What does luxury truly mean in today’s interior design industry? Is it about exclusivity, opulence, or expert craftsmanship? And more importantly, how can designers position their brand to attract high-end clients in an ever-evolving market? The definition of luxury has changed dramatically over the years, and in this episode, we explore how designers can use marketing to stand out in the luxury space.

Erin Weir sits down with Daniela Pimentel Furtado, founder and CEO of Findable Digital Marketing, to discuss the nuances of luxury marketing for interior designers. Daniela’s expertise in SEO and digital marketing for design and construction firms has given her a front-row seat to the changing trends in how affluent clients find and select designers. She shares actionable insights on defining luxury, optimizing your online presence, and attracting the right clients.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• 
  
• The Many Flavors of Luxury: Luxury is not one-size-fits-all. Daniela breaks it down into four main categories: premium expertise, opulent abundance, curated aesthetics, and exclusive custom work. Which one best represents your brand?
  
• Why Affluent Clients ARE Online: Many designers assume that high-net-worth individuals aren’t searching online for services, but the data tells a different story. Daniela shares how Google Trends and research studies prove that even ultra-high-net-worth individuals rely on digital platforms, though they may be engaging in unexpected ways.
  
• How to Make Your Website Reflect Luxury: Your portfolio is the epicenter of your marketing strategy. Daniela explains why high-quality photography, detailed storytelling, and SEO-optimized case studies are critical in positioning yourself as a high-end designer.
  
• The Future of Luxury Branding: With Gen Z emerging as a dominant luxury consumer group, brands must evolve. Daniela shares insights on the trend of “accessible luxury” and how high-end brands like Gucci and Burberry are shifting towards openness, engagement, and unexpected collaborations.
  
• Actionable Steps to Elevate Your Luxury Marketing: Whether you’re just starting out or have been in business for years, Daniela offers practical steps to refine your portfolio, enhance your storytelling, and make your website more findable to your ideal clients.
  

If you’re listening on your favorite podcast platform, view the full shownotes here: https://thepearlcollective.com/s13e4-shownotes

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

• 
  
• Google Trends: A free tool to analyze search trends for luxury design keywords.
  
• SEMrush & Google Search Console: SEO tools to track how well your website ranks for luxury-related terms.
  
• Findable Digital Marketing: Daniela’s agency that specializes in marketing for the design and construction industries.
  

Note: Transcript is created automatically and may contain errors.

Welcome to the Creative Genius podcast. Daniella, we’re so excited to have you here today. Why don’t we get started and you can just tell a little bit about yourself.

Thank you so much for having me. Yeah, my name is Daniella. I own a marketing agency called Findable Digital Marketing, and that’s exactly what we do. We help businesses in the design and construction space become easy to find online. So I spend a lot of my time consulting clients, running an agency, but also speaking and writing about these topics.

Well, I love that. And today we’re going to talk about understanding luxury in the modern market. And so how has the definition of luxury, I put that in quotes, right? Luxury changed over time and what values matter most to today’s affluent client.

Yeah. So when I first thought about luxury marketing, it was when I first started the agency back in 2020, a lot of clients were telling me that they are luxury and they’re, they want that to be clear all over the website. But I, something I found interesting is that everyone defines or showcases luxury differently for one client. It was about, creativity for another client. was about quality and skill.

Hmm.

And for another, was about service and that white glove service, like taking care of all the bits and pieces of the project for you. Right. So luxury, the definition of luxury today is so different for everyone. And I think that’s because it’s changed so much over the years. It used to be that luxury was reserved for aristocrats. It was something that a very, very small

of the population could afford. And during the Industrial Revolution, wealth has been distributed. There’s a growing middle class, or the middle class was growing, and just about anyone could be able to afford the things that only the rich could afford before. And so with that growing middle class, the definition of luxury changed. And that’s how I think we have this spectrum.

of luxury or what I call flavors of luxury today.

I love that. I mean, even just reference in it, referencing it as flavors is like even helpful to better understand it. Right. So, so why I guess let’s dig in a little bit more into the why luxury is so hard to define and how does that impact how design firms interior design firms market themselves?

