Social Networking is a hot topic these days and there are a great number of articles touching on this subject matter so I decided to start my search by looking one of my favorite websites, the Fashion & Style page of NYTimes.com. I thought it would insightful (and interesting) to explore luxury brands’ relationship with social networking sites and I found two articles to help me do so:
Social Media Marketing is gaining more and more attention and an increasing number of brands are including it in their marketing strategy. Two years ago luxury brands were completely rejecting the idea of using Social Media Marketing, now it seems to be an integral part of their strategy. The fact is Social Media Marketing is a must for luxury brands. Blogs, Facebook, and Twitter have tremendously expanded the reach of Word-Of-Mouth, therefore influencing the thoughts and opinions of social media users worldwide. This is an extremely powerful tool that also has a certain risk if it used without having developed strategy. Many of the luxury brands seemed to have developed these strategies and have fully grasped social media as part of their marketing scheme.
The world of fashion is all about knowing the trends, one day something is hot, and the next it is “so over.” Editors and buyers were once the gatekeepers of designers’ collections, but now designers can connect directly with their customers almost instantaneously via the internet. Many prominent designers used some form of Social Media Marketing in order to promote their new collections shown this past September and October. Dolce and Gabbana even dedicated four of the coveted first row seats to bloggers who actively blogged and tweeted during the show. The editors didn’t even have a chance. Dolce and Gabbana also posted their show on YouTube, and it became the number one most watched on the site the following 24 hours. Now that is a lot of exposure. Lady Gaga’s tweet about the Alexander McQueen show attracted so many online viewers that the servers crashed. The list of examples goes on and on.
I always had the impression that exclusivity was a key ingredient for a luxury brand’s image and I thought this accessibility may dilute the brands’ equity. However, this does not seem to be the case. Customers want to be familiar with their brand and it is beneficial to engage customers before they walk through the store’s threshold. At least this is the opinion of Gucci’s creative director who stated “The more you can open up your brand to the client, the better.” Louis Vuitton is also on the Social Media Marketing bandwagon and has a Facebook page with 760,120 fans. A study conducted by New York University’s Stern Business School found that the site resonated with younger users but it didn’t change older users’ view of Louis Vuitton’s luxury image, which is worth noting as the over-40 age bracket is the fastest growing demographic on Facebook.
The point is in order to be competitive luxury brands need to be using Social Media Marketing. The fashion industry may especially benefit from the instantaneous characteristic of the internet as its clients are interested in keeping up with trends. The WOM reach is also extremely powerful and could also be valuable for a number of other companies in different industries. Connecting more with customers could result in more profits, and isn’t that what it’s all about?
1 comment:
Nice choice of subject, well-written, on something about which you obviously feel some passion. Sounds like you'd like to work for Gucci, LVMH or similar, no?
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