The two-way benefit of creating brand experiences for your top-tier customers

LondonInsights

December 2, 2024

This article first appeared in Campaign written by, Harry Wright, Strategy Director from our London studio.

Back in 2022, a Bain & Company study revealed that the top 2% of luxury customers accounted for 40% of sales globally. These high and regular spenders, often referred to as a brand’s very important customers (VICs), are the focus of mind-blowing experiences designed by brands to make these affluent folk feel valued and keep them coming back to spend more money.

This makes sense, given luxury spending is set to reach €1.5tn by the end of 2024, according to a more recent report by Bain & Company. And, while this isn’t too dissimilar from the amount spent in 2023, ultra-high net worth individuals (UHNWI) are increasingly spending on experiences rather than products.

This shift raises a question: what do the people who have everything actually want, and how can brands use this to build loyalty with their most valuable customers? The answer, in my opinion, lies at the apex of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. While money can’t necessarily buy you happiness, it does make a lot of our fundamental needs much more accessible. But self-actualisation is based on an individual realising their full potential, having fulfilled all the needs of their mind, body and ego. And, even with all the money in the world, that’s a big ask. But this creates an opportunity for brands to act as a guide by using their values to help VICs become healthier, happier and more fulfilled versions of themselves.

In a recent article I wrote for Campaign, I explored how brands can tap into Joe Pine’s transformation economy to inspire loyalty from their customers. And this is particularly pertinent when creating brand experiences for UHNWI. If brands can create the conditions necessary for positive personal change, helping their VICs to edge close to self-actualisation through the brand’s values, they will associate your brand with self-improvement – and they’ll keep coming back for more. To succeed, however, the offering must go beyond what they can buy themselves, which is tricky… but here are three ways you could do it.

1. Offer them unparalleled destinations

Create hyper-desirable experiences by whisking your VICs away to destinations around the world where they wouldn’t think of visiting. Give them opportunities to experience these places and cultures in a way that only your brand can achieve. This will help to build brand loyalty while bringing your brand values to life in a tangible way.

2. Offer them unparalleled access

Let your VICs meet the minds behind your brand. They clearly love your brand, so they’ll want to meet the people who are driving it forward. Providing them with exclusive facetime with your top developers, product designers and innovators, throughout your experience, will make your select customers feel seen, heard and understood which will lead to deeper engagement.

3. Offer them unparalleled customisation

Inspired by the location and the talent you’ve given them access to, allow your customers to collaborate with these innovators through customisation. No matter how wealthy your clients are, everyone likes the idea of having something that no one else has.

If you’re reading all of this and thinking that’s a lot of effort to simply drive sales, you’d be right. But, by building your VIC experiences around these three experiential pillars, you can unlock a far bigger value exchange. In taking your audience away to unparalleled destinations, you pull their entire focus away from life’s strains and stresses, while redirecting that focus towards your brand – and, if done correctly, your brand alone. Now, that may sound tenuous but if we look more closely at the second and third pillars you’ll understand why this is so important.

By fully immersing your VICs in your brand experience, with no distractions, you’ll have their undivided attention on your brand and your products. With that in mind, the idea of unparalleled access works both ways. Not only do your customers get access to your brand’s product designers and innovators but these product designers and innovators also get unparalleled access to your exact target audience at a time when they have chosen to dive deeply into your brand. This allows you to harvest hyper-relevant insights, in real time, directly from the people who are most likely to spend money on your brand.

And through customisation, you begin to turn your customers into the product, as they show you the unique bolt-ons, upgrades and additions that they desire from your brand. With this, brands can start to shape future product lines with the confidence that the top 2% of customers will probably want them. And yes, fine, it’s also highly likely that you’ll make some hefty on-the-spot sales as well.

Behind the piece

Harry Wright

Strategy Director
Imagination London

Harry is our go-to guy for solving tricky experience and marketing problems for clients with his niche yet hyper-relevant insights and enthusiasm for deeper consumer engagement.

Focusing on making memorable moments, his mixed background of creative, digital, project management and marketing (what can he not do?), all goes into creating activations that resonate.

When most of us were obsessed with sourdough during lockdown, Harry had another fixation… crickets. With his best mate, he set up the UK’s first insect based seasoning range, Short-Horn.