Being in the forefront of luxury lifestyle marketing for years, the marketing environment has never been as rife with specific ways in which to reach out to the top five percent of affluent consumers and business leaders as it is right now. In fact, each day my office is being introduced to new magazines, clubs, lists, and websites that claim to cater to the wealthiest and most influential members of our society.
Why now? Is it that the recession is ending and finance leaders are no longer keeping a low profile on conspicuous consumption? Or is it that before the economy tanked, there were so many destinations, products and services developed for the growing worldwide market of mega millionaires?
Before the global financial meltdown, the number of millionaires worldwide seemed to be expanding exponentially and new luxury brands were being introduced daily. With such globalization and mass marketing we witnessed well-established luxury brands having difficulty maintaining their perceived exclusivity among the most affluent set. This created an opportunity for the introduction of the niche luxury brand.
That was then.
Now, luxury expansion has slowed down and many of the products and services that had been in the works are now ready for introduction. How do these newer players find ways to attract what has temporarily become a shrinking pool of mega millionaires to buy yachts, hotel suites, island homes, penthouses, couture fashions and diamond tiaras? This question is what’s driving the luxury media engine.
There are still plenty of mega millionaires, but with the global financial meltdown, there has been a trend among the very affluent to invest their energies in assets that secure wealth and retrench business strategies to grow more wealth. So there have been fewer grand displays of excess. We’re seeing less time spent on enjoyment based spending and more time invested in strategic purchases. This subtle shift in focus makes them more challenging to engage.
That aside, the economy is improving, particularly for the well-heeled. Consequently, a number of media moguls and individuals, in an attempt to capture the luxury brand advertisers, claim they have the ‘keys to the castle’ and a better strategy to target the elusive audience by introducing new publications, private clubs and mailing lists. Luxury brand advertisers are always in search for an effective and straightforward solution and these new venues claim to offer it. However, it is a mistake to presume that brand awareness among the very affluent can be achieved with limited engagement in media or venues that by their very nature only reach this coveted audience during leisure time.
The media environment has indeed become more fractured. And while these newer “targeted” communication venues have real merit and should be utilized, they are designed - for the most part - to only reach this high net worth individual during leisure time. Just because Mr. Millionaire may have learned about your product at a sponsored party with 200 other private club members, doesn’t mean that he’ll think about it long term. Messaging must be consistent. Equally valuable to recognize is that the majority of high net worth individuals are over the age of 40 and still turn to powerful traditional media such as The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.
With that said, luxury brand advertisers are well served over time, with large loyal audiences and strategic, consistent ad placement. Remember, today’s millionaires may be tomorrow’s mega millionaires and there is a pretty good chance that even in 2011, they’ll still get their news from one of the giants.