The social media strategy of luxury brands

By definition, luxury is similar to everything ostentatious and exceeds purchases related to the simple need. Addressed to a very specific clientele, luxury goods do not escape the need for communication, whether targeted or intended for the masses. An overview of the processes mobilized by brands to adapt to the social media  and its codes sometimes far removed from the galaxy of luxury. 

ISSUES RELATED TO THE SUBJECT

Communicating when one is a luxury brand, it is rubbing with several paradoxes. Social networks have characteristics that sometimes oppose those of luxury: innovation and tradition, horizontality and prestige, transparency and secret manufacturing, the ephemeral and the ancestral, the mass and the 'elite.

FIRST PARADOX: ADDRESSING A BROAD TARGET WHEN ITS CLIENTELE IS SMALL

The target of luxury goods is very limited because it is very easy. Only a small part of the population actually buys luxury goods on a regular basis. Therefore, the mass communication carried out by luxury brands reflects several objectives whose regular sale is not necessarily a part .

Occasionally, the average consumer may be tempted by the purchase of a luxury product: it is important that the brand addresses this elitist aspiration of everyone via social networks. But a social media agency will not see the only reason for the luxury of positioning itself there.

Luxury brands do not use social networks as a conversational tool but rather as a listening and monitoring laboratory . Unlike other brands, Internet users are still targets and not interlocutors or even members of an affinity community. This is the way the luxury sector keeps its aura while listening .

The official account of Chanel on Instagram does not have any subscription

Luxury brands are often attacked on their ethics by associations, and this can be felt on social networks. Thanks to these plays, they can restore a more convincing CSR communication that concerns both buyers and simple followers.

Hermes is often attacked by the association PETA because of the treatment inflicted on alligators for the manufacture of certain bags.

The primary purpose in communicating on the networks is therefore not to sell to a target or to reach a large mass of potential customers, but on the contrary to work its image and reputation with demanding consumers who wish to listen to a prestigious advertiser who also knows how to be respectful.

SECOND PARADOX: FINDING THE BALANCE BETWEEN SHARING AND INACCESSIBILITY

The second paradox lies in the complicated balance that must be maintained between transparency on social networks and the part of secrecy and inaccessibility that defines luxury . The restricted opening of the brand is opposed to the essence of networks.

The best option for luxury brands is therefore to communicate through the dream, the journey, the dreamlike. The inaccessible. And the brand content agency they will solicit will be responsible for transcribing this universe.

Cartier, thanks to an Instagram mosaic, illustrates his products as coming from the sky, clouds, dreams 

Guerlain Facebook puts the support on the fact that the luxury perfume makes travel

However, it is necessary  to reveal enough that users can see behind the scenes of the brand and touch the new , whether through parties or parades. The daily life of a luxury brand will never be that of the user, so it can be shown while perpetuating the associated dream.

Burberry, having made the bet to be the most digitalised luxury brand, has managed to combine unveiling and dream by creating a very active Snapchat account . One of their operations was to offer their community a parade in preview.

Some glimpses of the Burberry story Snapchat

However, luxury brands have little need to recruit fans by doing operations of this type as these universes attract curiosity. When Chanel went on Instagram, long after other brands (Valentino, Versace, Dior, ...), the empty account simply attracted by the official name.

THIRD PARADOX: TO BE MODERN WHILE RETAINING ITS TRADITIONS

Investing these digital tools is a form of modernity that is not always compatible with the image of luxury, associated with ancestral know-how and tradition.

As mentioned, Burberry was the first brand to want to fully digitalize: Snapchat, Twitter or WeChat ... The advertiser has capitalized on social networks and continue to grow in part thanks to them.

This modernity is a bias that few brands are ready to implement, for fear of changing their image too much. It is true that luxury likes to rest on its strong heritage, longevity and conservatism . In addition, social networks are synonymous with ephemeral which contradicts their values .

Guerlain demonstrates its commitment to crafts and know-how passed down

Reconciling the two would then be to  use his social pages to tell the story of the brand and accentuate its aura. The big brands put forward their unique know-how while keeping some mystery.

Manufacturing secrets, backstage, artisans, are partially unveiled in the storytelling.

Hermes uses for example his Pinterest to show the secrets of manufacture, Van Cleef & Arpels' presents a web series youtube of 9 short films presenting his little hands "Les mains d'or". Burberry on Instagram unveils sketches of future creations.

First short film dedicated to Van Cleef & Arpels' Designer, out of a total of nine

The link is thus maintained with the communities that can assume the role of ambassadors even if they are not buyers, without sacrificing the idea of ​​tradition and inaccessible value.

BALMAIN'S BET: THE DISSOCIATED COMMUNICATION OF PRODUCTS

With millions of spontaneous images posted every month, luxury is one of the most lucrative sectors on Instagram. Luxury and fashion in general, which can be considered as arts, find their place perfectly on the visual network, which is gradually replacing fashion magazines.

It is on this unprecedented strategy that Olivier Rousteing, the new artistic director of Balmain, has considerably rejuvenated the communication and image of the advertiser.

The Instagram account of Olivier Rousteing, where the Balmain creations are staged

Improbable imprints of pop culture have thus invested the Balmain collections , like Rihanna, Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, Robbie Williams ... For Rousteing, the secret of longevity is to renew oneself in communication: it is important for young people to look at parades on the networks, since they no longer read magazines.

The embroidery, representative of Balmain, are maintained, only the models adapt to the modernity and to the public of mass

The creations keep the codes and the style of the fashion house, it is all around that is modernized.

Olivier Rousteing and the models represented in backstage of parade on the official account of the brand

Rousteing opens the doors of luxury by showing what can happen in backstage and wearing classic outfits to silhouettes unusual in haute couture, but much more representative.

By the forms and ethnic origins of his muses, he puts forward a diversity dear to social networks and missing in luxury.

Nicki Minaj as a model of Balmain

It is partly thanks to this "pop couture" approach that Balmain's artistic director speaks to the new generations who now need to identify themselves to dream. It is also by addressing them on their supports that the creator has been able to make the success of the house, which has quadrupled its turnover since his arrival.

If the Rousteing technique has not always been unanimous, the reputation achieved by Balmain with young audiences is undeniable. Is it the new carrier strategy for luxury, which can today have no impact on the social web, to completely dissociate sales and their public from mass communication? 

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Created on Oct 5th 2019 18:59. Viewed 575 times.

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