Who Are You Aspiring to Be?

by Danielle Smith on 04/06/2009 at 1:47 pm in Commentary, Conferences, Opinion Editorial, Within Range

Recently, I had the great pleasure of attending Luxury Interactive in London. The event was well attended by the best dressed group of conference attendees I’ve ever seen (content wasn’t too shabby either). I would have expected no less and did my best to keep up, but I’ll be honest. Luxury is just not my natural state of being. But when in Rome, dress in Bulgari, I guess. This is why there are now Diane Von Furstenberg clothes in my closet, turning up their imaginary noses at all the stuff from Target.

I’d like to point out that my foray into luxury retail was only made possible by ridiculous markdowns, and this got me thinking. I had turned into the type of consumer luxury marketers work to avoid: the ultra price-sensitive shopper who wanders and browses, never really associating with any particular brand. They’re sort of like Dory, the absent-minded fish from Finding Nemo, if Dory shopped for discounted Burberry handbags. Luxury retailers don’t really target these people, because while certain price-conscious shoppers want to purchase from designer labels, they don’t care about which one they’re buying—only that they are getting something fancy for 40% off.

Luxury brands might not be interested in bargain-hunters, but they are VERY interested in so-called Aspirationals, or those who aspire to luxury. Luxury retail is essentially a lifestyle choice, and just as regular people who want to be associated with rock music wear AC/DC shirts, people who desire association with luxury wear shirts from A/X. These people might only have a couple high-end items they wear over and over again (if you know what a $30k-a-year-millionaire is, we’re on the same page), but they are very brand conscious and spend what they can. You’d think that a luxury brand wouldn’t want this segment so much either, but it turns out that there are way more people who want to live a life of Prada than people who can actually afford to. These people still spend a lot of money, even if owning a pair of Versace jeans means they have to pick up an extra shift to pay the phone bill.

So what happens with Aspirationals’ spending habits when their income takes a hit, say for example, during a global recession? Curiously, none of the presentations I attended at Luxury Interactive really defined the luxury customer or the element of aspiration involved. I didn’t walk away with a solid sense of how we were going to work to address the chasm that now exists between the spending levels of yesterday and today. How do you measure the aspiration shift and better yet, how do you shift the crowd? If you can no longer aspire to buy a new coat and handbag once a quarter, maybe you’ll aspire to “timeless” luxury and buy a single higher-priced purse that will get you through the whole year. This is obviously the tip of the iceberg; there’s merchandising, inventories, margins and on and on and on to consider. As for me, I’m just ready to at least hear some honest talk around it. I’m ready to learn how to not run into me again.