths.
Brand managers have to locate the heritage store in the
collective and interpersonal rituals of the brand. The hautecouture shows are major collective rituals in the luxury industry
and brands frequently refer to the heritage store or other signature
symbols in the staging of these shows, as we saw with Chanel's
9
https://www.richemont.com/annualreport/2010/html/9.html (accessed 03.07.14.).
D. Dion, S. Borraz / Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 22 (2015) 77–84
presentations at the 2009 and 2010 Paris fashion shows. Interpersonal rituals also involve the heritage location. For instance,
salespeople stress the proximity with the creative workshops, and
the emblematic decorative features of the place, etc. In these
heritage stores, they have more opportunities to emphasize the
sale ritual than in other brand outlets.
Finally, it is important to define accessibility to preserve the
mystery that is part of the sacred aura (Table 1). Brand managers
have to specify areas that are inaccessible to public and manage
conditions of access to them: who will be authorized, on what
conditions, at which times or periods, and according to which
ritual.
4.3. Avenues for future research
Future research could explore practices of sacralization in more
detail. This might include investigating how brands can also build
on a place without any symbolic or historical significance. One
example is Prada's current strategy. Each store is designed to be an
epicenter (Prada Epicenter is in fact the name of the stores in New
York and Tokyo) and provides the opportunity to develop a unique
store concept. Since the Prada flagship store opened in New York
in 2001, each outlet is now conceived as a large-scale architectural
project employing star architects. The race for originality, and the
importance of architectural budgets managed by the brand, allows
the realization of increasingly atypical concepts, which are commercially very attractive and become the brand's new sacred
places. Prada has created a pilgrimage circuit across the planet
with four key places: its stores in Milan, Tokyo, New York, and Los
Angeles. Future research could explore this mode of sacralization
and investigate how brands integrate these locations into their
own myths. It would also be interesting to understand how brands
embed the figure of the architect within their mythology.
Our findings analyze the management of heritage stores. Future
research could study how consumers experience these places and
the impact of their experience on luxury consumption. This would
allow us to figure out more clearly the state of liminality that
distances the shopping experience from everyday experiences and
how consumers navigate different layers of ambiguity. Further, the
sacralization process requires consumers to behave in a certain
way in heritage stores; this is visible in customers' behavioral
changes (not running, speaking quietly, respecting forbidden
zones, etc.). In this way, luxury brands exert a form of power over
the client (Cervellon, 2013; Kapferer and Bastien, 2008). Therefore,
future research could study how consumers experience these
constraints and forms of domination. Some retail places create
emotional attachment with their consumers in a variety of ways,
including familiarity, authenticity, homeliness, informality,
behind-the-scenes access, confidentiality, and activities known
only to a small group (Debenedetti et al., 2014; Visconti, 2008).
In luxury stores, we did not notice any feelings of homeliness or
familiarity. In contrast, we noticed the opposite: behind-thescenes access is denied except for extraordinary events, access to
different areas of the store is controlled, and customers change
their behavior when entering the store. Future research could
explore the specific nature of attachment to these places.
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