網絡時代消費新趨勢 體驗更奢侈

Until recently, I thought Snapchat was an app used primarily by tweens and teenagers to send each other silly pictures. No longer. This week, I interviewed Frederic Cumenal, chief executive of Tiffany & Co, at a Financial Times luxury summit in San Francisco.

直到不久以前，我還一直認爲Snapchat是一款主要是20幾歲和十幾歲年輕人用來互相發送愚蠢圖片的應用軟件。現在我不再這麼認爲了。上週，我在英國《金融時報》在舊金山主辦的一次奢侈品峯會上採訪了蒂芙尼(Tiffany & Co)首席執行官弗雷德裏克•科莫納爾(Frederic Cumenal)。

During our conversation, Cumenal revealed that Tiffany had recently created a sparkly Snapchat “filter” that communicates the dazzle of a diamond to anyone with a mobile phone. It even allows would-be purchasers to virtually “try on” the rings, without ever needing to go into one of those reverentially hushed Tiffany stores.

在我們談話期間，科莫納爾透露，蒂芙尼最近開發了一款閃閃發光的Snapchat“過濾器”，把鑽石的璀璨光芒傳遞到任何擁有手機的人。它甚至允許潛在購買者虛擬“試戴”戒指，而不需要進入那些安靜得令人惶恐不安的蒂芙尼門店。

Is this a good idea? That is the big question — actually, the $222bn question, if we go by the sector’s annual sales — hanging over the luxury goods world today. One of the reasons companies such as Tiffany are creating Snapchat filters is that they are keen to catch the cyber buzz — and appeal to “millennials”.

這是個好主意嗎？這是個大問題，實際上，是一個價值2220億美元的問題——如果我們根據如今奢侈品行業的年銷售額計算的話。蒂芙尼等公司創建Snapchat過濾器的一個原因在於，它們希望在網上引發熱議，吸引“千禧一代”。

Another factor is that the luxury sector is under pressure to do something — anything — to persuade sceptical investors that it can continue to grow, because, right now, it seems to be at an inflection point. In the decade leading up to the financial crisis of 2007-08, rich consumers in the west gobbled up luxury goods amid the credit boom. Then, when the slowdown hit, cash-rich consumers in places such as China, Russia and Brazil jumped in to provide a new source of demand.

另一個原因是奢侈品行業正面臨壓力，要求他們有所作爲（任何行動），說服持懷疑態度的投資者：該行業能夠繼續壯大，因爲目前它似乎正處於一個拐點。在2007年至2008年全球金融危機之前的10年裏，西方富有消費者在信貸熱潮期間大量買入奢侈品。後來，當經濟放緩出現時，中國、俄羅斯和巴西等國現金充沛的消費者進入市場，帶來新的需求來源。

Now those emerging market countries are in the doldrums, and an anti-corruption drive in China has halted jewellery sales. Meanwhile, demand in Europe remains weak, and even in the US, which is supposed to be recovering, the picture is far from buoyant. Little wonder, then, that the share price of Tiffany (like many luxury goods companies) has tumbled by almost one-third in the past year.

如今，這些新興市場國家正處於低潮，同時中國的反腐運動遏制了珠寶銷售。與此同時，歐洲需求仍然疲弱，甚至在理應處於復甦階段的美國，前景也遠非光明。難怪過去一年蒂芙尼的股價（與很多奢侈品公司一樣）下挫近三分之一。

People such as Cumenal argue that this partly reflects the vagaries of the business cycle. But what is really interesting for sociologists and anthropologists — albeit more worrying for those luxury executives — is that consumer habits in the west could be undergoing an even bigger structural change. In the 20th century, it was taken for granted that when rich people wanted to “enjoy” their wealth and display status, they acquired expensive goods such as houses, cars, art — and diamonds. But according to Sarah Quinlan, a MasterCard executive who analyses vast reams of spending data each month, there has recently been a shift in terms of how wealthy and not-so-wealthy people are spending money.

