The specialization in luxury marketing allows students to develop the perspective and skills that are necessary to pursue a career in the luxury sector. The nature of the target market, the importance of building strong customer relationships, the critical role of brand image, and the nature of the distribution system all present unique challenges when marketing luxury products and services.
Today’s luxury consumers are very different from those of years gone by, and their needs and expectations are not being met traditionally by brick-and-mortar luxury brands.
The new luxury consumer is younger than ever and far more comfortable with digital experiences than ever before. Any luxury marketing agency needs to understand who high-end brands should be targeting. This is because how luxury brands need to present themselves has now been redefined by the digital shift.
Whereas previously the aura of exclusivity and the veil of scarcity were seen as two of the most important attributes the luxury world relied on, the approach now needs to be in line with the values and lifestyles of younger consumers.
The ABA Agency is one of the world’s leading agencies for digital marketing in the luxury sector. We help luxury and fashion brands hone their digital skills, create compelling experiences, and succeed in a competitive marketplace.
Who is the modern luxury consumer?
Two-thirds of luxury buyers are aged 25-44, and 62% of the luxury audience is male, according to the Global Web Index. This reinforces our earlier point that millennials, who are now firmly established in their careers, have greater spending power and see luxury either as a regular treat for themselves or as a gift to give to others.
Who is consuming luxury today?
More interestingly, younger consumers see experiences as a luxury category, whereas ‘luxury’ has long been associated with goods such as handbags, jewellery, or even cars. These include exclusive events, travel destinations, and dining-out experiences. 3 in 10 of those surveyed said they considered themselves to have bought a luxury experience in the last 12 months.
3 in 10 have bought a luxury experience in the last 12 months
While today’s luxury consumers don’t differ from previous generations in their love of luxury goods, the younger generation is particularly passionate about experiences and travel, which convey status and distinction. Of course, it is not too surprising that experiences are now often counted as an emerging luxury expenditure, given that luxury spending is designed to impress.
After all, we are living in an age where it is easier than ever to present a part of our lives to the world through social media, which leads us to the next point in this guide.
How do you attract luxury customers with a luxury marketing strategy?
As part of their luxury marketing strategy, brands need to leverage social media. We’ve found that today’s luxury consumer is younger than ever before and is looking to experiences as a growing area of luxury spending. And nowhere has this convergence of demographics and interests been more appropriate than in the digital age.
Using social media, users can share posts to show how they live, their status, and intimate experiences. It’s important to remember why people use social media in the first place. That is to gain or post aesthetic value and to be entertained. Social media is a powerful ally for luxury brands because users can produce content that establishes their status, show off their life’s highlights, secure influence, and be recognized by their peers.
It’s worth remembering that it is the customer’s experience of luxury itself that is a brand’s most valuable asset. For the luxury consumer, each brand experience represents a memorable and extravagant occasion that he or she feels compelled to share with others.
It’s how consumers share their luxury experience. But how can luxury brands use a highly visual and interactive medium like social media to reach their luxury audience?
The first thing to note is that while there are different platforms that high-end brands can adopt as part of their eCommerce and luxury marketing strategy, what’s important is that a brand recognizes the value of connecting with consumers, not the channel.
Seek connections with consumers rather than connections to consumers.
You’ll see that the strategies available and the possibilities they unlock in a luxury brand marketing strategy approach are endless when you apply this way of thinking. To help you better understand how to find a way to connect with consumers, we have included a comprehensive list of advice. We hope this will give you some ideas:
Engage the consumer
Being on social media isn’t enough. You have to be social to have interaction. This can take a lot of different forms, and it is in this area that brands have a bit of an advantage. Gucci, for example, uses its favourite social media playground, Instagram, to keep its more than 40 million followers engaged with a variety of promotional product posts, event updates, and aesthetic assortments.
People are using social media for entertainment and engagement. You can successfully engage consumers with social media if your content can inform and update your followers about your collections or latest products in a way that doesn’t feel like “pushing” a sale.
How to find your champions
The world of social media has fuelled the rise of social influencers: people who are arguably in the same class as movie stars, athletes, and artists but who wield their following on an online medium. And like the stars and icons before them, influencers wield the power of opinion (hence the name), giving brands the notoriety that comes with endorsing.
You can certainly leverage their following as part of your own if you can identify your brand advocates.
Choose the domains you want
We strongly believe that luxury brands should adopt a “platform follows strategy” approach. Each brand has its own strengths and unique characteristics, which are complemented by the different available platforms. As a luxury marketing agency, we strongly encourage brands to be present on more than one platform that harmonizes with their brand image. Not all social interaction happens on one platform.
Perhaps the best social media platforms for luxury brands are the most visible: Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Pinterest, and even YouTube. To build and maintain a community of followers, find a platform that aligns with your brand’s strengths and use it to your advantage.
