Luxury Institute News

February 12, 2013

Applying Best Practices Of High-End Retail, Luxury Institute Founder Launches Customer Culture Institute To Help Mainstream Brands Build Better Relationships, Boost Sales

(NEW YORK) February 12, 2013- Milton Pedraza, founder and CEO of the Luxury Institute (www.luxuryinstitute.com), the leading global independent research and consulting firm in the luxury industry, has launched the Customer Culture Institute (www.customercultureinstitute.com). The objective Customer Culture Institute is focused on helping mainstream brands across all industries and geographies to rapidly design, deploy and reinforce customer-centric cultures that leverage their unique competitive positions.

“Customer acquisition, conversion, and retention rates for most brands are dismal,” says Pedraza, one of the world’s most respected and independent CRM experts since 1997.  “Digital technology, social media, Big Data, and multi-channel access are getting all of the attention these days.  However, the most important element in order for brands to outperform and, more importantly, outbehave their competition is a customer culture.

Pedraza has developed and licensed a proprietary Customer Culture process to the Luxury Institute and will do the same with the Customer Culture Institute. The newly formed institute will provide clients from diverse industries with Pedraza’s collaborative seven-step process that includes developing relationship-building techniques, education, incentives and measurement for customer facing employees and ultimately drives higher sales.

“A great deal of business today is purely transactional when it should be relationship-driven and more humanistic,” says Pedraza.  “At the Luxury Institute, we have proven through engagements with world-class clients that customer data collection, conversion, retention, recovery and referrals go up dramatically as a customer culture takes hold.”

The Customer Culture Institute is presently adding staff and seeking more like-minded and passionate individuals specialized in particular industries to represent the institute in the U.S. and in key overseas markets. For information, please visit www.customercultureinstitute.com to fill out a contact form.

September 5, 2012

Wealth Management Boutiques Beat Big Banks In Luxury Institute Brand Status Survey Of Pentamillionaires

(NEW YORK) September 5, 2012 – Investors with at least $5 million in assets and minimum annual income of $200,000 prefer smaller boutiques instead of larger Wall Street firms in the latest Wealth Management Luxury Brand Status Index (LBSI) survey from the independent and objective New York-based Luxury Institute.  LBSI scores comprise respondents’ evaluations (1-10) of each brand’s quality, exclusivity, social status and ability to deliver special client experiences.

Brown Brothers Harriman earns top honors with the highest LBSI score of 7.01, and ranks first on each of the four sub-categories. Brown Brothers’ closest competition comes from Boston Private Bank and Trust (6.37), Neuberger Berman Private Asset Management (6.3) and Bessemer Trust (6.27).

Wealthy investors also show a strong streak of independence with the largest share (8.7%) saying that they would use Fidelity for future wealth management services. Fidelity is also the most recommended brand, with 61% of pentamillionaires saying they would refer friends and family to Fidelity.  Only 32% would recommend Goldman Sachs.

“Reputations for honesty and superior client service are what make the smaller firms standouts in this survey,” said Luxury Institute CEO Milton Pedraza. “This is demonstrated by revered brands Rockefeller and Glenmede, which barely missed the mark in attaining a statistical sample, but would have been in the top range otherwise.”

Respondents reported $15 million average net worth and average income of $720,000.

 About the Luxury Institute (www.LuxuryInstitute.com)
The Luxury Institute is the objective and independent global voice of the high net-worth consumer. The Institute conducts extensive and actionable research with wealthy consumers about their behaviors and attitudes on customer experience best practices. In addition, we work closely with top-tier luxury brands to successfully transform their organizational cultures into more profitable customer-centric enterprises. Our Luxury CRM Culture consulting process leverages our fact-based research and enables luxury brands to dramatically Outbehave as well as Outperform their competition. The Luxury Institute also operates LuxuryBoard.com, a membership-based online research portal, and the Luxury CRM Association, a membership organization dedicated to building customer-centric luxury enterprises.

 

August 6, 2012

As Nordstrom’s arrival looms, rival stores sharpen up

By Marina Strauss
The Globe and Mail
August 5, 2012

Erik Nordstrom likes to boast about his employees going the extra mile at the upscale U.S. retailer that bears his name.

Recently, the great-grandson of the founder of Nordstrom Inc. told the story of a maintenance staff worker who discovered a Nordstrom shopping bag filled with $800 worth of goods in the parking lot of a Farmington, Conn., store.

Flight information in the package helped the employee identify the customer, whom he dialled three times.

She failed to pick up because, she said later, she didn’t recognize the number on her mobile’s call display. Realizing her flight was leaving soon, he drove 200 kilometres – two hours – to John F. Kennedy Airport in New York, and after having her paged at the airport, triumphantly handed her the bag.

She offered him money for gas, but he refused.

“We don’t nail it all the time, by any means, but we’re fortunate to have some really terrific people in this company who care a lot … about their customers,” Mr. Nordstrom, the company’s president of stores, told the retailer’s annual meeting in May.

Click the link to read the entire article: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/as-nordstroms-arrival-looms-rival-stores-sharpen-up/article4464192/

May 21, 2012

Why Millennials Are Spending More Than They Earn, And Parents Are Footing The Bill

By Larissa Faw
Forbes
May 18, 2012

There’s a striking disconnect with today’s Millennials that can be best described through Steve Jobs’ infamous reality distortion field: Millennial lifestyles and spending habits do not reflect their financial realities.

The majority of the 79 million U.S. Millennials are either unemployed, underpaid, or weighed down with student loans. One in four Millennials, for instance, has more debt than savings, according to Bankrate.com. Some 94% of college students currently graduate with debt. The current unemployment rate among workers ages 20-24 is 13%, compared to 8% for older workers, according to the most recent economic data.

At the same time, Millennial college students (without full-time jobs) spend $784 a month on discretionary expenses, especially food and entertainment, according to the Mooslyvania marketing agency. Millennials are the largest demographic purchasing new technological gadgets and fashion apparel. And their spending on jewelry increased 27% in 2011, according to American Express Business Insights. They even start riots at outside retail malls over $200 limited-edition Air Jordan sneakers.

Click the link to read the entire article: http://www.forbes.com/sites/larissafaw/2012/05/18/why-millennials-are-spending-more-than-they-earn/