Should luxury brands care how target audiences acquire their money? Would it be a smart luxury PR move to be selective even when it comes to target audiences? Exclusivity has always been the origin for many luxury brands. However, coming off the luxury brand economic recession many are rushing to every market that ultra wealthy consumers are surfacing.
The wealthy elite in Nigeria — upstart business owners, oil industry executives and corrupt politicians — have a healthy appetite for top-shelf brands, but have previously had to shop for them in Dubai, London and Paris. Now though, sellers of luxury goods are opening stores in Nigeria where seemingly gratuitous displays of wealth are the norm.
Since independence in 1960, wealth flowed into Nigeria as crude oil pumped out. The OPEC nation’s easily refined crude remains a top energy source for the U.S. However, politicians and military rulers squandered billions of dollars through the corruption choking the nation’s potential.
Then democracy took hold in 1999, and other industries have since developed in the country of 160 million, including banking and telecommunications. Billionaire Aliko Dangote, whose net worth is $11.2 billion according to Forbes magazine, built his empire on commodities like flour, sugar and cement. Another billionaire, Mike Adenuga, runs an oil company and Globacom Ltd., one of Nigeria’s largest mobile phone service providers.
Nigeria’s commercial capital Lagos, along with four other of Africa’s largest cities, will each have consumer spending of $25 billion or more by 2020, according to a McKinsey & Co. report. That’s comparable to spending in India’s business hub of Mumbai.