Luxury Institute Suggests Brand Health Assessment To Reignite Business

Imagine being able to change your business after one in-depth assessment. What seems hard for businesses and startups, takes time and tools. The Luxury Institute is offering advice for brand managers and owners to overhaul branding and refresh company strategies.

Luxury Institute recently conducted an internal review of its database of client projects throughout its 15-year history, during which it has conducted hundreds of quantitative and qualitative studies. The Institute has served more than one thousand brands in dozens of global luxury and premium goods and services categories. The key objective of the review was to identify the critical tools that successful brands use to remain adaptive and agile over long periods of time despite the volatility and complexity of the markets.

Brands must be completely thorough in their assessment, using both qualitative and quantitative data, with the guidance of a skilled, independent expert. Often a quantitative study with insightful open-ended questions will suffice for brand teams with limited budgets seeking to understand what customers believe about their market and their brand’s value proposition. It takes pure courage, and can be emotionally wrenching, for executives to hear the independent voice of their customers and prospects. However, by embracing, even craving, evidence-based customer feedback, a brand management team can ensure brand and career longevity.

Customer brand knowledge and rational and emotional connections to the brand

Brands and their agencies assume that because they are sending out a specific message, consumers are hearing it, and finding it relevant. In one case study, a Luxury Institute client assumed that the customer was buying because the story about the two founders resonated deeply. The Brand Health Assessment discovered that most clients had a completely different perception of how the company was founded, and they cared far more about how using the products made them feel confident and special. The company began communicating differently, addressing clearly the humanistic reasons why the founders created the brand, and why they were inspired to produce the products in such a way that led the customers to feel confident and special. Sales rose accordingly.

Influencers and bloggers

Social media marketing is all the rage, and brands are paying influencers and bloggers huge sums of money, simply because they expect sales to rise if they associate the brand with the right influencer. In one Brand Health Assessment study, consumers told the brand that the influencers chosen by the agency were not good ambassadors for the brand due to a lack of perceived authenticity and trust. They perceived the influencers as arrogant phonies. Consumers told the brand which influencers they respected and trusted. The brand changed their investments and began to see sales increase.

Get the full details at LuxuryInstitute.com