Public Relations Strategies for Luxury Food and Beverage Brands
“Luxury is a necessity that begins when necessity ends.” – Coco Chanel
When we’re talking about luxury, we must apply the anti-laws of marketing. Forget everything you thought you knew about marketing because this is luxury, baby.
Quality, craftsmanship, heritage, price, design, and exclusivity all come into play when determining what makes a luxury brand. When marketing and selling a luxury product, it’s important to maintain an element of scarcity, making it difficult to purchase and making the brand somewhat attainable (even if you have to get on a waitlist for five years). Complicated? We know. Exciting? We know that two.
Here are six PR tactics to build awareness for a luxury F&B brand:
Develop the story: As stated above, most luxury brands have incredible elements of history, heritage, and craftsmanship; it’s important to craft compelling messaging and storytelling that evokes emotion and portrays what is special about the brand.
Create exclusivity and buzz in the right places: Put yourself in the 1% (and above) - where does this kind of clientele consume information, what restaurants do they dine at, where do they stay on vacation? Target prestigious publications, newsletters, and Substacks with HNW readership. Utilize strategic influencer and tastemaker relations that drive word of mouth buzz in the right places—discovery + exclusivity.
Pitch culturally relevant and meaningful stories to media: Develop extremely personalized pitches that resonate with editors and their readers. What’s the story behind the story? Give them something to sink their teeth into—exclusivity works here, too.
Create exclusive experiences around the brand: When it comes to media trips, create intimate and/or over-the-top experiences for media that showcase the product and how people engage with it. Create events that tell a story for the journalist and influencer. (For example, to showcase luxury in Napa Valley, we took a journalist for a drive up Silverado Trail in a Lamborghini. Sign me up!)
Engage strategic partnerships: Collaborate with other luxury brands that complement your brand positioning (i.e. hotels, fashion brands, aviation, etc.). This can extend the PR program’s reach to new like-minded clientele and create news when there isn’t any.
Quality over quantity: Ultimately, this is always our approach. Target the right voices for the right channels with extremely personalized pitches and ideas on behalf of any luxury F&B brand, rather than blast a press release to a list of 500 people. The right stories in the right places mean a much more targeted audience will be primed to buy in to what you’re doing—and then you get to keep them in the fold.
Are you looking for a PR agency and strategy for your luxury brand? Email us at hello@thejamescollective.com to set up a time. We’d love to hear what you’re working on and see how we can support you.