As part of The Little Luxuries Project, Luminosity Marketing has commenced on a series of roundtable groups with targeted groups of consumers. Our December 2009 and March 2010 groups focused on how women feel about Little Luxuries. By inviting these women to chat with us and each other in a relaxed environment, we were able to learn why Little Luxuries provide a brief moment of escape and why that is so important in their lives.
“Everyone’s so busy in their own lives and give so much to other people,” says Michelle. All the women agreed that a little treat can mean so much more. It can be a way to relax and escape.
Watch the clip below to listen to our roundtable groups talk about how and why they relax and escape through Little Luxuries.
As part of The Little Luxury Project, Luminosity Marketing has commenced on a series of roundtable groups with targeted groups of consumers. Our March 2010 group focused on mothers of young children in the Raleigh/Durham metro area. We’d like to introduce you to one of the participants.
Meet Melissa
Melissa is a 28 year-old stay at home mother with 1 child who is 5 months old. Her big splurge is occasional massages, which her husband encourages. She loves the feel of relaxation she gets during and after the massage. Melissa’s constant little luxury is fancy shampoo and conditioners. Melissa told us, “I just have to have my fancy shampoo and conditioner because I love how its fragrant lather and “bodifying” abilities makes me feel pampered. If someone or something were to get in the way of my suds I would feel like my hair looks flat and not cute. I know it’s expensive. It costs me $10 each, and I have to give up expensive make-up to afford it … but it’s totally worth it.”
As part of The Little Luxury Project, Luminosity Marketing has commenced on a series of roundtable groups with targeted groups of consumers. Our March 2010 group focused on mothers of young children in the Raleigh/Durham metro area. We’d like to introduce you to one of the participants.
Meet Katie
Katie is a 30 year-old stay at home mother with 2 children under the age of 2. Her big splurge is anything to read – from a trashy magazine to an actual book. She loves the escape she gets when she can have a few quiet moments each day to enjoy this little luxury. Katie’s constant little luxury is little chocolate treats.
Katie told us, “I just have to have my Cadbury Crème Eggs because I love how its sugary center and creamy chocolate shell makes me feel blissed out on sugar. If someone or something were to get in the way of my Eastery goodness I would feel cranky of hypoglycemic. I know it’s expensive. It costs me $2, and I have to give up my waistline … but it’s totally worth it.”
As part of The Little Luxury Project, Luminosity Marketing has commenced on a series of roundtable groups with targeted groups of consumers. Our December 2009 group focused on working women in the New York City metro area. We’d like to introduce you to one of the participants.
Meet Wanda Wanda is a 43 year-old mother with 4 children. She works as a childcare provider out of her home. As a self admitted “shopaholic” she can never walk out of a store without purchasing something. She loves the rush she gets from purchasing little luxuries and reliving that rush each time she uses the item at home. Sometimes she feels guilty for purchasing little luxuries that end up getting trashed quickly.
The act of shopping, selecting an item and being able to use it at home can create a powerful sense of euphoria in some consumers. These consumers are less likely to have planned their purchases in advance and, while they are more likely to spend less money per item, they tend to spend more money overall. Most purchases are planned impulses in that the consumer has a budget in mind of what they would like to spend but they do not know what product(s) will ultimately be purchased.
The Word Exercise The participants of the roundtable were asked to brainstorm words that describes how they felt before, during and after their little luxury purchases.
For little luxury shopping that was focused on the “Euphoria & The Rush,” participants focused on positive words.
For many of the participants there was a high sense of guilt after purchases due to concerns about money and the on-going economic crisis.
Want to receive the full report from the December 2009 Women’s Group Roundtable? This blog post is just a small snippet of the information we gathered during the December 2009 Women’s Group Roundtable. A full report is available by contacting us.
Anyone who knows me, knows I hate cold weather. I’ve never understood why people get excited about fall just because they get to wear sweaters. Doesn’t that mean it’s gotten too cold to go out without covering up? How could that be a good thing? No, I prefer warm weather and its associated apparel: tee shirts, cargo shorts and my all time favorite…boat shoes.
That’s right, nothing beats a pair of well-worn boat shoes. They’re the height of summer chic as far as I’m concerned. Timeless, yet effortlessly of-the-moment. Rock them with shorts or a suit to improve your look and your mood. No one is happier than me that they’ve made a massive resurgence over the past few years. I’ve seen them all over the streets of NYC this summer, being worn by everyone from celebrities, to hipsters to slackers. And yeah, rich prep school boys still wear them as well. Even the hip hop crowd has gotten into the act, with Jay-Z name dropping boat shoes in his rhymes, while Kanye sports them on his frequent appearances on the Ellen Degeneres show. I never thought I’d say it, but boat shoes are on fire.
