Luxury marketing is the term for selling and advertising high-end goods. Luxury is the best way to describe quality and status. Even better, for a small number of people around the world, it’s a way of life.
So, only a few industries can meet the needs of this particular audience. Not many brands make and sell high-quality products that are thought to be luxurious. Of course, it costs more to make high-end items, which only adds to their value.
Hand-stitched leather seats are used in luxury cars to make the ride more comfortable. Famous luxury clothing brands use the best materials to make high-quality clothes. In this article, we’ll talk about the process of marketing luxury goods. Before you can learn how to market luxury products, you need to know what those products are.
So, what kinds of things do we call “luxury goods”? In fact, there aren’t that many high-end products on the market, so you’ve probably seen most brands and industries.
Here are some examples of high-end luxury items:
- Putting on-trend clothes for sale
- Dropshipping expensive watches, jewelry, and other items
- Cars like Ferraris and Rolls-Royces are for sale.
- Food and drinks
- Having a job in high-end real estate
When it comes to luxury marketing, all stores that want to sell more high-end products need to do is think like a wealthy customer. Even high-end items are an investment for this type of customer. In other words, people with more money tend to shop smarter because they see everything they buy as an investment. Now, let’s talk about how marketing for high-end products works.
What is marketing for luxury goods?
Luxury marketing is basically the process of promoting and selling high-end goods. Also, it’s not just about getting people to buy the items; it’s also about keeping their hard-earned good name. Now, there is competition in every industry, including the ones that make and sell luxury goods.
The battle between Bentley Motors Ltd. and Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Ltd. has been going on for a hundred years. They are both the epitome of luxury cars, and their well-known names are used to market luxury brands.
Armani and Versace is another well-known example of a competition between high-end products. In recent years, both companies have been racing to make more money by selling fragrances, clothes, accessories, and other things. This is just a healthy form of competition. If you want to be better than your competitor, you have to make better products. By the end of 2025, the global market for luxury goods will be worth US$382.6 billion.
Luxury 4.0
Since the 4th industrial revolution is happening now and will continue for the next few years, many industries need to move quickly to become more environmentally friendly. In fact, companies in all fields are now hiring professionals to help them digitize their products and put them on the Internet. Since eCommerce is growing so quickly around the world, luxury product makers and retailers have no choice but to replace their physical stores with online shops.
Since all well-known luxury brands should be involved in making Luxury 4.0, there is a big problem that needs to be solved. In particular, people who shop in brick-and-mortar stores feel a strong connection to the brand. For example, if you buy a wedding dress for $100,000, the salespeople at a luxury store will treat you like a queen. You can drink champagne, try on lots of dresses, and eat strawberries with your best friends, among other things. On the other hand, none of this can be found online. It puts a wall between the brand and the customer.
What is important for marketing high-end products?
Since Luxury 4.0 is mostly linked to the changes in technology that come with Industry 4.0, it will have both good and bad effects. Since more and more of us shop online now than ever before, marketing for luxury goods is learning to adapt to how we shop. Many ads for luxury brands are made and spread in a way that makes us feel like we know them.
You’ve probably seen a famous person on TV talk about how much they love wearing an elegant Dolce & Gabbana dress or how happy they are with their new Michael Kors handbag or a pair of designer sunglasses. The words “love” and “happy” are used to market the products in a very subtle way that makes wealthy people want them.
It’s a big plus to make shopping easy and safe and to have customer service available 24/7. Every company that makes high-end products needs to have 24/7 phone, email, and live chat support, as well as other ways for customers to get in touch. It shows how much they care about communicating with and paying attention to their customers.
What do people who spend a lot want?
Luxury customers have their own needs, wants, and preferences, just like customers of any other kind. As a business that sells high-end goods, it’s important to know what your customers want from you. From an easy-to-use website to prompt customer service, luxury customers want to know that your services and products are the best. Even if it’s their first time shopping at your online store, you need to give them a unique experience so that the whole thing goes smoothly and without any mistakes.
Swift delivery
First of all, luxury customers want fast product delivery, just like any other customer. In general, most customers, whether they paid $5 or $5,000, want their products as soon as possible, no matter how much they paid. But when people buy a high-end item, they expect to pay more and get it quickly.
Store experience
Customers who spend a lot of money online need to be able to do more than just look at products and enter their credit card information. Some companies that make expensive products have already switched to UX design and luxury design.
In other words, high-end customers expect to see a high-end design on your online store, so choose the layout of your store carefully. Your store’s design is one of the most important parts of marketing your high-end goods because it can boost the reputation of your brand.
Use Bing to place ads.
You might wonder why we went with Bing instead of Google AdWords. Even though Google Adwords is much more popular, there’s a good reason for that. In particular, rich people often use Bing, which makes it a great place to put ads. Over 26% of its monthly visitors have a household income that is in the top 25% in the U.S. Each of these homes makes at least $100,000 a year. This is about 165 million luxury customers out of the 638 million unique searchers.
The best part is that Bing’s ad prices are often underestimated. It’s cheaper than Google’s AdWords and can get you much better results. For example, with Yahoo and Bing’s partner advertising networks, you can reach a more specific audience. This is definitely something you should check out.
Extra tips for advertising
You can choose between the audience’s interests, location, and, most importantly, demographics. Why is the last one the most important? Say you want your ads to be seen in New York. Then, you choose the things you’re interested in, like luxury goods, Dolce & Gabbana, etc. Then you move on to the most important part, which is about the people. There is an option to choose “average household income” for the top X percent of New York’s people. Reports say that New York City has the most millionaires of any city in the world. About a million people have at least one million dollars in the bank.
Just think about the chances of being seen by one of these wealthy New Yorkers. You need to start paying attention to these facts. Even better, if you choose to show these kinds of ads, your profits are likely to go up sharply. Even better, many people who own online boutiques see results by the end of the week.
Using social media to market luxury goods can make it work even better. When a social network is as “attractive to the eye” as it gets, you should use it. Pinterest is a great way to get both free and paid visitors, which are potential customers. Every pin that someone puts on their board could be shared or seen by someone else. And if it has your store’s URL in it, your chances of making a sale go up a lot.
For example, people share thousands of pins every day about fashion brands that don’t have official Pinterest profiles. Imagine how much their sales would have gone up if they had used this social network more. This just gives people more ways to use Pinterest by letting them make hundreds of boards with their own pins. The best part is that hashtags and descriptions will make your sales go up on their own.
How SEO could work
Marketing and SEO go hand in hand. In the end, SEO can be a very important part of your luxury marketing and getting your store on the first page of any search engine. Why do most online stores depend mostly on ads? Just because the profit margins are higher and there aren’t enough sales to cover the cost of the ads on their own.
So, there is a lot to do to make content better for people who might visit. You can play with keywords until you get it right, whether you’re writing about a product or writing content for a website. This is especially true for the original makers. It looks like they are letting retailers take part in the sales by accident. Overall, SEO can have a big effect on how much money your store makes each month, so pay attention to it.
Create a blog.
There are many ways that blogging can help your luxury marketing strategy. By putting it on the first page of search engine results, online stores with just one perfect item can make thousands of dollars every month. This is a great chance to make content that is, above all, educational and informative. You can make shopping guides or choose the most-viewed items of the month to show off. Anything you make can help you sell more. The best part is that it doesn’t cost anything.
Since luxury product marketing is mostly about pictures, it’s best to use photo editing apps to make eye-catching pictures and list a lot of products. This will give people enough time to look around before making a decision. Find the top-selling items in each category and make a list of them (e.g. Top 10 Trending High-Ticket Products Right Now). You can even advertise some of the best articles to get more people to see them.
Email marketing
Anyone who comes to your site could become a customer. Since you already know this, you should use this to your advantage. In fact, this is good in more than one way for online stores. Let’s talk about this in more depth.
- Customers who come back
Imagine you have a lot of money in the bank and love to wear the newest styles. You find a beautiful online boutique store and decide to shop there. If you were clearly happy with your purchase, why wouldn’t you sign up for their newsletter? It works out well for everyone. You get brand-new clothes at great prices, and the site owner gets a new customer who will come back again and again. It also makes a customer more loyal and builds trust between them and the store.
Loyal audience
Getting a loyal audience is the second, and just as important, part of email marketing. These customers will tell their friends, coworkers, and family members about your brand. In reality, they are doing all of the free marketing, or “word of mouth,” for the business. So, it’s easy to see how the customers who come back the most often are often rewarded. There will be a lot of giveaways, discount coupons, and other rewards from loyalty programs on a lot of social media profiles.
To sum up
Now that you know a lot more about luxury marketing, it’s time to put what you’ve learned to use and talk about the famous 5Cs of marketing. It might be harder to market and sell high-end products, but luck goes to the brave. If you want to make things easier, just write down what needs to be done and do each step in order. If you need more developers or marketers with technical skills to fix something, don’t be afraid to hire them. Every dollar you spend on your high-end online store should be thought of as an investment. So, you’ll be more driven and sure that you’re making the right choices. Lastly, don’t forget to keep up with industry news so you don’t get “destroyed” by your competitors. It won’t happen overnight, but you can get there with time and patience.