High-end brand marketers can use data to leverage their strategies
A recent report from Bain & Co’s Claudia D’Arpizio provides a great perspective on where affluent consumers are spending now – which is a great barometer not only for high-end home brands, but premium and luxury brands in general.
The report covers several categories across the luxury landscape – personal goods, auto, hotels, wine and spirits, food, fine art, high-quality design, jets, yachts, and cruises – and demonstrates that the global luxury marketplace is generally alive and well. The goods in these categories (note: real estate is not covered) collectively surpassed $1 trillion in retail sales for 2015.
While some categories are flat or stagnant, those categories most relevant to the home category – fine art and high-quality design – increased 19% and 9% respectively. One trend among high-quality design brands is that the living room, bedroom, and lighting segments are performing best, while kitchen-related brands are recovering. That said, affluent consumers are purchasing significantly more fine art now than before.
In a Luxury Daily article about the report, writer Forrest Cardamenis said, “The causes and solutions the study hypothesizes fit in line with other recent findings. Brands need to reach out across all touchpoints to stay with consumers as they travel, identify and tailor strategy based on economic trends and find solutions for pricing inconsistencies.”
This macro-level data can be very helpful to marketers. The report clearly demonstrates that affluent consumers are spending. The trick, of course, is to ensure that your brand is capturing a piece of that spend. For example, armed with this data, a high-end home furnishings brand might consider partnering with a local gallery for a strategic alliance or special event – leveraging the hot category of fine art to boost sales in furniture and furnishings.
Here is a link to the Bain survey.
