Word of mouth in luxury brands25/03/2009

Luxury industry against the crisis

• The new situation with the current crisis is that the rich people are suffering.• Rich people now seek new behaviours. They want luxury that affects and

inspires theur lives.

• Luxury brands should stand for something and define something that is true to them.

• What we will see is more luxury brands with sense and values.

• In the same moment, affluent people from China, Russia and Middle-East are becoming the fastest growing population in the industry.

Internet and luxury brands

• The internet media is able to mix quality, content, support and experience. By creating rich content and by broadcasting it online, a brand gets to strech the consumption time and increases the consumer’s sympathy.

• Internet enables creativity and brand experience. It now needs to push the seeding. Often, luxury brands are afraid to be seen as mass media and only rely on PR and a mere emailing.The information only transfers betweeen happy few. A better seeding can be done by working with influencing people (bloggers or opinion leaders), by creating a real online campaign and by using viral methods.

Web 2.0 and luxury brands

• When applied to the very wealthy, web 2.0 can offer a special and dedicated support.

• It means imagining intelligent unseen interactions and having the same quality of support as in the physical outlets.

• Big luxury brands should become pioneers in using web 2.0 and offer to their clients nice conversations.

A need of storytelling

• We are seeing a move toward "stealth wealth . • Consumers want to have "status stories", as opposed to "status

symbols".

• Louis Vuitton’s « Journeys » campaign is a good example of this new trend.

Summary

• Fashion• Environment• Automotive• Internet• Press• Products• Lifestyle

Fashion

Fashion

• Dark Knight• Cruise collection• Dressing registry• Lady Dior• The Sartorialist • Temporary luxury • Marc Jacobs

Dark Knight

• In the last Batman movie, director Christopher Nolan tried to add luxury elements directly into the screenplay.

• The fashion designer Giorgio Armani designed the wardrobe of Dark Knight’s character Bruce Wayne.

• In a new form of product placement that makes sense Nolan and Armani partnered to intensify the « bright » side of the billionaire Bruce Wayne.

Cruise collection

• Since a few years, we are seeing the revival of an old tradition in the fashion industry : cruise collection.

• In addition to the long-established winter and spring collections, cruise fashion shows are becoming all the rage

• Even well-known designer houses such as Dior, Chanel, YSL or Gucci are following this latest craze.

• Cruise collections are displayed during the November season to tease clients before Christmas time.

Dressing registry

• Obama Inauguration was THE event of the end of last year.• Lots of people flew to Washington to be a witness of history in the making.

• The privileged women who had the chance to be invited to the Inaugural Ball could use the website dressingregistry.com to be sure that no one else will be wearing the exact same dress.

• Registers would tell which dress there will be wearing and would check that they are the only one who made this choice.

• Otherwise, they have the possibilty to change their dress before the night and not be surprised having a twin sister during the party.

Lady Dior

• Dior called actress Marion Cotillard to star in its last campaign for Lady Dior.

• The film was shot on the Eiffel Tower.• The fact that it was Marion Cotillard first

partnership since she won the Academy Award and the spectacular aspect of the commercial created a strong buzz.

• Dior answered to that frenzy by lauching a dedicated site for this operation which revealed the making-of of the movie.

The Sartorialist

• For its spring-summer 2009 Jeans collection, DKNY called famous design blogger The Sartorialist for the shooting of the models.

Temporary luxury

• If you can’t afford the acquisition of a luxury product, you now have the possibilty to own it for a limited period of time.

• Websites now offer a leasing service to make you the Queen of a night.

Marc Jacobs

• Marc Jacobs is now designing a clothing line dedicated to childen.

• It seems that childrenswear is outperforming womenswear in this downturn. There is of course less competition among designers.

Environment

Environment

• Save your logo

Lacoste – save your logo

• The World Bank launched a campaign called « Save your logo ».

• The fund asked famous brands to help protect the animal or the plan they are using as a logo.

• The first brand to accept the challenge was Lacoste with its famous crocodile.

Automotive

Automotive

• Electric cars

Electric cars

• At the end of this year, we will see electric cars on the road.

• But not regular cars made for the usual drivers but vehicles produced by top manufacturers.

• General Motors will launch two electric models with the Cadillac Converj and the Chevrolet Volt.

• In the same time, we weill see the debut of the Fisker Karma (photo) and the long-awaited Tesla Roadster.

Internet

Internet

• Social network

Social network

• The Sphere is a social network for happy few and trend-setters.

• Members can interact and meet people with a high living standard.

• The Sphere is an exclusive website for the happy few.• Its aim is to make even nicer and easier the daily life

of the well off.• Its population targer is the 30 to 50 top executives

with high purchasing power, who can’t spare the time to fix up their social life.

• Its purpose is to relate the social upper-crust, the stock market and business tycoonns, the leading characters on the arts market, famous designers, top models, the sought after jet-setters, in other words, a cosmopolitan, urban, wealthy population loking for exclusive services within their own select club.

Press

Press

• L’officiel

L’Officiel

• During last Christmas, the magazine L’Officiel created an original operation.

• Three diamonds were hidden in three copies of the magazines in a total value of 80 000 euros.

Products

Products

• Cigars

• Luxury water

• Automatic vendor machines

Cigars

• Even during the crisis, cigar stores are trying to retain their customers by offering shorty cigars called Nubs in sample packs.

• Nubs are not just regular cigars hacked off, they are especially rolled to be a short smoke.

• Cigar store retailers are selling sampler packages of Nubs to allow cigar smokers to sample new brands without the normal expense of buying a full box of full length stogies.

Luxury water

• Water was once a commodity, now it is product.

• The evolution was enabled by manufacters who launched expensive watter bottles and created a new market segment.

• Among those products : Bling H20, the Cristal of bottled waters. Created in 2005, it is a frosted glass bottle decorated with hand-applied Swarovski crystal that cost $91 the bottle.

• In the same time, trendy restaurants now present a water menu,as there do with wine.• Water sommelier is now a notable addition in a restaurant staff.

Automatic vendor machines

• The Morgans Hotel Group’s Mondrian South Beach hotel in Miami has set up an automatic vendor machine in its lobby.

• It dispenses a variety of luxury items such as 24-karat gold handcuffs from Kiki de Montparnasse, Fred Flare heart sunglasses or a 14-karat gold necklace by Kiel Mead

• Plus, a Fred Segal boutique in Los Angeles now offers the U*tique machine. It is an interactive, touch-sensitive, automated luxury store that offers an assortment of luxury and personal-care items such as gadgets, makeup, skincare and hair-care items by high-end and niche labels.

Lifestyle

Lifestyle

• Best job in the world

Best job in the world

• The Tourism Queensland in Australia offered a job boasted the best in the world.

• The job description itself is a dream : sunbath, snorkelling, sailing but also blogging about this tiring lifestyle.

• The salary is 100 000 US$ for a six months period.• Accomodation : a luxurious villa with swimming pool

and a golf.

• This campaign is aimed to advertise the beauty of Queensland landscape.

The devil definitely lives in luxury

More on this topic

• Luxe oblige - Vincent Bastien et Jean-Noël Kapferer

• Tendances du Luxe en 2009 – René Duringer