Are Premium Brands Only Bought By Affluent People?

I mean, it’s obvious, right? Premium and super-premium products are mostly or exclusively bought by high-income people. And economy and mass products are bought by low-income people. 

But Europanel has the receipts. Literally. 

Analyzing a whole bunch of purchase data from around the world, they find a LOT less stratification than we’d think. 

F'rinstance, in China, 35% of economy shampoo is bought by affluent buyers — just a bit lower than the 40% for super-premium brands.

And 25% of super-premium shampoo is bought by mid-low income buyers — just a bit lower than the 28% for economy brands.

In fact, the economic strata look pretty darn similar across all price tiers.

So there’s a LOT more buying across economic strata than we might assume. Which means two key things:

+ Brands share customers a TON more than marketing dorks tend to believe.

+ Buyers from ”non-target segments” might matter a LOT more than marketing dorks might think.

Are these differences statistically significant? I dunno, but most likely, yes. 

Do these patterns vary by category (cars & stereos & vacations vs shampoo & coffee)? No doubt.

Are there caveats galore? Of course! Sheesh!

But the main findings run against the grain of a lot of “common sense” in marketing, and have real implications for how you market or advertise your products.

Source: “Premium brands: Are they really different?”
https://lnkd.in/gMSv5a2d