The essence of lifestyle branding is to align what your customer values with your brand values
New trend report presents the lifestyle values of today's luxury consumers -- what matters most to them and how marketers can use insight into luxury consumer values as a platform to build deeper connections with their target customer
VALUE -- It's luxury's new 'black.' Value is what everyone wants, but few understand exactly how to deliver. Is it cheaper price, higher quality? Is it better customer service, more social media, new loyalty program rewards? Each luxury brand manager asking these questions will arrive at different answers, but the place to start is through a deep understanding of their customers and what they value most.
Today's luxury consumers will be loyal to the brand name that speak to their unique lifestyle. What do they hold dear? What is truly important to them? Marketers must put in the effort to find out this information about the target customers, then bring the answers back and plug them into the company, the brand, its marketing communications, website and social media strategies.
This is the process of luxury lifestyle branding. Today, it is no longer enough to know simply the age, gender, income of who your customers are (i.e. demographics) and target those segments in general. Rather, you must understand the customers' values and priorities in order to understand their unique consumer psychology (i.e. "why people buy"). Then, you must use these insights into consumer values to build a connection through marketing and branding messages.
Senior lecturer, Paurav Shukla, at Brighton Business School, University of Brighton, puts it like this,
"Therefore, managers will have to change their core message and value proposition to reflect the market conditions and consumer motivations. The question which managers need to ask is what is the value proposition in the present circumstances most of my customers are looking for and how can I develop and convey a message which reflects consumers' reality rather than the brand's own reality."
In a Luxury Consumer Tracking Study conducted by Unity Marketing, we asked 1,364 affluent (HHI average $298,300), luxury consumers (i.e. who bought one or more of the 22 luxury goods and services included in the tracking study) about what they value most in their lives and in their lifestyle. We examined the individuals' personal lives and lifestyle, not just their behavior when they shop and when they buy.
Our research goal: To help luxury marketers get closer to understanding their customers‚ world in all its many dimensions, including the importance of family, health, career, politics, which ultimately influence them in their purchasing behavior.
We looked at the corporate values affluents expect companies with which they do business to exhibit, whether it be ethical behavior, environmental consciousness, how it treats employees, and others.
Finally, we prioritized affluent consumer
- Excitement
- Security
- Financial security
- Warm relations with others
- Self fulfillment
- Sense of accomplishment
- Being well respected
- Sense of belonging
- Fun and enjoyment in life
The resulting trend report gives luxury brand marketers and managers an in-depth look at the lifestyle values and priorities that are of utmost importance to their customers and target customers. It gives marketers greater dimension of understanding than possible by examining their customers‚ purchase behavior alone.
Do you agree? or do you differ?
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