Yeah. Well, if, if luxury is difficult to define, if there has so many different interpretations, then that means that what you think luxury is may not be the same as what the rest of your team think it is or what your clients think it is. And so when we think about marketing, using the right words is important, right? So that you’re attracting the right kind of people, to you does luxury mean

opulence and glamour and you know, shiny. Does it mean a specific aesthetic? Like Victoria, we work with one interior designer that designs Victorian spaces. And it’s very specific aesthetic and that today is difficult to design because it’s difficult to get those materials and custom made objects, right? Or is luxury the best quality, premium, high skilled. So it’s important to

define a little bit more what luxury means so that you’re being clear that you’re attracting the right kind of people and the people on your team also understand and can sell and be on the same page as like you.

I love that. So let’s talk about the flavors of luxury that you referenced and why is that important for interior designers to identify their own flavors of luxury?

Yeah. So, when I was, there was, there was actually a conversation that was pretty pivotal for me. we have this one client, she’s a marketing director of a furniture brand. Actually, it’s an, it’s a parent company that has five sister brands. So she manages all five of them and some of them are more luxury than others. So she was quite attuned to these different flavors of the nuances of luxury. And I remember in one of her calls, she said,

our director of business developments or sales told us that we are marketing ourselves as a premium brand, not as luxury. And so in our call today, Daniella, I want to like look at the website with a different set of eyes and figure that out. And I humbly said that what’s the difference? What’s the difference between premium and luxury?

And she, her shoulders are out, she’s like, I’m so glad you asked because I don’t know either.

Great place to start,

A great place to start. So we have all these different words, right? And it’s hard to define. It’s so nuanced. But for that company was important to distinguish the difference because they had these different sister, like different brands with them, their umbrella that had different price points, and there was a difference in quality. And they wanted that to come through through the brand, through the marketing. So with that client, we

figured out what we did was quite a bit of a journey, but we looked at all the different kinds of words, keywords that people use online when looking for luxury. We looked at tools like Google Trends to see what people were searching on Google and what was the volume like. And then Google and Google Trends is a software. It’s free. Anyone can use it. It also clumps together.

words that are similar enough that are typically searched together or one after the other. And using that we created our own kind of dictionary or kind of guidelines. And this is not it’s not concrete. It’s not like I’m saying I’m not trying to preach this that everyone has to use this. But it’s I think it’s a good jumping off point to help you reflect and ask yourself like what

You know, I use this word all the time luxury, but does what does it really mean for me? And am I really walking the talk in all areas of my business? I have a luxury price tag, but am I being in my demonstrating that I’m luxury through my services, through my website, through the way I talk about my services, my sales calls, you know, from every from the beginning to the end. So we came up with four flavors and there these are the flavors. The first is

So any word that suggests premium, the best expert, go to award winning. So anything that suggests that you are the best at blink. The second flavor of premium is lavish, opulence, glamour. It’s about abundance, having as much as you’d like as much as possible. The third revolves around aesthetic.

So it could be, like I mentioned before, Victorian, could be Bohemian, could be modern, it could be minimalist, whatever it is, it’s something curated specifically for you. And the fourth flavor of luxury is exclusive. This is custom, right? Made only for you, one of a kind. There’s nothing like this that exists in the world. This was made specifically and only for you.

kind of similar with the aesthetic, but you get the gist of it.

fascinating. It’s really has me thinking about like, what would my initial definition of luxury be? And, you know, I’m working on copy and marketing materials to interior design business owners all the time. And, you know, I use those words, I use luxury, I use exclusive, I use premium. But it’s really helpful to think about your definitions behind those and the use of them.

So people can better understand what we do. That’s great.

And most importantly, take that definition and then look at your entire business through that lens and ask yourself, you know, and be very honest. Am I really walking the talk? Are we really doing what we’re saying?

really authentically being the version of luxury that you intend to be. That’s great. Well, let’s talk a little bit about marketing to luxury clients online, right? We’re all online these days using AI and social media and all sorts of different types of apps to make our lives easier. But many interior designers I find believe that affluent clients aren’t online.

And so why is that a misconception and what does the data that you have actually say about that?

Yeah, I hear that often as well people ask are, are my clients really online? They have a lot of money. They’re very busy. And the data suggests that they are that consumer behavior is changing. And there are so many different data sources that suggest this. One example, very, very basic one, going back to the software I mentioned before, Google Trends.

