Love Story of Luxury Brands & Social Networking

Firms of Luxury brands have always been in a tug of war between how to promote their high end luxurious products to large wide mass of people without losing the aesthetics and the perceived brand value. It is always seen that luxurious brands don’t go for mass marketing because it reduces its value. Such goods are meant to be exclusive toys of the high class society which are not easily accessible. Imagine Gucci putting its product images on the local bus. Damn!!! The concept of luxury to exist is it to remain elitist, distinctive, exclusive and rare. In other words luxury evokes an aura of the extraordinary, the unattainable or dream for most who remain outside the target market segment.

The luxury shopping experience differs entirely from the conventional shopping experience in that customers require a high sensory interaction with the products by experiencing the touch, feel & smell of the item. It is difficult for the web to recreate the same feeling online. Moreover, Social Networking sites have been traditionally viewed as mass marketing method used to gain attention to the consumer products. Generally the people who buy luxurious goods are of higher age group how are uncomfortable of using social networking sites. But those are now nomadic thinking style…

According to Nielson 2007 published by Emarketer the affluent users using social networking sites will increase 27% in 2007 i.e. roughly around 58 millions in US. Same holds true for other countries. Most of these affluent consumers use internet for the information access and are online 24 7. Also the age of affluent users is decreasing because of high level of incomes; more of younger people are able to afford luxurious brands. These young affluent consumers are frequent users of Web. Moreover, affluent consumers are generally located around the world .They can’t be going to the exclusive retail showrooms in limited countries. This is where Social Networking sites or any other sites have cashed in.

The sensorial customer experience can be re-created and controlled on the website: thanks to the visual and sound experience, the usability, customer service and customization, all key when making a luxury brand's venture on the Internet a success. Gucci ,D&G, Lamborghini all have their own communities and huge fan following in the facebook, orkut , e-luxury.com, ice.com or mondera.com. This has created an easy access to information about their latest products and events to their affluent consumers helping them get connected to their customers 24 *7.This deepens customer loyalty. Moreover they generate fan following from the potential customers and interest from wide section of consumers who cannot afford them but still fantasize about these brands.It helps firms understand the the different type of customer wants by constant interacting with them. This can help to customize products which act as a vehicle that drives to higher level of customer satisfaction.

Check out http://mashable.com/2009/01/21/best-twitter-brands/  for understanding how tweeter helped 40 brands to spread their message and establish customer relationship.

Objectives that can fulfill by the using social networking sites can

1. ·         Customer Retention, Loyalty , satisfaction
2. ·         New markets, New customer base(demographics), Tapping potential customers
3. ·         Building brand loyalty and brand value
4. ·         One of the cost efficient way of promotional and communication channels with high returns.
5. ·         Taming competition and adapt to the market changes
6. ·         Social media optimization and marketing is usually community-specific. It doesn’t interfere with any other methods of getting traffic to your website. It can and will fit perfectly with an advertising campaign targeting other websites or search engines.

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