Major Groups Have Begun To Significantly Reduce The Huge Digital Marketing Investment

In 2013, the overall marketing expenses of many luxury brands were reduced by 1/2, including advertising and digital marketing budgets. Although many luxury brands are cautious about whether to "digitize" their brands, once they make a decision, their investment will never be ambiguous, and they will be "extremely luxurious" just like the offline brand launch, with endless creativity: for example, Prada has developed a "smart fitting room", and consumers will cross the catwalk when fitting

Walking on the most prosperous Gracia Street in Barcelona, you will soon be attracted by a unique store. Many customers are often attracted by the virtual images at the entrance, where the whole process of completing an Amazona handbag is being performed by the craftsmen in Loewe Handicraft Workshop. As you continue to walk inside, you can see that Amazon handbags, which change the colors of various parts in an instant, actually use the magic light and shadow effect to create realistic coloring, telling people that this handbag has more than 100000 color matching possibilities.

　 Impress impulsive consumers

The ultimate service and novelty experience provided by high-tech stores enable customers to reach a new peak in their impulsive spending power. Unlike other digital flagship stores, which are heavily promoted by other brands, this is a digital museum built by Loewe, a subsidiary of LVMH, with huge investment. The shop staff will not sell you too much, but will explain the brand culture to you.

Fifteen minutes' walk on Gracia Street leads to Loewe's flagship store in Barcelona. On the same street, one museum and one flagship store are not far from each other, but the division of labor between the two stores is very clear: museums are responsible for digital promotion, flagship stores are responsible for sales, and effectively connect sales with culture. When you enter the flagship store of Loewe, the clerk will also warmly recommend you to go to the museum to get a close understanding of the brand culture.

Prada flagship store in New York is an outstanding work in the digital business era comparable to Burberry flagship store in Regent Street, London, which has been recognized as a classic in the industry. The Prada store is full of digital screens wherever you can see. They replace the mirrors that used to be full of flagship stores of major brands. Even the interior of the fitting room is also embedded with a plasma screen, which allows the wearer to see the front and back effects at the same time.

Luxury brands invested heavily in the design and decoration of digital flagship stores, attracting huge customer flow while image promotion, especially digital stores located in London, Paris and New York. Mobile customers are still the mainstream of consumption, while high-tech stores provide excellent services and novel experiences, making customers' impulse spending ability reach a new peak, In particular, Asian and Middle Eastern consumers who are already impulsive customers are more likely to take out their credit cards.

Digital marketing shrinking?

Major groups have begun to significantly reduce the huge digital marketing investment. When many brands are still using digital for brand promotion, Burberry, a 157 year old "senior", has successfully used digital marketing to complete the "rejuvenation counterattack". In the current fashion circle, everyone is accustomed to calling Burberry the "youngest old brand". Youth and high-tech have become the brand's new logo, which is as popular as the three color checked scarf. Of course, its successful transformation is not just to bring more beautiful figures to the brand year by year. Burberry's "counter attack" has been included in the cases of luxury majors in major business schools in New York and Paris, but should the Burberry model be repeated or surpassed?

In the luxury industry, although more and more brands have increased their investment to improve and improve their digital experience, most of them still hold a cautious wait-and-see attitude, and many top brands are still calmly sitting on the altar, especially some old fashion houses or leather goods houses in Paris and Milan, They still believe that digitalization will weaken the essence of personal experience service to some extent, prevent customers from feeling the core value of "customized" culture, and spread the "popular" image of the brand, which many noble and reserved top brands do not want to see.

Scattered in many high-end customized stores on both sides of the Seine River, designer Or professional sales staff disdain to use the iPad, because no matter how realistic the effect will be, there will be color difference. Only when rare leather color plates or top fabric cards are directly handed to customers for selection, can "customization" be completed.

In addition, it is worth noting that the digital marketing of brands is basically focused on the promotion and sales process, and after-sales service is obviously lagging behind. Therefore, how to achieve a real seamless shopping experience should also be an urgent problem for brands. Lane Crawford promises that the online store can deliver goods on the same day in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. The Shanghai Lane Crawford Times Square store, which will open in September 2013, will provide online order picking and return services, which will undoubtedly become another weight to win consumers.

There are always twists and turns in the story. After several years of strong growth in the industry, luxury goods are facing a new round of cold winter due to the turbulence of the euro and the slowdown of the Asian economy. Major groups have begun to significantly reduce their marketing investment. The first thing to be affected is the huge digital marketing investment, which makes many brands who want to speed up digital marketing have to temporarily slow down or even stop their plans, and even quietly withdraw from existing markets to save strength in this winter's cold snap. According to insiders, in 2013, the overall marketing expenses of many luxury brands were cut by 1/2, including advertising and digital marketing budgets.