But is your company positioned to take advantage of the rising tide? 
 
As you’ve probably heard, Unity Marketing’s latest Luxury Tracking Survey found luxury consumers’ confidence rose at its fastest pace ever in the fourth quarter 2012.  With renewed confidence, luxury consumers spent much more on luxury goods and services as well; total spending was up more than 25 percent from the previous quarter.
 
But while total luxury spending was up at the individual consumer level, not all segments in the luxury market rose in step.  For example, luxury consumers spent less on luxury furniture, lamps/lighting and rugs/floor coverings last quarter, and spending on both luxury home and personal electronics was down as well. 
 
So while the luxury consumer confidence ‘tide’ is rising, that doesn’t mean that all ‘boats’ will necessarily rise along with it.  Your company, your brand, your store must be properly positioned now in order to benefit from the improved consumer environment.
 
Take for example jewelry, the most luxurious of luxury goods categories included in our Luxury Tracking Survey.  In the most recent study period, spending on luxury jewelry was down both from the previous quarter and from the same period last year.  This cut in spending actually coincided with strong demand, as measured by the share of luxury consumers who made purchases in the category.
 
Strong demand for jewelry coupled with reduced spending by customers with plenty of cash on hand (the average income for those surveyed in the fourth quarter was $290,600) points to jewelry customers looking for discounts and bargains or trading down to less premium jewelry selections — which is exactly what happened this time.  
 
For example, fine gold jewelry, the category’s typical top seller, was bumped from first place by strong spending on sterling silver; further instead of buying premium-priced platinum jewelry, this quarter’s buyers opted instead for palladium and platinum/rhodium-plate jewelry.  Luxury jewelry customers also economized on their gemstone selections, cutting back on diamonds while favoring less-expensive pearl, crystal and faux/manmade gem alternatives.
 
New patterns emerged in luxury jewelry buyers’ choice of stores in which to shop.  Spending at discount stores (think Costco, Kohl’s and other discounters that sell fine jewelry) more than doubled this time.  And while Tiffany still ranked as the number one luxury jewelry retailer, its share of jewelry buyers declined by nearly 10 percentage points, which signifies that Tiffany may be losing its edge with luxury jewelry shoppers.
 
What luxury marketers should take away from this analysis of the jewelry market is that not every brand, every company, every retailer is necessarily going to profit from luxury consumer’s return to the market.  Their needs may have changed and the criteria they are using to determine value may be different now.  Marketers need to assess their current position and make sure that their brand, their offerings, their pricing, their services line up with today’s, not yesterday’s, luxury consumer.
 
Take Action>>  A strategic marketing plan will help assess your business’ current position in the competitive luxury market
 
With the economic environment starting to improve and luxury consumers willing to indulge again, businesses need a new road map that will help grow profits now and in the future.  Too many companies are approaching the new consumer environment with the same old strategic marketing plan in place.  But the luxury consumer market is very different today than it was two years, five years, ten years ago.  Brands need a plan that is designed for today’s environment and today’s customer – one who younger and from a new generation than the Baby Boomers who have been the core customer for luxury brands for so long.

Through Unity Marketing I offer a streamlined consulting service that leverages our experience in the luxury market to help small and mid-sized businesses grow.  I will work personally with you to research your business, explore opportunities and develop a strategic marketing plan customized to your business.
 
To learn more about the strategic planning process, I have written a white paper, entitled “What, So What, Now What – You’ve Built It, But Will the Customers Come,” that describes the five-step process for creating your own strategic marketing plan.  The steps are: 
1. Needs Analysis – Define your own business objectives, challenges and issues. Focus on the end goal of the marketing plan to see where you ultimately need to go.
2. Conduct Marketing Audit – This is the research phase of the planning process where you study your existing marketing programs, successes and failures; study results with key partners, staff members, sales reps, media planners, etc.; evaluate marketing and promotional materials, websites, product positioning, pricing, distribution models, etc.; evaluate competitors; investigate target market, customer profiles, etc.
3. Review Marketing Report Card – Review the results of the marketing audit objectively and critically.  SWOT (Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats) analysis that clearly lays out the current environment for your product service. 
4. Create Strategic Marketing Plan – With all inputs from the previous phases, develop a strategic marketing plan detailing key strategies for Product, Price, Promotion, Placement/Distribution that will help you connect and build market share with your target customer market.
5. On-going Feedback and Support – And the final critical step is to create milestones and guidepost along the way to measure success, evaluate results, adjust course as needed.  

If you’d like to learn more about strategic marketing planning, download the “What, So What, Now What” white paper by clicking here or call me at Unity Marketing 717.336.1600 or write at pam@unitymarketingonline.com to discuss your marketing challenges.   

With the economic environment starting to improve and luxury consumers willing to indulge again, business need a new road map that will help grow the business now and in the future.  Too many companies are approaching the new consumer environment with the same old strategic marketing plan in place.  But the luxury consumer market is very different today than it was two years, five years, ten years ago.  Brands need plan that is designed for today’s environment and today’s customer – one who younger and from a new generation than the Baby Boomers who have been the core customer for luxury brands for so long.
Through Unity Marketing I offer a consulting service that leverages the experience we have working with big companies and major brands toward helping small and mid-sized businesses grow.  I will work personally with you to research your business, explore opportunities and develop a strategic marketing plan customized to your business.
To learn more about the strategic planning process, I have written a white paper, entitled “What, So What, Now What – You’ve Built It, But Will the Customers Come,” that describes the five-step process for creating your own strategic marketing plan.  The steps are:
1. Needs Analysis – Define your own business objectives, challenges and issues. Focus on the end goal of the marketing plan to see where you ultimately need to go.
2. Conduct Marketing Audit – This is the research phase of the planning process where you study your existing marketing programs, successes and failures; study results with key partners, staff members, sales reps, media planners, etc.; evaluate marketing and promotional materials, websites, product positioning, pricing, distribution models, etc.; evaluate competitors; investigate target market, customer profiles, etc.
3. Review Marketing Report Card – Review the results of the marketing audit objectively and critically.  SWOT (Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats) analysis that clearly lays out the current environment for your product service.
4. Create Strategic Marketing Plan – With all inputs from the previous phases, develop a strategic marketing plan detailing key strategies for Product, Price, Promotion, Placement/Distribution that will help you connect and build market share with your target customer market.
5. On-going Feedback – And the final critical step is to create milestones and guidepost along the way to measure success, evaluate results, adjust course as needed.
If you’d like to learn more about strategic marketing planning, download the “What, So What, Now What” white paper by clicking here or call me at Unity Marketing 717.336.1600 or write at pam@unitymarketingonline.com to discuss your marketing challenges.

Tags: Jewelry Market, Luxury Market, strategic marketing planning

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