Yesterday at the Social Media Marketing 2010 conference in San Francisco I listened to a talk from luxury blogger Ariel Adams and he had a lot of good perceptions and insights both into the mind of the luxury market (no discounts) and into the mind of the luxury goods buyer (we want to hide that we have lots of discretionary funds with which to collect 5- and 6-figure time pieces, watches, and chronographs.
Here’s the description of the presentation:
Luxury brands present a digital conundrum. On the one hand, they often invest large amounts in to traditional advertising and marketing. On the other hand, many of them aren’t familiar with best practices when it comes to digital marketing and social media. This is complicated by the fact that, often, luxury goods aren’t officially available for sale online and presents a unique challenge for social media marketers. Presently, luxury online is in its infancy , so success involves understanding the brand’s specific needs and finding the right mixture to deliver real results. Hear the inside track from luxury brand blogger, Ariel Adams.
Well, this blogger was sharing case studies with us and made a comment,
“luxury companies don’t create branded blogs that are about their products. They create blogs that are about their vision, the other stuff they’re doing (sponsoring a yacht race), and maybe their design acumen and taste. They leave the product love to 3rd party bloggers. More legit.”
I think that is bullshit! Not Ariel but the fact that luxury brands feel like they need to be so indirect and coy!
Yes, honest reviews by owners is awesome but when I follow or read or subscribe to a brand blog, I want to connect to the company.
I used to be a photographer. I don’t want to know about the art books Nikon owns or the events that Nikon is sponsoring, I want to know how a Nikon is made. How the lenses are coated. I would like to know how they milled the F4′s body out of a single piece of metal.
I would love to meet the shooters on the Nikon PRO network and I would like to get to know R&D because I really need to fall in love with Nikon, Rolex, BMW — otherwise, I must admit, they’ll lose my heart easily to Canon, Omega, and surely Audi.
But if they can directly woo me back into bed. Why the Sea-Dweller is a masterpiece. Why the Nikkor glass is the best and fastest glass ever, and why the heart of the M-BMW hasn’t been permanently stolen by the Quattro team and their RS rocketships.
And this story, this narrative, can only and needs to be told by the fabricator.
Why be so coy, luxury goods manufacturer? Tell us what a helium escape valve is. Show us the clean room where you polish glass. Walk us through the sketches of the next M5. Tell us why we can no longer have our three pedals and shift knob.
Don’t sell us, woo us. Why do I want to drop two grand on the waterproof duffle bag that Sean Connerey is selling me, Louis-Vuitton? You know I want to buy one!
Why don’t you go read old JJ Peterman catalogs, get a feel for they mystery and excitement inspired in those insightful and romantic prose-pieces and then write us, your current and aspirational future luxury brand-buyers, the scented love letters that will woo us into your beds and keep us there.
As a photographer, I was chagrined when I realised that the story of the photo was even more important than the rarity and beauty of the photo itself.
Sharing that story on your branded blog isn’t garish or untoward, it is your competitive edge!
PS: I was just thinking about one blogger who did luxury right. Thomas Mahon, the Savile Row tailor who saved himself from the dole by taking his bespoke suit company online, English Cut. What Mr. Mahon does is take us all into the world of textiles, fabrics, design, tradition, quality, form, fit, and finish and basically has been teaching us all how to make our own perfect thing: the bespoke English suit of clothes.
What is fashionable, what is faddy, what is timeless. He shows us how to chalk, how to measure, how to cut. He suggest ways to cut and fits that are more flattering to one person over another. Then, he takes to the road and makes suits globally, setting tour dates like the rockstar he is.
He never really sells bespoke suits, he never promotes suit-buying, but he makes something as intimidating as having a hand-made suit of great price and he explains why I need it, why I should have it, why I deserve to have it, and also why this is a brilliant investment of a small fortune. Why it is smart and sane and a thing of not just ephemeral beauty but of deep and real quality.
Now that is one hell of a blog!
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