The luxury sector has dramatically grown in the Middle Eastern region in the past few years. With this remarkable increase in the interest in luxury, brands need to market themselves extensively to attract Middle Eastern customers.

The Challenge

The Middle East region is a fast growing market with a high percentage of high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs), resulting in luxury brands from all over the world flocking in and setting up their businesses, thus flooding the market. The challenge for each brand is to stand out from the crowd and demand attention in an overcrowded marketplace.

The Solution 

Luxury brands need to evaluate their target markets and develop a marketing and PR plan that is specifically focused on that particular market. The plan should include a mix of activities. Brands must not fall into the trap of focusing solely on one activity, as we so often see brands doing when they fall back on a marketing plan that consists solely of generic advertising.

In addition, the online platform would benefit the luxury industry as no matter where you are, who you are, your age or your gender, the online platform has become part of your world and a parcel of our day-to-day lives, it is something that cannot be ignored.

How to Mix the Ingredients for Best Recipe!

That’s the tricky part now, and honestly, we cannot set some general rules for all luxury brands. As discussed earlier, we need to mix them according to the target market requirements. For an idea, let me explain!

I lately discussed in the article about communication strategy for Luxury Travel Brands that; there are certain brands that never use advertising and only use PR to raise awareness and grow their clientele through effective communication; ultra-luxury hotels and resorts tend to fall into this bracket.

Besides this, I will highlight a few areas that have more chances of success:

• Having an online portal makes it possible for brands to become a part of their customers’ everyday lives.  Through social media, brands are able to infiltrate customers’ lives in a very subtle way, influencing their choices, keeping them informed of new products, events and, most importantly, always keeping their brand at the forefront of their customers’ minds.
• Social media optimization and marketing both are necessary within hospitality as it they are for any other industry. With so many human-interest stories to tell, social media plays an important role in interacting with customers and building a solid ‘fan’ base and followers.  This creates marketing by word of mouth, when brands’ followers (their customers) ‘share’ posts.
• World is going mobile and so the Mobile Apps are also becoming increasingly important; however, it is important for a brand to think through the purpose and customer friendliness of an app.  Launching an app just for the sake of having one can be counterproductive when other tools could prove more appropriate.

Keep up with the expectations and needs of customers

Luxury hospitality brands need to achieve awareness and high visibility, without this, they will be lost in an overcrowded market. Brands need to be constantly visible to their customers, target specific markets and develop and implement a targeted and focused marketing and PR plan, utilizing a mix of activities and communication tools.