Time for luxury marketers to go to the web, luxury consultant says
Luxury marketers have ignored the Internet—but will continue to do so at their own peril, warns luxury marketing consultants The Luxury Institute. “Wealthy consumers see the Internet as just another part of the relationship with a luxury provider and they expect it to be integrated as one of the channels they use,” says Milton Pedrazza, CEO. “But luxury marketers think the relationship has to be at the retail store. And the more high end they are, the less they think the Internet is critical to their business.”
Pedraza says luxury firms should be leaders in implementing high-touch/high-tech enhancements that create a customized customer experience. "I`ve spoken with scores of leaders from firms that cater to the wealthy, and most are completely focused on their products and channels while largely ignoring the customer experience, which ultimately is what luxury consumers are really buying," Pedraza says.
Even in such basic web-based areas as e-mail marketing, luxury marketers are behind, Pedrazza says. “Few of them are at the stage of collecting e-mail addresses and getting permission to send e-mails,” he says.
Luxury marketers have not felt a sense of urgency about enhancing the customer experience or harnessing the web to do so because strong sales in the past 18 to 24 months have made them complacent, Pedrazza says.
The Luxury Institute’s survey was based on interviews with 200 households with a minimum annual income of $200,000 and minimum net worth of $750,000, including home equity.
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