Whatever did we do before Tasmanian Rain bottled water, captured from the skies overlooking Australia's big southern island, supposedly the purest skies on Earth?

The product is sold for up to $25 per 750-milliliter bottle at high-end hotels. Spokesperson Kelley Blevins of the New York-based company said "We are finding that not only are luxury consumers demanding exquisite packaging and superior quality of the product itself, they also are increasingly intent on acquiring the most helpful ingredients possible for achieving good health," Blevins said.

Even as most American consumers tell pollsters that they are cutting their spending because of high gasoline prices, the London-based Datamonitor research firm estimates that the global luxury market will jump 71 per cent to hit $450 billion by 2012.

"Premiumization" is already well established. No sector, product or industry will escape a premium version this year, says www.trendwatching.com, an Amsterdam-based website.