4 Important Digital Trends Shaping High-End Home Brands

If you understand the opportunities, your brand has unlimited potential.

 
Marketers of high-end brands often tell me about the one-two punch they faced during the past several years. If the global recession didn’t knock them on the mat, the explosion of digital marketing certainly made them see stars. On one hand, affluent consumers pulled back on spending – and on the other hand, digital changed the time-honored formula for how luxury brands were built. No longer could you build a brand solely with exclusivity, scarcity, and subtlety.
But remember this: recessions come and go, while digital is a force that’s here to stay. Consider this:

For most American consumers, their everyday lives and their digital lives are now wholly intertwined,” says Nielsen in a recent report called The Digital Consumer.

Think about that for a moment. Digital is no longer the new, shiny thing. It has become fully integrated into our lives in a way that we don’t even think about it any more. It’s kind of like your arms and legs – it’s just a part of you.
As marketers of high-end home brands, it’s so very important to understand the point that the everyday and digital lives of consumers are now fully intertwined. We’ve passed the tipping point – and if you understand this concept, then your brand has unlimited potential to succeed.
Nielsen makes several great points in its report. A few of them are very relevant for high-end brands and here are 4 of the most important:
1. “Content” has become agnostic. What once was available in a newspaper or on television can now be delivered digitally via multiple connected devices, which consumers spend an average of 60 hours weekly consuming. Have you organized your content in a similar way?
2. Anytime/anywhere connectivity is dramatically impacting retail. The consumer shopping experience has been completely reinvented thanks to the ability to compare and shop via mobile devices. What have you done to maximize the mobile experience of your shoppers?
3. Multi-tasking on multi-screens is the new norm. Not only are consumers using smartphones and tablets as part of their television viewing, but they are researching, shopping, and engaging, in real time as they watch TV. Do you understand the path-to-purchase well enough to be there when and where your consumer engages with you?
4. Social is standard. Nearly two-thirds of users access social media via their computer daily. Social impacts the content that they consume, as well as the way in which they interact with brands. How are you interacting with them? And how can you do it better?
Americans are connected with multiple screens throughout the day and evening – and engage with media content more than ever. Keeping pace isn’t easy, but if you improve your digital game, the rewards will follow.
You can find a link to Neilsen’s report, The Digital Consumer, by clicking here.