Most venues and promoters probably want affluent customers, but then you wake up and smell the coffee and figure out that those people are different…and so you move on to market towards the lakes and the rivers that you’re used to.

But if you want to know the SECRET as to why certain venues and promoters seem to always attract the money ballers, then you need to take some marketing lessons from the posting below.  Successful luxury venue marketing demands substantially different considerations, specifically the four E’s: experience, exclusivity, engagement and emotion.

Here’s a closer look at each of them and why they’re important.

1. Experience

During and post-recession, affluent consumers didn’t significantly curb their spending at nightclubs, bars and lounges.  While it’s true that luxury consumers are still buying bottles, they’re also becoming more selective about what venue they spend it at. Now, the luxury consumer’s purchase decision boils down to a single, simple question: Is it worth it? The best way luxury venues can tip the scales in their favor is to provide unique, compelling experiences.

What do we mean by experiences?  It means you need to start spending some money on your productions.  This includes party favors and interactive things of that nature at your event.  It also means you need to be spending money on your venue, making sure it’s not going to the dumps.  Get some more intelligent lighting, visit a tradeshow to see what’s the latest and coolest for venues.

2. Exclusivity

Traditionally, we think if we raise our prices, that makes us more exclusive.  But to luxury venues, that’s not enough.  They don’t just think price.  In the digital marketing world, this is called “prestige technology.”

Your venue might want to consider a “concierge app” for your high end clients, or an interactive channel on your website.  Microsites with cool games and this type of high-tech marketing makes you appear on the cutting edge – a position that leads to exclusivity.

3. Engagement

No matter what, engagement relies on one thing: story. Whether a branded video, a website experience or a simple Facebook post, engaging content implies a story — a narrative with a beginning, middle and end. A narrative that makes a participant feel something.

Does your venue tell a story?  Can you really get your audience behind your vision, mission and goals?  We all know why Tiffany’s is so powerful and why Tom Ford’s story is so great.  These are stories people can really get behind, and luxury consumers eat that up!

In today’s luxury marketplace, convincing consumers to buy isn’t enough. Convincing them to join a brand on a journey is the key, and that’s what stories do.

4. Emotion

The first three E’s combine to form the fourth and final imperative element of luxury marketing: emotion. Without the deliberate, appropriate application of one key emotion among its customers, long-term luxury brand success cannot exist.

The reason is simple. Luxury brands cater to a consumer that can buy almost any material thing he or she wants. A luxury venues physical location, therefore, is secondary. Like an experience, an exclusive insider’s view or an engaging story, a particular emotion is what luxury consumers are really after.

Consumers are loyal to Mansion Nightclub because they want to feel “authentic” and “timeless.” They go to the Delano to feel “celebrity.” They buy a bottle at XS Vegas to feel “triumphant.” They frequent Liv at the Fontainbleu to feel “nostalgic.”

Luxury venues must embrace the fact that their primary products are actually elusive and ephemeral feelings, and that their physical venue are mere mediums through which consumers achieve those feelings. Therefore, a luxury venue must determine its emotional value first, and construct its physical and digital manifestations to express and extract that specific emotion.