Who Are the Luxury Consumers in Brazil?

One of the strengths of this book is its in-depth knowledge of luxury consumers and their importance in this market. The goal of this chapter is to introduce their characteristics: aspirations, social class and location, income, spending habits, their expectations of the products, how faithful they are to a brand and which services they look for. To be able to identify a luxury client one must learn what characterizes him or her. One particular aspect is related to percept ions, where ‘having’ is more important than ‘being’. This means that any lack of recognition for ‘being’ requires higher levels of ‘having’ as a password to a social group and to access its status. The condition of ‘having’, however, reflects two sides of consumerism: the satisfaction of a personal need, and social ascension or belonging to a group. The economic elite can be split into two subgroups: emerging (new money) and traditional (old money), where the latter is usually distinguished from the former by a refined taste.