Lately, I've engaged in several discussions online concerning the intersection of luxury brands and digital marketing. I'll save you a lot of bluster and tell you that the major theoretical bottleneck confronting marketers and the brands they represent is this: how does one maintain the exclusivity and one-of-a-kind experience of a luxury brand using tools that are open, transparent, scaled and purposefully not exclusive?
A smart post up at the Wolff Olins blog captured this dilemma perfectly:
The Internet has enabled high-end fashion brands to expand their reach, create a more direct relationship with their consumers and receive instant online orders. However, the problem with making luxury brands more accessible is it puts the risk of making the brand seem ordinary.
....
The challenge for luxury brands is in evoking an aura of desirability across broad audiences, while curating individualized experiences for their core customer base.
So What Should Luxury Brands Do?
I don't think there is any right answer. It is still too early to tell and as I believe that the branding/ marketing/ PR complex is undergoing a massive tectonic shift, we shouldn't necessarily know the answers just yet. The person or team that gets this right is going to do very very well. My personal feeling is that the answers will come from within in-house teams at luxury brands. I say in-house because they know the brand best, they know its people, its passions, its structures and bureaucracies. They know where to look to find the kind of personalized and authentic outreach that simply resonates with an audience.
BUT!
I'd like to present a few examples of what I believe are effective luxury brand projects.
Nowness.com
Nowness is a terrific culture website that documents and presents short films, interviews, profiles and features on a variety of subjects from fashion, art, travel, music, food and everything in between. The site is marvelously minimal in its aesthetics, with clean lines and simple, yet rugged functionality. They've got an associated Twitter account, a beautifully designed email newsletter and the requisite Facebook page.
At first (and even second) glance, one has trouble discovering who or what is behind Nowness and what there motive is. But if you do your digging you'll soon find out that Nowness was birthed by LVMH, the French luxury conglomerate which owns such brands as Louis Vuitton, Moet Hennesy, Dior, Pucci, etc.
So HOW does Nowness work?
It works because although it is financed by a luxury brand, it is editorially independent. Which means that the stories and lifestyle featured on Nowness, with its richly detailed photo shoots, its profiles of indie directors and cultural arbiters, have little to do with the brands behind the business. Sure, they occasionally feature content about a new Vuitton product or event but it is minimal. What Nowness does is create content around the lifestyle of the people who they want associated with their brand.
It's like LVMH is spooning their preferred customers. Luxury brands can never say that they don't want certain people associated with their brand. And knowing that in the digital galaxy anyone can coast on over to your site, retweet one of your stories and blog about you, the way around this is by creating and curating content and managing an experience that really only applies to your core customers. This is what Nowness does. Let's be honest, a plumber from Queens, bless his heart, is just not going to be interested in Erin Wasson's jewelry line. I mean, I am interested in it, but mostly because I want to marry Erin Wasson.
The Standard Hotel
I don't really go to The Standard Hotel that much. I am not good looking enough to be allowed into Le Bain or Boom Boom Room. And The Standard Grill, though while tasty, has just about the most pretentious group of hosts in New York, which I don't care how in demand you are, just instantly turns people like me (you know, those of us with souls) off. Sure, there are plenty of people willing to put up with that because they feel that it keeps out the riff raff...but whatever.
In digital terms though, The Standard Hotel group is kicking ass, and I think that because I am a critic of their brand in real-life it adds some weight to the fact that I am a major appreciator of their online presence.
Here is their brand spanking new Tumblr blog. And they have that Stan D'arde account on Twitter, basically a fictional character that is an amalgamation of the various hosts, concierges, coke dealers, managers, life guards, etc...that one is likely to find at the Standard Hotels. He is an internal cheerleader, always everywhere, always partying (or getting mudbaths). And as obnoxious as the account can be, it really works. It's obviously a joke but one that most people just won't get, but the ones who do will feel like they are in on something.
Here is the kicker though: they've found a way to use a medium that is open, public and scaled appeal to a very highly select segment of the population. Stan D'arde is just a schmuck to most people, but to the wealthy, club-going and beautiful people he perfectly embodies the FUN of the Standard Hotel.
The fact that the website is a highly customized Tumblr blog also speaks to a certain community, the digitally connected and community oriented Tumblr community of artists, writers, photographers, designers et al that primarly use Tumblr. They've also sidestepped another thorny issue which is that they don't have the Twitter retweet and Facebook like buttons everywhere. They don't need to because Tumblr has the ability to reblog and like posts and pages built right in. It's just another small accent to this strategy that works seamlessly.
The Standard also does a remarkable job of highlighting their community with video interviews and profiles on their guests, art and fashion related blog posts and widgets and in general a wonderful attention to design and aesthetics with big bold reds splashed across the site. Visually its an arresting site but with a coded aesthetic that once again is open to all, but appealing to very few.
In the coming weeks I am going to decode and critique a number of luxury brands and their digital strategies, from their Twitter accounts to their websites and blogs, their email marketing and their geo-location profiles. Right now I am focusing like a laser beam on the luxury space on behalf of my clients and my anticipated future ones. As always feel free to help me find the best examples of luxury products and brands in the digital universe in the comments here or on Twitter @ZacharyCohen