PRS IN VIVO Grows Luxury Unit in Pursuit of Happiness

Shopper and product experience specialist PRS IN VIVO has expanded its global Luxury Practice, and added the concept of 'Happiness Science' to its behavioral science offering.

PRS IN VIVO was created in January 2016 by a merger, after acquisition by the BVA Group. Its Luxury Practice helps luxury brands and retailers in fashion, jewellery, cosmetics, fragrances and spirits to drive customer loyalty and sustain brand growth. The Practice is now led by Paris-based SVP Anne-Laure de Broissia (pictured right), a 16-year veteran of the company; and Deputy Head Caroline Egal (left), who worked previously in media research at Kantar Millward Brown and Ipsos.

The Practice serves clients in Europe, the US and Asia via local teams based in Paris and New York, with Singapore to follow soon, and the company says it will make further announcements about senior hires in the near future. It combines such techniques as biometrics and video-based observation with a behavioral framework, and expertise in what it calls Happiness Science, to evaluate customer product and retail experiences across channels from retail design and packaging to on-line shopping. This starts with identifying factors in the Customer Experience that lead to Happiness, which the firm says is the emotional state 'most conducive to building brand loyalty'.

de Broissia comments: 'Luxury brands must create a highly emotional connection with customers in order to influence their behavior. Luxury customers don't just settle for being 'satisfied', and traditional customer satisfaction metrics fall short of capturing the end-goal of a luxury experience around Happiness. We have learned that creating memorable moments that literally evoke Happiness is key to driving long term loyalty. While Behavioral Sciences is a pre-requisite to actually being client centric, Happiness Science is a way to reconcile the need for measurement tools & the luxury core mission'.

Web site: www.prs-invivo.com/luxury .