|
|
Press
Release
Luxury
Consumers Kept Up an Aggressive Pace Buying Luxuries in 2004
Increased Spending on Luxury Automobiles Pushes Spending Growth Even
Higher
Stevens,
PA April 26, 2005 - Last year the typical luxury consumer spent $33,188
on average buying luxuries, an increase of 33 percent over their reported
spending in 2003 of $25,010. While spending in all categories of luxuries
rose in 2004, increased spending on luxury automobiles resulted in the
greatest boost to overall luxury spending, according to Unity Marketing's
new Luxury Report, 2005.
But by taking spending on luxury automobiles out of the equation, the
typical amount spent by luxury consumers buying home luxuries, luxuries
bought for or used in the home, like furniture, appliances, electronics
and bedding; personal luxuries, like fashion and fashion accessories,
jewelry and watches; and experiential luxuries, notably travel, fine dining,
home services, and spas and beauty services, rose a more modest 13 percent,
from $18,799 in 2003 to $21,250 in 2004.
Luxury consumers spent lots more on luxury cars in 2004
Some 15 percent of luxury consumers bought a luxury automobile last year
and spent on average $46,394, a stunning 31 percent increase over the
$35,300 they spent in 2003. "That the luxury consumer is spending
more on luxury cars contrasts with Mercedes Benz' results in 2004 when
their more affordable, near-luxury C-Class car became MBUSA's best-selling
model ever with a reported 69,251 sold," says Pam Danziger, president
of Unity Marketing and author of Let Them Eat Cake: Marketing Luxury
to the Masses - as well as the Classes. "While Mercedes Benz
is reaching down to make their cars more affordable across a wider spectrum
of customers, it has given other luxury brands like BMW, Lexus, Volvo
and even Cadillac, which have been more vigorous in maintaining their
premium pricing, an opportunity to attract new luxury buyers.
"That isn't to say that the net gain of nearly 70,000 new model Mercedes-Benz
C-Class cars on American roads isn't a tremendous marketing success for
MBUSA. But it may be giving the competition an opportunity to attract
the typical Mercedes' affluent buyer. They need to make sure their core
customers aren't trading down to the C-Class, since their sales last year
of their luxury S-Class, M-Class, CL-Class and G-Class all took a hit.
Strategies for marketing luxury to the 'masses' often conflict with success
strategies for marketing luxury to the 'classes,'" Danziger concludes.
About Unity Marketing's new Luxury Report, 2005
This important new study of the luxury market provides the results of
a three-year longitudinal research study of the luxury market, which combines
qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Some 600 luxury consumers
were surveyed (62 percent female and 38 percent male respondents) for
the 2004 study. Their average income was $135,000 and their ages spanned
25 to 65 years of age, with 43 percent of the survey sample Baby Boomers
and 44 percent GenXer luxury consumers.
Details about what these luxury consumers bought, how much they spent,
where they made their purchases, and in certain categories the luxury
brands they patronized are reported in three major categories of luxury:
Home Luxuries
- Art and
Antiques
- Electronics
and Photography Equipment
- Furniture,
Lamps and Floor Coverings
- Garden
- Home Decorating
Fabrics, Wall and Window Coverings
- Kitchen
Appliances, Bath Room Equipment and Building Products
- Kitchenware,
Cookware, Housewares
- Linens
and Beddings
- Tabletop,
Dinnerware, Stemware, Flatware
Personal
Luxuries
- Automobiles
- Clothing
and Apparel
- Cosmetics,
Fragrance and Beauty Products
- Fashion
Accessories
- Jewelry
and Watches
Experiential
Luxuries
- Dining
- Entertainment
- Home Services
- Spa, Massage,
Beauty and Cosmetic Services
- Travel
This report
provides the facts and figures needed to develop winning marketing and
business strategies for luxury marketers. It takes a horizontal view of
the luxury market, recognizing that luxury marketers compete not just
with companies within their vertical product niche, but across all luxury
categories as well.
Within each category of luxury, the key drivers for purchase are studied,
such as role of luxury brand in purchase decision; the influence of sales
price on purchase; where the shopper bought their last luxury; why they
bought luxuries; whether their luxury purchases were made a gifts; and
other motivational factors.
Special feature: Find out which of the four different types of luxury
consumers are your best customers
A special feature in Unity Marketing's Luxury Report 2005 is a
psychographic profile of the four key types of luxury consumers. These
include:
- X-Fluents
(Extremely Affluent) who spend the most on luxury and are most highly
invested in luxury living;
- Butterflies,
the most highly evolved luxury consumers who have emerged from their
luxury cocoons with a passion to reconnect with the outside world. Powered
by a search for meaning and new experiences, the butterflies have the
least materialistic orientation among the segments, yet they spend nearly
as much as the X-Fluents on luxury;
- Luxury
Cocooners
who are focused on hearth and home. They spend most of their luxury
budgets on home-related purchases;
- Aspirers,
those luxury consumers who have not yet achieved the level of luxury
to which they aspire. They are highly attuned to brands and believe
luxury is best expressed in what they buy and what they own.
Written for
anyone and everyone that sells luxury, from marketers, advertisers, retailers,
service providers, this report is an essential tool to understand the
dynamics of the luxury market, today and into the future.
For more information, call Pam Danziger, 717-336-1600 or email pam@unitymarketingonline.com
About Pam Danziger and Unity Marketing
Pamela
N. Danziger is a nationally recognized expert in consumer insights for
luxury marketers, whether they sell luxuries to the masses or the 'classes.'
She is president of Unity Marketing, a marketing consulting firm she founded
in 1992 to unite marketers with their target markets through consumer
insights. She taps consumer psychology to advise clients such as Lenox,
Cartier, Herend, Spring Air, Sears, The World Gold Council, The Conference
Board and American Express.
Her latest book, Let Them Eat Cake: Marketing Luxury to the Masses
- as well as the Classes, (Dearborn Trade Publishing, $27, hardcover)
was published in January 2005. She also authored Why People Buy Things
They Don't Need: Understanding and Predicting Consumer Behavior (Chicago:
Dearborn Trade Publishing, 2004).
She has appeared on CNN's In the Money, CNN International, NBC's Today
Show, CNBC, CBS News Sunday Morning, Fox News' Your World with Neil Cavuto,
ABC News Now, NPR's Marketplace and is frequently called upon by the
Wall Street Journal, New York Times, American Demographics, Women's Wear
Daily, Forbes, USA Today, Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, Chicago
Tribune for insight.
Back
|