One of the many ways luxury brands can engage with today’s consumers is through the use of creative media.
We hope that these have begun to inspire you with some creative ideas on how to use social media in your luxury marketing strategy. It is important to note, however, that social media does not make up the entire online presence of a brand. It is an important but not all-encompassing part of luxury marketing. The other piece of the online equation that luxury brands need to take into account is that of search.
Luxury brands need the benefits of search engine optimization.
When the largest pool of luxury consumers is online, if you want to take full advantage of the Internet, you need to be visible. But how? How is it possible without the cardinal sin of the luxury world, the appearance of being anything but exclusive?
Accessibility and exclusivity are not mutually exclusive. Surely a luxury brand can be both. As a luxury marketing agency, we can say that ‘being found’ in the digital age means, as in real life, having a storefront and footprint for people to find you. But the need for this is even more pressing on the Internet, where, thanks to the democratization of the Internet, any business, regardless of size, age, or location, can reach anyone in the world. This means that if you do not build the infrastructure needed for people to find you, you will not be seen.
So, how can luxury brands gain a foothold online with a luxury brand marketing strategy?
Start by understanding that today’s digital systems are driven by algorithms that push out results and posts based on relevance.
As with everything online, what the platform’s algorithm deems most relevant is the result you get when you look something up or the first few things that appear in your social media feed.
However, unlike social media, search engine algorithms such as Google index billions of pages on the internet to present to users based on the keywords they have used to search and then return a list of pages that are assigned a rank based on the following things.
- The number of keywords on the page that were in the user’s query
- Where the keywords appear on the page
- Reputation/strength of the domain
Organic Search for Luxury Brands
The quality of the content. Of course, this is just a short list of the factors that Google uses to give users the results they want for their search queries. But this is a good basis for high-end brands to understand how they can use this tool to their advantage as part of their luxury marketing strategy.
Organic search optimisation is one of the most important things a brand can do online today.
Why it’s important to understand how to search because it’s going to help consumers find you better. As a luxury brand, the most appropriate marketing strategy is to pull, not push.
Rather than coming across as hungry for attention, you want to draw people to you. And with a solid organic strategy, a luxury brand can position itself online and attract consumers more easily than it would otherwise manage to achieve.
As a luxury marketing agency, what we want brands to understand is how to think like a consumer when using the internet. What owners and marketers think consumers are looking for may not be exactly what they are looking for.
For example, using words such as ‘luxury’, ‘expensive’ or ‘high-end’ before a keyword or search term will not do much to prevent your brand and products from being seen by all but the wealthy; remember that anyone is free to use any of these three words. We’ve also found that affluent people don’t use the words ‘luxury’, ‘expensive’ or ‘high-end’ when they search. In reality, affluent consumers don’t think of the items or services they spend on as ‘luxuries’. They can afford just about anything.
Luxury marketing: Keywords that matter
When looking at product keyword searches, “luxury” or any other similar keyword pales in comparison. However, product terms tend to be incredibly generic when searched for. Search engine optimisation (SEO) makes it difficult for a brand to compete.
So identifying which keywords consumers would use to search for your product is the best way to achieve organic search success through SEO. Again, relevance is the watchword. The most applicable keywords that are linked to your products are certain to provide a greater return on investment than either ranking for terms such as “luxury” and “high-end” or for generic product searches.
You will also want to consider the possibility that high-net-worth individuals may have someone else searching for them, such as a personal assistant or a wealth manager. So you also need to think about what these people are looking for and how your brand can be at the top of their searches.
SEMRush for Luxury Marketing
One of our favourite tools that we recommend as a luxury marketing agency is SEMRush. It allows us to identify target keywords, competitors, direct benchmarks and overall how well we are performing against our industry peers and our metrics. A marketing software tool like this is an essential part of an advertising agency’s arsenal for a future-proof marketing strategy for luxury brands.
The growing reach of the Internet for luxury brands
With the internet opening up access for luxury brands to reach more people in every corner of the world, you can incorporate multilingual capabilities for your luxury eCommerce site and optimize it for keywords in different languages to target non-English affluent consumers.
While the Internet has greatly expanded the ability of users to reach everyone in the world, we can’t forget that it also offers the ability to narrow our focus to a selection of people by defining parameters. Of course, this guide refers to the targeting capabilities of the Internet and its ability to fixate on specific criteria such as demographics, location and interests, which leads us to our next point.
Unlocking the power of PPC campaigns for luxury marketing
How can luxury brands create effective PPC campaigns using Google Ads?
PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns are an incredibly powerful tool for inclusion in a luxury marketing strategy. Google Ads uses its collection of user data, gathered from website visits, app usage and location, to determine a user’s age, interests and even income level – all to the benefit of high-end brands hoping to enhance their luxury advertising and marketing strategy.
An incredibly targeted approach to potential consumers is what using Google’s search engine means for luxury brands.
We support the use of PPC campaigns to enhance a luxury brand’s online positioning. However, this should be a complementary effort to the organic search and keyword efforts of a luxury marketing strategy. This is because our experience is that the effectiveness of PPC only increases when there is a solid foundation for a brand’s keywords.
The synergy between SEO and PPC
Think of it this way: Google’s search algorithm is there for one reason – to help people find the most relevant results possible. Users wouldn’t get the information they’re looking for if paying their way to the top of search rankings was the only way to get there.
Therefore, Google orders a user’s search results to bring the most relevant content to the top first by a series of algorithms, mostly dictated by that page’s authority, the number of times that page mentions the term searched, among other things.
This means pages with organized information have the best chance of being indexed at the top of a search query, and in turn can lead to more impressions (the number of times your website is displayed), more clicks, and potentially more sales.
You’ll note that having this basic framework in place is advantageous to a luxury marketing strategy because of its foundational influence in determining how a brand ranks on Google. As a luxury marketing agency, we push for SEO because it is a relatively inexpensive method to utilize and one that aligns itself with the pull strategy we spoke of before.
By targeting keywords and optimizing so that a website ranks consistently with a specific set of keywords, a luxury marketing strategy can begin to drive traffic for the terms it wishes to associate its brand with.
Targeted PPC and display advertising boosts luxury marketing
On the same note, SEO can greatly benefit from PPC campaigns, whereby if paid ads drive traffic to a website, then the organic ranking could see an indirect boost.
For example, if your SEO efforts in luxury marketing are generating a good amount of traffic but are not resulting in immediate buyers, a PPC campaign can be used to remarket to those same visitors to bring them back to your site and complete their purchase.
What’s more, PPC ads can reinforce the impact of a luxury marketing strategy by encouraging consumers to visit your site because they’ve seen both an ad and an organic search result. A consumer who has had previous exposure to a luxury brand is more likely to click and convert than a consumer who has not.
Contributing to increased website traffic is also an indirect effect of PPC advertising. Of course, websites with higher traffic than other competitors can lead to greater exposure through social media coverage. This is an avenue we have already established. In any luxury digital strategy, this is crucial.
But it is perhaps the incredible targeting capabilities of PPC campaigns that fascinate us as luxury marketers. You can easily segment a targeting campaign to identify and target specific categories such as age groups, interests and income levels because these PPC campaigns are tied to the Google search engine, which collects data on users’ website visits and interactions, app usage and location.
Refining targeting and closing sales in the luxury market
A luxury marketing agency can use this level of optimisation to extend clients’ digital strategies to reach audiences in multiple ways. PPC ads can truly run the gamut in a luxury marketing strategy, from focusing on a city of choice to targeting high-income users, specific interests, age groups and even people who have attended high-end events.
What this means for luxury brands is that PPC can target more ‘search intent’, or people who are looking for something relevant to what you sell and are more likely to make a purchase. These people can enter any number of key search terms that an advertiser may also have targeted, resulting in their ads being shown to these people to entice them to visit their eCommerce site and ultimately make a purchase.
It’s no secret among luxury marketing agencies that not everyone buys on first contact. That’s why a luxury digital strategy must include display advertising to retarget and remind users who have encountered your brand that they haven’t completed their purchase across the web.
These display ads can be placed on specific sites of a luxury brand’s choice, where there is a high probability that people visiting those sites will also be interested in their brand. Luxury brands can choose to display ads on domains with specific and proven audience characteristics.
These are all possibilities that are unlocked by the breadth of online marketing. These targeting capabilities are undoubtedly a powerful tool in any luxury marketing strategy, allowing brands to target consumers based on their behaviour, interests and demographics to help them find their niche and close sales.
The e-commerce imperative for luxury brands
Now that you’ve covered luxury marketing fundamentals, let’s talk about how important a solid e-commerce strategy is. As a luxury marketing agency, we cannot stress enough the need for brands to adapt online and to learn that in doing so, it is not just a matter of having a showcase website. An experience as good online as in-store is what consumers want from luxury.
The translation of this experience online has been a mystery to some people. However, it’s worth remembering that what consumers want from a luxury experience is the opportunity for engagement and interaction with luxury brands, regardless of the medium. Almost anything consumers can do in-store should be possible online.
So if consumers want to browse a range of a brand’s best, they should be able to. If consumers want to buy a product online because they prefer to do so from the comfort of their own homes, they should be able to do so. It shouldn’t be that much different for a luxury brand marketing strategy to say why it should be different just because it’s a higher-priced item.
