Many colleagues (especially young brand people who are new to the industry) often have many "brand-level" fantasies about luxury brands. They feel that luxury goods are different. Their brand operations are very different from mass brands. Their brands are selling To a smaller number of wealthy and loyal customers, their brands become invaluable because of their niche and rarity. It is precisely because of this rarity that a few wealthy people buy more frequently... But in reality

What are the majority of customers who buy luxury goods?

Is the rich man behind the growth of luxury brands?

Are those growing luxury brands really niche and rare?

Will luxury goods be rejected because they are more familiar?

Is the declining luxury brand really because of the so-called kitsch?

Here, from the perspective of HBG penetration theory, I will share with you an in-depth discussion of luxury brands in a book. If you want to know more about HBG penetration, contact your assistant at the end of the article, you can join the HBG official community for in-depth expert discussion. Of course, the prerequisite for the discussion is that you have some experience in brand operation or trading, otherwise you will fall into a purely perceptual discussion and lack practical significance.

of luxury brands

Mainstream customers turned out to be "middle class"?

There is no doubt that the world is becoming richer and richer. The entire global economy has continued to grow for hundreds of years, and it is not only the rich who have become richer. The facts are far from the case. Nowadays, global wealth is growing, the middle class Also more and more.

Corresponding to the current global economic growth, the sales of luxury brands are also increasing. The most obvious markets are China, India and Russia. When a luxury brand marketer talks about the future direction of the brand, they will never ignore these markets.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory believes that a person needs to obtain a certain degree of material accumulation before rising from basic needs to higher needs. But this is not entirely true-even those poor people who live on only a few dollars a day will spend a large part of their income on entertainment consumption-it is obvious that people cannot live on bread alone, everyone needs it from time to time Some "luxury" feelings.

The development of luxury brands in developed countries is also very impressive.

Even in the daily necessities category, there is a trend towards high-end brands. In Kenya, each family spends 45% of total household income on food; in France, this proportion is only 14%, because France is richer and more productive, and people have more opportunities to buy other non-essential goods— —In addition to food, they can also buy expensive watches, yachts or life experiences — of course, the French eat pretty well.

In wealthy countries, few people cannot afford food. They don’t need to buy a lot, but they can buy better and more expensive food. In the United States, the emergence of (long overdue) espresso and craft beer is proof.

Luxury brands not only sell to the wealthy, the per capita purchases of luxury goods by the super-rich may exceed us, but the middle class is the main purchaser, because the number of this class exceeds the rich by hundreds of times.

This means that although luxury brands are not open to everyone, they still need to compete in the mass market. This was a surprise or even shock to many marketers (and marketing theory researchers), because they all publicly opposed this conclusion. This conflicts with their beliefs. In their hearts, the secret of success for luxury brands is to be regarded as unique and rare in the world.

But in fact, how luxury goods want to continue to grow and grow is actually the same as other categories of brands. They are not facing loyal and old customers, but a large number of light customers and new customers, and most of these customers are not billions. Millionaire, but middle class.

This is the reason why luxury brands also want to advertise widely. Luxury watch advertisements are not only aimed at billionaires, because there are too few rich people, and most people who buy high-end watches are not billionaires.

Is the more familiar the luxury, the more disgusting it is?

Affected by Internet word-of-mouth and personal fantasy, we often feel that luxury goods should be rare and can only be enjoyed by a few people. Once it becomes all over the street, it will actually affect the sense of value of luxury goods, and people will be affected by it. Dislike it.

So after the marketing of the world-famous "YSL boyfriend lipstick" event, many colleagues in the industry are slandering YSL, thinking that YSL will lose the hearts of old customers, because it is too familiar and it becomes cheap. But in reality, the results are quite different.

A large number of data surveys (the large data survey process is omitted here) shows the relationship between luxury brands in different countries on the following three measurement dimensions:

Brand awareness

brand ownership rate

brand desire degree

First of all, the relationship between brand awareness and market share is very close (the correlation value is about 0.9).

Obviously, brand ownership is helpful to brand awareness, and people are very reluctant to buy brands that they haven’t heard of—especially for luxury goods. Unsurprisingly, in each category, brand awareness is much higher than its share: This shows that awareness not only depends on the purchase rate, but the reach of advertising is larger than that of regular customers.

Secondly, there is also a strong correlation between brand awareness and desire (the correlation value is 0.8-0.9).

Many luxury brands are not well-known, and people don’t yearn for brands they don’t know. Prada and Rolex are two slightly deviated brands, their desire is particularly high, and both have the highest popularity in the same category. But it is very possible that the two are not really deviations, but are affected by the law of double crises. Brands with leading popularity also have an advantage.

In short, the survey results do not support the so-called "the more familiar, the more contemptuous" theory. The survey shows that luxury brands, like other brands, more often establish mental salience and purchase convenience through competition. There are many owners. (Higher penetration) does not lead to a decrease in demand, even if it more or less reduces the superiority, exclusivity or coolness of luxury brands, the positive effects brought by mental salience have already offset or even surpassed all Damage caused by shortcomings.

If it is easy to have

Will luxury goods lose their aura?

For luxury brands, many people may think from a perceptual level that once they have owned or are familiar with a certain luxury brand, then the brand will lose a lot of luxury and appeal.

So when luxury stores are everywhere, and the streets are full of a certain luxury brand, does it mean that the brand has lost its aura? Do customers like distinctive niche luxury goods?

There was a survey in which people who knew a brand compared the brand attractiveness scores of those who own the brand and those who did not. Does owning a brand reduce its appeal?

The results show that, with the exception of certain people who deliberately seek diversity, which must be available in every market, even when we control brand awareness, owning a luxury brand will actually bring the brand to Comes with higher attractiveness. Brand attractiveness scores higher among owners.

Of course, it is also possible that these owners have a higher desire for these brands before buying them, but the actual consequences, if any, are very small. Compared with those who know these brands but have not made a purchase, this group of people are still more eager to buy the brand.

It is true that we would think that compared with new customers of a certain luxury brand, existing customers may be a little bit new and disgusted with the brand they already own because of their diverse needs. However, the data shows that the impact of diverse needs is minimal.

On the contrary, loyalty is the natural way for customers to behave. Behavior determines attitude. If you have one, you will be more likely to make another purchase than others who know the brand.

This effect has a slightly smaller impact on luxury watch brands, and the diversified needs of customers in this category are more obvious. Having already bought a Rolex, the owner will want to buy another brand watch to enrich the entire collection, which makes sense.

of luxury brands

Is the channel mysterious and niche?

We often have this kind of perception-traditional luxury channels are often regarded as mysterious and niche, only open to some high-end customers, so it will appear luxurious, high-end, and even unattainable.

But in reality, luxury brands are gradually getting closer to popular channels. Their offline and online channels are not fundamentally different from popular brands. They are also eager to reach more customer groups and be able to facilitate more. Of customers come to buy.

This kind of channel is close to the people, becoming popular, making customers more accessible, will it affect the growth of luxury goods, and make luxury goods cheaper? In another survey, it directly measured the popularity and exclusivity of luxury goods by customers , And the view on the convenience of purchase. Those brands that we think are strictly restricted in distribution channels and difficult to buy, in their eyes, are they also more exclusive and more luxurious?

Actually, this is not the case. We found that the actual situation is just the opposite-a brand that most people think of as luxury and exclusive is not difficult to buy. This means that exclusive sales are not related to customers' perceptions of brand luxury and exclusivity.

We need to look at other aspects of the entire marketing model to find the source of exclusivity (such as high prices). If you want a brand to look luxurious and unique, you don't need to limit its purchasing convenience.

In short, luxury brands are the same as other brands. If they want to grow, they still have to return to the growth essence of "big penetration"-do a good job in marketing and channel penetration, only penetration can growth. Branding is not just based on fantasy and experience in your mind, but depends on scientific knowledge and an insight into the professional laws of brand growth to achieve success.