Understanding the High-Net worth Market

It is a known fact that high-net worth individuals (HNIs) are a highly attractive and lucrative audience for any brand. While the uber-wealthy are an important segment, targeting them is definitely not a one-size-fits-all deal. They have their own needs and desires and thus marketers have to go an extra mile to attract their attention.

Also, most of the time, they hide behind their advisors, live on gated estates and make purchasing decisions based on totally different parameters than the masses.

Two mistakes brands make when it comes to advertising to HNIs is building relationships with their gatekeepers and treating them like everyone else.

Marketing to the elite definitely requires a most finessed approach. While mastery of online marketing is a must, providing an engaging offline experience is becoming increasingly important, particularly for those in the luxury space.

Only when both offline and online marketing strategies are blended seamlessly can brands build deeper relationships with high-net worth individuals.

Tips to Market to the Elite

Here’s how to do it right:

• Market Research: It’s a common misconception that HNIs are a unified entity. However, the truth is that wealth isn’t defined by salary but by net worth. Wealthy people come from all walks of life and may be business owners, professionals, lottery winners or people who’ve inherited money. Thus, you’ll have to determine the specific people with high-net worth you want to target. May be you’re trying to reach a business owner who is looking for a luxury office or an elite woman interested in high-end apparel. Once you’ve narrowed down on your target market, you need to research on this segment to see what attracts them. Targeting in marketing is vitally important.

• Targeted Marketing: Once you’ve delved deeper into the nature of your target market, you need to place your ads in publications they read or places they frequently visit. While high-end shopping publications and business magazines are a great idea, leverage on in-flight advertising (Cup Branding) as well. As a brand, you can also perfect your online outreach by approaching them on niche social media platforms dedicated to luxury lifestyle or any other specific channels that have a captive and elite audience or where you know they are active.
• Lifestyle Marketing: Being a highly discerning segment, HNIs seek unique experiences that money cannot buy such as exclusive access to event or previews. Thus, marketers should focus on designing experiences that contribute to a feeling of luxury. Although the elite have access to larger financial resources, they too value money as an important aspect of their buying decision-making process. Thus, while brands should make their ads eye-catching, they shouldn’t be too flashy or directly state that the product is too expensive. This can appear sleazy and be off-putting.

Example: Luxury vehicle makers like Harley Davidson and Mercedes Benz have adopted an innovative ‘Go to Market’ strategy in tier-two cities as 44% of HNIs are coming from smaller towns. While the former has brought its global ‘Legend on Tour’ concept which is like a showroom on wheels, the latter has set up luxury pop-up stores which will be temporary showrooms set up in the interiors of the country through Hangars.

• Personalised Service: In the high wealth space, strong after sales follow-up is important. You could assign a salesperson to an individual customer or make follow-up calls to ask them about their experiences. Dedicated customer service will result in them referring you to their high-income friends. With a high net worth audience, less is generally more and thus sending them sales oriented mails is a complete no-no.
• Privacy is Key: Consumers that are a main target for luxury products don’t want to be found by marketers. They desire a greater level of privacy than other segments. Thus, it is essential for brands to curate relevant offline experiences and find innovative ways to entice them.

Although high-net worth individuals represent less than 1% of the world’s total population, they account for more than 40% of the world’s total wealth. Therefore, advertising to them requires a well-thought-out approach.

In-flight paper cup advertising is a fool-proof way to win over these curious but inaccessible prospects at 35,000 feet as GingerCup has tied-up with quite a few reputed national and international airlines.