While digital, social media, mobile, and internet advertising are at the top of the list for luxury brand advertising, many are questioning their investment in digital advertising alone.
Digital advertising may be efficient, but its effectiveness in communicating a brand’s true luxury value is in question. There are signs that luxury companies may be including print advertising, seeing it as a still valued medium to elevate their brand messaging and reach deeper into the affluent market.
This is not to say they are abandoning digital, instead, they are rethinking how print and digital can complement one another to enhance their reach and messaging, especially to the mature affluents, who receive twice as many print magazines as lower-income households. Also, older households, especially those over 55 years – where the real money is for true luxury brands – are more active subscribers to print publications than those under 35.
Besides print being more tactile, it also gives luxury brands better control of imagery, message, and thus its potential impact on target consumers than the varied digital screen presentations. Print readers also tend to be more engaged when reading a magazine, rather than multitasking which is common when they are consuming messages digitally.
While digital will continue to garner the lion’s share of luxury companies’ advertising spend, they are increasingly challenged to reach the right target – the truly affluent – and communicate in way that elevates, not threatens the integrity of the brands’ value.
There is always going to be the need for digital marketing, for building brand awareness and increasing reach but ultimately it is finding the right strategic mix of digital and print that will allow premium brands to effectively identify and engage with their audiences.
