New Research Study Will Answer Your Most Pressing Questions About How To Use The Internet And Social Media To Connect With Your Target Luxury Customer And Build Your Luxury Brand

Perhaps the rising power of social media to connect with luxury consumers was best expressed by Dolce & Gabbana in who they invited to sit in the first row at thedesigners'runway show in Milan last month. The heads of luxury retailing giants Neiman Marcus and Saks 5th Avenue were ousted from their front row seats byInternet bloggers Scott Schuman from Sartorialist, Garance Dore and Bryan Boy, according toWoman's Wear Daily.

Clearly Dolce & Gabbana believe that the bloggers have more influence on their target customers than the retailers do.  In other words, the designers are betting that it is better for the brand to have an outfit featured in a blog post with the potential to reach millions of eyeballs worldwide than in a department store window that will be seen by mere thousands.

How can luxury marketers maximize the potential in social media?

It is not enough any longer for luxury brands to build websites. Today they face a dizzying array of other digital media options.   For example, which of the top social networking sites -- Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Flickr and YouTube -- are best for the luxury marketer, or is an equal level of committment required for all five?  It is telling that the top luxury brands on Facebook in terms of friends are Gucci, Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, Ralph Lauren, Coach and Prada.  And while search engines and email messages still rank as the top ways browsers click through to luxury brand websites, social media are rapidly becoming the third most important driver of website traffic, according to a recent study on the Internet from NYU professor Scott Galloway.

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 and buying online.

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?

Forward-thinking luxury marketers and retailers are needed to support a new research initiative from Unity Marketing into how the Internet including social media like Facebook and Twitter impacts the affluent consumers and their luxury lifestyles.  This new study will provide critical data and insight to support luxury marketers for Internet strategy and planning.  Research sponsors are needed to support this special investigation.

Unity Marketing will conduct a study into how affluent consumers use the Internet and other digital media in pursuit of their luxury lifestyles, including shopping and purchase behavior, search and  shopping research, social media and connecting, and learning and building relationships with luxury brands.  Sponsors will guide and direct the research initiative and provide questions and topics to pursue in the survey and focus groups.

Sponsors will benefit powerfully from the results of this new research to direct new Internet marketing and branding strategies

Sponsors will gain many benefits from the results of this new research.  Luxury brands looking to develop new Internet marketing and branding strategies will get the most benefit from this research. As the NYU Stern School of Business study shows, luxury brand marketers are especially confounded by the new social media and how they should be deploying social media in building their brands.  The results of this research will help marketers develop strategies to use social media to the max in promoting sales, marketing and branding to affluent consumers.

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.

Unity Marketing with its extensive experience researching the purchase behavior and mindset of the luxury consumers will deliver to sponsors key strategic insights that will help them build new Internet strategies that will take advantage of the growing power of the Internet to both influence affluents in their perception of luxury brands and give them access to those brands through shopping.

Sponsor Deliverables

This research investigation will include both qualitative and quantitative findings.  Unity Marketing will conduct two-to-four focus groups with high-end luxury shoppers that are regular and frequent users of the Internet.  The findings from the qualitative research will then be shaped into a quantitative survey which will be fielded to an affluent sample of 1,000-1,200 affluent Internet shoppers at the close of the fourth quarter 2009, on or about the first week in January.

Research sponsors will receive the following deliverables:

Behind-the-glass attendance at the focus groups and/or DVD recording of the focus group proceedings, plus transcripts of the focus group proceedings

Input and oversight of the quantitative survey questions

Detailed analysis report including findings from the focus group and quantitative survey with recommendations and action steps related specifically to Internet marketing and brand building strategies and ways to build relations with luxury consumers through the Internet.

Sponsor Benefits

Sponsors participate in the research by guiding and directing the areas of investigation, defining objectives, areas of inquiry and specifying information and insights to pursue.

Sponsors gain many of the benefits of custom research without the expense, since research costs are shared by a number of different companies.

Sponsors will participate in focus groups, gain insights behind the glass as well as through detailed analysis report. Sponsors will help construct the survey questionnaire that will validate and measure quantitatively affluent consumers' use of the Internet in support of their luxury lifestyles.

Click the link to the right to  download a proposal that describes this new research initiative in more depth, including study objectives, methodology, project schedule and fees.

Respond Immediately -- Time Is Limited

About  Pam Danziger and Unity Marketing