Luxurious list looks for members

An Angie's List for the affluent, making inroads on the east coast of Florida for the past 18 months, has targeted Naples and Sarasota.

The list is actually The Home Trust, a Coral Gables-based marketing co-op for brands that serve or are connected to the luxury housing market. The trust, founded by luxury industry consultant Chris Ramey, is basically a buying group for brands that want to reach luxury consumers in a variety of media. That ranges from glossy monthly magazines to daily newspapers and from Internet ads to direct mail campaigns.

“The challenge for most companies in luxury housing products and services is they are not top of mind,” Ramey tells Coffee Talk. “Awareness and distinction are critical issues in this business. And we can help companies do both.”

The key to that, says Ramey, is to use the buying group's leverage to put the brands in media campaigns that would likely be out of reach otherwise. Recent examples where The Home Trust ran ads for members include the Miami Art Guide, Bentley Magazine and Four Seasons Hotel magazine.

Ramey, who founded the Luxury Marketing Council Florida, launched The Home Trust in March 2012. Members, so far, are mostly based in the Miami and Palm Beach areas, and include Paris Ceramics, the International Design Guild and Steinway. Ramey is confident, though, that multiple companies in high-end markets that stretch from Sarasota to Marco Island would benefit from membership.

Nanci Breeze, who has worked with several luxury brands, including home furnishings at Bloomingdale's and Herman Miller workplace furniture, was named executive director of The Home Trust-Southwest Florida. Ramey, meanwhile, previously ran two other companies that were cooperatives: one in the men's formalwear industry, and another in the decorative floor covering industry.

“Working with kindred-spirit brands is common sense and good business,” Ramey says in a statement touting the Naples-Sarasota expansion. “It's how luxury companies all over the world are expanding their brand and increasing sales.”

Adds Ramey: “We go to wherever the affluent may be.”