Marketing

Is the luxe market losing its luster?

Late last week, RH released its second-quarter financial results, which included a 19% drop in revenue compared with the second quarter of last year. Even while giving its annual revenue guidance the tiniest of bumps — now estimated at $3.04 billion to $3.1 billion from a prior forecast of $3 billion to $3.1 billion — the company noted the difficulties that lie ahead.

The dangers of social media dependency

Like cliques in high school, social media can be fickle. One day, a platform is the place to be, and all the cool kids are hanging out there. The next day, they’ve moved on to somewhere else. One day, the popular kids love all your posts. They comment on them. They share them. The next day, for reasons known only to them (and the algorithms), they stop paying much attention to what you have to say.

‘Vibrant mature consumers’ have the money to spend

Vibrant mature consumers are the top 20% of spenders in the 50-70 age group — it’s also a group that tends to be happier and more active than other mature consumers. Despite their ability to spend, they can be overlooked by retailers, brand marketers and even interior designers because they don’t drive trends and account for a lower percentage of overall consumer spending than younger generations.

What happens when consumers stop consuming?

We’re also seeing a generational shift in how people view shopping and buying. Why is this happening? Because the older generations were accumulators and the younger generations, well, not so much. we have a generation of accumulators shedding their belongings and not restocking. And we have younger generations who are less interested in shopping as sport and more worried about the environmental impact of their purchases. Oh, and they have relatively fewer financial resources than some previous generations at the same point in their lives.

When consumers are getting less for their money, give them more

With prices rising the past couple of years across virtually every category of goods and services, consumers are tired of paying more and more for the same thing — or, in the case of shrinkflation, paying the same amount for less product.

That makes receiving a small, unexpected gift from a company especially delightful right now.