Page 68 - The New Gold Standard

PRINCIPLE 1: DEFINE AND REFINE
luxury consumers and how we could better meet their needs.
Further, we explored best practices and even talked about a few
less-than-successful attempts to address the wants and desires of
our target consumer group.”
From a scientific perspective, Ritz-Carlton methodically
looked for a marketing partner that could help them keep their
brand most relevant in a changing marketplace. After careful
evaluation, strategists at Ritz-Carlton selected Team One, a
division of Saatchi & Saatchi that specializes in the luxury con-
sumer. Mark Miller, director of strategic planning for Team
One, observes, “The great thing about working with Ritz-
Carlton has been that we’ve been involved with a very transfor-
mative program. It started with the words of Bruce Himelstein,
senior vice president of sales and marketing. Bruce said that
Ritz-Carlton leadership wanted to capture the best of the com-
pany, epitomized by their logo—the lion and crown—and keep
it fresh and relevant. In Bruce’s words, Ritz-Carlton wanted to
‘blow the dust off the lion and crown, but not blow it up.’”
Working together, Team One and Ritz-Carlton identified
the segmentation of the luxury consumer market. Their efforts
revealed that Ritz-Carlton appeared to principally appeal to a
consumer group referred to as “classic status-seekers.” The clas-
sic status-seeker is the person who buys a Mercedes and when
asked why, says, “It’s a Mercedes; what else do I need to tell
you?” For this group, the Ritz-Carlton emblem of the lion and
crown has always been and continues to be a highly valued icon.
An emerging market segment, for which Ritz-Carlton did
not have as strong an appeal, was the “discerning affluents.” Re-
search on this group suggested that it comprised more than
twice the luxury market when compared to the status-seeker (49
compared to 21 percent). Unlike the status-seeker, the discern-
ing affluents have a level of understanding about their purchases.
When asked why they buy a Mercedes, the discerning affluent
would say, “It’s a Mercedes—the safest car in the world. After all,
it’s the company that patented crash testing of automobiles for

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