Affluent consumers return to the market with heigthened expectations of luxury brands --

This new service will give luxury brand managers new depth and more analysis in how their brands measure up to those expectations.

The affluent consumer market is starting to emerge from the recession, according to the latest survey of luxury consumer purchasing and spending from Unity Marketing.  For the affluent segment of the market, the recession bottomed out between third and fourth quarter 2008, and has been on a long, slow road to recovery through the first half of 2009. 

Luxury consumer confidence, as measured by Unity Marketing's exclusive Luxury Consumption Index (LCI),  is on the rise and the average amount spent on luxury in the first half of 2009 is up 9.4 percent over previous year.  (Click this link to learn more about 2Q2009 results: www.unitymarketingonline.com/cms_luxury/luxury/luxury3/Luxury_2Q2009.php )

Yet despite the positive signs in the latest survey, there are still tough days ahead for luxury marketers and their brands.  During the recession the affluents have taken time off from shopping to reassess their priorities and reevaluate their spending.  This has resulted in changes in how they shop and what they value in the luxury brands they purchase. 

Post-recession luxury consumers expect the luxury brands they patronize to deliver on even higher expectations of quality than before with an equally strong demand that the value of their purchase be in line with the price.  These three concepts are the most powerful for luxury marketers to manage today: 

Quality -- Value -- Price.

Each of these concepts is highly individual and measured personally by the consumer.  What is high quality to one person may not measure up for another. What is good value for one, may be grossly over-priced for another.  In the new post-recession luxury market, marketers need to get inside the head of their consumer and assess exactly what the dimensions of quality-value-price are for their target customer market. 

Until today there was no way to measure precisely how a large sample of affluent, high-net-worth individuals viewed specific luxury brands based upon a broad range of consumer-centric attributes.   To give luxury brands a 360 degree view of their brand from the target consumers' point of view, Unity Marketing has teamed with E-Poll Market Research to develop E-Score Brand -- Luxury, the ultimate resource for luxury brand ratings.

E-Score Brand Delivers More Affluent Consumers Ranking More Luxury Brands Based on More Attributes

Result:  More Insight about What Connects the HNW Consumer with your Luxury Brand

E-Score Brand -- Luxury provides detailed facts and figures about how luxury brands are perceived by their target consumers.  Over 1,100 affluent and high-net worth individuals rank each brand across 35 attributes that measure the key drivers of the brand's appeal and captures the consumers' behavioral and attitudinal relationship with the brand. 

Also provided with E-Score Brand -- Luxury report is custom analysis of the relative strength of each brand by Pam Danziger of Unity Marketing.  E-Score Brand -- Luxury is an invaluable tool to help luxury brand executives plan for the future of their brands and the changing luxury marketplace. 

E-Score Brand -- Luxury is unrivaled in its ability to deliver everything luxury brand managers need to make strategic decisions on positioning, product extensions, campaign evaluations, and advertising opportunities. 

Commenting on the new E-Score Brand -- Luxury service, Pam Danziger says, "Coming out of this recession high-net-worth consumers expect even higher levels of quality but greater value in their luxury brand purchases.  Because consumers' expectations are elevated for purchases in the luxury sector, they are not willing to accept anything less than that their high expectations are fulfilled.  Because their expectations are so high, their resulting disappointment is correspondingly low if they are frustrated or not satisfied.

"One of the luxury marketers' primary jobs in the current environment is to deliver through the brand experience all that these demanding consumers expect.  The E-Score Brand -- Luxury ratings system gives marketers greater access to the many dimensions of their brand in the mind of the HNW consumer.  It offers significantly more depth of analysis and granularity of data to help them make strategic decisions.  It joins a suite of other consumer rating measures from E-Poll that can help luxury brand marketers select strategic partners, such as matching celebrity spokesperson with the brand.  I am proud to be working with E-Poll to deliver this new level of much needed consumer intelligence to luxury brand managers."

To learn more about E-Score Brand -- Luxury and how it can add new dimension to your understanding of how affluent consumers view your brand,  click this link or call Pam Danziger at 717.336.1600

About Pam Danziger and Unity Marketing

Pamela N. Danziger is an internationally recognized expert specializing in consumer insights, especially for marketers and retailers that sell luxury goods and experiences to the masses as well as the 'classes.' She is president of Unity Marketing, a marketing consulting firm she founded in 1992.

Advising such clients as PPR & Gucci, Diageo, Waterford-Wedgwood, Google, Swarovski, GM, Orient-Express Hotels, Italian Trade Commission, Marie Claire magazine, The World Gold Council, and The Conference Board,  Pam taps consumer psychology to help clients navigate the changing consumer marketplace.

www.unitymarketingonline.com