What Luxury Brands Should Be Doing Now With Social Media Marketing

I write a lot about luxury brands mostly because I reside partially in Italy, am surrounded by fashion everyday, work with luxury brands and ... am a fan myself of some of the beautifully made, high quality items with the designer labels. I am only human.

I also have a passion for social media because I like people and I am always curious about consumer behavior and personalities. I have written about what some of the luxury brands are doing with social media and have even listed the top brands. However I am shocked that more steps have not been taken by even the giants. I see a lot of copying eachother. One brand (Burberry) does acoustics on their FB page and another luxury brand (Bulgari)    does the BZero1 video.  One brand is doing events on FB (Dolce & Gabbana) and almost instantaneously its competitor is doing events as well on FB. Where is the creativity? Where is the wanting to really outreach to its fans making them feel special and a part of their "family?" There seems to be a lot of fear especially with the luxury brands in doing something that won't be fitting to the image. Instead I believe the more human the brands look, the more they will gain a feeling of affinity with its fans. I am really surprised that luxury brands have not already done the following but maybe after reading this post they will ;) :

1) Build forums where inside staff answers questions.

2) Build blogs where brand designers actually give advice how to wear particular items, what styles look best on what body build, upcoming trends,etc.

3) Use blogs where the sourcing or manufacturers that the luxury brands use around the world show and discuss what goes into making an item. The general audience has no idea what fine handcrafted work goes into making a leather handbag or boots or sweater, etc.

4) Use same blogs as in n.2 above to get the manufacturers on board, make them feel part of the brand "family" as well.

5)  Build social network where consumers not just upload their picture wearing the brand item but the consumer gives some more detailed info of where the consumer is going, his/her profession, etc. This is what personalizes it. I love Burberry's social networking site  http://www.artofthetrench.com/ . I would however enhance it in the detail's section. On this site, fans are encouraged to upload their pictures wearing their Burberry trench coats and include their name and location. To personalize it more it would be better to have   "Anna, a journalist in London, late for work."rather than just "Anna photographed in London."

6) Link everything to a "How do I get this look" idea to the brand's ecommerce site.

Come on luxury brands, catch up!

Burberry, Social Media and Sales

If you are interested in social media and fashion you don't have to look far to see how Burberry has had a tremendous boost in sales due also to its extraordinary efforts in social media. I took a trip to our favorite outlet in Tuscany (Leccio Reggello Florence) Italy to The Mall on Saturday and found to my amazement the Burberry Store was cram packed with buying fans. With cash in hand (the outlet only takes cash or debit cards), hundreds of people were in line paying for outer wear, coats, trenches, rainboots, umbrellas, scarves  of every type and color, handbags, wallets, shoes. Is this because of the affinity people have with the brand? Is it because of its social media brilliant presence and engagement?

Before entering the store on a freezing Saturday afternoon (the Mall is outdoors), we strolled passed Valentino, Gucci, Ferragamo surprised to see mostly vacant stores with salespeople twirling their thumbs. Instead at the Burberry store, you could hardly get through and had to hold on for dear life to those items you wanted to purchase for fear they would be snapped away. Men, women, children of different nationalities looking through items to purchase, standing in lines, trying to look in mirrors without being trampled on....this was the scene at the Burberry store in (Leccio Reggello) Florence Italy last Saturday.

Myself? I ran away happily with a new delicious Burberry trench in hand. My husband? A beautiful new Burberry winter coat. Thanks Burberry. You made my birthday.