Trends: new luxury

OPEN forum are currently running a series on consumer trends, and today they featured ‘New Luxury’. Read on to find out more, or click here to view the article on the original website.

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Consumers are eschewing traditional status symbols in favor of authentic products and services – a story to tell means a story to sell.

Over the past century, rising disposable incomes have brought goods once considered “luxury” within reach of an increasing number of people. Now, a new breed of consumer is challenging the classic definition of luxury by seeking out a fresh form based on authenticity and exclusivity. A growing band of committed craftspeople – those who make beautiful, handcrafted products and those who offer tailored services requiring skill and time to achieve – are spearheading the new luxury movement.

Quality Not Quantity

New luxury can be characterized by one or more of the following: a single point of sale; the use of specially sourced materials to make the product; detailed consultation to ensure the customer’s exact specifications are matched; a curated shopping experience; a limited product range or supply of the product; and a trained, skilled workforce. Small businesses are ideally positioned to apply their working practices to providing quality rather than quantity, and will find that promoting great craftsmanship can pay dividends.

Business owners who already supply handcrafted goods should consider capitalizing on their existing operations by promoting their products’ provenance. The new luxury consumer appreciates the time and effort that goes into the manufacture of such products, so consideration should be shown to every aspect of production. The carefully constructed website displays its product range in between testimonials from satisfied customers. Carving hardwood toys from a wind-powered workshop, the one-man band behind the venture plants trees to compensate for the raw materials he uses (which are native to the area), and even writes to his child customers to explain the origin of their new toy. A green business before it became fashionable, the enterprise is naturally limited by the number of hours devoted to the craft.

The story behind the product is an attractive feature for the new luxury consumer. We Love Jam in San Francisco, California, produces limited quantities of its Blenheim apricot preserve each year. The owners discovered that the Blenheim apricot is an endangered variety and the orchard they use is one of the last remaining in the region. Each batch of jam is meticulously prepared using the finest ingredients and is only available for purchase via their website. Customers join a waiting list to alert them when the new batch becomes available every August. We Love Jam has redefined luxury by successfully navigating the fine line between elitism and quality, turning something as humble as jam into a luxury product for food lovers around the country by limiting the supply and keeping standards high.

From Supplier to Buyer

Business opportunities are also available to those who provide a curated or immersive retail environment for customers. In Portland, Oregon, Craig Olson and Sean Igo own Canoe, which stocks an eclectic mix of office and homewares that are united by a commitment to provenance, craftsmanship and quality design. Each product is accompanied by a mini-history, which makes the link from supplier to buyer and reinforces the Canoe brand values of timeless design and functionality. Olson comments: “In many ways it is a very Scandinavian or Japanese approach – the idea that products are to be used and enjoyed every day, not placed on a shelf only to fulfill some status role.” Canoe represents the growing breed of retailer mindful that, in an increasingly homogeneous world of Main Streets, discerning luxury consumers are becoming more demanding in their search for authenticity and are rejecting the mundane – whatever the cost.

The fragile economy has given rise to a segment of consumers who are reassessing mass consumption and traditional status symbols in favor of authenticity. Whatever the product, the central tenet is that new luxury goods should have a story to tell and offer an experience that goes beyond the price tag. Small businesses that take pride in combining quality materials, highly skilled craftsmen and a made-to-measure service are naturally in the best position to leverage this trend. Many of them are already proving that adopting new luxury practices is the perfect way to retain existing clientele – and to find fresh customers too.

For more articles and profiles on the trends shaping today’s business landscape, download OPEN Book: A Practical Guide to Essential Trends.

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What do you think? This article is geared more towards retail, but VisitScotland statistics also seem to be telling us that tourists are looking for stories and to add authentic experiences to their trips; how can you offer this ‘new luxury’ to your customers? Share your ideas here!

Creating the Ideal Customer Experience

OPENforum has another great article, this time about how to design and implement the best possible customer experience that will turn a client into a fan.  Read it on the OPENforum website here, or scroll down.

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More and more successful businesses are coming to understand the marketing momentum comes about by focusing on creating rich customer experiences – the kind that make customer go out and talk about your business voluntarily.

While it’s important to have great products and services, it’s probably not enough. You’ve also got to wrap those great products and services in a total customer experience that keeps them coming back for more.

It’s a tall order really because there is no one right customer experience, you must find a way to tap, bottle and promote the little things that delight. There are however, some practices that might allow you to discover and create your ideal customer experience.

Have a plan

The first job is the design what you want your ideal customer experience to look and feel like. Literally, how do you want the customer to feel about doing business with your organization? Is it confident, warm, giddy, amazed, amused? These are all potential elements of your overall brand and certainly should come into play here.

How will they experience your core point of differentiation? Okay, this assumes you have one and lean heavily on it. It may, in fact, be the most important part of the experience so think long and hard about this one.

Chart the touch points

Many times the positive brand experience built during the sales process falls flat on it’s face when the customer starts to work with the implementation team or meets Helga from finance.

To create an ideal customer experience you need to take a look at every way your business comes into contact with a customer, and some additional ways that you should be coming into contact with a customer and make certain that each of these contacts or touchpoints is designed as an intentional marketing experience.

Think about it, how you present your invoice to a customer is potential opportunity to build on the total experience.

Plug the Gaps

So, now that you have your customer experience plan and you’ve looked at all the ways you can and do come into contact with your customers, it’s time to plug the gaps. In other words, create processes and experiences that represent and intensify the total customer experience.

The idea here is to move prospects logically along the path of becoming a customer to the point where they are so thrilled they volunteer to become advocates and referral sources.

There are many places where customers can fall off the path and it’s your job to fix those gaps.

Measure the results

One of the easiest ways to measure the success of your customer experience plan is to create a set of metrics that point to the success or failure of very tangible elements.

Yes, it’s important to set goals and measure things like revenue and profit, but even steady growth in these metrics can mask the true health of the customer experience.

The customer experience is measured by monitoring much more granular things such as number of testimonials, receivable aging, referrals made and converted, results achieved and attendance at customer events.

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What’s your reaction to this? Have you had a particularly memorable experience with a company? How did it affect the way that you feel about that company?  Tell us here!