Feb 19, 2023
The wealthy person is a complicated creature.
Research indicates the typical top-end-of-towner seeks incremental steps up, in a lot of things, makes major steps up, in one to three things, and remains unmoved by luxury, brand, experience or other factors in many other purchase categories.
The wealthy are selective in what they indulge in.
Price is literally out the window in the care and feeding of the poodle, but the wealthy often recoil at the price of a Lexus, often preferring a Toyota.
This makes marketing to the wealthy a strategic undertaking.
Clever brands have worked this out.
Luxury-goods have caught on and are engaging in a strategy called "luxury drop-down".
Luxury goods like Mercedes or Coach bags have created lower-priced products - usually smaller, with fewer features, but of the same quality and bearing the brand name - encouraging the affluent consumer to cross the luxury line without qualm.
Further, some luxury brands have found enormous leverage in leaving a huge chasm between their top-priced items and their new lower priced merchandise.
Women who can't afford one, and even those who can, might blanch at a $10,000 Vera Wang dress but be quite happy to pay $199 for a Vera Wang blouse. But without knowledge of the $10,000 dress, they'd balk at such a high price for the blouse.
It serves to have an ultra-expensive offering.
Some marketers, even go so far as to create and promote red-herring-priced goods or services they hope no one buys, only to set a standard that makes their actual prices seem imminently reasonable by comparison.
Take a look at the Fullarton Singapore’s wine list for a perfect example of this!