Go on Google Trends and you can see how many more people are searching for interior designers or luxury interior design or anything related to like, you know, premium services or professional services. And you could see that there is a huge increase in 2017 versus today. There are about 19,000 people every single month searching for that keyword.

specifically luxury interior designer in in the US alone and if you were to add The city that they’re in it would get more specific. Wow, that’s just right now. I searched that up this morning Other sources other research studies show that about 70 % of luxury online purchases for luxury goods Take place online. There’s at least one interaction online

That doesn’t mean that just because you’re luxury, you’re impulsive, that you purchase right away. Online is not synonymous with impulsive. Luxury consumers still take their time. They need a high degree of trust to make a purchase, especially as a service, right? Something that they can’t touch, they can’t wear, they can’t feel. So they do go online, but that doesn’t mean that they start and end the entire process online. It doesn’t mean that they…

are gonna hire you just after one Google search or one social media post or one webinar or one email newsletter. It just means that as they’re choosing to make a decision whether to hire you or not, throughout that entire sales cycle, there are quite a few interactions that happen online. What the data also suggests, there’s a journal by the management of marketing that put out a really, really thorough research study.

they interviewed seven people that are considered ultra high net worth and they interviewed them about their shopping behaviors. And again, they found that these consumers do go online before purchasing a luxury product or service. And oftentimes though, they’re using anonymous accounts. And so we often forget that it could be that your target clients or your existing clients

are watching you online, but you don’t know about it because they’re not liking they’re not commenting, but they are watching what you’re doing. So yes, absolutely people are online. But you know, you’re not selling tacos and t shirts. So your sales cycle and your marketing journey is not going to look the same to other businesses because of the price tag and because the high degree of trust required.

Right, that makes a lot of sense. So they’re watching, but they’re not necessarily taking action. And as marketers, we’re always wanting people to take action, right? For our services and to show us like that they’re raising their hand and saying, hey, like I’m interested in you. Like, let’s have a conversation. Let me download something. Let me opt in for something. So that’s really interesting.

One other thing I’d like to mention is that there are also, know, typically the bigger the number, the more, not always, but typically there are multiple stakeholders involved or multiple touch points, right? So it could be that the person that found you online and booked the call with you is not the same person that’s gonna sign the check. And that’s important to remember. So when you’re thinking about is my target customer online,

you know, if you’re thinking about the person that’s signing the check, maybe no, maybe they’re not the one Googling you, but maybe their assistant is and it was their assistant that was required to like, you know, short lists, top five interior designers to speak to you know what I mean?

That’s a really good point. mean, I know that we’ve experienced that in some of our sales calls as well, where someone on the team, they know the need, they’ve had the assignment to find a business coach, and then that’s not necessarily the person that’s going to make the decision, but is part of that initial call. So I think that that happens across the board with all businesses for sure.

Okay, so some of the misconceptions that you’ve talked about with marketing the luxury clients online, how would you suggest to interior designers that they can rethink their approach in marketing the luxury clients online?

Yeah, I think not to sound like a broken record. Well, or maybe let me take it a step further. We talked about, you know, doing some soul searching and reflection, thinking about what does luxury mean to you, try to come up with a definition of it. And then I’d say this to really do like an audit on your entire marketing presence, everything from the website to your social media channels.

or maybe simply just doing a Google search and seeing what comes up. Could be your Google Maps listing or like a house listing that you created years ago. Completely forgot about, but it’s showing up.

reviews.

you don’t have enough or maybe you have some low star ratings.

Exactly. And they could have been years ago, you completely forgot about it, kind of been abandoned. So do an audit of, you know, try to imagine if someone like a target customer, right, is searching either your brand, or a generic word. So if you’re ranking for those keywords, so they’re searching for the name of your firm or the name of you, or searching for interior designer plus,

Austin, Texas or whatever maybe and look at how what comes up and and take your definition of luxury and look at every single facet and ask yourself is this on par? then if you want to get even more detailed, I’d say because in my opinion, I think the epicenter of marketing for luxury marketing for designs

firms is your portfolio. And I would ask myself, is your portfolio up to date? Do you have your best projects listed? Are they professionally photographed? And are you telling stories behind the projects? This is one of my biggest pet peeves about the industry is that portfolios are oftentimes just photo galleries. And I think this is a disservice to your firm because yes, a photo can tell a million

It says a million words or so and it tells a million messages, but are they the right messages? Right. Looking at your photos from your portfolio, I don’t really know what you did. Did you tear down a wall and manage a team of general contractors and make sure that they were on time and then sticking to the budget? Did you get a permit from the city or did you just, you know, choose some paint colors and throw some pillows?

