Design helps any brand create a world that customers aspire to live in, but managing that world takes constant vigilance and a few clear rules. Every now and then, high-end brands go to a place where customers roll their eyes and say, “Give me a break!” How can that happen? After all, your brand […]
Read More… from Hit or Miss: Evaluating Advertising Design for High-End Home Brands
The growing impact of eco-friendly homes. Not all affluent consumers are environmentally conscious and not all environmentally conscious consumers are affluent. But there is a decent overlap between the two – and I believe that there is opportunity in that shared space for forward-looking marketers. During the past few years, I’ve seen firsthand how […]
You know the story, but do you know the lessons learned from it? Prior to the global financial crisis, affluent consumers spent above their means, in large part due to phantom-like perceived wealth. “Their housing values were going up and their 401k’s were going up, so they felt wealthy and tended to spend above […]
Read More… from Down But Not Out: How Affluents Shop for High-End Home Brands
Buying decisions continue to be made after the actual purchase. Marketers of high-end brands understand Plato’s description of emotion and reason as two horses pulling us in different directions. After all, it can be painful when you’ve carefully helped a customer along the path to purchase, only to have her return the product the following […]
Why you should consider an experiential luxury strategy for your brand. Several years ago, I was working on brand strategy with my clients at Viking Range. The philosophical question on the table was this: Is a giant stainless steel Viking an end unto itself – or a means to an end? Are we asking […]
Read More… from Owning vs. Experiencing a High-End Home Brand
Your brand may have huge aspirations, but your consumers will have the final say. Every brand wants to live large in a consumer’s mental landscape by laying claim to the biggest brand promise possible. For instance, plenty of high-end home brands would love to “own” the kitchen. They represent categories as diverse as major appliances, […]
Read More… from Does Your High-End Home Brand Stand for Too Much?
Affluent consumers enthusiastically consume traditional and digital media. Marketers of high-end home brands had to make difficult decisions during the economic recession. When revenues fell, so did marketing budgets – and that often meant that media was dramatically cut. More than once, a CMO told me that they were facing a sort of “either/or” […]
Read More… from High-End Home Brand Media Consumption: A “Both/And” Proposition
Smart brands work to maximize joy post-purchase. Your consumer has finally decided that it’s time to update the kitchen, redecorate the living room, or replace the floors downstairs. As many marketers of high-end home brands know, the purchase cycle for an expensive home-related product could be six months to a year before she finally […]
Read More… from How Emotions Evolve in the High-End Home Brand Purchase Process
When high-end brands touch timeless, universal human emotions about the meaning of Home, a deeper connection is possible. All too often, internal discussions about marketing start and end with product features and benefits. Manufacturers tend to define brands solely by their engineering or design, without taking the time to discover the underlying psychological relevance […]
Read More… from High-End Brands: Understanding the Psychological Symbolism of Home
Make sure your measurements match your goals. The young marketing team for a high-end home brand was reviewing the analytics for the company’s latest digital ad campaign. The campaign looked great, and as best they could tell, the ad units were generating a decent level of click-throughs to the campaign landing page. If the […]
Read More… from Clickers vs. Converters Among High-End Home Brands
