Luxury brands and social media – can it work, should it work?
My last post about Louis Vuitton got me wondering how other luxury, high fashion brands are utilising social media. And, the truth is not many of them are.
Does this mean they’re missing a trick when there’s clearly a lot of potential out there?
I think the answer is yes and no.
Before i go any further there ARE some luxury brands paving the way into the social media arena – Louis Vuitton in my post below, Cartier’s Love by Cartier Myspace profile with over 4000 friends and a number of brands have dipped their toes into the Facebook fan page phenomenon.
However, luxury brands stand out because they are LUXURY brands. By definition they are niche and, although desired by many, are designed only to appeal to the select few who can actually afford them.
Therefore, this begs the question, why would such high end, specialist brands want to generate mass conversation online anyway? Just as fashion houses won’t let you see normal looking women modelling their clothes on the catwalk, they won’t let you see xxcuteychav92xx engaging with them on twitter.
Therefore, for a luxury brand to create a strong online presence I think that the ‘rules’ need to be bent a little.
The exclusivity that makes the brand mysterious and aspirational needs to be upheld, so why not create elite communities online?
Although social media should not inherently be restrictive why not if it’s in keeping with the values of the brand? Then, conversation can be created, but with the right people.
My colleague Amy has just pointed out that social media is used a lot online in terms of sharing videos of latest lines, backstage gossip at the shows and model interviews, giving an interesting insight into the glamorous world of fashion. I think this approach seems to work a lot better than giving the brand a direct voice, like some others have chosen to do.
I’m going to be very interested in seeing which brands do manage to enter the social media realm effectively and which don’t. My favourite still has to be Louis Vuitton, but I’m on the look out for more…
Good post Bex, I too will be interested to see how luxury brands tackle social media in the future. BTW my link doens’t work in the post, not sure why!
Maybe the luxury brands are already the Masters of SM b/c they are the original masters of Word of Mouth. We talk about them, they are above talking about themselves. They’re more of a hashtag in a Twitter search than a Twit themselves. Nice post!