american express publishing

Blogging From The American Express Publishing Luxury Summit: 5 Key Luxury Trends

Filed under: Wealth

What does the future of luxury look like? There's no one easy answer but the morning panels at Tuesday's sessions of the American Express Publishing Luxury Summit were dedicated to the fine art of prognostication. That's no easy task in a luxury world that's been consistently defined as uncertain. Trendwatchers say that while luxury is rising again any hint of major global turmoil could throw us all back off our feed again.

The rise of China: When it comes to predicting global growth the acronym has been BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China). That should be spelled with a really big C, says the fashionably attired Lisa Sun of McKinsey & Company who discussed the growing Chinese luxury market. The Chinese market is a growing but increasingly hard-to-define group. Chinese consumers are still new to luxury, generally young, ambitious and interested in Western brands. They are getting more concerned about social responsibility although generally at a slower rate than Western shoppers. They are on what might be defined as the early curve of the luxury education. What is also interesting is that a major part of China's luxury market isn't just clustered in the major cities. McKinsey & Company's data reveals that a full 43 percent of the Chinese luxury market comes from outside the tier one and tier two cities. Further along on the arc of luxury acquisition is the Japanese market where buyers are both older and more experienced in the luxury market and less fascinated with Western brands. Could the next big luxury brand come out of China? It is a definite possibility, the Chinese shoppers are a key part of defining the new luxury.

The "smart" shopper: I mentioned the discounts versus deals phenomenon a bit in my previous report from this summit. Today's affluent shoppers don't really want their merchandise discounted exactly but what they want to feel is that they got the best deal possible. There's a certain ego-stroking phenomenon involved here. A few years ago bragging about what you spent was appealing, these days people like to brag about what they save. No one wants to appear to be spending frivolously or inappropriately which is where the buzzwords of quality and authenticity from Monday's panels came back into play. The smart shopper is also well-connected and uses the internet and sale sites as part of their strategy. Social media isn't going anywhere but how to monetize it for social shopping remains a bit of a mystery. For the most part consumers don't want ads in their social media. For brands to enter this space they have to participate as people which leads to the next key point below.

Tags: affluence, american express publishing, consumers, luxury, luxury summit, shopping, trends

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The Dawn Of A New Economy: Latest Findings on the Habits of the Wealthy from The Harrison Group and American Express Publishing

by Susan Kime (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wealth

New research about America's wealthiest consumers was released Tuesday at the American Express Publishing Luxury Summit in Las Vegas. The results confirm that although discretionary spending is growing only modestly, there are changes occurring within the mindsets of today's affluent consumer that can drive America forward in the coming year.

Some of the highlights announced by Dr. Jim Taylor, vice chairman at Harrison Group, and Cara David, Senior Vice President, Corporate Marketing & Integrated Media of American Express Publishing, include:

• Luxury consumption to increase by $28 billion
• Affluent and wealthy consumers have become... happier!
• The wealthiest consumers have become... wealthier
• Re-emerging consumers are conducting "Precision-Shopping"
• They are increasingly immune to persuasion
• Xer professionals are now experiencing an "Economic Status Jam"
• Social media remains mainly social, but desire digital information and content is growing... but not at the expense of
traditional media
• Resourcefulness, self-sufficiency, value and needs-based purchasing dominate

These findings come from the 2010 Survey of Affluence and Wealth in America, produced by American Express Publishing and Harrison Group, released on Tuesday. Fielded monthly, 1,910 respondents among the top 10 percent of Americans have been interviewed in 2010 so far. The mean sample household income is $520,000. Each respondent completed a 50-minute questionnaire, covering topics such as shifting attitudes and marketplace priorities, as well as current and anticipated spending on over 18 categories. This is the fourth year of this study, allowing for the tracking of attitudes and behaviors over these difficult years. here the relevant findings:

Tags: affluent, AffluentFamilies, american express publishing, consumers, luxury, shopping mall, spending, wealth

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Blogging From the American Express Publishing Luxury Summit: What Do Consumers Want?

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

As the American Express Publishing Luxury Summit got underway all old was new again. This is a crowd much shaken by the fickle consumer but also ready to focus on the future. They want your dollars, luxury consumer, and they are tentatively certain you might be ready to spend them again. But they also know that you've changed.

