Luxury goods research
in Singapore
A consumer who spends five figures on a watch is making a decision shaped by decades of accumulated taste, peer influence, and emotional narrative. That decision cannot be understood through a five-minute online survey. We conduct research with luxury consumers in settings and timeframes that respect the complexity of how they buy, why they stay loyal, and what would make them switch.
Assembled has delivered luxury goods research spanning fine jewelry concept validation with physical prototypes, luxury watch consumer segmentation across three buyer cohorts, premium consumer psychographic profiling, and design preference mapping for heritage brands entering new aesthetic territories. Our proprietary panel includes 3,200 high-net-worth individuals with SGD 500K+ liquid assets and 12,400 premium consumers in the top 15% of household income.
Every project description below follows our standard confidentiality practice. Client names are withheld. Participant identities in all photography are obscured or replaced in accordance with Singapore's Personal Data Protection Act. Product designs and prototype details remain proprietary to clients.
Physical prototype and concept testing
For a prestigious fine jewelry retailer, we ran six focus groups evaluating eight design concepts incorporating contemporary geometric forms and unconventional material combinations. Participants examined actual jewelry pieces in hand, assessing material quality, design proportion, finish, and wearability. Photographs and descriptions cannot replicate the tactile evaluation that drives luxury purchase decisions. A concept that looks striking in a rendering may feel insubstantial when held, and that gap between visual appeal and physical presence is precisely what this research was designed to capture.
The portfolio approach tested cubic, hexagonal, octagonal, and pentagonal designs in both white and yellow gold, plus a leather-and-metal collection. These concepts represented a significant departure from the brand's traditional aesthetic. The research identified which designs had broad consumer appeal, which served niche positioning, and which should be deprioritised before the brand committed tooling and inventory investment. One design that ranked highest in aesthetic appeal scored lowest in purchase intent because consumers could not identify an occasion to wear it.
Luxury consumer psychographics and segmentation
For a luxury watch brand, we designed a sixteen-interview programme across three distinct buyer segments. Current luxury watch owners explored satisfaction, brand loyalty, and what occasions prompted wearing different pieces. Heritage brand owners discussed what specifically drove their choice and how they evaluated alternatives. Purchase-intent consumers, those who had demonstrated interest but not converted, explored barriers, information sources, and the decision criteria still under evaluation. Each segment received its own discussion guide and individualised moderator deck because the psychology of a loyal owner, a heritage enthusiast, and a hesitant prospect are fundamentally different conversations.
The cross-segment analysis revealed how differently each group weighted purchase criteria. Heritage brand owners prioritised movement authenticity and manufacture provenance. Purchase-intent consumers prioritised design aesthetics and brand recognition. Established luxury owners prioritised investment value and collectibility. A single marketing message could not serve all three. The brand used these psychographic profiles to develop segment-specific retention programmes, conversion strategies for prospects, and product development priorities informed by what each cohort actually valued rather than what internal teams assumed they valued.
Brand loyalty and discontinuation analysis
For a premium grooming brand, we ran twelve in-depth interviews split evenly between active loyal users and lapsed customers who had discontinued. The dual-cohort design created the most strategically useful comparison in loyalty research. Active users explained what kept them repurchasing, which emotional and functional drivers sustained their commitment, and what would make them consider switching. Lapsed users explained the specific moment, event, or accumulation of dissatisfaction that triggered departure, and which competitor they switched to and why.
The bilingual research execution covered English and Japanese markets with culturally adapted moderator guides reflecting how consumers in each market discuss personal care differently. Full audio recordings allowed senior brand teams to hear consumer voices directly rather than reading filtered summaries. The retention playbook and win-back strategy that emerged were distinct documents, built from distinct data, addressing distinct business problems. A single "loyalty programme" could not have served both objectives.
Price sensitivity and value perception
Luxury pricing does not follow rational rules. A watch priced at SGD 8,000 and an identical-looking watch priced at SGD 12,000 can trigger completely different purchase psychology, with the more expensive piece generating stronger purchase intent because the price itself signals exclusivity. Our price-value research for luxury brands maps these non-linear relationships using a combination of stated willingness-to-pay, price threshold identification, and qualitative exploration of how consumers construct value justification narratives for significant purchases.
For the jewelry concept study, price-value assessment was integrated into prototype evaluation. Participants assessed each design at multiple price points, and the research identified where price enhanced perceived value and where it created a barrier. The leather-and-metal collection faced a specific challenge. Consumers associated leather with fashion accessories priced below fine jewelry, creating a material-price dissonance that the brand needed to resolve through marketing narrative before the pricing strategy could work. That finding was invisible in the aesthetic preference data and only emerged through the pricing conversation.
Why luxury research
matters in this market
Singapore concentrates luxury buying power, diverse taste profiles, and regional influence into a single accessible market.
Singapore has one of the highest densities of high-net-worth individuals in the world. The luxury consumer base is accessible, concentrated geographically, and accustomed to participating in research. Our panel includes 3,200 HNWI members and 1,900 C-suite executives, segments that are expensive or impossible to recruit through standard panels.
Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Western aesthetic sensibilities converge in a single market. A jewelry design that resonates with Chinese wedding traditions may fail with consumers who associate the same materials with different cultural meanings. Luxury research panels in Singapore need to reflect this diversity to catch cultural blind spots before regional launch.
Luxury brands frequently use Singapore as the testing ground before wider ASEAN or Asia-Pacific rollout. The market combines sophisticated consumers, established luxury retail infrastructure, and media visibility that makes it a credible launch platform. Research findings here inform positioning strategy for Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and beyond.
Luxury goods are evaluated through physical interaction. Weight, finish, texture, and proportion all influence purchase intent in ways that digital-only research cannot capture. Singapore's compact geography makes in-person research with physical prototypes logistically efficient, enabling the kind of immersive evaluation sessions that luxury research requires.
For methodology details including focus groups, in-depth interviews, ethnography, and quantitative surveys, see our practical guide. For other industry specialisations, see our healthcare, financial services, skincare & beauty, and food & beverage research pages. For our IDI methodology, see in-depth interviews.
Talk to us about
luxury goods research
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