Reaching the Right Audience for Luxury Consumer Electronics

From state-of-the-art personal fitness equipment to televisions that blend right in with your home décor, consumers are willing to pay a premium price for luxury electronics. Status symbols, lifestyle enhancers and instruments of pure delight, these top-of-the-line devices sell the idea of being the best by owning the best.

But, how exactly does a brand get to the top? More importantly, how can your product stand out as the right and only choice for your ideal buyer?

Marketing high-end devices breaks all the traditional rules of advertising. Here are three points luxury electronics brands must keep in mind when defining a strategy for premium product sales.

Don’t Play the Comparison Game

There is no worthwhile opponent for a true premium product. Sure, there may be similar devices on the market, perhaps even at the same price point, but none can ever quite measure up. At least, that’s what consumers must believe to invest in your goods.

That’s because luxury items are inherently unique. Consumers purchase these products because they are an expression of what makes them different from everyone else. That item becomes a part of their personal image and embodies their identity. It says, “I don’t care what everyone else is doing, this is who I am.” Comparing your device to another brand’s will only result in diluting your product’s uniqueness.

Meet Consumer Wants Not Needs

No matter how you spin it, nobody needs a pair of premium headphones or talking refrigerator—they want it. High-end consumer electronics brands must understand and appeal to the difference between needing and wanting.

Typically, advertisers appeal to a consumer’s wishes, presenting solutions to problems they may or may not know they had. That is not the case when marketing high-end electronics. Instead of appealing to needs including safety, confidence and comfort, luxury items appeal to who we aspire to be, the life we want to lead and how we want to feel.

Be Exclusive But Stay Visible

In many cases, exclusivity drives desire. But if “just anybody” can get their hands on your product, the appeal of it as a luxury item is gone. High-end brands must find a sweet spot between exclusivity and visibility—making the mass market aware of your product when only a sliver of that audience will ever become a paying customer.

Before you think you’re flushing advertising dollars down the drain by marketing to people you know won’t buy from your brand, remember, luxury items should feel off limits to a large part of the population. To create and uphold that perception for your own brand, your campaigns need to reach the average consumer and spark their aspiration to one day become a patron of your brand.

With wearable technology taking the world by storm and new products entering the market every day, luxury electronics will only continue to climb consumers’ wish lists in 2018 and beyond. Where does your brand stand?