Cynthia McFarlane, President, Saatchi & Saatchi Latin America, broke down the results of her survey of luxury consumers around the world and found some core points of global connection. Customers want what is classic, quality and a known quantity. And yet, they want to be surprised, they want to be dazzled, they want thrills. They want choice, but not too much choice, deals but not discounts. It's all a bit confusing for brands trying to maintain consistency while creating the excitement luxury consumers need to see.

One things interesting to note across the panels was that when it came to discussions of successful luxury one name kept coming up, Hermes. Luxury advisor Michel Gutsatz praised the brand for its integration of ad campaigns, website and stores to create a distinctive unified brand. William S. Taubman, the Chief Operating Officer of the Taubman Centers chain of shopping centers also highlighted the brand for its commitment to quality and authenticity. Time and again the distinctive orange brand received accolades. Louis Vuitton also got approving nods for focusing on core values of craftsmanship, a message neatly shown off in their recent ad campaign featuring everyone from famous astronauts to Baryshnikov. Pretty amazing that the future of luxury branding is being shown by luxury brands with very long histories. Another brand often discussed was Apple. Why Apple? Because nobody gets Apple discounts and that itself is a form of luxury and a little bit of magic that other brands would love to emulate.

Tags: american express publishing, luxury real estate, sustainable, tiffany, TiffanyAndCo, tihany design

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Blogging From The American Express Publishing Luxury Summit: Tony Hsieh on Delivering Happiness

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Monday's American Express Publishing Luxury Summit panel sessions began with a swell of music and slides with buzzwords like provenance and human interaction--- the message again, echoing last night's talk was that luxury is "back" but in a new slightly refined way.

"Innovation isn't a luxury, it's a necessity" said Ed Kelly, the President and Chief Executive Officer of American Express Publishing and as if to show proof of this the Luxury Summit offers attendees the use of an iPod Touch. The Touch has a designated Luxury Summit app. The app allows people to vote on polls, ask questions of the speakers in real time and generally navigate the Summit. It's a neat idea and a real sign that luxury is dragging itself into tech, ready or not.

Up first on the presentation schedule was Tony Hsieh, the president of Zappos and author of the new book "Delivering Happiness." Zappos was bought by Amazon last year in a deal closed in December. Instead of blending Zappos into Amazon (what usually happens to the brands Amazon gobbles up), Zappos continues to run independently and define its own unique corporate culture which is part of the subject of Hsieh's book. One of the reasons that Zappos has had such rapid growth is that it does things a little differently than some other online purveyors. The core of Zappos remains the call center and the quality of the customer interaction is the yardstick by how Zappos measures success.

Tags: american express publishing, luxury summit, zappos

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How the Wealthy are Spending Their Money This Year

by Annie Scott (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wealth

Last week, I sat down with representatives from American Express Publishing and Harrison Group to see a presentation and discuss a question which is on many of our minds: How are the wealthy reacting to the recession?

Well, to start with, more than half (53%) are worried they could run out of money. Dr. Jim Taylor, vice chairman of Harrison Group, and Cara David, senior vice president of corporate marketing and integrated media of American Express Publishing spent approximately an hour display charts that showed the results of countless hours spent crunching the first-quarter responses of 1,300 Americans with discretionary incomes over $100,000 (that means income after tax, mortgage, home maintenance, and child education costs are subtracted).

This year there are 120,000 fewer households that fit in that range.

Of the 1,300 moderately-to-very wealthy Americans surveyed, 70% believe that the recession will last longer than a year, and 35% think this could be a long term depression. 78% report that the crisis has affected their sense of financial security.

So how does the spending look? "Luxury is not dead, there's simply a filter on risk," says Taylor. 77% said they are buying fewer "big ticket items" this year -- so it's a safe bet that they're buying brands they trust. There seems to be a trend among the wealthy of pride in their willingness to not buy things. This goes beyond the usual chatter of talking about great bargains you got; people are actually feeling an increase in their self-esteem related to their ability to take control of their own lives. Believe it or not, spending less is making people happier. People checking the "Very Happy" box went from 58% last year to 66% this year -- women up 10%, men up 4%.

Tags: american express publishing, data, harrison group, HarrisonGroup, money, recession, wealth

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american express publishing

Blogging From The American Express Publishing Luxury Summit: 5 Key Luxury Trends

The Dawn Of A New Economy: Latest Findings on the Habits of the Wealthy from The Harrison Group and American Express Publishing

Blogging From the American Express Publishing Luxury Summit: What Do Consumers Want?

Blogging From The American Express Publishing Luxury Summit: Tony Hsieh on Delivering Happiness

How the Wealthy are Spending Their Money This Year

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