Mad Money

“Let me tell you about the very rich,” F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote. “They are different from you and me.”

Yes, they are. For one thing, they have money. And they’re spending it despite the economic downturn.

For example, luxury travel marketer Ultimate Escapes has seen no falloff in membership sales. These range in cost from $70,000 to $350,000.

“People are being more cautious before making purchases,” admits Neal Rubin, the company’s senior vice president of marketing. But response is holding, he says.

“The very wealthy continue to be very wealthy, even in a down economy,” adds Lisa Joy Rosner, vice president of marketing for MyBuys Inc., a firm that helps online merchants with demographic targeting.

Want to snare a piece of that wealth? First you have to understand a few things about the rich. One is that they want to be educated, not pitched. Another is that they expect top-notch service.

In addition, they rely heavily on advice from their peers. And they do a lot of research before making a major purchase, according to Ron Kurtz, president of The American Affluence Research Center.

But remember this: Don’t ever let on that you know what they’re worth.

“I don’t think you talk about wealth at all,” says Kurtz. “The idea of their wealth should be in the background — something you know and appreciate, but that doesn’t need to be acknowledged.”

Others agree.

“My philosophy is that luxury never shouts — it whispers,” Rubin says.

That doesn’t mean you should use low-end promotional gimmicks.

We never use starbursts,” Rubin continues. “A starburst says ‘Prices are now discounted 20%.’ Starbursts and giant headlines are used by car dealerships, not high-end retail.”

In its advertising, Ultimate Escapes uses soft fonts like Avenir and New Astor, and its color palette draws from lighter hues like terra-cotta and olive.

And the copy? It relies on words this audience is used to. The homes it features as getaway locations are never “lavish” or “opulent,” they’re “well appointed.”

“When you’re talking to someone who purchases luxury brands, that type of messaging is pretty consistent,” Rubin says. “If our approach is distinctly different, there’s a disconnect.”

The offer’s phrasing should have a light touch. “We use words like, ‘We invite you’ or ‘Discover the Ultimate Escapes difference,’ Rubin continues. “Nobody likes to be sold. This audience is not going to respond to a heavy-handed approach.”

How do you reach affluent shoppers?

Ultimate Escapes relies on a mix of trackable direct response ads and e-mail. But direct mail has declined as a prospecting channel, Rubin says.

Others caution that e-mail also is a poor acquisition tool.

“It’s almost useless for a new brand to try e-mail,” says Luxury Institute CEO Milton Pedraza. “Don’t do it unless you have a relationship.”

Even then, marketers don’t always get it right. Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus have annoyed Pedraza by sending him undifferentiated solicitations. “Those brands have so much data, but they lack the analytic firepower to put the data into effect as custom offers,” he says.

One thing’s for sure: Well-to-do consumers are active online.

“The Internet has become one of the most powerful channels for [reaching] them,” Pedraza says. “The first place this audience goes is to the Web sites of known providers.”

They’re also good candidates for viral marketing, since they often turn to friends for purchase advice. Blogs and networks can work too.

“You don’t have to watch 100 travel blogs and post to all of them — it’s not cost effective,” says Gregory Shove, CEO of lifestyle marketer Halogen Guides. “But there are probably five to 10 where you need to be in the conversation.”

There’s a place for elaborate direct mail pieces, but only after a prospect has shown at least some interest, he adds. A $25-per-piece shotgun mailing to high-wealth consumers, merely on the basis of wealth, will be of questionable worth.

But someone using the Web to research prime real estate or African tours is “further down the tunnel,” Shove adds. “At that point, you could send a $200 brochure or a DVD, or have someone call personally.”

Another thing to remember about the super-rich is that time is important to them.

“As you increase your wealth, the demands on your time increase as well,” says Lewis Schiff, author of “The Middle-Class Millionaire.”

He adds: “People who have created wealth like to spend their time focusing on their families, or building whatever it was that made them wealthy. They have control and power, and they want more of it.”

According to Schiff, wealthy consumers respond well to two types of solicitations:

The concierge offer that promises to alleviate headaches and hassles.

