Luxury Marketers and Retailers - Will You Recognize Your Post-Recession Affluent Customer?

Specifically, the research goals of this study are to:

Understand what luxury means to affluent shoppers today and whether their concept of luxury has changed since the recession began;

Explore consumers' perception of their favorite luxury brands and whether they are trading down to less expensive brands;

Define what 'value' means in the consumers' shopping psychology and how affluents interpret 'value' when considering a particular purchase;

Understand how sale prices and discounts influence luxury consumers in purchases of both luxury goods and services;

Learn how the recession is changing these luxury consumers' lifestyles;

Compare luxury consumers' overall attitudes about their luxury lifestyles today with how they felt in 2007, prior to the recession and economic crisis;

Identify the personalities that make up the current luxury market; and

What the changes in luxury consumers' attitudes and motivations mean for the future of the luxury market.

Being forewarned is forearmed -- This study gives marketers data and insights they can use to plan for the future

The past two years have been a period of dramatic change in the consumer economy overall.  High unemployment, decline in the housing market, and the global recession have hit consumers at all income levels, but uniquely in this current market it has caused dislocation and distress among the affluent consumers, defined as those with incomes corresponding to the top 20 percent of U.S. households with average income of about $200,000.

In times of dramatic changes like these, many analysts look to the past and what happened in other recessions to help predict the future.  But the fact is no previous recession has been anything like this one, so past behavior can't predict the future.

Unity Marketing has a proven history of helping marketers prepare for upcoming change in the luxury marketplace.  Unity Marketing predicted the downturn coming in the luxury market starting in the middle of 2007.   That was long before the luxury retailers started to measure the effects of recession in reduced customer receipts.  Retailers didn't discover the downturn until one-to-two quarters later (4Q2007), and it took even longer for marketers to feel the effects, roughly another quarter or more after retailers started to cut back on their orders (mid-2008).  Unity Marketing gave its clients early warning of troubles brewing so they have plenty of advance warning to take steps to cushion the blow.

Click on this link to learn more about the report,or call Pam Danziger at 717-336-1600 to discuss your specific research needs.

 

About  Pam Danziger and Unity Marketing