Before understanding the marketing strategies of luxury goods, let us first understand what can be considered as luxury goods.
Luxury goods are defined as items that enhance the quality of life and improve a person’s taste. Internationally, some consumer goods that are rare, unique, and scarce are generally defined as luxury goods. In many cases, they exceed the actual needs of people for survival and development and become non-necessities of life.
Characteristics of luxury goods:
(1) Very expensive. In many cases, high quality is associated with high prices, and the unique quality of luxury goods is reflected through expensive prices. Many luxury goods today are pursuing a superior product image, which makes the owner feel that he has very high taste and can always attract the envy of others;
(2) The quality is excellent. The design of luxury goods is very classic and the materials used are very sophisticated. The excellent quality is achieved through careful creation and extraordinary craftsmanship.
(3) Scarcity. As the old saying goes, “what you can’t get is always the best.” The scarcity of luxury goods highlights their noble characteristics. Many of them are produced in limited quantities, which means that only a few people can own them. And this idea has become so firmly entrenched in the minds of consumers that luxury goods make their owners very special;
(4) Possessing unique personality. Luxury goods have their own brand personality or exclusivity. They regard this characteristic as a supreme honor and are still constantly establishing their own personalized flag and striving to pursue a higher brand realm. For example, in the automobile industry, "Ferrari" pursues speed and sports beauty; "Mercedes-Benz" pursues top quality;
Luxury goods marketing strategy:
1. Focus on public relations and build reputation
The marketing of luxury goods follows the principle of public relations first and advertising second. We know that high-density advertising alone cannot create a luxury brand in a short period of time. Luxury goods rely more on word of mouth, and word of mouth communication is achieved through public relations.
For example, holding a launch reception, a client party, or adopting business marketing, allowing word-of-mouth, a highly credible publicity strategy, to become a lubricant and booster for luxury brand marketing. For example, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has made extensive use of public relations methods in mainland China and Hong Kong to establish good publicity effects and brand image at a relatively low cost. This promotion model has further consolidated the luxury consumer circle and has been proven to be an effective marketing method.
2. Luxury goods marketing
For luxury goods, show marketing means creating appropriate topics and spreading them widely, then packaging the products and placing them in stores waiting for consumers to come. Before consumers enter the store, text and picture information about the product have formed an army and have taken turns to attack the consumer's world. The information bombardment from the media and marketing publicity has created a desirable image for the famous brands in advance.
Advertisements make people aware of famous brands and define their image, but today's consumers are not blindly obedient and suspicious. They are more willing to listen to the opinions of fashion magazine editors.
3. Publicize and promote top brand users
For luxury brands with a long history, users with noble social status and influence of the times, such as royal aristocrats, famous politicians, and writers, may have simply liked the brand's products at the beginning, but they also inadvertently created the added value of these brands.
Today, they have also become brand ambassadors that influence more consumers. Most luxury brands use effective methods to promote their top customer base, which undoubtedly has a stronger appeal to consumers.
Let’s take a look at how Montblanc promotes its top users. Montblanc sponsors a number of cultural, artistic and music projects, leveraging the power of cultural celebrities to expand the influence of its products among a wide audience.
Montblanc established the Montblanc Cultural Foundation in 1992, which awards the Montblanc International Art Patronage Award every year to those who have made outstanding contributions to culture and art. The winner can also receive a pure gold limited edition fountain pen from the Art Patronage series specially customized by Montblanc for the winner that year. Montblanc's sponsorship activities have turned these award winners into ambassadors of their own brand. People no longer see a simple brand, but a more vivid and flesh-and-blood image.
4. Value positioning of luxury marketing
In luxury marketing activities, value positioning is undoubtedly the most important. Please note that the value mentioned here is not the price in the popular sense. Value is the sense of superiority, happiness, and comfort that consumers can actually feel; price is just an external manifestation of value. However, talking about price alone cannot reflect the true value.
According to a survey, there are obvious differences between Easterners and Westerners in the consumption of luxury goods. Western luxury consumers, represented by European and American countries, are mainly concentrated in the middle class between the ages of 40 and 60, while Eastern luxury consumers, represented by China and Japan, are mainly new aristocrats around 30 years old.
The international average level of luxury consumption is 4% of total personal income, while in China, it can reach 50-60%. From the perspective of the entire luxury market, medium-sized luxury consumption is the real mainstream. In the general consumer goods market, the sales strategy of each independent brand is centered on its unique consumer proposition.
This is the end of the introduction to luxury marketing strategies in this issue. If you want to get more information about luxury marketing strategies, please pay attention and we will continue to answer you~
