I have been confronted with many different comments and free opinions regarding people's feelings about luxury. To some people the word luxury is over used, to others it is a hidden desire to obtain what has been placed just outside their perceived reach. I use the words 'perceived reach' as some marketers have a way of placing products in our consciousness that are perceived both within and just out of our reach.

Regardless that people feel that the word luxury is over used in website names, product demonstrations, and marketing ads, so far no one has come up with a term that so captures the essence of a segment. Though terms like bling-bling have captured specific age and segment ranges, they have a tendency to fade as the fad elements change over time. On top of everything, even if people feel the term luxury is overused if they are asked, they all have their "luxury product" list from cars, luxury hotels, destinations, restaurants, chefs, spa experiences, cosmetics, sporting equipment, clothes, and on-and-on.

Luxury transcends a simple definition as it has become a state of mind for people. With the Internet influencing well over 50% of luxury purchases from fact finding to price comparisons and in some cases the actual purchase, people are addressing internal desires under their own terms via the Internet. With respect to gender, it was no surprise that women account for well over 60% of luxury product purchases. Some psychologists may analyze a luxury rentals against an internal question that may be lingering in our heads, "are we good enough," so we buy as a status symbol. I know that the world is made up of many different kinds of people, and yes status does come into play for some and thus the many different elements that the term luxury holds, but I feel that no matter how we slice and dice the decision process, emotion, passion, and desire for knowledge drive us to make decisions.

Luxury is a word and only a word, and when someone does something that makes them feel good, or they buy something that others may perceive as extraordinary, they did it because, well, they could. My favorite responses to why people do things are, "because it was there" for adventures, and "because I could" for everything else. In the living standards, luxury apartments are at the top of the list.

Thus, luxury is emotion, passion, and a thirst for knowledge; it is a state of mind where we feel good about buying a trip, experiencing a spa treatment, learning about new products, going on a trip in search of items for a personal collection, canoing the rapids, and the list does not end. So, when we do something luxurious, we know that we did it because we could.