Why India’s youngest billionaire does not buy ultra-luxury brands

Nikhil Kamath, 37, is India's youngest billionaire according to Forbes rankings.

Nikhil Kamath, India’s youngest billionaire, has stopped buying ultra-luxury brands. In the latest episode of his podcast 'WTF is with Nikhil Kamath', the co-founder of Zerodha explained that he is put off by marketing strategy of brands like Hermes and Louis Vuitton, which seems to be based upon offending their customers.

Nikhil Kamath, 37, said that ultra-luxury brands make their customers “build a relationship” before they sell a product to them. Ultimately, the consumer has to jump through several hoops before they can get their hands on the product they want, a strategy with which these brands increase the perceived value of their products.

“In the last 3-4 years, I have completely stopped buying from ultra-luxury brands like Hermes and Louis Vuitton because I feel they play you. Their entire marketing strategy seems to be to offend and get some kind of a reaction out of you and then buy from them,” said Kamath on his podcast.

“That is the most offensive thing – you go to a shop where they are marking up a product one is to 1,000 times and then say you can't buy this product until you build a relationship with us or get on a list or all of these hoops that you have to jump through,” he added.

Ultra-luxury brands like Hermes are famous for their exclusivity and limited availability. Customers generally have to purchase several smaller products before they can buy a Hermes handbag.