Digital policy: Shaping the perception of your brand
In times like these, both brands and luxury marketing agencies need to realise that they need to approach and execute a digital strategy with the knowledge that how they position themselves online is how people are going to perceive their brand.
There is no reason why brands should not give serious thought to their luxury marketing strategies, given the incredible ways in which luxury brands can engage and target consumers.
Unique luxury brands with bespoke digital approaches
Of course, no two luxury brands are the same. Each of these uses its own set of strengths and has its unique attributes that can be used to decide which features and capabilities are best to adopt to embrace the digital age.
It needn’t be as difficult or daunting as it sounds. Fortunately, The ABA Agency is a full-service luxury agency and a marketing agency for luxury brands. Specialising in luxury brands, The ABA Agency’s services range from luxury branding to mobile marketing for luxury brands, from creating brand identities to marketing and advertising strategy.
Having worked with highly recognized brands-not to mention our reach and experience with luxury brands – we’re confident we can help make your digital strategy a success.
Digital marketing agency for luxury brands
No luxury brand can afford to ignore the fact that 80% of all luxury sales are influenced digitally. The digital landscape may be crowded, but fortunately, you have the leading digital marketing agency for luxury brands to help you navigate your way to outstanding, transformative growth.
Why not work with us as your luxury advertising agency?
We’re a boutique luxury marketing and branding agency that believes in adding value at every step of the strategic, creative and execution process, with decades of experience and insight into the world’s most iconic luxury brands. Our work always evokes that ‘must have’ emotion and is distinctive, memorable and meaningful.
Why should you work with The ABA Agency?
We specialise in reaching the world’s wealthiest audiences. We understand that your business has specific needs and that discerning tastes require an exceptional marketing approach. We offer a holistic and highly personalised approach to digital marketing, from flawless website design to compelling storytelling and luxury branding.
Our specialist markets include property, hospitality, private travel (yachts, jets and supercars), F&B, fashion and clothing, beauty, jewellery and accessories and finance. Harnessing the power of digital platforms to captivate audiences, drive engagement and unlock opportunities that align seamlessly with your objectives, we deliver bespoke solutions.
Advantages of using a full-service luxury marketing agency
Standing out is key in the highly competitive luxury digital marketing space. A marketing agency with an understanding of the nuances of the luxury landscape ensures that every marketing campaign is an expression of elegance, exclusivity and sophistication. You need to work with a marketing agency that understands the affluent consumer mindset to establish your business as an icon of luxury.
With in-depth, data-driven knowledge of the luxury audience, the platforms they inhabit and the latest luxury trends, we ensure your brand is positioned at the forefront of the industry. Because we know how important this is to our customers, we do all of this while adhering to strict privacy and confidentiality measures to protect sensitive information.
What makes a luxury marketing agency?
You may be wondering what the criteria were for the selection of the luxury marketing agencies on this list. We could have easily relied on agency review sites or picked agencies off the first page of Google, but we took a more thorough approach to ensure we were presenting you with the top luxury marketing agencies in the US.
All luxury marketing agencies featured in this article have undergone a rigorous vetting process. They’ve earned their place through their team’s expertise, their track record of delivering outstanding results and any industry awards they’ve won.
So what should you prioritise when choosing the right luxury marketing agency for your brand?
- Proven track record & case studies: Look for agencies that have a track record of delivering outstanding results for brands that are similar to yours. Read their case studies to see how they’ve helped other luxury brands achieve their goals.
- Effective communication: Look at how efficiently the agency communicates with you during the proposal stage. It could be a red flag for the future if they are unresponsive or show poor communication before you’ve even started working together.
- Specialisation in luxury marketing: Make sure the agency specialises in marketing luxury and understands the specifics of your industry. They should be experts in your field, whether you need SEO, social media or other services.
- Personal compatibility: You must have a good relationship with the agency team. You’ll be working closely with them, so make sure you enjoy working with them.
- Flexibility: Check to see if they offer flexible contracts and can adapt as needed. The ability to respond quickly to changes or opportunities at the last minute is of vital importance. You should be confident that they can meet your needs. When it comes to choosing an agency to work with, trust your instincts.
Why engage one of the best luxury marketing agencies?
When it comes to choosing one of the best luxury marketing agencies in Dubai, you’ll be faced with a multitude of options. It’s important to make the right choices to ensure your resources are well-invested and your path to success is streamlined.
Your business and your brand deserve nothing less than excellence, so choosing the right agency is paramount. While low-cost alternatives may seem attractive at first, the results often fall short of expectations.
If you are looking for an expert luxury marketing partner, we are the right choice for your brand. Contact us below for a free strategy call with our team to see if we’re the perfect fit for your brand.
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