High level synopsis
Providers of luxury will need to offer more than expense items than to take advantage of the growing market.
Sophisticated consumer are shifting their preferences and marketers need to pay attention. Revenues of upmarket hotels this year are expected to grow to around 10%, which is 4 times the rate of luxury good sales. Even the Chinese consumer are shifting from having to being as sales for number of transactions in shops was 30% up from last year but in restaurant and hotels rose by 52%.
What qualifies as an experience people are prepared to pay for is also changing, to something more elaborate, more private and sometimes even stripped almost bare of conventional comforts. Examples of some priceless moments are like visit to a seclusive place using private jets, Antarctic Ice Marathon, or even absence of Strawberries in wintertime to resonate authenticity.
Consumer behaviour is marking a shift that will separate ownership from enjoyment. An example of this is a recent youtube video for Johnnie Walker Blue where two friends swap ownership of beautiful Old sailing boat on the basis of unlikely wagers. That moment might be a bit far but as consumers become more sceptical, more discriminating and more interested in experiences, it is coming cooer.
Other examples of experiences include Ferragamo, an Italian Shoemaker, treating its clients to a trip to its workshop in Florence. Or Savoir beds, a British firm, is making a rotating bed for a new owner of a French Chateau so that he can enjoy view of both surrounding countryside and of the fireplace on the opposite wall.
Finally the so what for Marketers is to make the experience special and it must count as this luxury market expands and people are looking for experiences that is more private and not necessarily includes conventional comforts.
Posted by Nauman Jaffar
markiTech.ca;
excerpts from The Economist, 2015
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