Altagamma reported in the Altagamma consumer & retail insight 2024 with Boston Consulting Group and unveiled the strategies for brand engagement with VICs (Very Important Clients) must therefore be based around, improving consumer segmentation and thus identifying the consumers with the highest spending potential.
Mastering the fundamentals, ensuring outstanding product quality, exclusivity, impeccable service, and exceptional experiences. Specializing in the differentiating factors that VICs love: hyper-personalization, bespoke products that make the wait exciting, top-level Client Advisors, and a sense of community.
Interviews with Very Important Clients reveal the scale of the challenge for brands: the dreams and expectations of VICs are evolving faster than companies are able to make them a reality.
In addition, these clients are pursued and pampered by brands in every sector, from personal goods to hospitality and entertainment. This makes them very difficult to impress, and the competition to engage with them is increasingly fierce. The study identifies four key expectations that brands must take into account to satisfy and win over VICs:
Hyper-local personalization and global recognition: The purchasing experience needs to be hyper- personalized, but it also needs to ensure that VICs’ status is recognized globally at every stage of the customer journey. 6: Unique products without artificially engineered wait times: While the “waiting game” artificially created by some brands is becoming obsolete for standard products, wait times for bespoke products are generally accepted, as long as they are justified and engaging as part of the purchasing experience.
More loyalty to Client Advisors than to the brands themselves: 70% of Very Important Clients say they have a trusted Client Advisor (Sales Associate) within the brand. Of these VICs, 70% would be willing to switch brands if their Client Advisor moved to a competitor.
Client Advisors are increasingly important, as the trust that they bring becomes the deciding factor for these clients in choosing to make a purchase.
Today, the top Client Advisors have extensive client portfolios and are becoming an increasingly rare resource in the marketplace, especially given the younger generation’s disinclination for this type of work. This is leading to a talent war, which brands can address through training, the ability to attract and retain talent through a strong corporate culture, flexibility, growth prospects, and competitive salaries, incentives, and benefits.
Being more than a customer and being part of a community: New generations of VICs are less loyal to the brands they buy from and look to them for a sense of community and networking opportunities. More than 80% of respondents believe that an emotional connection with a luxury brand is critical to their decision to make a purchase and want to be part of a community of like-minded buyers.
