What makes something luxury?
Exceptional quality, craftsmanship and a sense of exclusivity would be top of most people’s list, as would the premium pricing that often comes with products in this bracket.
There are also ‘quieter’ selling points – such as brand heritage – found only among those with a longstanding history selling to the wealthiest buyers. Here, you might think of a Cartier or an Omega – both founded almost 200 years ago.
All the above are valid ways to describe what makes something ‘luxury’. But in today’s market there’s one feature that increasingly marks out the elite from the everyday: personalisation.
And this is an area where Cookson Industrial is leading the way – especially when it comes to precious metals.
Having It Their Way
As the name suggests, personalisation is about taking a product already pitched at the upper end of the market and making it truly unique to the buyer.
It’s the Savile Row approach to fashion and fast cars and everything in between – except with a practically endless range of options on the rail for customers to choose from.
Those with the means now want to walk through the doors of their favourite luxury brand, choose a product they like and reimagine the design according to their own tastes. It’s a way of elevating an item only available to a select few and then going one step further.
Put simply, it’s the upper end of high end.
Customised Success
For some, personalisation may sound like a poor business strategy.
After all, you can only sell one of these items and it will likely cost more to produce than something in the ‘standard’ range. But far from being a challenge to the bottom line, these bespoke requests are actually a gift for those willing to consider them.
As Oliver Blach writing in the Financial Times points out, customised designs cover both bases: high-end clients leave as the proud owners of something no one else has, while the business secures a premium price without having to redesign a product from scratch. It’s the best of both worlds.
Luxury cars are perhaps the most visible example of this trend, with customised vehicles often seen cruising through the more affluent areas of big cities.
Seven of every 10 new Bentleys, for instance, now leave the company’s showroom sporting at least one bespoke addition. This work is something Cookson Industrial has been closely involved with, having delivered hand-finished 18ct gold key driver touchpoints for the company’s Batur model. You can read more about that here.
Similar changes can also be seen with other auto manufacturers, such as Lamborghini, which recently fitted a walnut panel from a 17th century tree to one of its dashes after a customer noticed the wood stored in a humidity-controlled room for its panelling samples.
This is something of an outlier – but it’s also the type of service wealthy customers now seek out. If there’s a possibility something unique can be made – no matter how challenging to deliver – the most attuned luxury brands will be willing to entertain it.
The Precious Few
So, personalisation presents a great opportunity for those working in luxury but it can also be difficult to deliver what a customer has in mind without access to the right manufacturing knowledge and expertise.
This is especially true when working with precious metals.
They commonly feature in luxury products – either as an adornment or as the base material for an entire product – and when executed well can take a design to the next level. Without the right expertise, however, it can be difficult to achieve the look a customer has in mind, not least if you’re also looking to keep production costs down.
To make the most of the personalisation boom, luxury brands now need the right partners to see a concept through. This means understanding the material properties of different precious metals and how they can be used to achieve a certain aesthetic – even if that means trying something that’s never been done before.
This is where Cookson Industrial comes in.
We have over 15 years’ experience using cutting-edge additive manufacturing techniques to print complex, eye-catching parts using everything from gold, silver and platinum through to more exotic metals, such as palladium and rhodium. We also have a long track record working with these metals using traditional subtractive techniques. And, much like Cartier and Omega, Cookson has an established heritage in its market, having been founded more than 100 years ago.
Put simply we know what luxury looks like.
But it’s not just history that sets us apart. Our manufacturing site is also equipped with its own customised machinery. This allows us to take your CAD drawing – or even rough sketch – from blueprint to reality, minimising risk and securing a much quicker time-to-market, regardless of whether it’s a simple, solid component or a more intricate design relying on complex geometries.
If you’re producing a one-off piece or a series of customised designs with unique finishes for your clients, our team will guide you through the entire process, making it far easier to customise with certainty.