Luxury Digitally Defined

by Andrea Wilson on 06/12/2009 at 2:28 pm in Brand Management, Online Strategies, PPC, Performance Marketing

Dictionary.com defines luxury as…” a material object, service, etc. conducive to sumptuous living, usually a delicacy, elegance, or refinement of living rather than a necessity” and “free or habitual indulgence in or enjoyment of comforts and pleasures in addition to those necessary for a reasonable standard of well-being.”

This tells me that luxury retailers/brands should cater their major initiatives to ‘refinement of living, indulgence, enjoyments of comforts and pleasures’. As such, shouldn’t the online experience be as comforting and pleasurable as the product itself? Doesn’t it make sense that a buying a luxury brand’s product should be easier and more enjoyable than a buying a discount product from a mass retailer or discounter? So why is it so difficult to even find the luxury official website? Most of the time, I never see an ad where I frequent online and I rarely see search listings (paid or natural) when searching for products (or sometimes even the trademark name) in the search engines. And when I finally find the site, I still have to navigate through flash, wait for video to load, experience a confusing site search and endure a clunky process just to order something. That is not a luxurious experience; it’s a trip to the DMV.

Luxury retailers are highly protective of their brand. Why not treat their customers with similar diligence and care? If your luxury brand’s purchase process has more in common with a trip to municipal court than Monaco, you might want to try the following:

• If you’re going to have beautiful images through flash/video ads to remind me of the brand and show me the beautiful new products, have them where I spend time online. Better yet, make them clickable right to the product I want to buy, or at least interactive so I can hover /explore, then go to the site when I’m ready to purchase.
  • STRATEGY: Have a strong presence on major networks. Use re-targeting and behavioral targeting to reach your customers/potential customers. Creative test/use multiple messages to ensure your audience is getting the ad units they like best.

• You’re present in the engines, so be there like you mean it. When I’m looking for a product like yours, make it easy on me to find you. When I’m looking for you by searching for your brand name…be there. Every time.
  • STRATEGY: Have a strong presence, both from a brand and non-brand presence, both from a paid listing and natural/organic standpoint. Make the creative and meta-description clear by telling me who you are and why your brand is special.

• When I finally end up on your site, make it easy on me to purchase. Let me see the beautiful, large images of the products I am interested in, show me descriptive words to describe the product, and when I’m ready to buy, let me be able to do that quickly and painlessly. Better yet, thank me for doing so and make me want to come back again and again.
  • STRATEGY: Use large multiple images. Use descriptive and detailed copy. Remember me if I’ve registered with your site before so I don’t have to re-enter all my personal information. Test! Use conversion optimization tools to target and refine the most customer friendly purchase paths and website organization.

I think it’s very fair to say that most luxury retailers and luxury brands do a tremendous job of making beautiful and luxurious products. It’s the basis in which all their efforts are based. Catalogs and image ads are gorgeous and classy, and so is the typical in-store experience. So why is it that luxury retailers are usually the last to make the online experience as luxurious and comforting as possible? Why is it the mass discounters and retailers of the world are the ones that make the online shopping experience comfortable and convenient? Online works amazingly well for most advertisers, and it’s trackable. That’s no secret. Focus on making that entire online channel as luxurious and comforting as that handbag or skin cream your customer loves you for, and you’ll have me coming back again and again. Or at least on payday.