Communicating luxury means, first and foremost, questioning what triggers its pursuit. Certainly, “desire” is one of the first elements to focus on as the driving force behind the need for luxury: deep emotions and aspirations, relational needs, personal fulfillment, social recognition. These are the levers to stimulate in order to successfully communicate with those seeking extraordinary experiences. But how do we create an emotional bridge that goes from us to the potential customer and vice versa?
There are studies that aim to investigate the motivation, the impulse, that drives individuals in their daily lives to act in a certain way, to make choices. Based on these theories, people satisfy their needs in an ascending order.
One of the main references in this field is Abraham Maslow, in his “Hierarchy of Needs”.
Luxury goods fall at the top of the pyramid, which includes the satisfaction of desires for belonging, esteem, and self-realization, given the content of quality, exclusivity, and prestige they embody.
In contemporary society, the symbolism associated with objects is amplified through the work of signification conducted through luxury brand communication strategies. They thus become expressions of values that are reflected in the products they market.
The main advertising channels used by luxury companies are fashion magazines, daily press, television, and the web, but regardless of the source, an effective communication channel must be able to create a personalized relationship with customers, allowing them to experience a multifaceted experience that engages the senses at 360°, provides emotions, entertainment, and smiles, answers questions, and satisfies the deepest aspiration for a better life.
Furthermore, addressing differentiated targets that are not only consumers accustomed to purchasing luxury goods or with considerable spending capacity, but also collectors or enthusiasts in the reference sector, could be the right compromise for both retaining and acquiring new ones. In this article, we have delved into the “anti-rules” of luxury marketing.
Now, let’s examine the three rules that serve as guidelines for effective emotional language in luxury communication:
- Use the Vocabulary of Desire
- Ask Open-Ended Questions
- Storytelling
The Vocabulary of Desire to Stimulate Mental Pathways
The language to adopt in luxury communication, both online and offline, stimulates mental pathways that speak of emotions, can be a very powerful weapon if wisely used, as it allows creating strong visual images in customers’ minds.
It’s necessary to generate empathy, rather than speaking to people’s rationality, paying attention to the choice of terms, as each of them is closely linked to conscious or unconscious associations that increase the perceived value of products.
Specifically, we refer to all those words that fall within the sphere of emotion, such as love, desire, passion, engaging, extraordinary, or that refer to visual, auditory, and kinesthetic sensations such as scents, colors, tactile or movement sensations, for example thrill, soft, luminous, warm, enveloping.
Asking Open-Ended Questions to Understand the Luxury Interlocutor
Every communication involves (at least) a sender, a message, and a recipient. The transmission of the message can be influenced by a wide range of factors. These include our emotions, cultural context, the medium used for communication, and even our posture: accurate, effective, and unequivocal communication is a complex goal.
However, we know that the best way to communicate is to deeply understand who we are interacting with. Adopting active listening is indeed aimed at encouraging the interlocutor to naturally let us into their world and develop the conditions for a fruitful interaction.
If we want to acquire useful information about our customers, then we should ask open-ended questions, allowing them the opportunity to share as much as possible.
Let’s take an example:
To find out if a person is willing to change their favorite perfume to one from another brand, we would ask “What would lead you to change your perfume to the XXX brand?” and not “Would you like to change your perfume to the XXX brand?”.
The difference is that the first question is open-ended, allowing freedom of response, while the second is closed, not permitting many options to choose from.
So the more space we give customers to open up, the more they will do so.
Even luxury communication, especially through social media, must include the user at the heart of its narrative, as an active participant and co-creator of content. They can finally communicate directly with brands, and the latter have the opportunity to address individual consumers directly instead of an indistinct mass of people. In this way, companies can gather a wealth of information that, together with other factors, brings them great benefits and facilitates the creation of proposals and offers increasingly aligned with the tastes of their customers.
Luxury storytelling
When a company wants to introduce a product to the market, especially if it is a luxury product, it should not simply describe it as it is, but has the task of building a story around it in which people can identify, thus generating a sense of belonging and desire around the brand.
The message must use the minimum number of words, evoking emotions through the use of evocative images that stimulate the mental processes of consumers, inviting them to “dream.”
Very often, iconic figures that the public recognizes and admires are used, such as celebrities from entertainment and sports, or, as in the case of Ferrari, a story of great victories is told, communicating value in tradition.
Burberry, the famous British luxury brand recognized worldwide for its highly imitated tartan pattern, a pioneer of new trends in luxury communication, in 2015, using content generated by its customers, created “The Art of Trench,” a true social network where photos of famous people and ordinary strangers were collected, portrayed wearing the famous trench coat, the raincoat created in 1914 by the founder of the English maison, Thomas Burberry. It was also one of the first luxury brands to broadcast its fashion shows online, giving its customers the opportunity to discover new collections live and take advantage of the “see now-buy now,” allowing them to purchase clothes and accessories just hours after the show.
Finally, we want to recall when Steve Jobs launched, for the first time, touch screen devices, using as a “negative character” all those who used a stylus, easy to lose, while his iPhone, represented as a “positive character,” had the finger as a more effective and secure pointing tool.
Luxury is not only a prerogative of the big brands that have become style icons; there are indeed many medium and small realities that make exclusivity their stylistic hallmark, workshops that create limited series furniture and furnishings, artisanal jewelry, wineries, boutique hotels, relais that enhance their territory, and even services detailed for more demanding clientele.
Winning formula for luxury storytelling
How to captivate interlocutors by telling the story of luxury?
We list 4 fundamental points to build the story:
- Not too long sentences: people’s attention is limited, it must be used to the fullest;
- Specific sentences: enrich the story with elements, numbers, dates, names, details make the difference!;
- Sentences with two main characters: there must be a protagonist and antagonist, a key concept of every tale. The brand and its products are the heroes that will fight to overcome the problems and doubts of consumers;
- Phrases that contain emotions: as mentioned earlier, the lexicon used must evoke emotions.
Would you like to make your communication more attractive?
In the “Luxury Vocabulary” we have prepared for you, you will find suggestions, terms, and expressions aimed at eliciting memorable emotions, generating a sense of exclusivity.
In this article, we have highlighted how important it is for the brand to give its project the value it deserves, fully expressing the entire world contained in extraordinary objects. RisiviLab is among the exclusive brands that have entrusted us, discover its world of personalized jewelry now.
These attentions require amplified accuracy, especially in the photo shoots of luxury goods to properly highlight the beauty, value, and uniqueness of the objects showcased.
Are you a luxury brand? Would you like to offer an extraordinary experience to your clients?
We offer you our professionalism to collaboratively develop a valid path for your business.
