Presented by Pam Danziger
President of Unity Marketing
and Par Excellence Magazine
Advisory Board Member
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 & Gucci, Diageo, Waterford-Wedgwood, Google, 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.
Follow Pam on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/PamDanziger
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. Unity Marketing's new trend report The Luxury Consumers and What They Value Most will help.
The luxury watch brand understands the importance of family to affluent consumers and uses it to connect with potential customers in its "Generations" campaign
A little boy sits deep in concentration, working through a thorny homework problem. His father sits with him, mirroring his position of deep thought, a Patek Philippe time piece evident on his wrist. The tag line accompanying this installment of the "Generations" advertising campaign by photographer Peter Lindberg reads, "You never actually own a Patek Philippe. You merely look after it for the next generation."
With this campaign originally launched in 1996, Patek Philippe has tapped into the values most prized by the affluent consumer. According to Luxury Consumers & What They Value Most, the new trend report from Unity Marketing, some 90 percent of affluent consumers say "caring for and supporting the needs of my family" is extremely or very important, making this the top-ranked among 21 lifestyle values included in the survey. Additionally, "keeping family needs first" was prioritized highly by 83 percent of affluent consumers surveyed.
Virtual gift cards combine two hot gifting trends into an easy-to-choose and give gift item
Applebee's Neighborhood Grill & Bar has become a trendsetter in the business of gift marketing. Applebee's joins Amazon.com and Nordstrom.com as one of the first to offer its customers virtual gift cards, the online equivalent of the plastic version gaining traction in the gift market. With this move, the mid-priced family restaurant capitalizes on two important trends: the increase in interest in gift cards as the go-to gift, and the growth in number of consumers who do their gift shopping online.
Applebee's Digital Gift Cards, the newest offering from the restaurant chain, have no fees, never expire, and are honored at all of the restaurant's locations. They are available online at Applebees.com and on the company's Facebook Fan Page.
Sparking interest in personalized greetings an opportunity for greeting card marketers
What is a greeting card marketer to do about the Millennials? These youngest consumers, in their early twenties and younger, show little interest in the traditional custom of sending Christmas cards. According to research by Unity Marketing in Greeting Card, Stationery, Gift Wrap and Party Goods and Paper Gifting Market Report (based upon a recent survey conducted among 1,436 customers), this youngest age group is the least likely to send holiday greeting cards.
Further the greeting card market skews strongly toward a more mature customer, as one's likelihood to send Christmas greetings goes up with age. To assure a vibrant future for their Christmas card lines, greeting card marketers must capture the interest of the youthful market in order to stay competitive.
While the Wall Street Journal announced 'Gleam Returns to Luxury Sales,' many of the nation's affluent consumers see mostly gloom ahead, reports Unity Marketing
In continuing signs of struggles among the luxury consumer market -- the 'heavy lifters' in the overall retail economy -- Unity Marketing's exclusive Luxury Consumption Index (LCI) retreated in October 2010, dropping 6.2 points to 72.1 points. According to the latest survey of luxury consumer confidence among 1,364 affluent luxury consumers (avg. income $298.3k; net wealth $7.3 million; 46.3 yrs; male 47 percent; female 53 percent). These results have important implications for marketers and retailers preparing for the 2010 holiday season.
Luxury consumersstarted 2010 with a feeling of optimism that the worst of the economic turmoil was over. But through the course of the year, reality hasn't lived up to those expectations, so we have seen a retreat of the LCI throughout the year," says Pam Danziger, president of Unity Marketing and author of the upcoming book, Putting the Luxe Back in Luxury. "Lower levels of affluent consumer confidence are playing out in terms of reduced of spending on luxuries. In the third quarter, affluent consumers spent 1.4 percent less on luxuries than they did in the second quarter, with declines seen in expenditures in most of the 22 categories of luxury goods and services included in the survey.
