Down But Not Out: How Affluents Shop for High-End Home Brands

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 […]

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Hit or Miss: Evaluating Advertising Design for High-End Home Brands

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 […]

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Different Media Means Different Faces for Your High-End Home Brand

While the essence of your brand must remain the same, today’s media choices force marketers to loosen the rules.   One of the reasons paid advertising is still so seductive for marketers, is that it’s the only brand space that is completely, utterly controllable. Every detail of a paid ad or video can be lovingly […]

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Five Tactics that Help Big High-End Home Brands Shine on Small Screens

VW Think Small

Instead of adapting traditional marketing to mobile devices, realize that new media requires a radical rethink.   We live in an age of 110-inch flat screen TVs, but the future of marketing may belong to your 5-inch phone screen. The continuing trend towards mobile platforms offers challenges for all brands, but can be particularly vexing […]

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Secrets of Success for High-End Home Brands with Two-Step Distribution

Smart brands are working with (and through) dealers and distributors to get closer to their consumers.   Many manufacturers in the high-end home category utilize a two-step distribution channel and rely heavily on their distributors and dealers to help achieve their corporate goals. I’ve seen two-step distribution work well, and I’ve seen train wrecks. There […]

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What High-End Home Brands Can Learn From Luxury Social Media

Borrowing a page from their playbook may help improve your game. Affluent consumers have a wide variety of passions – jewelry, fashion, art, cars and wine, to name a few – but one of their universal favorites is the home.  As a result, high-end home brands have a unique opportunity to connect with customers and […]

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What High-End Home Brands Can Learn from Mapping the Customer Experience

Understanding the path to purchase can make you a more effective marketer.   The customer path to purchase is a fascinating journey. In the high-end home category, where prices command a premium and purchase cycles are inherently long, the path to purchase can be filled with equal parts anxiety and anticipation for consumers. That’s why […]

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Clickers vs. Converters Among High-End Home Brands

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 […]

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High-End Brands: Understanding the Psychological Symbolism of Home

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 […]

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How Emotions Evolve in the High-End Home Brand Purchase Process

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 […]

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