The connoisseur offer that enhances the prospect’s knowledge and influence.

Ultimate Escapes favors the concierge model — its destinations provide everything from home maintenance to meals.

But the connoisseur model meets a different need: It provides information that will allow the purchaser to make an informed decision that can elevate his status among his peers.

“Let’s say Mercedes invites a select group to meet an engineer,” Schiff says. “Attendees will be able to talk about this with people they know.”

The bottom line? Any customer who becomes a connoisseur will also be a marketing apostle.

“That’s how they demonstrate power,” Schiff says.

Not all consumers buying luxury goods are wealthy.

“You want both aspirational and elite customers,” says David Manela, vice president of strategic marketing at Ideeli Inc., which operates a shopping site featuring high-end merchandise. “When a luxury brand offers entry-level goods at a loss, it’s able to create emotion around the brand.”

How does this work? Let’s say a middle-income prospect goes to a posh retail outlet and buys a premium leather wallet.

“It may not be the most expensive item on your shelf, but you are acquiring a future customer,” Manela says. “You need to be able to do the same through your direct marketing.”

Even these customers should be marketed to as if they were already in the desired wealth bracket, and that means avoiding discounts and financial incentives on their first order.

“Five years down the road, when I look at those customers’ lifetime value, I’m not going to be very happy,” Manela says.

Aren’t middle-income shoppers affected by the economy? Yes, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to stop spending.

“When people get depressed they tend to shop more,” Rosner notes.

Of course, even the rich aren’t completely immune from gas prices or environmental concerns. And that may be good for direct marketers.

“People are not getting in the car and driving to the mall,” Rosner continues. “We’re seeing that across the board with our multichannel clients — their online sales are up and retail sales are down.”

This presents a problem for luxury marketers, who are selling their brand as well as their product. “Everything [a luxury marketer] does is built around the aesthetic,” Rosner says.

How can a marketer replicate this aesthetic? Packaging helps. Take Kiehl’s, a multichannel health and beauty products retailer. The words “Welcome to Kiehl’s! We are most honored to serve you today” are splashed across the top of its home page. It’s a small detail, but the tone is reassuring to shoppers.

It’s the same with packaging. Items received from Kiehl’s do not arrive packed in Styrofoam. They’re nestled on potpourri, and wrapped in gold paper. “They seek to make any day Christmas with their packaging,” Rosner says.

Orders from Peruvian Connection, which sells apparel made of rare fibers like alpaca and Peruvian pima cotton, are carefully ironed and folded within crisp sheets of tissue before being placed in a simple, elegant white box. They’re accompanied by handwritten notes thanking the customer for the purchase.

The packaging “conveys the uniqueness of our product,” says Erik Martinez, the company’s director of e-commerce.

Its marketing also reflects this sense of exclusivity. Peruvian Connection has a strict policy against offering discounts to prospects. “We never want to create the impression that our product is readily discounted,” Martinez says. “It’s a fallacy that the affluent aren’t as susceptible to deals as the rest of us. They are. We offer free shipping, which is meaningful, but it doesn’t affect product pricing.”

That said, don’t make empty promises.

“Wealthy people say, ‘Don’t do anything extraordinary until you have gotten the fundamentals of the customer experience to the point where you deliver them consistently and extraordinarily well,’” Pedraza says.

Above all, don’t try to be what you’re not. “These consumers are looking for authenticity,” Pedraza adds. “You cannot try to be authentic. You either are or you’re not.”

And if you’re not?

“You will have a credibility problem and they will spot it immediately,” he says.

When direct marketers want to target the very wealthy, one question trumps all others: Where can I find these people?

Compiled and response lists relevant to what’s being offered provide some insight, but Lewis Schiff, author of “The Middle-Class Millionaire,” has a more creative suggestion: Look at the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s “tear-down” map.

It lists communities in 40 states where the wealthy are buying plots with old homes on them, knocking down the homes and putting up mini — and in some cases not so mini — mansions. And new homes being constructed by the wealthy and their ilk are fair game for a wide range of goods and services.

The map can be found at http://www.preservationnation.org/issues/teardowns/.-RHL