L2 Think Tank has just released its "Fashion 2014" report, and for the very first time in three years, Burberry has lost its #1 position. Gucci and Coach have just become the digital elites according to this report. Among other insights is the domination of Kering Group on LVMH.
Facebook strategy only is not a sustainable digital strategy for fashion brands.
As Scott Galloway, founder of L2, explained to the NYTimes: "I had predicted Facebook would be the No.1 distribution point for luxury brands, but I was wrong. Social targeting was supposed to replace demographic targeting, but that has not happened. Social media is just another media platform."
And it's true that for the last couple of years, most of the efforts have been focusing on Facebook when it comes to social:
- The very first live broadcast of a catwalk happened on Facebook (Louis Vuitton)
- ASOS achieves several coups thanks to Facebook apps (for instance, in order to unlock access to sale, customers had to bring as many friends as possible in a sort of Facebook virtual waiting room)
- Brands massively invest on Facebook ads. We're now talking millions.
But as Vu Quan Nguyen (Rice Creative) says, there's a sort of paradoxical consequence for consumers following brands on Facebook; what is supposed to be one of the most personalized and bespoke touch-points with consumers, their Facebook timeline is actually becoming the most standardized experience. Only creative copy can make a difference, otherwise there's a sort of overwhelming flow of content that looks exactly the same.
Thinking of social media as a meta-channel
The reasons why Gucci tops the ranking is because they've created a very strong, flawless relationship between what's happening during a store visit and what's going on their websites or digital properties in general. Instead of creating a silo between the two worlds, the physical store is actually part of a digital journey, sophisticated enough to avoid any misunderstanding or disappointment of customers. What you browse online can be bought in your store. What you've found in the store is then replicated and empowered online. This is due to a strong back-end approach... therefore a focus on what's invisible for the customers: a strong process.
A strong process has an impact on third-party partners (i.e., Net à Porter) as most of the traffic and sales will actually be led on non-owned digital properties.
From back-end to invisible assets: Why omnichannel is becoming the norm.
In order to create a sort of flawless experience, brands had to change the company culture. Eliza Brooke summarized the main bone of contention:
"From a company culture standpoint, it means structuring employee incentives such that both the e-commerce and in-store teams get credit when a customer makes a purchase"
It also means that digital strategies cannot only be limited to what's going to be published on the website, or what's going to be the expected viral outcome of a video. Digital strategy is now clearly working on the core of the business of fashion: inventory and logistics (making sure everything's available at the right time and at the right place), trends (spotting what's coming up from sales or through social listening, to actually lead creative direction and display of products) and more importantly - shaping an inspiring culture.
Invisible tasks build a shared brand culture.
Fashion brands can't just live with two advertising campaigns per year anymore. It's not far enough to exist in a digital era. But in order to have an always-on approach and selected word-of-mouth accelerators, the very first mission is to shape internal tasks, which can be invisible for the customers at first, but will have a massive impact in shaping tangible relationships.
The best example is in the store openings: instead of multiplying exponential launches everywhere, Gucci has slowed down the pace of new shops in China to better control what the experience will be locally. Locally creative active users, through a well-thought kit of digital actions can have a big consequence in the way the brand is going to "teach" through real-life stakeholders, and show why their brand matters more than others. Another example is Chanel, or even Dior: they've been exploring new places to showcase collections (e.g., Dallas catwalk, Dior cruise, etc.) to create tangible relationships with local digital influencers.