The global premium and luxury car industry was worth €319 billion in 2013. As Audi, BMW and Mercedes compete for market share, can Mercedes' Predictive User Experience – which accurately predicts the driver’s behaviour and adjusts to their preferences – put it on top?

No sugar, no milk, no laptop, no babies – The Barn in Berlin is a coffee shop only for connoisseurs. As terms like ‘artisan’ become diluted, discerning foodies are flocking to specialist producers whose pride and expertise borders on arrogance.

Opening a luxury department store in Germany's poorest town might not seem like a good idea. But Görlitz is on the border - a short trip for big spenders in neighboring Poland and the Czech Republic, where high net-worth individuals account for 4% of the population.

What is luxury? How does strategy in the luxury sector work? And what can it teach other brands? Marco Bevolo, one of the authors ofPremium by Design: how to understand, design and market high end products, provides a vision of the business of prestige, desire and seduction.