Traditional Luxury Customer
India is a land of royal palaces, diamonds, and everything gold. As history suggests, luxury and tradition have been existing concurrently in the lives of Indians. The luxury consumers of India have a unique traditional segment that constitutes the consumers who have witnessed royalty and luxury in the most refined form. They are elite, and eminence comes naturally to these consumers. Luxury brands have since time immemorial catered to the needs of these consumers.
As a definition, luxury for the traditional sector is explained by exclusivity and grandeur. The products might be far from comfortable, but they never fall short of enchantment. The main characteristics of these consumers revolve around increasing purchases through traditional mediums. They prefer purchasing products that are a definition of their nobility and are far from being copied by the other manufacturers. Brands address these customers differently from the other elite socialists or consumers who have the purchasing power earned from the recent increase in monetary assets.
The traditional Luxury Customers constitute almost 31% of the overall affluent audience of any luxury brand. If we focus on the demographic division of these traditional consumers globally, it is evident that the discerning consumer is younger in age. This could be due to several reasons, such as the increase in readily available luxury products, the growing purchasing power, and the broadening understanding of the definition of luxury.
As a marketer, the biggest question is how to reach these traditional consumers in these changing times. These are some of the ways that marketers have been following globally:
Leverage the prestige and exclusivity
Traditional luxury consumers buy for brand recognition. They buy it for their superior standards, heritage, craftsmanship, innovation, exclusivity, and aesthetic design. Quality and durability are the least concerned features. In the most traditional sense, these goods are not planned or designed according to the needs of the consumer or their taste and expectations. The brands usually set their standards of luxury and do not adhere to any defined rules of fashion. Therefore, to stay relevant to the consumers, the brands must appeal to their requirement of exclusivity. This can also be fostered by introducing loyalty programs that keep the consumers committed to the brand.
Reaching on social media along with traditional mediums of advertisements
A study suggests that almost 40% of the traditional luxury consumers do not follow brands on social media. Yet, they remain actively engaged with the brands via other mediums. Even more startling fact is that a proportion of consumers also expect to see advertisements of these brands. Therefore, luxury marketers must follow a balanced approach while selecting platforms for promotions.
Lean on brand heritage
Heritage and prestige consciousness is of utmost importance for traditional consumers. Thus, they usually tend to be less predictable in their purchases. Despite this uncertainty, the onus is on the marketer to convey the brand story to the consumers. Preferred platforms for the same are brand campaigns via social media platforms, share the manufacturing story of the product and highlight the social impact created by the brand in the field of fashion for the environment, consumers, and their employees.
Besides all the mentioned points, the brands catering to the traditional consumers must understand that they must anticipate the consumer needs to serve them better correctly. Additionally, several studies have suggested that more than half of the consumers also preferred loyalty point purchases and easy checkout processes. This keeps their changing consumption patterns in check. Nevertheless, these times will indeed witness moulding the definition of luxury. At least it is sure to evolve soon as the rising adoption of online channels has caused significant disruption in the world of luxury for marketers as well as consumers.