Right.

There’s a huge difference and telling the stories behind your portfolio could really, I think it’s a huge, it makes a huge difference. Like that sort of attention to detail, the care, the messaging is, some of the things that demonstrate that you’re an expert at what you do and that you’re premium, that you’re luxury.

Yeah, like kind of setting the stage, it sounds like instead of just having them tell themselves their own story through the photos, I think that that’s a really smart move and making sure that they’re up to date, right? Like I was reading in your article, you know, do you have photos that are just from like 2003 or do you have more recent projects that are up? And I know that in a photography and getting the right client and the right project that you’re able to photograph is a really

really huge hurdle for a of designers. And so it does take time and it takes dollars to be able to have that great photography that’s up on your site. And then if you’re wanting to get it published and what you can use and what you can, that is already such a game. So you’ve already gone to that expense of time with the client and getting a photograph. Like, why would you not just take a little bit more time to really think through, like, how can I tell this story?

So I really love that. So what are, do you have some examples of some firms that are successfully attracting luxury clients online? And do you feel like, do you have a couple that you could share with us and maybe some things that kind of set them apart?

So many.

Sure, I could start I mean there are so many examples it depends if you Want something specific, but the one I always like to tell is a story of Sansa interiors She was one of my earlier clients So we’ve been working with her the longest and I have the most like meets the most stories to tell from that experience So when I first started working with Jude of Sansa interiors, she had just been in business for a few years

She was an interior designer. She was working as an employee for luxury firms and she had branched off and started her own. So she was very familiar with the industry and working with affluent clients, but was just starting off with creating her own portfolio. she had done the challenge that she had was that she was number one, chasing a lot of clients and or chasing projects, right?

and struggling to get the kind of projects you really, really wanted to get. And when we looked at her site, or when we looking at her marketing strategy, really, she was doing a little bit of everything. But she wouldn’t stick to anything long enough to see results or create a process from it. She’d get frustrated, give it up, and move on to the next channel or strategy. So she was doing a little bit of social media, a little bit of vlogging, a little bit of blogging.

She even experimented with mail flyers and billboard ads. So could see that she was trying a lot of different social media platforms, but not sticking to one long enough. The same was true about her portfolio. She had beautiful, beautiful projects. But again, it was a little bit of everything. She did a little some condos, some single family homes, some offices and some restaurants. And so it’s hard to position yourself as premium as the best.

because that’s the flavor of luxury she was going for. She wanted to be known as highly skilled, as the premium, as the best, as an expert, but it’s hard to position yourself as that when you’re doing a little bit of everything. So one of the first things that we did was we told her, you gotta narrow down your focus, not just in the channels, the marketing strategy, but also the kind of projects that you’re working with or the target customer. So we asked

challenged her to come up with one target customer. She pushed back and she asked for two. So we chose two target customers. Two target projects. So nowadays she specializes in residential homes and cafes. And she’s here in Toronto, Canada. Most of our clients are in the States nowadays, but like I said, one of my first clients. And so,

Yeah, she’s doing quite well. She’s kind of, you know, she’s kind of, she’s really built a reputation for herself as the go-to interior designer across the entire province of Ontario for cafes. She’s really carved out that niche for herself. And if you wish, I could talk more about the details, but it kind of shows in the numbers as well. Before we started working together, she got 18 inquiries in the span of one year. And the following year, she got something like 77, I think.

All right.

And then in the third year, was 133. The numbers are on our website. But it’s something like that. Yeah, she saw she saw incredible growth. Yeah.

