How to Build a Luxury Brand Strategy to Market to High-End Consumers

In today’s market, luxury brands must be creative in order to connect with their customers. Building a luxury brand to target high-end consumers doesn’t necessarily mean reaching as many people as possible to garner the most sales. Instead, a smart luxury brand strategy targets the right consumers with thoughtful content to build a loyal following.

Identify Your Consumers

The first step is building a successful luxury brand strategy is identifying the segment of consumers to target. Because luxury brands focus more on types of customers than the number of customers, it’s helpful to design a strategy for specific demographics.

Consider consumer details like:

• Customer motivation. Do they buy your product for its quality, brand name, or exclusivity?
• Affluence or income level. Do most of your customers fall within the same range?
• Purchases. What products or services do they typically buy from luxury brands?

Don’t forget that luxury marketing differs from regular marketing in the sense that your products don’t pander to customer needs. Your brand sells aspiration; it doesn’t necessarily answer a need or problem. However, it’s still important to understand your customers so you can develop your brand messaging to reach them effectively.

Use the Right Language in Your Content

“Luxury” suggests extravagance, status, affluence, and exclusivity. To promote a luxury brand, it makes sense to use similar words in your content. Excluding words like “deal,” “affordable,” or “budget” can reinforce that angle. Remember that the right language will create a perception of luxury for customers. By buying this particular product or service, they’re buying something limited edition or that’s in high demand. They’re buying something not always affordable for others because of the high-quality craftsmanship or limited availability. The exclusivity factor is a huge draw for high-end consumers, and using the appropriate language on your website or in ads can fuel that perception of luxury.

Burberry does this well, especially on their Instagram page. In their latest posts, Burberry paints a picture for their audience by describing what their products evoke, smell like, or feel like. Their new fragrance is “a spring-inspired love letter to London,” suggesting a romantic getaway. Burberry also pays homage to its long brand heritage by describing a new monogram design as “elegant… to signify our storied past as well as our contemporary future.” This relays a classic, luxury feel that indicates Burberry isn’t going anywhere, and that its high-end pieces are worth buying.

Create the Right Aesthetic in Your Branding

Whether it’s on your website or social media channels, your visuals can suggest luxury just like the language you use in your content. When done right, a photograph or graphic can suggest the feeling of wearing designer apparel and accessories, experiencing an exclusive event, or driving an expensive car. A high-end consumer will feel excitement, thrill or longing when looking at your brand’s visuals. Every brand’s aesthetic will be different: colors, typography, tone, and more. But you can easily see the difference between luxury brand ads and mass market ads in the way they’re composed and what feelings they evoke.

Compare Aston Martin’s website to a more economical car manufacturer, like Toyota. Aston Martin’s landing page is sleek, dark and minimal, dominated by an abstract video. On the other hand, Toyota’s landing page is bright and easy to read. Special offers for their cars are promoted at the top and center of the page. The difference in aesthetic (and the message that conveys for each brand) is clear.

Show Why the Brand Has Value for High-end Consumers

Any brand can benefit from making emotional connections with their customers. Making that connection strengthens your value and develops brand loyalty. For a luxury brand, you must communicate why your products or services offer value for customers. You can do this by connecting with your audience through storytelling. What unique experience can your brand offer that other luxury brands don’t? What are your brand’s values? What does your brand and its history represent?

Tiffany & Co. is a good example of this. They recognize their long history, iconic status, and reputation as a global jeweler on their “World of Tiffany” about page. They use phrases like “expert craftsmanship,” “bold artistry,” and “king of diamonds” to describe their brand.

A Thoughtful Luxury Brand Strategy Pays Off

Luxury brands can reach their audience effectively when the brand strategy is carefully considered. Once your target audience is determined, tell your brand’s story through elevated content, in both writing and visuals. The language used in ads and SEO makes a difference as well. By telling your brand’s story well, you’ll demonstrate its value and convince high-end consumers to buy.