What Great Writers, Spies, and Luxury Marketers have in Common.

Great writers, spies and luxury marketers all share the skill to divorce them selves from their own personal
experiences, cultural influences and adapt completely by merging their thinking
to that of their focus subject. This is
a skill that not everyone can do; that is why it is much easier to market to
the middle class majority (Mass Marketing) as it is a culture belief system or
prejudice that most people already have.
In order to convincingly write about, integrate in, and understand thoroughly
the complex motivations of any group, writers, spies and luxury marketers must
possess chameleon like skills and immerse themselves in the lifestyle. This is why
there are so few true luxury sites and magazines available to successfully
reach the elite luxury group . Too often
the lack of skill from the writers and lack over management direction from
qualified Class marketers, leaves media source that were intended to attract
the wealthy, failing pathetically. The Who’s
Who website, CNNMoney luxury tab, and the Luxury Index, are just
a few examples of the many millions of dollars wasted because they failed in reach
the Ultra High Net Worth. The
information was middle class oriented thing like “can you believe people pay
this much!”, butler school is a great way to get a job paying $150,000
annually, or their articles about luxury locations was so shallow because it
was an outsider looking in and they were not bring the wealthy information that
they did not already know…thus only serving the middle classes that had even
less knowledge on the topic. I even had
one luxury producer/reporter that called me for a quote and inside information
as “The Luxury Guru” that did not even know St Tropez was in France; she
thought it was in the Caribbean and started the article expressing a disbelief
about why this “island” could become so world famous to Jet Setters. She was the head of the luxury category for a
very large global media organization. Anyone
that has actually been to St Tropez knows why it is popular, that it is not an
island, and it is located in France. St Tropez is so beautiful that it is credited
for much of the inspiration that fuel some of the best impressionist painters;
but she probably wouldn’t know that either.

My point is that a company that wants to reach the wealthy influential taste makers of the world needs to hire marketers that are trained to reach them. They need to pick story tones that do not
belittle the wealthy from a middle class perspective, or take on a snotty “if I
sound arrogant that will fool them into thinking I know” attitude. They need to
have story topics that are of interest to the demographic targeted. If you want to talk about butler schools,
talk about the qualification of the graduates the good references and the
success achieved by hiring staff that are graduates; not from the middle class “this
is a good why to get a 6 figure job” perspective. If you are writing about a
$7000 bottle of wine, write about the art involved and why it carries that
value and not self impose middle class standards to the purchase of such an
item by saying it is too expensive. All
too often I see a companies approach to reaching the wealthy is to just use
prettier pictures. This is like hiring a
sports reporter that has never watched a game.
As obviously moronic as that would be, for some reason it does not seem
equally as obvious to hire a skilled luxury expert to speak on luxury. The uber
wealthy are better educated, more experienced in business, more sophisticated,
and better traveled than most staff writers will be. The company needs to bring something to the
readers that they do not know; not something that the writer or producer did
not know. It is much harder to reach
this small demographic (2% of the population controls 50% of the world’s wealth;
study by University UNU-WIDER reveals that the richest two percent of adults
owned half of the world’s wealth)

In the Luxury World you will never be higher on the luxury scale than when you launch. It takes much more money up front to reach this group. It is not like a mass market
where you can tweak things and improve them along the way. Image is something
that is built over time and is a mass of many actions and the brand, like a
reputation, it can be blown in just one bad act. The class market is not forgiving. You can not launch mid level and put more
money into it later when the business gets rolling and climb into a luxury
status. Where you début is the highest
you will reach and you can only fall from there in the luxury market. There can be an Armani and then an Armani Exchange,
but it can never work the other way around.
Mercedes built a reputation on expensive quality cars; now they have an
inexpensive $40,000 car in there line.
It could never work in reverse where a brand known for cheap cars could
then successfully sell a $250,000 car.
Coach is a perfect example. Coach
falls on the low end of the luxury scale.
A woman can buy a good quality purse for $150 to $200 range. Coach decided they wanted to sample some of Louis
Vuitton’s success at the $1000 to $3000 range.
Coach invested in designers and a whole new product line to fail. For someone skilled in luxury marketing, the
reason is obvious, what woman is going to spend $3000 on a purse that when
anyone looks at it see a $200 purse because of the brand’s image. Coach sells frequently in outlet stores, so
their products are often available at sale prices. You will not find a sale on LV purses.
True luxury brands, managed by skilled class marketers, know that you
never put your products on sale. The hundred
thousand you save would be off set by the hundreds of millions lost in brand
image. It can be irreparable damage. A sale tells clients that it was over priced
to begin with. Remember, in luxury, you can maintain, but the only directional
change you can take is to fall. It never
pays to play with branding in the elite market.
Brands must be vigilant in the protection of their name.

The luxury demographic, just like any other group, has predictable actions and responses, it is just different then that of the mass market. Tossing the word “luxury” in your verbiage
and showing pretty pictures is only going to fool the demographic that you are
not seeking. Trying to start in the
middle and work your way to the top is a very middle class perspective and will
not work.

I get asked all the time why I have such ease in reaching this sought after group. It is simple, as a highly skilled luxury marketer I know what they want and even need.
I supply them what they want, in a way they that they will be receptive,
on a peer to peer level, as a trusted luxury professional that has been vetted
by most major media. Time is the greatest
luxury and the one that even the rich have too little of. The UHNW know when they take the time to
listen to me, that their time is being well spent.

Lorre White

"The Luxury Guru" the only luxury media personality

White Light Consulting ~ International Luxury Marketing

"Those who say it can't be done...need to get out of the way of those who are doing it!"

www.LuxGuru.Typepad.com ; Luxury Blog

www.WhiteLightConsulting.net

Google her name for TV shows & web videos