Ideas from the Luxury Marketing Council that can Help You Sell Travel

Those people whose job it is to market luxury products and services are skittish.  They lie awake at night trying to devise strategies to help them sell to luxury consumers.  That’s because purchasers of luxury items can be skittish themselves.

In this column I’m going to focus on what keeps those marketers awake at night and how knowing the causes of their insomnia can help you to sell more luxury travel.

First let me tell you about the Luxury Marketing Council, an international organization founded in New York in 1994 by marketing guru Greg Furman.  The group provides a way for top marketers to share luxury marketing and sales practices with experts and then fine-tune their own marketing strategies.  Today there are chapters in a few dozen cities around the world.  More than 1,500 global and regional CEOs and top marketing executives are members.  I am a founding member, and over the years I have been active in the group on many levels.  I have always found membership to be valuable.

Following are some challenges, critical issues, trends and concerns that keep members of the Luxury Marketing Council tossing and turning.

Luxury consumers keep changing.  New Luxury consumers are independent and demanding.  They want things their way or it’s the highway.  Savvy marketers need to tailor their product and services to sell to this new audience.  As a seller of luxury travel, you must select products that cater to this new individualism and then approach these potential customers and sell those products in a straightforward, no-hype fashion.

Brand loyalty is extremely fragile.  Affluent consumers can be brand-loyal, but when something doesn’t meet their desires, they will walk.  The trick is in continually anticipating and then meeting their exacting standards.  Sellers need to study their customers and the travel products they are trying to sell on an ongoing basis. 

People want more bang for the buck.  These new luxury consumers, with their independent attitudes, are always looking for new and novel experiences.  This puts the burden on the seller, who needs to stay ahead of the game.
 
Word of mouth is gaining.  Marketers are discovering that the best endorsement of their products occurs when friends and confidantes talk.  If a friend recommends a product, you tend to pay attention, right?  Enlist one of your satisfied clients to speak to potential clients.  Planning word-of-mouth campaigns should be high on your priority list.

Direct mail is slipping.  Many luxury marketers are reporting diminishing returns from direct mail.  That’s not to say that a well-presented, sincere personal letter demonstrating a genuine knowledge of your customer’s needs and interests shouldn’t be in your marketing kit.

Highly customized marketing is gaining ground.  Luxury consumers consider themselves to be special.  Sellers of luxury travel need to treat them as special, not as part of the masses.

There’s a clutter of offers out there.  There is simply too much clutter in the marketplace, with too many offers and too many superlatives.  To wit, “If you buy our product, we’ll give you a free digital meat smoker.”  “This product is the best thing since the invention of ice cream.”  New affluent consumers aren’t buying such hyperbole anymore.  They will make up their own minds by doing their own research.  Don’t confuse them and turn them off by adding to the clutter.

Watch the price-value equation.  Luxury consumers are now asking, “Just what am I paying for, anyway?”  They don’t mind paying for a product or service, but they want value for their money.  It’s good to remember that something can be costly and still be deemed a good value.  Help your clients make good value decisions.

Don’t give away the store.  Almost all retailers, especially at the luxury end, reward their best customers.  But rewards don’t necessarily buy loyalty.  You can give away the store and not be assured of retaining customers.  You can also lose money this way.  The best reward for your best customers is to keep providing what they desire.

Train on the product.  These independent consumers can spot ineptitude a mile away.  Ask yourself, “Do I really know the product?”

Watch for the eclipse of the Boomers.  Here comes Generation Y.  As I mentioned earlier, the luxury marketplace is always changing, and there are always newer, younger affluent consumers just over the horizon.  Be aware of them.  Study them.  Find out more about their desires and needs. 
 
There are lessons to be learned from these sleep-depriving issues.  Acknowledge them, then build on them when designing your luxury travel marketing and sales strategies.