Alas, one of my biggest disappointments about winter is that it forces me to put away my rather impressive collection of Sperry Topsiders. No matter how tempting, I just can’t bring myself to throw on a pair of socks with my Sperry’s while traipsing off to work on a brisk October day. Socks with boat shoes is a look that even the most badass hipsters can’t pull off, no matter how ironic their facial hair. So, from October to April, boat shoes are generally relegated to the bench.
That is, until now. This season designers have finally figured out that boat shoes are far too cool to spend 6 months of the year languishing in the back of the closet. They’ve come up with boat shoes that actually work year-round. John Varvatos, always the innovator, is leading the pack with a killer pair of suede ones in a color called “Night Sky” (i.e., black) that he describes as “a unique concept of a high-top boat shoe”. Whatever, they’re smokin’. Timberland has also joined the parade, bringing to the forefront their Classic Handsewn Boat Shoe (the one with the lug sole that we all sported back in the 80′s). In an ambitious attempt to jump on two trends at once, they’ve even added a new wrinkle; the classic is now customizable at Timberland’s DIY store on its website.
For its part, Sperry Topsider is not sitting idly by, waiting for spring. They’re hyping their own high-tops (the Original Authentic Chukka Boot) on their site. They’ve also formed a partnership with J-Crew, offering an exclusive pair of “Sperry Chukka’s” on J-Crew.com. My favorite offering however, is a line they’ve come up with that is designed by hipster legends, Band Of Outsiders. These kicks offer a subversive and thoroughly modern take on the Topsider aesthetic. A broad range of colors is available, from a sublime blue/red suede pair to a slick black leather offering. In any form, they’re swell and they make me long for fall more than any cardigan ever could.
One thing I’ve noticed about most guys I see in sneakers: They’re not exercising. They’re not running, they’re not engaged in a rousing game of soccer, tennis, or even Bocci. They’re just walking around. My point is they don’t really need athletic footwear. They’re not athletes (at least when I’m encountering them), so they don’t need shoes designed for active participation in sports. They just like the look of sneakers.
So why, if this is the case, are so many of them wearing basketball, tennis, and soccer shoes? Where are the sneakers for the non-sporting male?
They’re around, certainly. And the number of companies producing well-made, attractive sneakers for the walking-around set has grown considerably over the past few years. Many folks will say that the trend started with Martin Margiela’s take on the German (or Austrian, depending on who you ask) Army Sneaker. The high-top version is on the left here:
I’m not going to argue with those folks, it’s as good a jumping off point as any. The point is, these shoes weren’t designed for training new recruits, they were designed for fashionable men with some money to spend on upmarket sneakers. The same can be said for brands like SeaVees, Common Projects, and Creative Recreation. And that’s just off the top of my head. The brands can be a little pricier, but they’re constructed skillfully from high qualitiy textiles, and they’re well suited to the desire of many a man that doesn’t want another pair of Sambas.
I personally believe that these companies have a great opportunity on their hands. They could jump from a niche market to a sartorial juggernaut. Sure it’s a recession, but people need shoes, and most of those people won’t be using them for sports. If these shoe companies have the quality product to back up a little bit of a price hike, I think consumers will go for it.
The only problem is exposure, the way I see it. To have some of these brands on your radar, you have to work to keep up with men’s fashion. If these companies get their names out there, we could well find ourselves with a whole new norm for men’s shoes: Sneakers that are more at home on the street than they are in the gym.
Wanda is a 43 year-old mother with 4 children. She works as a childcare provider out of her home. As a self admitted “shopaholic” she can never walk out of a store without purchasing something. She loves the rush she gets from purchasing little luxuries and reliving that rush each time she uses the item at home. Sometimes she feels guilty for purchasing little luxuries that end up getting trashed quickly.
Anyone who knows me, knows I hate cold weather. I’ve never understood why people get excited about fall just because they get to wear sweaters. Doesn’t that mean it’s gotten too cold to go out without covering up? How could that be a good thing? No, I prefer warm weather and its associated apparel: tee shirts, cargo shorts and my all time favorite…boat shoes.