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Press Release When Oprah is excluded from luxury shopping... Stevens, PA June 22, 2005 - European heritage luxury brands share a common belief - that exclusivity is critical to maintaining the luxury brand’s allure. American luxury consumers, on the other hand, don’t put much stock in exclusivity for exclusivity’s sake, rather they prize individuality above all else and are proudly democratic in their view of luxury. CNN reports that Oprah Winfrey fell victim to this most esteemed of European luxury values - exclusivity - when she was denied entrance to the ultra-posh Hermes boutique in Paris. Outraged she should be because American democratically-minded luxury consumers like Oprah reject the traditional concept of luxury derived from European aristocratic ideals. Exclusivity, in and of itself, brings very little luxury value to the American luxury consumer. Nearly 80 percent of American luxury consumers agree with the statement, "Luxury is for everyone and different for everyone," according to the latest Luxury Report 2005 from Unity Marketing. "There is an inevitable cultural clash when European ‘old world’ luxury butts up against American ‘new world’ democratic ideals of luxury," explains Pam Danziger, president of Unity Marketing and author of Let Them Eat Cake: Marketing Luxury for the Masses - as well as the Classes. "From the European perspective, luxury is a privilege of class and status and what makes luxury more luxurious is that it is unavailable to the masses. But Americans simply don’t buy that, which accounts for why many American luxury marketers have a hard time exporting their ‘new luxury’ democratic luxury concepts overseas." "For example, in America Tiffany and Company has been tremendously successful with their democratic luxury concept of mixing up low-end sterling silver and high-end diamond and platinum jewelry in the stores. But when they transplanted this approach to Japan, it flopped. Apparently, the Japanese luxury consumers prize exclusivity and don’t want to shop side-by-side with the ‘hoi-polloi.’ So now Tiffany is weeding out the low-end offerings in their Japanese stores in favor of higher-end designs that signal status," Danziger says. Exclusivity is not motivating to American luxury consumers - Luxury consumers yearn for more specialness Exclusivity for the sake of exclusivity, as expressed by the European luxury ideal, is not what American luxury consumers value, rather it’s an exclusiveness derived from the ability to express a personal point of view, an attitude and one’s uniqueness. "The challenge for luxury marketers in the American luxury market is to deliver greater exclusivity by making the luxury consumer feel special and unique, but never let it morph into class snobbishness or arrogance. It is the difference between putting up a stop sign that says ‘Do Not Enter,’ to putting up a sign that says, ‘Turn Here for Something Really Special.’ Luxury marketers have to give their consumers an exit ramp off the ‘mass track’ that creates a mystique and an appeal without the negativity of exclusivity muddying the waters," Danziger says. "It is not about excluding someone from having this item, this brand, or shopping in this store; it is about turning this item, this brand, this store into something more special, unique and life enhancing to the individual. It is a subtle shift in emphasis from the negative-leaning ‘exclusivity’ to the positive-trending ‘individuality.’" 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
Personal Luxuries
Experiential Luxuries
The Luxury Report 2005 is available to order online. For media, charts, tables and graphs of luxury consumer spending are available on request. Pam Danziger has prepared a 2,000 word white paper describing the "Eight Things Every Marketer Needs to Know about the New Luxury Market." It is available as a free download, with registration. 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’ Money Matters, 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.  |
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