La Cornue, Bertazzoni and Viking Ranked Most Prestigious Appliance Brands

High net worth consumers rated La Cornue the most prestigious luxury appliance brand in the 2008 Luxury Brand Status Index study completed by the Luxury Institute.  Here are the top 10 rankings:

1.  La Cornue

2.  Bertazzoni

3.  Viking

4.  Wolf

5.  Sub-Zero

6.  Gaggenau

7.  AGA

8.  Thermador

9.  Bosch

10.  U-Line

Wynn, Bellagio and Venetian Ranked Most Prestigious Casinos by High Net Worth Consumers

High net-worth consumers rated Wynn the most prestigious luxury casino in the 2008 Luxury Brand Status Index (LBSI) survey from the independent New York City-based Luxury Institute. Respondents noted that the casino had a great golf course and was very comfortable and sophisticated. The Bellagio was ranked second, the Venetian third.

Researched by Kara Davey

Wealthy Consumers Rate Top Luxury Fashion Brands

Top 3 Men's Luxury Fashion Brands: Ermenegildo Zegna, Armani and Brioni
Top 3 Women's Luxury Fashion Brands: Bottega Veneta, Hermes and Valentino

Luxury Hotel Market Remains Strong Despite Economic Downturn

Despite the current downturn in the U.S. economy that includes a drop in overall hotel occupancy and revenue growth, luxury hotels continue to show strength, according to a new study by Market Matrix.

• Even though luxury hotels have increased their prices, customer satisfaction with these high-priced hotels has increased.
  
• Other positive indicators for luxury hotels: reduced price sensitivity and improved perceptions of value among luxury hotel consumers.
• The luxury brands showing the biggest gains in the study were Starwood's The Luxury Collection (+3.7), Grand Hyatt (+3.6), and Intercontinental (+2.7).

Sotheby's Has Most Lucrative Auction in History This Week

Sotheby's spring contemporary art auction was the most lucrative in the company's history with sales of $362 million, including a record $86.3 million for a 1976 Francis Bacon triptych that Sotheby's expected to sell for $16 million or less.

Source: CNN Money

How Luxury Consumers Spend Their Money

Luxury consumers (defined as those with HHI $100K+) have bought the following in the last two years:

• 71%: a vacation valued at $2000+
• 11%: a watch valued at $2000+
• 17%: a piece of jewelry valued at %5000+
  

Source: Guideline, 2008

Luxury Consumers Rate Most Prestigious E-Tailers

Net-a-porter (#1), Vivre.com (#2) and Yoox.com (#3) are rated the most prestigious e-tailers by luxury consumers.

Sales of Fine Art Continue to Break Records

The Monet painting "Le Pont du chemin de fer a Argenteuil" sold for $41 million at a New York City Christie's auction.

The previous record for a Monet painting was $36.5 million for "Nympheas," sold last year.

The sale price exceeded the pre-auction estimate of $35 million to $40 million.

Source: AP Wire; click blog title for full article

86% of Millionaires Expect Their Spending to Remain the Same or Increase Despite Recession

A 2008 study by Phoenix Affluent Marketing found that:

• Eighty-six percent of millionaires expected their spending to remain the same or increase for the March-May 2008 time period.

This brings up an important point: why do you see so many conflicting stats on how a recession will affect the wealthy? One study says their spending will dramatically increase, another that it won't.

This depends on how "wealthy" is defined. Many studies define wealthy as "HHI of $100K+." But this group is obviously far more affected by a recession than millionaire households. So word to the wise: examine the definition of wealthy when interpreting statistics about the wealth market.