Global Versus Local Marketing and PR for Luxury Brands

By Muriel Penoty

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When a company is about to launch a new luxury product, service or when launching a new business, you will need a well-executed marketing plan. This marketing plan should include a robust public relations strategy, separated into two distinct campaigns: local and global reach.

The key to a well-executed marketing plan is establishing your brand as a leader in its industry. A clearly defined public relations strategy is one effective way to do this. A good public relations campaign can help you reach your target audience and communicate your core values and goals clearly and efficiently.

When planning a public relations campaign, it is important that you have a well-defined strategy with clearly established objectives and identify how you will achieve them.

Your public relations campaign is dedicated to communicating on a specific topic, such as launching a product, informing the public about specific company news, an event, or improving your brand’s reputation. A global and local marketing strategy will help you achieve your goals.

Global Versus Local Marketing: How Do the Two Strategies Differ?

Unless your target is only local, which is increasingly rare, your local PR strategy will be a pillar of your global PR campaign.

An event is a local happening; nevertheless, the organizers are almost always hoping to attract a wide audience. Therefore, it is crucial to implement global strategic planning, including a separate local PR campaign.

Here are a few local public relations strategies you should consider when preparing your global PR campaign.

Public Relations Strategies: Press Conferences

The launch can be done, for example, via a press conference, where you will invite local news and specialized press. The strategy will be for the promoter to be in close contact with the journalists. Staying in close contact with the media is a vital public relations strategy; not only do you have all of their attention at the press conference, but you can interact with them and get to know them better. In addition, you want to make sure that you spike the media’s interest by making the press conference the base for a unique story. Make sure you discuss story angles and facilitate the angle that individual journalists choose by providing additional quotes, access to key spokespeople, and images where needed.

Part of your global PR strategy will be ahead of the launch, and some of it will be the day of the launch or after your product is on the market. You’ll need to make sure that you are readily accessible at all times to answer any questions that journalists may have.

Public Relations Strategies: Press and Influencer Trips

Some luxury products can be shipped so that influencers can experience them, but many luxury goods can’t. For example, you cannot send a rental property or a yacht for a journalist or influencer to try. Before starting an international press or influencer trip, see how the local media and influencers can assist first. Don’t forget to invite broadcast journalists, including local TV and radio stations, as this is happening in their local area, and they are likely to do a story.

After your press conference, help them understand and experience your product or service to help ensure favorable press coverage.

You can later take this to a broader scale by inviting international journalists and influencers to where you’d like them to test your product or service.

Public Relations Strategies: Press Releases

The planning of your global public relations strategy will need to include sending out a press release.

Make sure that you have your local and global listings separated and tailor your messaging accordingly. For example, just as you wouldn’t send the same news hook to a luxury lifestyle publication as a finance publication, you’ll need to have a different news angle for the local press.

Also, be mindful of communicating with the media in different countries. Translate your press release where necessary, and make sure your emails don’t land in their inbox in the middle of the night.

The advantage with the local press is that it’s easy to pick up the phone after a couple of days to follow up and make sure they’ve received your press release and see how they can integrate it into their news schedule. Of course, this shouldn’t stop you from sending a gentle reminder to the global media a few days later to make sure they have received your press release and see if it fits their editorial calendar.

So, as much as it is often a goal to reach an international audience and produce a global public relations strategy, it’s essential not to neglect to plan a local PR campaign. A local PR campaign will help bring broader coverage and increase local brand awareness.

How to Apply This Marketing Strategy to Ultra-Luxury Brands

Taking the right approach to a PR campaign for luxury brands is vital. The PR campaign should be dedicated to specific hand-picked journalists covering your targeted industries, and you should pay extra attention to ensure that your client’s product or service is highlighted in the best possible way.

Ultra-luxury brands should ensure that any press conferences are held in a luxury location that reflects their brand’s premium feel, such as a high-end hotel or restaurant. Make sure you go the extra mile and include drinks, breakfast or lunch, and include goodies such as a USB stick with all of the visuals for the journalists, a notepad and a fancy pen, and samples of your product where possible. Make sure parking at the press conference is readily available. For example, provide paid-for parking tickets or even a valet service to ensure you impress the journalists before they even step into the press conference. However, the ultimate and most personalized public relations strategy to include in your marketing plan for your ultra-luxury clients is a press trip.

Promoting a luxury product to the media or to an influencer can be as simple as sending them a sample of that product. Influencers can produce some amazing content for their audience. For example, they could highlight the smell of a perfume, the design features of a watch or apparel, or even a night in a hotel room.

But what do you do when your client has an ultra-luxury product such as a yacht or a private jet? Suddenly the experience the journalist or the influencer will have to be at the same level as if they were chartering the yacht or the jet. A couple of years ago, a private jet company trusted us to invite European journalists to enjoy the same luxury experience as their clients. They not only wanted the writers to travel onboard one of their jets, but be picked up on their doorstep by a chauffeur and then taken to the jet where the custom clearance was done without any waiting. But, the experience didn’t end there. The journalists were invited to stay in Monaco for several days to enjoy a fully immersive, high-end experience, including dining in Michelin Starred restaurants, visiting the Monaco Yacht Show, enjoying a private tour of the Monte Carlo Casino as well as being treated to one of Monaco’s lavish spas.

The journalists had been selected to be of broad reach and included financial, business, luxury travel and luxury lifestyle reporters. A total of 12 journalists were invited from four different countries. Two members of staff from our client’s office were at all times available to answer their questions, but also to get to know them better. In addition, two of our PR specialists were there constantly to ensure a seamless experience. The goal was, of course, for them to write about their experience with the private jet company, but to also go the extra mile and highlight what it feels like to be a private jet user and why this private jet company is a must for UHNWIs. The media coverage was plentiful and personalized as each journalist shared what they had experienced and how it felt to be treated as a UHNWI.

Of course, the investment was significant, but it brought the coverage the client was looking for and raised their profile in a way that expensive and more traditional advertising couldn’t have done.

Relevance is a specialized luxury marketing, PR and branding agency, helping both global and local brands with their public relations strategy. If you need help with your marketing or PR strategy, contact Relevance, and we will work on devising a dedicated PR campaign expertly tailored to your needs.