7 Mistakes That Might Be Destroying Your Luxury Brand

“Effortlessly luxurious”, “out of reach of the common man”, “status symbol”, “a class apart”, and many such phrases are being used to describe your product offering. You don’t offer a luxury brand. You offer an experience. But is this solitary belief enough? Remember, the luxury product market is a very twisted version of the regular demand and supply chain. The higher the price, the higher the demand of your product is going to be.

Luxury brand management is kind of like a different discipline in its own right. There are a few common mistakes that are surprisingly similar across all industries when practicing this discipline. Marketers fail to understand where they are going wrong when trying to promote, price, place or even introduce their luxury product in the market. Here we are going to have a quick look at some of the most common errors in luxury brand management that even you might be making as we speak when trying to put out your luxury product.

Do You Lack A Brand Strategy?

A well defined brand strategy means having a well defined identity for your product. A brand is more than just a logo. It needs to have certain values and a unique selling point. A luxury brand in particular should associate itself with class and exclusivity. Remember, your consumers are going to align to your brand only if you are able to offer them a unique experience that is not easily reachable by the masses. Having a specific brand strategy is going to help you achieve this goal. A brand strategy is going to define what your product offers and who the target audience is that will get their life enriched by the experience that is in tow for them.

Cost-Based Pricing Is A Trap

Pricing according to cost is not for luxurious brands. Adding the cost of your production to the desired profit margin and then cross-checking it with the prices offered by your competitors is not the right approach. Remember, the biggest task that your brand is going to be performing is adding luxury value to the purchase of your consumers. The perceived added luxury value is what your consumers are going to pay an extremely high price for. They are not really inclined to know the features of the product which may come across as something very presumptuous but this is how the luxury product market functions. When any reputable brand sets its price based on the cost and margin expectations, they tend to price their product too low which is a big signal of a lack of added luxury value. This is going to confuse your consumers and they will not buy your product assuming that there is no exclusivity or class attached to your offering.

How Successful Are You When It Comes To Brand Story-telling?

Your story-telling is going to be successful when it drives the added luxury value in your brand. To be able to tell an engaging and interesting story, your brand needs to define what it does better than anyone else in the market. The story is more often than not brand-related and not product-related. Understand that unlike mass-produced products, luxury products reflect the added luxury value of your brand instead of the many features and specifications a regular customer is looking for. When you tell your story correctly and deploy it with smart strategies such as limited edition, limited versions of the product, limited availability, etc., it is much easier to pique the interest of your consumers.

Thinking Too Local Is Not Going To Get You Anywhere

If you sell your product globally, thinking too local is going to harm your luxury brand. Your consumers are radically distinct from one another as you go from one part of the world to another. For example, the fried chicken brand KFC upon entering into China could not stick to their slogan “finger lickin good” for the simple reason that it literally translated into “eat your fingers off.” Same was the case with Pepsi the slogan of which was “Pepsi brings you back to life.” This slogan was translated into “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave” which was not something the brand was looking to convey. Therefore, think global and act local. This way you will not end up saying something offensive, funny or repulsive and harm your brand’s reputation.

Lack Of Effective Communication

Your luxury brand business is built on a fair exchange of value among your stakeholders, consumers, executives, policymakers and your innovators. You need to show your customers that you are always there for them. The advent of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and plenty more has made connecting with thousands of people very easy. Treat each and every query that they face as a crisis. You must acknowledge the issues they are facing right away and try to the best of your abilities to solve them as soon as possible.

Expecting The Same Profit Margin Across All Your Verticals

If you own disparate product lines, it is not wise or even practical to expect uniformity in profit margins. Different customers will assign different values to the same product. Comparing your one product offering with another is going to lead you to implementing the most erroneous pricing strategy. The price of the product reflects the willingness of the customer to pay. Your customer will be willing to pay for your product if they have a specific perception of that value that they will get out of this purchase. You have to price your product keeping in mind the value your consumer expects to receive from it regardless of uniformity of profit margin which was the focus of your previous brand management strategy.

Price Change Without Assessing Market Response

This is one of the biggest mistakes that are going to harm your luxury brand. You cannot afford any price wars with your competitors. Any significant decrease in your price is going to provoke a reaction from your competitors. All the while, this decrease in price will move your product offering to a different market segment where a different demographic is already capable of purchasing your product. By making your product available to this category of consumers, you will be ripping away the USP and exclusivity of your brand. The luxury value of your brand will decline and you will end up catering to the masses instead of the classes.

Final Thoughts

If you are making any such mistakes with your luxury brand offering, it is time to rectify them right away. Your target is not to compete with the smaller competitors that focus on highlighting the features of their products. Your target is the elite who do not think twice before shelling out thousands of dollars just to acquire the quality, status, uniqueness and experience that you offer. For more such insights, visit Bigroxmedia today!