As uncertainty spreads across the luxury market amid the impact of conditions in the Middle East, this article examines brand strategies that seek to balance practicality and a sense of exclusivity, drawing on a book published by Kyoto University Professor Sakade Ken (坂出 健) in April 2026.
This article examines *A Business History of Luxury and Desire: Why Do You Still Go to Starbucks Today?*, published in April 2026 by Sakade Ken (坂出 健), a professor at the Faculty of Economics, Kyoto University, and organizes the current challenges facing luxury brands and approaches to value design. With the market outlook clouded by conditions in the Middle East and rising prices, it points to the existence of brands that maintain scarcity through logic other than simply expanding sales or improving efficiency.
Professor Sakade explains that companies should reconsider the value they provide by contrasting the Starbucks-style value placed on self-expression and the value of the experience with the Doutor-style value placed on affordability and accessibility. Rather than seeking market spillover effects, he also proposes a strategy that combines both elements as a third path.
The article presents a range of strategies in the luxury market, noting that brands such as Hermès continue to follow a logic that prioritizes maintaining scarcity and a sense of exclusivity over expanding their scale. From the perspective of business history, the author discusses how consumer desire should be understood and how brand value should be built.
The author’s profile is repeated in several places, but the article focuses on the book discussed above, its implications, and approaches to value design in the current market environment.