CSP+ and CSP++: the new luxury customers
While the luxury sector has many expectations to meet, the customer relations sector remains one of the most strategic. For CSP+ and CSP++ customers, the experience goes well beyond the act of buying: today's major brands are seeking to become genuine 'destinations', where every interaction is designed to captivate and build loyalty. However, between the health crisis and the emergence of new relationship models, the link between consumers and brands has undergone profound changes. How are these relationships evolving, and what innovations are luxury brands putting in place to strengthen them? These are just some of the challenges explored in Sup de Luxe's Bachelor's degree in Luxury, an essential course for mastering the issues facing the sector.
What does the market research carried out by Sup de Luxe students have to say about luxury consumers?
A quick reminder: in 2017, in a market worth 262 billion euros, millenials (those born in the 1980s and 2000s) accounted for 45% of luxury customers, or almost one in two buyers. Among them are many consumers from the CSP+ and CSP++ categories, essential targets for luxury brands because of their high purchasing power and their demand for personalisation and made-to-measure experiences. Between proximity and exclusivity, immediacy and durability, a new lexicon is emerging, definitely influenced by a young audience. More authentic, more social, more protean, more instinctive... for these new consumers, the experience is now more important than the product. It is at the very heart of the process, and must be personalised and multi-channel.
What do we mean by CSP+ and CSP++?
The terms CSP+ (higher socio-professional categories) and CSP++ (very high income categories) refer to consumers with high purchasing power. These customers are distinguished not only by their financial capacity, but also by specific expectations, such as exclusivity, emotion and personalisation in their purchases. They represent a key audience for luxury brands, which are adapting their strategies to meet their exacting requirements.
Louis Vuitton, the jewel in the crown of luxury, illustrates this with its flagship store on Place Vendôme in Paris. An inspiring space, a veritable museum-boutique covering 1,700 m² on 4 floors, where works of art and Vuitton-branded items coexist. It's an immersive experience in which a consultant, in charge of communication, invites customers on a made-to-measure voyage of discovery.
The question of experience is therefore at the heart of the relationship, a spearhead to which is added the indispensable question of personalisation. When excellence is no longer enough, luxury must respond to the emotional needs of the consumer. And to achieve this, it needs to know them, target them and adapt to their habits. The CSP+ and CSP++ categories, in particular, expect an experience that combines technology, exclusivity and sensitivity, going beyond the simple transaction.
New trends in the luxury market
Between heritage and innovation, the balance is sometimes complicated for the contemporary luxury sector. But in the face of the pandemic and this new relationship model, it is adapting, and using the new possibilities offered by digital, to offer ever more immersive experiences in order to continue to attract and retain customers.
More simplicity, more speed, more exclusivity, more collaboration... all this requires a customer-centric strategy. This approach makes it possible to better understand and segment customers, and to create truly unique and personalised experiences. Virtual reality, connected objects, data, chatbots... these are just a few of the ways in which luxury can differentiate itself and make its mark.
As Thibaut de La Rivière, Director of Sup de luxe, points out: "Luxury is becoming more accessible and refocusing on the 'human' through innovative and ever more personalised customer relations, a necessary adaptation to continue to appeal to a young audience and opening up countless new prospects".
On a more practical level, today's major companies are banking on freer, more personal relations between customers (or rather those who qualify as privileged guests) and employees, with the aim of developing an atmosphere of closeness and intimacy that consumers often seek (even by videoconference). Brands are also using targeted, highly personalised newsletters, always with the aim of turning the act of buying into a truly experiential act. Combining proximity, expertise and in-depth analysis, luxury seems ready to develop all its assets to strengthen the precious bond that unites it with its customers.