A lot of marketing is aspirational. Buy these insoles to be the best on the field. Get this television to make your home the place everyone wants to be for the big game. That kind of marketing offers a customer hope that purchasing a product will improve their ability or social standing. Unfortunately, that fails in luxury product marketing.

Why? First, because it’s product-focused (rephrasing one of those lines, for example, would result in “You’ll only be the best on the field with these insoles”—it’s all about the product’s ability, not the consumer’s potential). More important, selling aspirations is pointless when affluent audiences already have both status and the ability to own or do virtually anything they want.

So how do you go about marketing to Ultra High Net Worth Individuals (UHNWI) in a way that upholds your product’s premier value without making your marketing only about the product? And how do you do that while making your product a must-have for the UHNWI customer who can buy literally anything?

With understanding—of your space, your audience, and the brand story you need to tell.

Understand What Luxury Brands Are

As a luxury marketing agency, we define luxury brands as those providing rare and highly coveted offerings, all created with the utmost craftsmanship and priced for UHNWI buyers. These can include anything ranging from luxury resort destinations to adventure travel communities, real estate, cuisine, fashion, and more.

Understand Your Audience—and How It’s Changing

With decades of experience promoting exclusive adventure travel to the literal 1%, we’ll be the first to tell you that marketing to Ultra High Net Worth Individuals is key for any successful luxury brand.

We’ll also tell you that if your advertising communicates with your product’s end user directly (say, the person who will be living in the high-end skyline apartment or wearing that chic, glistening bracelet), there are two types of end users your luxury product marketing can target: UHNWI consumers who just started purchasing luxury goods, and those who are long-term buyers.

New Luxury Buyers

If your audience is just beginning to purchase in the luxury space, your marketing might include:

• Discovery-oriented tactics: Consider content and creative that teaches them about your category, while exciting them to learn more about your brand specifically. This means that your marketing to Ultra High Net Worth Individuals could include social media, or broader, paid media for brand awareness
• Experiential considerations: New buyers in the luxury space could mean younger buyers who are much more used to marketing and purchase processes uniquely tailored to them (think Laudi Vidni’s custom bags). Adopting this approach in your UHNWI marketing could help you provide these customers with a comfortable and more immersive brand experience

UHNWI Marketing for Long-term Buyers

Meanwhile, long-term buyers may show more interest in luxury product marketing that includes:

• Consideration-based approaches: You can assume these audiences already know about your category, so you need to talk to them about how your brand benefits them the most.   For this crowd, make sure your UHNWI marketing provides plenty of images that help audiences see your product from every angle, makes the most important information about your product easy to see, and include recommendations or testimonials to help consumers feel more confident in their decision-making
• Long-term relationships: These buyers understand better than most that a luxury purchase is a significant investment, and (ideally) the beginning of a lasting relationship. With that in mind, you and your luxury marketing agency should consider emphasizing the exclusive relationship, service, and treatment audiences will receive from your brand (Rolex, for example, prominently features its white-glove care and service practices as a selling point on its website).

It’s worth noting, too, that UHNWI marketing can also include the people around your end user. Consider, for example, family office managers charged with broadening their employer’s real estate portfolio, or personal stylists on the hunt for subtle-yet-unmistakably-high-end fashion for their clients. When developing a marketing strategy, you or your luxury marketing agency should also consider those at the top of your sales funnel, like the High Earner Not Yet Rich audience (HENYR, or those with high incomes who can’t buy your product yet but will in the future).

Implementing luxury product marketing with a human-centered approach that focuses on the UHNWIs’ earning lifecycle and relationships—just as much as their current ability to buy—broadens your ability to connect with target audiences while building multigenerational awareness for your brand.

Understand the Story You Need to Tell

The human brain is hardwired for stories, whether you’re delivering luxury product marketing or advertising mass consumer lifestyle brands. That said, luxury consumers need stories more than most because a product alone may not entice them. They need a reason to believe in what you’re selling above what your competitors can offer.

So what’s the story that your UHNWI marketing has to tell? That depends on your category, but it should include at least a few of the 4Es developed by luxury executive and author Michel Chevalier:

• Emotions: Instead of inspiration, try inspiration. Ask yourself how your brand or campaign story motivates audiences to desire your brand—or learn more about it
• Exclusivity: The Rolex example above highlights how their customers receive a service experience that other brands’ supporters won’t enjoy. What are you or your luxury marketing agency doing to ensure audiences that you offer something unique?
• Experiences: To captivate or delight your audience, sometimes your story can be interactive. How you can use physical events, customizable online buying processes, or even immersive digital interactions like AR or VR to capture the imagination? Unconventional methods can make for unforgettable brands
• Extension: How can you tell your story by connecting with other parts of the culture? Consider how your marketing can use brand partnerships, spokespeople, collaborations with high-profile artists, and more to create relevance and excitement with your consumers

In short, good storytelling in luxury and UHNWI marketing is three dimensional—literally and figuratively. It has emotional depth, creates excitement, educates on the benefits your audience can enjoy exclusively with your product, and offers unforgettable opportunities for consumers to interact with your brand.

Finding a Partner That Understands You

If you need help activating or improving your marketing, an agency could be the solution you need. Finding the right partner takes careful consideration, though (just like buying luxury goods).

As you speak with agencies, ask yourself the following questions:

• Do they have experience marketing for niche audiences?
• Are they versed in discovering an audience’s core motivations?
• Can they develop our brand into an exclusive and compelling offering?
• Do they have a history of not only meeting luxury brand goals, but exceeding them?

Fortunately, Mascola Group is the luxury marketing agency that can answer each of those questions with a resounding “Yes.” With combined decades of experience marketing adventure travel experiences, high-end urban real estate, resort destinations, and more, we elevate every brand we touch. Contact our experts to learn what we can do for yours.