When exploring who the luxury consumer in Australia is, in our time, it’s important to recognise that they are all of us. The luxury consumer is also a mass consumer, and not necessarily two different people. Remember, there is no luxury toothpaste option, or luxury vegemite that the illuminous luxe hunter spreads on their toast.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) lists the average disposable income per person in Australia at $USD33,417 a year. This is more than the OECD average in the US of $USD30,563. As a result, almost all Australians have the potential to be ‘the luxury consumer’ in some way. Buying luxury is about a mind-set, not affordability.
Furthermore, luxury brand pricing is driven by buyers, not by the brand. Top-end real estate agent Michael LaFido will tell you that you can’t sell a luxury home without the buyers – they drive the market and the price point. The same is true of all luxury products, where the price is not a correlation to the cost of product, but of what the buyer is willing to spend.
The Mint Partners pride themselves on telling a better story. Understanding what it takes to shift a consumer to a luxury consumer and applying the tactics that will change a mindset, creating gutsy behavioural shifts. When it comes to luxury, the marketing rules of mass products often need to be turned on their head. With 12 years of speaking to the luxury consumer, MINT recognise that variance in category and product matters less than knowing how to provide the right stories and experience. Understanding attention as the currency in an experience economy; the importance of creating a new form of convenience and the power of story, especially in Australia, to provide esteem, is the basis to our communications strategies. Rules that we have implemented to great business success for our clients.
For the full report ‘Demystifying the Luxury Consumer in 2019’ and case studies about transforming audiences into luxury consumers, please contact [email protected]