Well, and I think that it comes back down to some basics of just marketing, right? Like really identifying who you serve, who you enjoy to serve, who you serve best, that ideal client. And then really being consistent. Sometimes it’s not a sprint. It’s not just little tiny sprints. It’s a marathon of like you’re still steady and you’re running the race and you’re

keeping doing the things, you know, it’s very similar to when you’ve decided that you’re ready to lose that 10 pounds before summer and what you going to do for it? You’re going to set the goal and then going to exercise a little bit more and you’re probably going to eat a little bit different. And that consistency is what gets those results and those results in a shorter amount of time, right? And that are more lasting results because if we try to do it in just a sprint and do it overnight, we’re probably not going to get the results that we want. So that’s

Yes. Share? Yeah, I could give you so many. We have another one. She’s in Washington, DC. There’s another interior design firm called Lorla. Lorla came to us already with a pretty strong foundation. So she had been doing a little bit of PR, which was great. She got some really amazing press features, but she wasn’t getting leads.

Other examples like

and she had just reinvested into her website. So she did a website rebrand. There’s like not a re maybe she did a rebrand, but she did, she redesigned the website and she had really great photos. and, so she had a lot of the pieces already in place, right? She got press features that demonstrated that she, she got like authority, right? Like someone else, you know, a high authority website, kind of endorsing her. she got professionally taken photos.

She had pretty good positioning already. She just specialized in residential. She wasn’t doing a little bit of everything and it was all in the DMV area. And she had a really great website. And so it was really, she had the foundation in place and it was about just, you know, doing the rest. we took her, what was one of some of the things that we did? She didn’t have a Google maps listing. So that was one thing that we set up.

to put a process in place to get testimonials and she had incredible testimonials. The other thing was turning her projects into case studies. So she had great projects, great photos, but wasn’t telling the stories behind them. adding a little bit more of a story behind each project and then turning each project into blog posts. think on average, one blog post generates about six, sorry, one project generates about six blog posts.

Okay, wow.

And then another thing was getting her on best lists. So we pitch her to any sort of magazine or publication that is putting together a list of like the top 10 designers in DC. We got her on those lists. And now what we’re working on is getting her to speak at conferences and podcasts like these. Again, to position herself as the best interior designer in Washington DC.

There are a other things and her results, you know, I could pull up the numbers right now. I believe she got in the first year, she got 20 something leads and in the second year, 50, 50 something and she’s we’re working with her again this year and she’s already, I think almost at 50 leads and just Q1. So.

That is great news.

Yes, if I’m not mistaken, those are roughly the numbers.

Well, speaking of websites, let’s talk about how.

how to design or market a website as luxury using SEO, especially Google. And SEO, I know is search engine optimization. I just wanna put that out there for maybe some of our listeners that aren’t thinking in that vein of it. But so let’s talk a little bit about the search engine optimization when it comes to marketing a website for luxury on Google.

So to be on the first page of Google, you first have to decide what you want to be on the first page of Google for. So that’s, in other words, in technical terms, you got to define the target keyword, right? The keyword that you want to go after. That could be luxury interior designer near me or luxury interior designer and then the name of the city that you’re located in. But maybe that you got to also define your flavor of luxury.

maybe it’s revolving around a specific aesthetic, right? So minimalist interior designer or modern or traditional or contemporary. Maybe if you’re not an interior designer, but maybe a furniture maker, you want to target the key word custom furniture maker.

Whatever may be. So to really figure out what you want to be known as, how do you want people to find you or how are people currently finding you and you want to keep that up and then use that language throughout your website to use that language on your homepage, on your service page, on your about page and use tools like SEMrush or SEMrush is paid, but you could use free tools like Google search console to see how you are ranking for those keywords.

And as you use the keywords more and more, how your positioning or your rankings increase. Did you start off ranking number 100 and then as you use the keywords, maybe now you’re ranking number 50 or 20 or 30 or you want to be top 10 or top three ideally. using those, identifying the keyword that you want to be known as and using it throughout your website.

An easy way to use it as well on your website are the case studies like we talked about before, right? So case studies are an opportunity for you to add text to your website without using creating like fluffy blog posts like top 10 wallpapers to choose. You could talk about your work and you could also use keywords at the same time. So case studies are a really effective way. The other is getting press and awards or being featured on best lists. This is something called back.

So these links will be sent back to your site. People typically pay for this. When you hire an SEO agency, they typically pay small websites to link back to your sites because that’s an indicator to Google that, you know, you could say that you are the best interior designer or the luxury interior designer all over your website. But if nobody else is saying that, then it only has so much weight. So when you hire a traditional SEO agency, they typically will pay small websites to link back to your site.

