Inside the World of Glamour Marketing

For many, the word glamour evokes mental images straight from a 1940s Hollywood film: bright lights, chiseled good looks and happy endings promising success and fulfillment. Screen and television legend Loretta Young, a product of that bygone Hollywood era, once said, “Glamour is something you can’t bear to be without once you’re used to it.” But as many of us who aren’t all that used to it can attest, glamour—both old and new—has a pull that few can resist. And many travel, clothing and luxury goods companies are hoping to leverage that glamorous ideal through strategically designed advertisements and customer experiences. Yet few will succeed. Why? Glamour is illusory by nature, products become commoditized or the magic is spoiled by the wrong touch.

The idea of glamour harks back to old Scotland; popularized by the writings of Sir Walter Scott, glamour was considered part and parcel of witchcraft, akin to a magic spell. Today’s usage remains loosely tied to that historical notion of enchantment. But most agree that glamour is something that fascinates us with a combination of timeless elegance and mystery.

“Glamour is an imaginative experience—an illusion, if you will—that’s known to be false but held to be true,” says Virginia Postrel, an author and columnist who is tackling the concept of glamour in a soon-to-be published book as well as on her popular blog, DeepGlamour.net. “It can involve a person, a setting, an artifact. Occasionally, it may even involve a concept like democracy or education. The word glamour can and is used to describe a great deal of things. But the real trick to projecting glamour is to make someone or something embody the promise of escape and transformation.”

Stephen Gundle, author of Glamour: A History, takes the idea a bit further: While glamour should promise transformation, its very definition means that it doesn’t always have to deliver. “Glamour has to be imitable and accessible at some level,” he says. “But it must also appear exclusive.”

Trying to create products and experiences that master this ideal, where “illusion meets imagination,” as Postrel describes it, is a tall order—yet glamour has been a key ingredient in both design and marketing campaigns for decades. Michael Solomon, a marketing professor who researches consumer behavior and the “meanings” of products, refers to glamour as the “movie in our heads,” or a projection of the lifestyle we wish we had.

“Glamour is a theme that has been compelling people for a long time. It’s really one of the highest forms of aspirational marketing,” he says. “How we define glamour and who epitomizes glamour changes from year to year—sometimes, I think, even from week to week. But what remains is that ‘movie in our heads,’ the basic idea of a promised life that always remains just out of reach.”

Glamour and Air Travel

In 1956, Life magazine dedicated an entire issue to the glamour and possibility of the “Air Age.” But as any frequent flyer can tell you, it’s hard to imagine anything less glamorous than air travel today. The industry built on heroic pilots, stylish flight attendants and affluent adventurers has been eclipsed by post-9/11 airports, budget fares and sardine-like seats. And Postrel says that because air travel is now so commonplace, the glamour Life described has been all but extinguished. Customers can still find more than a hint of glamour in first and business class—as well as in traveling by private jet. And that “velvet rope” aspect, Solomon says, is part of why it remains.

“It’s like the trendy nightclub with the bouncer. If they didn’t have that velvet rope, people wouldn’t try so hard to get in,” he says. “That’s the paradox of glamour: creating the desire to do something by not letting you do it. And airlines are leveraging that by putting a lot of resources in the front part of the plane for first- and business-class customers.”

Two commercial airlines known for offering old-world glamour in today’s market are Virgin Airways and Emirates Airline.

Adam Wells, the former founding design director of Virgin America and now the head of design for Virgin Galactic, admits that glamour remains a lofty ambition in commercial aviation—but focusing on the customer experience and going above and beyond expectations is key to Virgin’s success. He points out that glamour also has an important aesthetic component.

“Our leathers are soft and rich, our plastics clean and bright, our uniforms contemporary and stylish,” he says. “Details matter—whether it’s a double-stitched seam in furniture upholstery, mood lighting or concealing seat mechanisms to add refinement.”

Terry Daly, Emirates’ senior vice president of service delivery, says that continuity is also important to the feeling of glamour—in terms of company goals and ideals, personnel training and customer experiences. If that continuity is not in place, the illusion of glamour is broken and the whole flight experience is diminished. He places a very high premium on service, at every step of a journey, as part of that. “It’s not one aspect of our service or our flights that makes it glamorous, though each is important—it’s all those parts tied together,” he says. “It’s about quality, generosity, style and flair. It’s about providing outstanding service from the moment you step out of your home until the moment you reach your destination. And if even just one piece of that is missing, the rest doesn’t work.”

Clearly, not all airlines have been successful in restoring glamour to their flights, and with the exception of a handful, initiatives have been limited to premium classes. But as Postrel notes, glamour by definition cannot be pervasive or common.

Does Glamour Equal Luxury?

While popular culture lauds luxury goods like Louis Vuitton handbags, Cristal Champagne and first-class travel, Postrel says it’s a mistake to equate luxury with glamour.

“Luxury can be glamorous,” she says. “But luxury, in and of itself, does not have the one thing that is necessary to glamour—that element of mystery.”

Debbie Millman, president of Sterling Brands, agrees. “Luxury is mostly defined by price. And there are a lot of luxurious brands out there that are expensive but also a bit cheesy,” she says. “Let’s face it, luxury can be ostentatious. But glamour, which, in my mind, is an attitude built from the right mixture of elegance and smarts, is never ostentatious.”

Unfortunately, it’s hard to pin down specific sensory cues or images that evoke glamour, says Gundle. “Red and gold are commonly used, as well as blue and glittering effects,” he says. “But glamour has to have that mysterious element and leave something to the imagination.” And often, says Millman, by trying too hard to capture glamour in products or marketing campaigns, companies miss the mark altogether.

“You’re looking for a timeless elegance that has a bit of swank to it,” she says. “It’s an understated thing, more humble than showy. And too many companies go in the opposite direction when trying to portray glamour and lose it altogether.”

Leveraging Glamour in Marketing

So how can today’s companies use this modern witchcraft to their advantage and put some substance behind the illusion? To start, says Postrel, by taking the time to understand their customers and their goals.

“The illusory is quite compelling—because it’s the customer who supplies the missing content from the experience,” says Postrel. “You have a sense of how you would feel in this experience and may add in more than is actually there. That’s why it’s so emotionally compelling—you can put yourself into that situation and imagine the transformation.”

That means that glamour needs the right spokesperson, the right experience and, by extension, the right advertising campaign. And all of these, ideally, should be driven by the customer. Solomon suggests that companies use creative research programs to get a clear view of those “movies in our heads.”

“The fun is in the hunt—not the prize,” says Solomon. “So to stay on top of things, companies need to understand just who and what is considered glamorous in today’s cultural landscape. And they need to understand that glamour is always changing; it’s a moving target. What glamour is today is going to change within a year or two, maybe even sooner, depending on the consumer, the culture and the product.”

Companies will surely continue to aspire to glamorous branding, but whether many—particularly airlines—will be successful in this fluid landscape remains to be seen.

Glamour, Then and Now

Almost 60 years ago, Life magazine devoted an entire issue to the glamour of the “Air Age.” Here’s a quick look at the concept of glamour, then and now, proving that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Kayt Sukel is, among other things, an award-winning travel writer and the author of Dirty Minds: How Our Brains Influence Love, Sex, and Relationships.