Syndicated Luxury Market Research Studies On The Giftware, Jewelry, Art And Wall Decor, Tabletop, Outdoor Living And Decorating, And Other Consumer Markets
Read our articles, surveys, reports and luxury tracking study on the luxury market, brands, marketers, lifestyle, affluent customers, luxury shoppers, trends, qualitative and quantitative market research and analysis to learn about brand preferences, shopping habits, and attitudes of luxury consumers. Then turn these insights into actionable strategies to reach high spending consumers.
Many articles are written by Pamela N. Danziger, an internationally recognized expert specializing in consumer insights for marketers targeting the affluent consumer. Pamela is president of Unity Marketing, a marketing consulting firm that specializes in consumer insights, especially for marketers and retailers that sell luxury goods and experiences to the masses or the 'classes'. She is also an advisory board member of Par Excellence Magazine.
The luxury industry is hitting a wall. Recent studies from the global leaders in predicting the prospects for luxury market growth testify to it.
Deloitte, which studies only the top 100 largest luxury brands, the industry’s best and brightest, sees these companies’ growth slowing over the next five years, as compared with the last five. Euromonitor reports that while the luxury goods market will grow in 2017, it will do so slowly, with particular weakness in Western Europe and North America markets.
Bain & Company, in association with Fondazione Altagamma, forecasts growth in experiential luxury, while the personal luxury goods segment contracted 1% due to a shift in exchange rates, and was flat at current exchange rates. More troubling, Bain reports the Americas declined 3% from 2015-2016 and Europe by 1%.
Bain’s report said: “This is the third consecutive year of modest growth at constant exchange rates, and it represents a new normal in which luxury companies no longer benefit from a favorable market and free-spending consumers.”
Why?
As affluent customers decrease spending on personal luxuries, signs point to the end of the era of limitless spending on coveted items
The 1990s and early 2000s may have been the halcyon days of the fashion accessory. Manolo Blahnik and Christian Louboutin shoes, and wait-listed Birkin handbags led the pack of must-have accessories, and even those who blanched at the high-and-increasing prices of these items gave blue-box jeweler Tiffany and classic handbag brand Coach some of their best years. But those days may well be passed.
Recently I have noticed some major cracks in the armor of these status brands, and my research backs it up. For example, in one recent Wall Street Journal column by fashion advisor Teri Agins, she gave permission to her style conscious readers to eschew logo handbags - she writes, "I have always despised logos." - with advice on how to find handbags that do not include conspicuous brand logos, a badge of expense and social arrival - or at least social aspiration.
Home Furnishings Marketers: Prepare to Get Comforable
The market for luxury home furnishings gets a bounce as the high-end housing market recovers with customers looking for calm after the recession's storm.
August 2012 Stevens, PA -- Finally, the nation's housing market is showing signs of recovery which will bring new opportunities for marketers that sell furniture, home furnishings, appliances, remodeling products and other home-related goods. The National Association of Realtors just released news that existing-home sales rose 10.4 percent in July from last year, while the price of an average home was up 9.4 percent. If current trends continue, that will make 2012 the first year since 2005 in which the number of homes sold and the price they typically sell for rose.
For marketers targeting homeowners at the higher-end of the housing market, there is even more good news in the NAR report. The share of existing-home buyers that are trading up is higher in 2012, as first-time, entry-level home buyers accounted for only about one-third of recent purchasers this year. Historically, first-time buyers make up some 40 percent of home purchasers.
Decorations Are Not Just for Christmas Anymore: New Patterns Emerge in Seasonal Decorating Practices
New Unity Marketing study shows seasonal decorations marketers the way to succeed is to understand the changing needs and desires of the decorations customer.
August 2012 Stevens, PA -- Where once the seasonal decorations market was largely defined by Christmas -- with perhaps some smaller holidays and occasions thrown in - today we have a whole new world. Consumers have added Halloween, Thanksgiving and Easter as major decorating holidays, and they appear to be always on the lookout for new ideas to bring a seasonal flare to their homes, spring, summer, fall and winter.
This is according to the Christmas, Halloween and Holiday Decorations Report 2012, the newest report from Unity Marketing detailing the decorations buying behavior of over 1,200 representative survey respondents who purchased decorations in the past 12 months and comparing this data to previous consumer surveys.
Time Is the Ultimate Luxury -- But One's Perception of Luxurious Time Is Relative
Unity Marketing's Pam Danziger publishes a new white paper that explores how affluents view time and what that means for the luxury travel market.
June, 2012 Stevens, PA -- When we think of affluent consumers, we think of money - how they earn it, how they spend it, and how to attract their spending to particular products and services. But to really understand what all consumers hold most dear, you have to understand how they perceive time. A new white paper by Unity Marketing president Pam Danziger, "Luxury of Time: A Generational Perspective," helps luxury marketers better understand their customers' different perceptions of time.
Time is the ultimate luxury, and this is true for the affluent as well as for everyone else. Money is fungible; almost anyone can increase their income by working longer, harder, or smarter. When it comes to money, affluent consumers have plenty of it, since they have incomes and personal wealth way above the nation's average. But having all that money to spend ultimately diminishes the pleasure of new purchases.