科莫納爾等人認爲，這在一定程度上反映出商業週期的變幻莫測。但對於社會學家和人類學家而言，真正有趣（不過對於那些奢侈品高管而言這點更令人擔憂）的一點在於，西方的消費習慣可能在經歷更重大的結構性變革。在20世紀，人們想當然地認爲，當富人希望“享受”他們的財富並炫耀其地位時，他們會購買昂貴商品，例如房產、汽車、藝術品和鑽石。但據萬事達(MasterCard)高管、每月分析大量消費數據的薩拉•昆蘭(Sarah Quinlan)稱，富人以及不那麼富有的人士的消費方式近年出現了變化。

These days, overall consumer spending is growing (albeit more among the rich than the poor). This growth is occurring almost entirely in services such as restaurants, hotels, travel and holidays, not just in the middle market but in the luxury sector too. “One thing that comes out of these great recessions is that we like our friends and families again — we prize spending time with them,” Quinlan says. “The majority of [the growth] in spending is going to travel and leisure, not goods.” Or, as a report by Deloitte consultants notes: “All consumers, but especially millennials, value experiences . . . spend by people travelling accounts for 40 per cent of the personal luxury markets.”

如今，整體消費支出在增長（儘管富人消費增幅超過窮人）。這種增長几乎全部出現在餐廳、酒店、旅遊和度假等服務業方面，不僅僅在中檔市場，在高端市場也是如此。“近年的大衰退帶來一個現象，那就是我們再次愛我們的朋友和家人，珍惜與他們一起的時光，”昆蘭表示，“大部分消費（增長）來自旅遊和休閒，而非商品。”或者，正如德勤(Deloitte)諮詢顧問們撰寫的報告所指出的那樣，“所有的消費者，特別是千禧一代，重視體驗……旅遊消費佔個人奢侈品市場的40%。”

According to Quinlan, this shift can be explained by changes in lifestyles and values: today’s millennials often live in cities, not suburbs, so have less physical space in which to store “stuff”; they also prize concepts such as “sustainability” and “community”.

據昆蘭稱，生活方式和價值觀的變化能夠解釋這種變化：如今的千禧一代往往生活在城市，而非郊區，因此沒有那麼多可以存儲“東西”的物理空間；他們還重視“可持續發展”和“社區”等概念。

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I suspect there is another factor too: in the cyber age, physical goods simply do not feel very “exclusive” any more. Think once again about those diamonds. Fifty years ago, a scruffy teenager couldn’t wander into a jewellery store and try on a diamond ring; indeed, 100 years ago, poor people barely knew what the rich were wearing. But the internet has democratised the view: anyone can now “see” luxury goods and buy them online.

我認爲還有一個因素：在網絡時代，實物商品不再讓人感覺非常“專屬”。再想想那些鑽石吧。50年前，一個衣衫不整的年輕人是無法逛珠寶店和試戴鑽石戒指的；的確，100年前，窮人根本不知道富人穿什麼。但互聯網拓寬了每個人的視野：任何人現在都能“親眼見到”奢侈品並在線購買。

What remains more exclusive are “experiences”, precisely because these cannot be commoditised online. One of the most powerful forms of conspicuous consumption today is not the accumulation of goods but the accumulation of memories — and stories. These are precious because they cannot be replicated.

仍然比較專屬的是“體驗”，這恰恰是因爲這些無法在網上商品化。如今，最強有力的炫耀性消費形式之一不是商品的累積，而是回憶（和故事）的累積。它們之所以珍貴是因爲它們無法被複制。

That does not mean that people will stop buying diamonds. But it does mean that luxury goods companies are being advised to mix experiences with goods to create prestige. Don’t just put diamonds on Snapchat; offer rich clients the chance to meet the master craftsman too.

這並不意味着人們不會再購買鑽石。但它確實意味着奢侈品公司正被建議將體驗與商品混合在一起來創建顯赫聲望。不要只是在Snapchat上曬鑽石了；還要向富有客戶提供與手工藝大師見面的機會。

To put it another way, the more that our lives are hijacked by robots and cyber links, the more valuable the individual — human — touch starts to become. It is a striking reminder of just how arbitrary our ideas of “value” — and luxury — really are. And perhaps a reason for cheer.

換句話說，我們的生活被機器人和網絡鏈接操縱得越多，個人（人類）風格也就開始變得越重要。這有力地提醒我們，我們對於“價值”（和奢侈品）的看法實際上是多麼武斷。或許這是一個值得拍手稱快的理由。