- Country club memberships
- Attending high-end, big-ticket price events
- Sponsoring some of these events
- Sitting on important community boards with a who’s who of board members
- Being involved with the arts
- Holding high-end fundraisers for targeted organizations
by Ellen Fruchtman, President
In advertising and marketing, we’re on a constant trajectory - to find the most cost-efficient places our clients can communicate their message to people who have a propensity to buy fine jewelry. In the beginning days of my career, that was a relatively easy task. You took a road (or two) and you were bound to pick up your fair share of customers. Today, many roads are less traveled, and if I’m following through with this metaphor, I would say we constantly feel we are on a superhighway; weaving and changing lanes to avoid or, better yet, beat the traffic. If only there was a Waze App to guarantee we could get from here to there in our designated timeframe. Alas, that is not always the case. In marketing, patience has become the true virtue.
The other day I was confronted by this question: How do we reach the most affluent people in our market and get them to walk in our store?
And, the answer to that question is quite simple: You must be where they are. To put it simply, you must schmooze. The super-affluent are a difficult bunch. Can you reach them with advertising? Yes, but I say that somewhat reluctantly. If you want to persuade them to come to your store, you need to carry something they can’t find anywhere else. You need to market something unique and extraordinary. The super-affluent have purchased jewelry before. In most cases, they probably have a jeweler. They can travel and can buy whenever and wherever they so choose. You can spend countless advertising dollars trying to impact one new, affluent customer.
Or you can schmooze.
Schmoozing needs to be a line item in your operating budget.
It needs to include items like:
