By Ingrid Mota
Twitter: @ingridmotta
Just as from childhood we are instilled with the sense of nation, which derives from love for the land where we were born, where our history is kept with successes and errors, struggles and conquests. Similarly, consumers develop a sense of belonging to luxury brands that make us do the impossible to be part of them.
In this conceptual configuration, a brand functions as a country where its inhabitants (resident consumers) develop their lives and socialize according to certain uses and customs and, from time to time, are influenced by immigrants (tourist consumers) who are not necessarily they seek to stay in the country but they do want to learn, admire and share those U&A.
Brand Tourism
The study of the consumer is for the marketer a tool for the continuous measurement of closeness and knowledge of how they use products, brands and the time they invest to express themselves as people and generate social status.
Silvia Bellezza Y Anat Keinan, academics in the area of Marketing of the Harvard University, carried out an interesting but above all useful study of brand perception through a simple exercise.[1]
This consisted of any person who entered a store prada, they were presented with a high-quality paper bag with the brand's logo, regardless of whether they bought something or not.
With this, consumers of the brand began to see themselves as part of the Prada community, thus becoming what they called "brand immigrants", while non-consumers, upon receiving the bag, used it to demonstrate their admiration for the brand, becoming “tourists/brand fans”.
The results were fascinating.
Current consumers felt that giving away the bag diminished the brand image and were annoyed at how non-consumers were trying to falsely represent that they were using the bag to make them feel like they had bought something from the boutique, while the latter showed pride in being owner of a Prada bag.
Brand tourists increase citizens' pride in their country of origin by reinforcing the attractiveness and desirability of the place they visit, and (like brand fans) inspire feelings of pride and belonging to enhance brand image, say Beauty. and Keinan.
The motivator for buying luxury brands is to see themselves as members of a select group of consumers. But also, when foreigners show their taste for luxury brands, this strengthens and multiplies their value worldwide.
We owe it all to the groupies
Many brands have learned the hard way how to grow their product offerings through diversification and how they neglect their core consumers.
For high-end brands, brand fans are instrumental in achieving positive effects on their image by selectively inspiring them to gain entry into a community and creating an image of striving for membership by being a constant source of pride and value. branded.
It is therefore convenient for marketers to learn to create differentiators in their diversification and brand extensions through different tools such as special packaging, specialized distribution channels and even create specific marketing and social responsibility programs for these products, to generate belonging to a select group. and with it their need for membership.
Social networks are decisive for making new users and leaders of luxury brands known so that new brand tourists join the strategies and achieve a positive synergy for the value and positioning of the brand.