But if you want to do it in more authentic way, and in my opinion, more luxury or premium routes, then you could do get real backlinks, Something that links that actually have real weight to them. And so getting press features, getting awards, getting featured on best lists are a way to get the link, but also improve your brand as well. Testimonials. So not just asking for testimonials through an email, but asking clients to leave a Google review, which is also a testimonial.

can help with your rankings on Google. And then I would say the last thing are, and I’ve said this before, but having really high quality photos of your projects, but also of you and your team having good headshots. Now that’s not really, that’s not quite something for Google to be honest. Like, yes, you could optimize the images, but that’s not gonna have as much weight as the other things that I mentioned before. However, it will make people stick to your website, right?

You get to the first page of Google. Yeah, you’ll get a lot of traffic, but you want to make sure that traffic converts. And having high quality photos, especially of your face, that builds a lot of trust and that gets people, that adds like a stickiness factor to your website and the likelihood of seeing more conversions is greater.

Okay, excellent. I love that. Okay, let’s talk about positioning a design firm as luxury. So how would you advise an interior design firm looking to define its own flavor of luxury?

Hmm.

I think about if you’re wanting to figure out what your flavor of luxury is, I’d say look at your best projects or your favorite projects. Maybe it doesn’t have to be a lot. It could just be your top three favorite and try to look for some patterns and some similarities. And if it’s too close to you, maybe ask a teammate, a friend, a partner, someone that’s a little bit removed.

to try to identify what they see the patterns, the common threads are. And I think from there, that could help you start to define what your flavor of luxury is.

Okay, and you I know you’ve talked a lot about photography and the story behind the photos. What else on a firm’s website and in their portfolio is going to help them reflect luxury and their positioning in the marketplace?

Having projects that are luxury will shine through in the photos, course.

Hahahaha

Some people think that being elusive, mysterious, not saying too much is luxury. I personally believe that that’s an outdated approach, it’s kind of stuffy. And in today’s digital age, you can’t get away with that anymore. Maybe if you have a very, very strong reputation, you’ve been in business for 20 plus years. But I don’t think that’s a strategy that’s gonna last much longer in today’s digital age. We need more information.

the modern consumer needs wants to be informed and they want information. So I think information or copy is important, but it not cheap copy, if I could say that, like don’t touch it. It’s it’s have a human and a skillful writer, write your copy. Something that has personality that is refined, that is tasteful.

but isn’t fluffy either that’s actually says something. What else? Positioning projects, photos, copy, and about you, like talk about you, show up, know, have an about page, have a bio, show us where you’ve been featured, link to your social media channels, to any podcasts, any conferences that you spoke on. People want to know who they’re end up hiring and so.

Make it easy for us to do that research by just providing those links.

You know, I look at so many different designers websites on a daily basis and I think that some really downplay the about us page or the about page. And then some overly emphasize the about right. And it’s like, well, wait a minute. Is this about you or is this about the need I have and what I’m trying to do to help me with that need. so I think that

Both are important, but a happy medium for sure. All right, well, let’s talk a little bit about the future of luxury marketing and more so on what trends are emerging in the luxury market that designers really should be paying attention to. know designers are so good at keeping up with the trends and helping to set them. But what do they really need to be paying attention to, especially in that luxury market?

I think the trends are really being dictated by the demographics. So nowadays, most affluent consumers are no longer baby boomers, they’re Gen X and millennials, and increasingly they’re becoming Gen Z. Soon they will be Gen Z. And so we’re finding that Gen Z is kind of defining the new definition, the current definition of luxury, which makes sense, right?

