US. The latest survey by Unity Marketing predicts more “experiential” buying and a positive consumer environment this year. Year-end forecasts by the Pennsylvania-based company are also filled with predictions that the luxury goods market is surging back in a big way.
Unity Marketing has just completed its 2003 year-end luxury consumer survey. This report updates the luxury survey it conducted in 2002 and provides a snapshot of changes in the mindset of the luxury market as we go into 2004.
The major finding this year is that luxury has gone “experiential.” As in last year’s survey, the luxury consumer focus in buying and pursuing luxury is how they experience it, the feelings and emotions luxury evokes, and the way luxury purchases express values and attitudes. Consumers that Unity spoke to confirmed the fact that luxury is no longer about rampant materialism – or having and getting – but the enjoyment in the luxury experience. Among other key findings:
* Luxury consumers in the US feel considerably more positive about their financial status this year, as compared with last.
* The number one must widely-purchased luxury product in the past year was luxury electronics, mirroring a finding from our 2002 survey. And among those who bought jewellery, they spent nearly US$2,000-that is +46% more than they spent on this category in the previous year. Spa spending also got a +36% boost in 2003 over average spending the previous year.
* US luxury consumers continue to be “bargain” shoppers, enjoying the experience of saving money while buying luxuries, for example by shopping at Wal-Mart for certain items and department stores and brand stores in the personal luxury area of fashion, beauty and jewellery.
* Brand is very important for the majority of consumers in only two key categories: luxury automobile and luxury cosmetics and fragrances. For every other category fewer than half of the consumers rated luxury brand as very important in their last purchase decision.
Unity’s survey includes consumers with incomes of US$100k and above, along with a comparative sample of upper middle-income consumers from US$50k to US$99.9k. For those targeting the upper stratosphere of the affluent market, Elite Traveler has just released their 2003 Luxury Spending Survey, an examination of 431 individuals in three segments based upon affluence: Elite Affluent, those with a net worth in excess of US$10 million; Upper Affluent Plus, individuals with a net worth between US$5 and US$10 million; and Upper Affluent, those with a net worth of US$1 million to US5 million.
Interestingly, many of the findings of Elite Traveler among the most affluent consumer groups mirror the Unity report. Among their most important finding is that the most wealthy group (Elite Affluents) are more optimistic about the economy. They also spend more frequently and in much larger amounts across all categories included in the survey.
Speaking to Unity Marketing, Davide Dukcevich, a Forbes columnist, offers a positive outlook on the coming year: “In 2004 look for the return of what Italian fashionsita Gianni Agnelli once called the need for the superfluous.”
Why is the luxury market so important? Luxury goods – including fashion, accessories, leathergoods and electronics, cameras and various gifts defined in Generation DataBank’s breakdown of the travel retail market – represent 36.8% of the global market and growing. The affluent, luxury consumer is a bellwether of trends coming to the mass market. The natural evolution of all luxury concepts is from the classes to the masses. In other words, all luxury concepts after first being introduced to the luxury affluent consumers inevitably are translated down into the mass market.
So today everyone – from the Japanese businessman to the Norwegian “booze-cruise” shopper – is a member of the jet set, while back in the 1960s that term meant something and described only the most elite who had the means to travel.
For more information on the report contact Unity Marketing president Pam Danziger on telephone +1 717 336 1600 or email pam@unitymarketingonline.com
