A WHITE PAPER LOOKING AT HOW LUXURY BRANDS CAN UTILISE SOCIAL MEDIA TO REINFORCE THEIR EXCLUSIVE POSITIONING AND BECOME BETTER, IMMERSIVE STORY TELLERS

For luxury brands, the communications landscape has never changed so fast than in the last twelve months. Economic uncertainty, coupled with the formidable diversification and expansion of online social networks has forced many businesses to take a hard look at their existing communications strategy, in order to re-affirm and re-energise their identity.

Until now, luxury brands have understandingly been hesitant to invest significant resources in social media. When considering social media as part of their marketing mix, luxury brands are dealing with a fundamental ‘value paradox’: online media is fast-paced, constantly evolving and essentially democratic. This seems to go against what luxury brands have fought for decades to stand for – craftsmanship, heritage and elitism.

It is of course no longer a question of whether luxury brands should embrace social media, but rather how they can do it with credibility, confidence and integrity. Luxury brands need to learn how to use social media to become better, immersive story tellers in order to communicate and strengthen their core values, and build consumer loyalty.

However, one minute spent online can damage decades of building up a luxury brand’s faultless credentials. As far as communications go, this seems an astonishingly high price to pay to be ‘seen doing it.’ How can luxury brands take control of growing social networks and encourage positive feedback and word of mouth? How can luxury brands meaningfully and consistently use social media platforms to share and amplify the values that define them, rather than compromise them?

For a complimentary copy, or to talk more, please contact:

Elodie Massol, Group Account Director, Luxury and Lifestyle

elodiem@launchgroup.co.uk / 020 7758 3920

Who says luxury brands are scared to engage with the digital space? The clever people at LVMH are decidedly leading the way.

Having now closed the retail operations of its ELUXURY site, the group is now focusing the format around an editorial and social networking concept that will showcase daily exclusive content, beginning early 2010. Subjects covered will include fashion, art, food, wine, design, culture, beauty, music, entertainment and travel.

They say: “ELUXURY is an inspirational creative space that will be launching in early 2010. In the meantime, it presents a different daily image or video and invites you to participate in the evolution of this new digital publishing frontier.” You can already sign up for updates. Check it out!  

This is a bold and clever move that reinforces the group’s position as pioneers and leaders within the luxury world. I say bravo, and I cannot wait to see how the site will be received next year. Watch this space…

Newsflash: social networks tamper with your moral compass! Well, that’s according to some professors hailing from Ohio and California, who presumably spend their days casting mutinous looks at the nearest PC while muttering about the purity of technology-free childhoods.

Aryn Karpinski of Ohio State University has put the boot into Facebook and Twitter by describing regular visitors as underachieving and un-ambitious layabouts. Charming. According to Karpinski, young people online who favour a little poking and a little tagging end up with lower school marks, and go on to work in lower paid employment. Or not work at all.

“There may be other factors involved, such as personality traits, that link Facebook use and lower grades,” says Karpinski, who – surprisingly – doesn’t have a Facebook account. “But perhaps the lower Grade Point Averages could actually be because students are spending too much time socializing online.”

And California does seem to support Karpinski’s claim. Neuroscientists at the University of Southern California have entertainingly dubbed Twitter a “rapid-fire media” that has the power to “confuse your moral compass.”

According to the USC, social media websites interfere with how we regard – and participate in – relationships, effectively stripping away the usual high levels of emotional attention we would provide and expect in return when communicating.

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It’s going to be a tough week for those employed in finance. As any building housing offices of the maligned financial services nervously begins to batten down the hatches and instruct employees to ‘disguise’ themselves for their own safety, there is certainly a whiff of unease in the air. It’s even, perhaps theatrically, been likened to the French Revolution. Watch out bankers and world leaders, the media warns, hell hath no fury like those that have lost all their savings due to economic incompetence.

Add to the mix the protestor’s swift uptake of online tools in their activities, and you have an additional headache to manage.   

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