Luxury Design Insight from Affluent Homeowners
Client:
A luxury residential interior design firm based in New York City
Objective:
The client sought to engage three distinct audiences of affluent women for qualitative research to inform high-end residential design strategy:
Women who had purchased a new home valued at over $2 million in the past 12 months.
Women who had started or completed a home renovation project exceeding $100,000 in the 12 months.
Women planning a major home renovation in the next 18 months.
All participants needed to reside in upscale suburban areas of the San Francisco Bay Area, NYC, Connecticut, Boston, Washington DC, Los Angeles, or similar affluent regions, and demonstrate familiarity with at least 15 out of a curated list of 25 luxury home brands across categories like faucets, fans, cabinets, furniture, and mattresses (La Cornue, Lindsey Adelman, de Gournay, RH, Armani/Casa, B&B Italia, etc).
Approach:
Zintro employed a rigorous, multi-layered targeting strategy. Leveraging past performance data, the team segmented potential participants using indicators such as:
Household income and annual salary
ZIP-code-level wealth indicators
Credit card ownership
Real estate transaction data
This high-precision targeting ensured that outreach was confined to qualified, high-net-worth individuals. The Zintro team then spent time educating prospective participants about qualitative research participation, something that’s critical for this audience given many of them had no prior experience with interviews and initially expressed hesitations.
To foster participation and trust, Zintro implemented a subtle referral strategy that included a modest post-interview bonus, only discussed after each respondent had completed their interview and received payment. This minimized social concerns and preserved the exclusivity of the experience. It also contributed seven of the 15 participants interviewed.
Results:
Within just three and a half days of recruiting, Zintro successfully sourced all 15 primary participants—five from each audience segment—along with 11 high-quality backups that qualified too.
Key insights from Zintro's execution included:
Individuals who had recently moved were significantly more likely to qualify across multiple criteria.
Many respondents belonged to the high end of the high-net-worth segment ($10M+ in investable assets), providing unexpected depth for the client's targeting efforts.
Despite the initial unfamiliarity with research participation, respondents became highly engaged, with many expressing appreciation for the opportunity to share their experiences and refer friends from similar income brackets.
Outcome:
The client was able to conduct a rich, highly targeted set of interviews with ideal candidates across all required segments and geographies. The quality and speed of delivery exceeded expectations, leading to additional future collaborations.
“Just wrapped up our last call. All 15 interviews were amazing! This project far exceeded our expectations and wouldn’t have been possible without you all and the amazing work of Chelsea!” - Founder + Creative Lead (Luxury Interior Design Firm)
