Marketing to Affluent Men – Fashion

In today’s hyper-competitive environment, luxury marketers that want to win must stay vigilant in tracking the shifts, turns, and changing preferences in their affluent consumer market. And what we are seeing is men are coming into their own in several industries. The affluent male segment that is. More industries are narrowing your focus (and narrow it more and more and more – almost to pinpoint).

In men’s fashion news: at the conclusion of the men’s fashion shows in Paris, Antoine Arnault, the 34-year-old heir to Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy, (LVMH) luxury and fashion empire predicted the end of bling for men.  ”We are going to enter an era in which logo and ostentation is going to be less successful. It will be about real quality.”

The global appetite for luxury goods has boosted the industry by 14% boom in the face of broader economic gloom, and surprisingly, it’s being driven by male consumers, who are now spending $246 billion a year on luxury clothes and accessories for themselves, according to a new study.

“The only explanation is that people still want to please themselves,” Arnault said. “Men seem to be a little bit more selfish these days, and spend a bit more on themselves and a little bit less on their wives or girlfriends.”

To meet this growing male market, Arnault is spearheading the launch of a new, men-only business to provide the bling-free, inconspicuously luxurious clothes he believes affluent men want.