Users of the popular iPhone are accustomed to turning to their phones to manage every portion of their lives, using it to find driving directions, play games, and even function as a flashlight. So, luxury brand Ralph Lauren decided to meet these consumers where they live, designing a free iPhone app that allows users to scroll through items from their most recent Fashion Week shows and peruse selections from Ralph Lauren’s current collections.
Ralph Lauren, however, is one of the exceptions to the rule. Luxury brands have typically eschewed an online presence, believing that their collections must be experienced in person, perhaps even in the atmosphere of a dedicated retail shop. According to a new study from the NYU Stern School of Business, only a third of luxury brands were selling online just a year ago.
The recession has changed all this, as now two-thirds of luxury brands have some sort of online presence. However, the study found that not all online efforts are created equal. While some brands embrace the full spectrum of smart phone apps, Twitter feeds, and Facebook fan clubs, many luxury brands still struggle with simple e-commerce, noting that cruise and tour brands, along with jewelry marketers were among the least digitally savvy.
The NYU study rated 109 luxury brands across 11 product categories, giving brands ratings from genius, gifted, average, challenged, feeble. What sets apart the best digital performers like Tiffany, Louis Vuitton, Clinique and Porsche from the losers, like Waldorf Astoria, Trump, Faberge, Graff and Bulova, is their willingness to innovate the brand in the digital realm.
With so many online options today, luxury brands need focused consumer research that will help them find the right media and right messages to reach high-spending potential customers where they are browsing.
Unity Marketing Is Launching a New Study to Give Direction on How to Use the Internet to Connect with Luxury Consumers. Sponsors needed for new consumer research to help luxury marketers maximize the power of the Internet to build their brands and grow sales
As luxury retailers navigate the uncharted territory of constructing an online presence in a recessionary world, they face important questions, like:
How often do affluent consumers use the Internet in support of luxury goods and services purchases, what they buy online, how much they spend?
When do they turn to the Internet and why they use it?
What are their favorite luxury websites and what specifically do they value about their favorite websites?
How do affluent luxury shoppers use social media to learn about luxury brands, share information about luxury brands, and connect with people with similar outlooks on luxury brands?
What turns them on and off about using the Internet for luxury purchasing and research?
The primary objective of this research is to give luxury marketers and brands insight into how to use the power of the Internet to connect affluent consumers with luxury brands and encourage them to shop, both online and in stores. The focus of the research study will be luxury goods and services including luxuries for the home, fashion and apparel, jewelry and watches, and luxury experiences such as travel, dining and beauty/spa services.
The results of this study will deliver to sponsors new insights into the Internet shopping habits of the luxury consumers (i.e. those with incomes of $100,000 or more). Further, the results of the survey will be analyzed into three key income segments:
- Comfortable Affluents, incomes $100,000-$149,999
- Super-Affluents, incomes $150,000-$249,999
- Ultra-Affluents, incomes $250,000 and above.
About Pam Danziger and Unity Marketing: Pamela N. Danziger is an internationally recognized expert specializing in consumer insights, especially for marketers and retailers that sell luxury goods and experiences to the masses as well as the 'classes.' She is president of Unity Marketing, a marketing consulting firm she founded in 1992.
Advising such clients as PPR, Diageo, Waterford-Wedgwood, Google, Lenox, Swarovski, GM, Orient-Express Hotels, Italian Trade Commission, Marie Claire magazine, The World Gold Council, and The Conference Board, Pam taps consumer psychology to help clients navigate the changing consumer marketplace.
Her latest book is Shopping: Why We Love It and How Retailers Can Create the Ultimate Customer Experience (Kaplan, $27). Her other books include Let Them Eat Cake: Marketing Luxury to the Masses-as well as the Classes, (Dearborn Trade Publishing, $27, hardcover) and Why People Buy Things They Don't Need: Understanding and Predicting Consumer Behavior (Chicago: Dearborn Trade Publishing, 2004).
She has appeared on CNN's In the Money, NBC's Today Show, CNBC, CNN International, CNNfn, CBS News Sunday Morning, Fox News' Your World with Neil Cavuto, ABC News Now, NPR's Marketplace and is frequently called upon by the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, American Demographics, Women's Wear Daily, Forbes, USA Today, Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune for commentary and insight.
For more information contact pam@unitymarketingonline.com