Designer Condos Have Run Out Of Runway
Brands have over exposed themselves from coffee to condos
When Designer Condos Run Out of Runway
Bentley builds condos. Porsche builds condos. Mercedes builds condos. Ralph Lauren sells coffee. Apparently, nobody is satisfied doing what made them famous.
Are these luxury brands losing their minds? Porsche built sports cars. Bentley built magnificent automobiles. Aston Martin made beautiful machines for James Bond. Mercedes-Benz engineered some of the world's finest sedans. Ralph Lauren sold the American dream, one navy blazer at a time.
Today? Everybody wants to sell you a condominium, a cappuccino or preferably both.
Welcome to the great luxury brand land grab, where a famous logo apparently qualifies you to do absolutely anything.
South Florida has become ground zero for this expensive exercise in brand extension and frankly, its a little gross.
Porsche Design Tower in Sunny Isles Beach introduced the wonderfully absurd concept of an automobile elevator that transports your car directly to your apartment. Because nothing says sophisticated living quite like having your Lamborghini parked next to your dining room.
Aston Martin Residences in downtown Miami took the concept further, wrapping its automotive identity around a dramatic waterfront tower. Beautiful building? Absolutely. But does an Aston Martin badge make the kitchen cook better or the view more spectacular?
Apparently, according to the marketing department.
Then there's Bentley Residences in Sunny Isles Beach, promising the kind of automotive-inspired luxury that supposedly makes living in a condominium feel like occupying the back seat of a Continental GT. Private garages, car elevators, extravagant finishes and enough branding to make a Bentley dealership look understated.
Not to be outdone, Mercedes-Benz Places arrived in Miami's Brickell neighborhood. Because when you've spent more than a century perfecting automobiles, the next logical step is selling kitchens, bedrooms and swimming pools.
What comes next? Ferrari funeral homes? Lamborghini assisted living? Rolls-Royce dental clinics?
And the fashion houses are just as guilty.
Armani, Fendi, Missoni, Dolce & Gabbana and Diesel have all entered the residential branding business. Suddenly, a fashion label that once appeared inside a jacket is now stretched across the entrance of a 60-story building.
The formula is wonderfully simple: find a developer, license the name, approve some interior finishes, throw a lavish launch party and charge a premium for the privilege of living inside a marketing campaign. The developers sell the square footage. The brands sell the fantasy. The buyers pay for both.
And while we're discussing brand dilution, let's talk about coffee.
Ralph Lauren sells coffee. Coach sells coffee.
Ralph's Coffee has become a recognizable extension of the Ralph Lauren lifestyle. Coach has experimented with café concepts of its own. Apparently, selling expensive sweaters and handbags isn't enough anymore. Now we need a branded cappuccino to complete the experience.
I admire Ralph Lauren enormously. He created one of the most compelling lifestyle brands in American history. But when every luxury company starts pouring espresso, opening hotels, designing residences and licensing its name to anything with a profit margin, perhaps we've confused lifestyle marketing with corporate attention deficit disorder.
The real question is whether consumers are finally getting tired of it.
Luxury should be defined by craftsmanship, rarity, discretion and genuine distinction. Today, it increasingly seems defined by how many unrelated products can carry the same logo.
Just ask yourself, am I buying an exceptional residence, or am I paying millions to become a permanent billboard for somebody else's brand?
Because when every building is branded, branding stops being special. And when exclusivity becomes available on every corner, it isn't exclusivity anymore.
It's merchandising.
The luxury industry hasn't merely jumped the shark, it's starting to sink the ship.
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