What’s the Best Media to Market Luxury?

Like baking a cake, it clearly is a mix of ingredients.

A recent Boston Consulting Group Altagamma piece titled True-Luxury Global Consumer offered some insights.

First, who was surveyed?

The survey included 10,000 consumers who averaged just over $10,000 in annual spending on luxury across 10 countries. Included in the $10,000 of spending were Accessories, Apparel, Watch & Jewelry, Cosmetic, Furniture, Food & Wine, and Hotels and Exclusive Vacations.

There is very good news for magazine publishers, who might well quote Mark Twain in saying, “Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”

Answering the question, “Which of the following usually has an impact on your purchase decision” magazines topped the list in the U.S. and globally. Store Browsing and Brand Websites were next in perhaps an ode to the brand temples that have emerged around the globe.  And not surprisingly “Word of Mouth” was high on the list, meaning happy customers are a key to gaining new customers.

I think the most interesting data point I saw was around Events. Luxury companies pour countless millions into events mostly getting somewhere between 50 and 250 people to show up.

In the U.S. only 13 percent of those responding said attending events influenced their purchase. In a strange twist 27 percent said getting invited to an event positively influenced them. What does it mean?  Possibly sending invites and then hoping people don’t come works better than having them show up.

Doing some math, an ad seen in magazine reaching 400,000 readers would influence around 200,000 readers (using the BCG mark of 50 percent) towards purchase whereas an event for 200 guests would sway 26 (based on BCG’s 13 percent).  Why the love affair for events?  My guess is it is easier to track ROI on purchases from events than magazine advertising. At the end of the day, I think it’s a point worth considering.

Full results below: