We’ve all been told a consumer’s path to purchase proceeds in a straight line: awareness, familiarity, consideration, purchase … and if done right, it leads to loyalty. It’s a logical step-by-step progression model and gives brands the confidence to manage customers’ engagement and activate them along each step in their journey. Illusion Unveiled The problem is that this linear model is an illusion. Human beings simply don’t work this way -- ever. Instead, a consumer’s path to purchase takes a circuitous route, moving forward, going sideways, …
Experience
How to Meet the Demands of the 2021 Gen Z Shopper
Buzzfeed has a fun quiz that lets people know if they're a millennial or Gen Z based on the clothes they like. Bucket hat? Gen Z. Skinny jeans? Millennials. To the casual reader, it might seem silly. To fashion marketers, knowing which trend appeals to which generation is key to reaching them and selling product. Yet when it comes to Gen Z, the pandemic has highlighted differences within the group as well as discrepancies between what they want and what is available -- presenting an opportunity in this younger market. Gen Z Anxiety Statista …
Is Makeup Dead?
Recently I received an email about Becca Cosmetics’ upcoming makeup launches, and I immediately emailed the brand publicist back: “I’m confused,” I wrote. “I thought Estée Lauder was shutting Becca down?” Covid Casualty After assuring me that that was in fact the case – that EL Companies had indeed pulled the plug on the 20-year-old brand, which it acquired in 2016 and was best-known for its Champagne Pop liquid highlighter - the publicist said that it’s business as usual until September, when Becca officially goes bye-bye. Why shutter a …
The WOW! Customer Experience
How can pandemic-crushed specialty retailers that were too slow or ineffective ramping up their e-commerce capabilities come back from the brink? Don’t look to Amazon, the big-boxes or category killers for inspiration, advises Wharton Professor Thomas Robertson and director of its Jay H. Baker Retailing Center. Instead, set your sights on Ritz Carlton, Disney Parks and British Airways. “These are all people intensive businesses, and they manage to deliver excellent customer experiences consistently,” he says, referring to British …
Nordstrom’s New Game Plan
I'm commenting on Nordstrom's latest strategic moves: their brick-and-mortar localization and online positioning, the "Closer to You" program and their concession strategy. However, before I do, I want to put these strategic moves into the proper context. They all emanate from a philosophy embedded in the Nordstrom's DNA from day one. And you know what it is. Nonetheless, I will repeat it just to connect the dots from where they started to the evolution of their current strategies. What a Quaint Philosophy: The Customer First How many times …
Let Them Eat Cake: Luxury Spend Is Up Among Next-Gens
Next-gens may fear economic uncertainty, but that’s not stopping them from making high ticket purchases. HighSnobiety reports that, by 2026, millennials and Gen Z will make up more than 60 percent of luxury spend. Chinese next-gens are leading the way. The average Chinese luxury consumer is a mere 28 years old –– that’s ten years younger than the global average. McKinsey reports that China’s luxury market will double by 2025, comprising a staggering 65 percent of global growth between 2018 and 2025. But here’s the biggie: 70 percent …
Let Them Eat Cake: Luxury Spend Is Up Among Next-GensRead More
RH Builds Out its Horizons
Remember when Restoration Hardware was the quirky DIY-fixer’s catalog for people restoring Victorian houses? It’s come a long way from its home-spun roots back in 1979 when Stephen Gordon founded it. Progressive CEO In his most recent shareholders letter, Gary Friedman, the company’s current chairman and CEO, updates RH’s progress since joining the company in 2011: “The first two decades saw us evolve from a nearly bankrupt business with a $20 million market cap and a box of Oxydol laundry detergent on the cover of its catalog, to the leading …
Welcome to the Era of Conscientious Luxury
The seemingly insulated luxury market has never experienced a year like 2020 when personal luxury goods sales dropped $78 billion from 2019 – a 23 percent decrease year-over-year – to a total $266 billion in 2020. With the pandemic threatening both consumers’ health and finances, the industry’s decline was more than double the 9 percent drop experienced over two years during the 2008-2009 recession, according to Bain & Company. It is not expected to recover to 2019 levels until the end of 2022 or early 2023. Luxury Through the Ages Bain …