Luxury Brands as Employers

The luxury business has seen a substantial and sustainable positive development in recent years. However, with increased demand comes an organizational need for more hands on deck, turning this demand into profitable business. Here lies a particularly difficult task for luxury brands: attracting, employing and managing luxury-compatible high potentials. While managerial research focus has exclusively concentrated on consumers in the past, there is a lack of insight on luxury companies' ideal approach toward recruiting and retaining employees. We want to contribute to this question by identifying the motivators driving people working at luxury companies. Referring to insights on luxury consumer behavior, we identify conspicuousness, uniqueness, association, hedonism and quality as likely drivers for luxury employer attractiveness. Based on our findings, we derive managerial implications for an ideal offering to attract people that are best suited to work in the luxury goods industry.