Pimp my Rolls

ENAR

It is a truth universally acknowledged in the luxury goods market since the 2009 recession; people have become blasé about bling, and those who do spend on big name brands are looking for the narrative beyond the label. While customers cough up for coffee from Brazilian rainforests and rugs hand-knitted in Nepal, the canniest luxury brands are letting people build their own stories into high-end products. New figures released by Rolls-Royce in January prove the success of this strategy: last year 56 percent of customers who bought the carmaker’s latest Ghost model worldwide employed their ‘bespoke personalization’ service, a particular form of customization that is far removed from a paint job. In the Middle East, the proportion of Phantom cars sold with bespoke content rose from 75 percent in 2005 to 99 percent last year. These numbers point to a new truth, exemplified by brands like Rolls, that top-drawer customers