Understanding luxury in the premium automotive industry

This paper summarises the findings of investigations to date in understanding what luxury and premiumness mean to the high-end automotive consumer. Existing writings on luxury and premiumness are considered. An exploratory study was carried out in two countries using 309 respondents and 18 prestige cars. A "stream of consciousness" approach was used to capture respondent's views on a selection of vehicles. The codified transcripts were used to identify key differences between the top and bottom rated vehicles, in terms of the nature and quantity of emotional responses elicited. This paper describes some of these key product differences that were self-reported to impact upon a luxury response. Finally, suggestions are made as to the next steps required for this research. © 2007 ACM.

Discussion: Widening engineering horizons: Addressing the complexity of sustainable development

The following discussion is from an Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) prestige lecture based on the original paper and delivered by the authors at the ICE in London on 24 September 2008.1 The event was chaired by Engineering Sustainability editorial panel chair, Professor Chris Rogers from Birmingham University. It was attended by an audience of 130 people as well as being watched by a similar number over a live web-cast. The web-cast can be accessed from the ICE archive for online viewing at http://scenta. interwise.com/etechb/ OnDemand/TH6509.