Wealthy Millennials Define Luxury Brands in 16 Categories; Craftsmanship and Quality Still Count, but Loyalty Programs, Special Offers and Personalized Service Rise in Importance; Is Apple the New Dom Perignon?

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - Jun 8, 2011) - High net-worth consumers 35 years of age and younger define luxury brands much more in terms of loyalty programs and unique offers than do their older wealthy cohorts, according to "Luxury Brand Marketing to Wealthy Millennials," a new survey by the independent and objective New York City-based Luxury Institute. "Generation Y" individuals born in 1975 and later are also much more likely to have made a luxury purchase in the past year than 35+ wealthy consumers (83% vs. 66%).

Apple, cited without prompting by 45% of wealthy millennials as a luxury brand, tops all other brands, followed by Rolex, Coach and BMW, each offered by 30% of respondents as examples of luxury brands. Just 5.2% cited the iconic Dom Pérignon as a top-of-mind luxury brand, compared to 12% for those older than 35. In spirits, the most popular brand is the relatively young Grey Goose vodka.

"Wealthy millennials view luxury much more for the experiential factors associated with it, rather than relying on brand heritage or residual prestige earned long ago," says Milton Pedraza, CEO of the Luxury Institute. "The good news for luxury firms is that these tech savvy shoppers want to interact with them, not only in stores but also online and on mobile devices. This builds richer experiences and deeper relationships."

For greater details on brand perceptions, awareness and what matters most to wealthy millennials in each of 16 luxury categories, please contact Martin Swanson, VP of Luxury Institute.

About 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.