Comments on: 10 Popular Myths About Wealth and Luxury

By: Kay

Kay — Mon, 11 May 2009 14:38:51 +0000

Very interesting, thanks. I suppose everyone selling anything on the Internet – whether via a blog or other means – wants to attract the affluent who might actually buy something using your links.

I found a lot of food for thought in the ten myths and the responses and will bear them in mind. I suppose you have to figure out exactly who your target audience and how to give them what they want. Yes, I know it sounds obvious, but it doesn’t hurt to get back to basics sometimes.

By: 999s9s99s9s

999s9s99s9s — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 00:12:30 +0000

By definition there are only a few true luxury brands. So it is ridiculous for someone to make a post on the internet beliving that half of the pepole who read it own luxury brands and will need his advice.

By: Zena

Zena — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 16:58:30 +0000

Yeah??? Well I have seen rich people go lie on applications and take government cheese, and go buy up a bunch of clothes and stuff at the second hand store, so much so they raised the prices on their stuff making it even harder for the poor to get anything decent at a fair price. It didn’t make me love them.

By: Nina Zapala

Nina Zapala — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 13:36:45 +0000

Your post was spot on. As a pr professional for luxury hotel brands part of my job is identifying what the mind-set is for those of means, and I oftentimes find myself explaining what you stated so clearly is that people of wealth have the same values, and concerns that most people have. It’s pretty simply and boils down to one trait; human nature, and that hasn’t changed for thousands of years.

What I find most often is that a truly “authentic” travel experience will win over a “tourism created” travel experience with all things being equal in terms of quality of service, value etc…

I also concur with your thoughts on the wealthy providing referrals and word-of-mouth recommendations. They do talk about their favorite wines, hotels, cars and clothing brands; in fact they like to brag about them especially when they feel they got a great deal and that doesn’t necessary mean a sale it could mean a level of service i.e. time saving service, a new experience at a favorite haunt, or an upgrade.

The wealthy are different in that they do work hard and they do take risks, willing to lose it all. That is a critical issue to keep in mind as well when marketing to this demographic.

Thanks for the great post.

By: Jacqueline

Jacqueline — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 03:12:38 +0000

The part about wealthy customers not going online is very interesting to me – I would assume that they would be less likely to check out product reviews as opposed to relying on the help of a trusted salesperson (of course, this is assuming that they can find quality salespeople in every area or product category, which seems highly unlikely or at the very least pretty difficult).

It actually does make perfect sense though, especially given the growth of recommendation engines (and now that I think of it, there is actually that is focused on luxury goods as well – http://www.3luxe.com) and all the many social shopping sites (way too many to name).

The part about the luxury marketers only targeting the top is interesting too – especially because those have a net worth of $1-50 million are probably huge consumers of luxury brands and services as well. I wonder how a marketer would focus on that group in particular without sort of blurring the lines and just targeting wealthy people in general, however. I wonder if this accounts for the people who may splash out one thing (luxury travel, for instance), but not in other areas. After all, there are degrees of wealth (and spending habits).