Real You: Today’s Hip Consumers are Recessionistas

Posted on | November 29, 2008 |

By Kaira Sturdivant Rouda

Today’s smart marketers are reaching women daily by understanding the tremendous fear, uncertainty and doubt floating around in their lives. A segment on Good Morning America featured Glamour magazine’s editor and winter coats priced from $10. Looking good for a great price. Contrast that with a segment on the Today show on the same morning featuring the Atlantis Dubai’s $20 million grand opening, complete with over-the top suites for $35,000 and more wretched excess.

According to HotelChatter.com, celebs like Michael Jordan, Lindsay Lohan, Wesley Snipes, Mary Kate Olsen, Shirley Bassey, Mischa Barton and Robert DeNiro were trotted out and used as photo ops as part of the over-indulgence. It came across as what it was: terrible in these times. And the stars who took those trips will see a back-lash akin to the big three autodealers CEOs who flew private jets to Washington to beg for a bailout.

In today’s stay-at-home (we’re cocooning again), hunker down and get real economy, over-the-top displays of wealth like the coverage of the Atlantis opening turns consumers off. Your brand - even if it’s an upscale one - needs to respect today’s realities. Discounts are now expected, even on high-end luxury items. You need to remember what every recessionista already knows: It’s hip to get a deal, now more than ever; and it’s uncool to be ostentacious, no matter who you are.

Kaira Sturdivant Rouda is author of Real You Incorporated: 8 Essentials for Women Entrepreneurs, and she’s so excited because she just won a Stevie Awards for Women in Business in the Best Entrepreneur category!