As economic conditions continue to worsen many luxury brands are being killed off by the recession. The very sad part is that right now is the absolute best time for luxury brands to thrive. But yet many luxury brands have a failure to thrive because they don’t understand the fundamentals of luxury.
What should luxury brands considering suicide do?
1. Define Quality
A luxury brand should consist of the best quality! High-end means the very best and nothing less. If you label your brand as luxurious you need to make sure that everything represented about that brand is of the best quality.
2. Identify Targets
Who do you perceive your customers to be? How have you identified those that will purchase offerings from your luxury brand? It is very important that you use only media outlets that will help you to connect with the target audience you seek.
3. Promote Confidence
Communicate that your luxury brand is going to weather this recession. Showing strong confidence in your luxury brand will help to build trust among your customers. Those high-end brands that present an environment of sustainability engage customers with confidence.
4. Build Relationships
It will be necessary to form strategic alliances with other luxury brands that add value to high-end offerings. This helps to strength brand awareness and increases the value of luxury offerings. Partnering with charity causes is also an excellent opportunity to promote brand awareness.
5. Blog Now
A blog about your luxury brand is a dynamic way to stay in touch with customers, industry happenings, promote, and more. A blog can often expand on a media release and give an insider view about the perspective of a luxury brand.
6. Launch PR
It was Mr. Bill Gates who related if he was down to his last dime he would spend it on PR. Public relations, also known as PR is how you communicate with the public. It is essential that luxury brands utilize PR to gain organic publicity coverage. PR can enhance marketing and advertising efforts to help to increase sales.
7. Don’t Quit
The key thing to remember is that a winner never quits and a quitter never wins. You must truly condition your mind to believe in your luxury brand. Those that buy luxury are NOT looking for discounts, so STOP worrying about pricing and go find an audience.
I wanted to write this post because as a luxury PR publicist, I speak to many luxury brands thinking about quitting because of the recession. I consider myself an expert at my craft; some may even call me too confident (to put it lightly). However, I know that with the right strategic plan and approach ANY product offering can find an audience.
It takes research, research, research, pitch, pitch, pitch… Keep at it!