So there’s a really fabulous brand firm out in London called Dalzel and Powell. And they did a research study about the current state of luxury marketing. they’re finding that Gen Z, again, is defining what luxury marketing is. About 25 % of luxury goods are bought by Gen Z. And Gen Z is, you know, this generation is very passionate about diversity, inclusivity.

accessibility. They’re very purpose driven. They care about social causes and that comes out in their purchases and how they choose to spend their money. So they’re no longer interested in brands that are stuffy, that are elusive, that are mysterious, that are not friendly or not inclusive. so Dazelle and Pau have coined this term called accessible luxury.

which is kind of a contradiction. But again, speaking to what I said earlier about as wealth becomes more accessible, as the middle class grows, luxury, the definition of luxury has changed. so yeah, it kind of makes sense to me that this term accessible luxury is a thing in 2025. And so accessible luxury is about

What Gen Z is looking for brands that are willing to break a little bit of the structure that they’ve had so far. And brands like Gucci, Burberry, and Tiffany have been doing this so far. Like they’re doing these social media campaigns where they’re vandalizing their own brand or they’re using memes and gifts. And stores now they have super friendly staff. They’re no longer this distant and kind of

kind of cold or or reserves. They’re super approachable, very friendly. And we’re also seeing in their marketing campaigns, these really unexpected collaborations, we see really high end brands like Burberry and Gertie collaborate with like streetwear or artists that you would not typically, you know, expect. And so I think that I think that’s what luxury is becoming nowadays.

So is there that also changing the way those brands are communicating? mean, they’re definitely doing different types of collaborations and kind of being outside of the box in their marketing. But are there some ways that they’re communicating differently as well?

Yeah, for sure, right? They’re using this open language. They’re typically talking a lot more, where before they would not, the captions would be super short. The communication was quite minimal, and now they’re being more vocal. Or the example I gave before, right? Where they’re like vandalizing their own brand by adding memes and gifs. Yeah.

Okay, so what are some practical first steps for a design firm that wants to elevate its marketing and attract more luxury clients? I know a lot of our listeners, we have all sorts of different types of design firms that listen to our podcasts on a daily basis. Some people are just starting out, some people have been in business for 10 plus years. Some are on the East Coast, some are on the West Coast, some are in other countries.

What are just some ways that someone could get started with realizing that they need to elevate their brand and what really eager to attract that higher luxury client?

I’d say once you define what your flavor of luxury is once you figure out how you want to be known and what kind of customer you want to go after Start with your portfolio look at your portfolio and discard anything that doesn’t fit with that. So that could be really old pieces That could be small projects that you’ve been featuring just so that you could have something on your portfolio Think of start to have more of a quality over quantity approach. So even if you have fewer projects make sure those projects really

you know, fit the description and fit the vision that you’re going after. So once you kind of figure out which ones you want to display and which ones you don’t, now figure out if you need to display them any differently. The photos are already taken, right? So I mean, maybe you could get the photos kind of edited and freshened up. But probably the way that you display your portfolio could do with a refresh. There’s an architect that we work with that

He doesn’t do this with all of his projects, but he’s kind of has this like pyramid rating system that he has. So he’s got about a dozen projects on his portfolio, but about three of them are what he call like his star projects that he’s invested the most marketing time and efforts behind to really tell the stories behind it. And then he’s got a handful of projects that are kind of like middle tier and then another few projects that are.

high quality, but they’re smaller and he’s not going to like push them as much. So this the superstar projects those top three, he hired an illustrator to help him. Or maybe he did it himself actually now that I’m thinking about it, but they have hand drawings throughout the portfolio. So you can see the process of of the design and he tells the story. He hired a videographer as well to interview him and the and the homeowner and the space. So

I would start with that. think that’s an actionable thing that you could do. And probably you could do that today. You could do that this week.

Yeah, and just starting to tell the story, right? To not just for the images, but also through some really thoughtful captions and words of at the story time. And to show your brand, your brand voice through that as well. think is important.

Yeah. And remember that your portfolio is like a magnet, right? It can filter out people that are not a good fit and it can attract people that clearly are. And so the stronger that magnet is, the stronger the kind of fit, client fits that you’re going to find.

Excellent. Well, Daniela, we always love to end the podcast with three takeaways that you’d like to share with our audience.

Three takeaways about luxury marketing. I would say figure out your flavor of marketing, audit your projects, tell the stories behind them. and you know, when I say tell the stories that could be with photos, like visuals, with videos, or with with language, with text.

Thank you so much for joining us today, Daniela. It has been a treat. And I am always eager to learn more about luxury design, luxury marketing, how to work with a highly affluent luxury clientele. And I think that you have provided some excellent insights for us to ponder and think about. I was jotting a few notes down myself. So thank you so much for your time today.

Thank you so much for having me.