• by Bob Shullman , Columnist, April 5, 2017

This month’s column follows up on the many comments we received from readers of last month’s column, "Luxury, In The Words Of Upscale Americans,"which focused on the differences in how upscale Americans, as defined by their spending power (i.e., their household incomes and wealth), describe luxury in response to the following question: "When you read, see, or hear the word luxury, please describe briefly what you think about."

This month we focus on another important way of targeting prospective customers based on descriptions of luxury used by people who actually buy luxury products and services, namely:

• All female buyers 

• All male buyers 

The word cloud that follows contains the top twenty descriptions used by female luxury buyers. When comparing their themes with those of male luxury buyers, we see that the following eight themes (shown in red) are used by female buyers to describe luxury but do not appear in the Top 20 list of male buyers: craftsmanship, fine, nice, premium, style, unaffordable, unique, and unnecessary.

Top 20 descriptions among female luxury buyers

Source: Shullman Pulse

Red = Not in male luxury buyers’ Top 20

We then examined the Top 20 descriptions used by male luxury buyers and found that the following eight themes (again in red) are included in their top twenty but not in the females’ top twenty: best, better, cars, ease, exclusive, high price, overpriced, and rich.

Top 20 descriptions among male luxury buyers

Source: Shullman Pulse

Red = Not in female luxury buyers’ Top 20

These gender-based descriptions of luxury can be seen as another GPS for luxury marketers and their agencies, who may use these themes and others we have described in earlier Engage:Affluent columns to more effectively navigate the opportunities and possible pitfalls of reaching luxury buyers and prospects across the board or among specific demographic segments.