Economic conditions have an impact on luxury and how we will define the luxury market. An article in BusinessWeek talks about how the luxury lifestyle of New Yorkers is about to change. Stressing that Manhattan along with San Francisco, Washington, Shanghai, Chicago, London, Moscow, etc will start to feel the economic downturn.

This got me to thinking about just how do we define the perception of luxury now? Is luxury over the top or do we all need to tone it down. While luxury is an individual perception, I feel like the economic downturn is impacting the over all concept of luxury as an individual perception.

If a person could at once afford to buy high-end luxury and now can only buy mid level luxury products; what is the perception of luxury? Has it changed because of market conditions? A trick for the real estate luxury industry is to use the term affordable luxury for less expensive luxury homes.

How will luxury marketers put a spin on luxury product promotions during this economic downtime? The best resource will continue to be focusing on luxury PR over paid advertising. Luxury is still an individual perception and marketers will need publicity campaigns to implement the perception they want to communicate to their target audiences.

In short, don’t let economic conditions get in the way of how you want to promote luxury goods.

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