What is a legacy? "What I can say today is twenty years from now, I'm quite convinced that people will still drink Dom Pérignon." - Bernard Arnault, Chairman and CEO of LVMH. A legacy is something's long-lasting impact. This quote from Pauline Brown's book Aesthetic Intelligence speaks on the ability to look decades ahead with confidence.
A luxury strategy and future-minded planning make luxury brands rightfully obsessed with the concept of a legacy - creating, growing, and preserving it. A legacy is a story that stands the test of time. From the will to shape what it means to be of lasting quality, we weave a path into the future.
When is the right time to start thinking about your legacy?
Well, today. Growing a legendary brand starts with envisioning and describing it. The Language of Luxury is a remarkable resource to help you articulate ideas of luxury, including your legacy. Over time, every action can hold a special place in the long winding story that becomes history. The sooner you consider how and for what you want to be remembered, it sets you on a journey to ask, what have you done to ensure that you'll be remembered at all?
Here are five intentional ways to build your legacy today.
Start an Archive
An archive, a collection of designs, documents, items, or records, can give you incredible inspiration while also serving as a historical record. What's in your particular archive should be personal to your brand. Start to gather and preserve mementos of importance, snapshots of the moments and events that made you, you - at least thus far.
Write Your Biography
Start drafting a written account of important events, milestones, and achievements in the order they happened. Brands often reflect the world they exist in, so include major world events to offer context. As the world changes, it can be challenging to understand why something is so important or innovative.
Don't forget the people who shaped your brand, either. Provide information about a place of importance, the institution itself, or intimate details about the group of people who defined the brand. This biography of sorts can hold incredible significance to the future and your portrayal when others look back.
Create (and Uphold) Traditions
A luxury brand is a keeper of tradition. Creating and intentionally marking important moments will give the brand's constantly evolving history direction and continuity.
"The idea is not to live forever, but to create something that will." - Andy Warhol.
Anniversaries are an easy place to start. The date and the way to honor it can last after you take leave or pass on. These traditions will become larger-than-life, joining you with those who came before and those who will come after.
Create a Signature
Legends don't just survive. They flourish over time. So allow for things to later be interpreted differently. Create a legacy that others, maybe even the next generation, can take to a level beyond your imagination.
Craft a visual code of symbols or signatures. These distinctive marks, patterns, designs, or products will make it easy for someone to identify the brand and its work. It also leaves space for future creatives to innovate without breaking the convention on what emblematically defines the brand.
Find an Heir to Your Legacy
"What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others." - Pericles
Find someone that will receive and can reinterpret your vision as their own, an heir or a protégé. From a drive that transcends time and a will to shape what it means to be of lasting quality, we weave a path into the future. A legacy is not just leaving something for people but leaving something in people.
If you are looking for ways to introduce ideas on legacy and other luxury concepts into your business strategy, get the Language of Luxury in your inbox today.
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