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[PRAY WATCHES MARKETING STRATEGY][This paper outlines and highlights key digital and luxury marketing strategies for Pray watches.]
October 2015Pray Watches
Clay de SouzaMarketing Consultant
2014 was foretold to be the year that tips the scales, with more
than 50% of well heeled customers discovering, actively looking
and shopping for luxury items by means of digital channels. This
evolution is encouraged by shoppers who are online to save time,
yet remain likely to finish the purchase in-store.
Going by an April 2013 Luxury Institute study on the multichannel
purchasing habits of United States Internet users with incomes of
at least $150,000, 48& of those surveyed discovered information
about luxury fashion online by means of a computer. However,
only about a 1/4th actually finished the purchase online.
Moreover, eMarketer discovered that a monstrous 74 % of
purchases inquired on smart phones and tablets are completed
in-store.
This brings me to the first strategy:
Mobile
We are inclined to consider that mobile consumers as akin to
desktop consumers, but on different devices. This is just not the
case.
Most mobile time is simply “mobile” aka “phone time”. Digital
marketers and I in particular have been struggled to find that
right perfect time to market digitally but recent times are
changing all of this.
With more than 70% of daily Facebook and Twitter users on a
mobile device, marketers must think mobile-first.
For marketers marketing luxury products this is particularly
challenging as device constraints and consumer expectations
limit the richness of the experience.
But with my skill and creativity, I will embrace the constraints
without compromising brand promise.
Understanding the purchase intent journey
I have been trying to figure out what makes people purchase as
long as Marketers have been selling, nevertheless it is a disjointed
challenge and gathering the data at every step has been
unattainable.
Digital Marketers have made a lot of progress due to the likes of
Datalogix (which I would for us to use) and others and, as a
result we should are on the verge of the next evolution, if we
even almost completely “wire” the journey.
The one main constant in the modern world, is the Smartphone.
In the next phase of digital marketing, understanding how and
why consumers buy will be vital to attracting the next generation
of affluent shoppers.
Omnichannel movement continues to gain traction
Our ability to reach any given consumer across our strategies will
emerge and quickly grow with proper implementation which
incorporates devices. This will enable you and I to better
understand the customer journey and the patterns likely to drive
discovery, exploration and consideration. We can utilize a
multitude of automation software products to help us with this
including (but not limited to) Marketo, HubSpot , and neustar .
With more than half of U.S. affluent consumers soon discovering
new luxury products online, it is imperative that we understand
how these trends converge.
Making connections between channels will be essential as well.
“Can I schedule a consultation from my phone?”, “Can I easily
share what I have liked on the Web site with an associate?”
Social + mobile + storefront = Magic
Mobile applications are the key bridge from digital to the “store”. I
will look for major innovation in a few categories that will extend
this magic, specifically apps that enable shoppers to feel
connected to the luxury experience, such as Tourneau’s virtual
watch tray that allows online research with pick-up in-store or
social shopping apps that enable consumers to “like” and manage
products through Pinterest, Wanelo, Polyvore and ShopKick.
I will need to also watch and learn from mass-market retailers’
innovation and use of digital wallets such as Apple’s Passbook and
Google Wallet that can store gift cards as well as brand-specific
apps that enable shoppers to manage and receive in-store
redeemable mobile offers from anywhere.
The last mile
Vicinity-based mobile notifications that pull information from the
app categories above are closing the last mile between the
retailer and the consumer.
Apple’s iBeacon (Bluetooth SMART), NFC and other location-based
technology will finally begin to take hold.
I as a marketer know that getting someone into the store is 90
percent of the challenge here.
Once there, it is a matter of experience, discovery and driving
toward high-value products.
With Apple’s deployment of iBeacons, I can now communicate
with consumers and track everything from how many got close to
the store, entered the store, and which products they browsed
and bought.
For digital marketers, the long awaited online to offline closed
loop reporting will finally be a reality.
Be everywhere
Luxury marketers from empirical research are notoriously skilled
at creating rich experiences from fashion shows to print ads, they
have been slow to go deep on digital.
Content is currently the fuel that drives digital marketing. As
Burberry has so deftly shown, reaching new affluent consumers
requires broad content creation and distribution strategies.
From Instagram and Vine videos to maintaining a Tumblr, I like
luxury marketers must find key audiences and engage in their
worlds, adhering to their rules.
Being early adopters of new social mobile technology can give us
credibility – watch, learn and be ready to jump-in.
But content strategies are hard to form overnight, so I must work
now to see how I can apply my essence and promise across
emerging platforms. We should do it now so they can be more
nimble in the future.
Social Mobile convergence and luxury’s traditional focus on
building experiences that drive loyalty is great for marketers
ready to take advantage of the ability to tell a cohesive brand
story across channels.
Brands that are able to personalize the experience throughout the
customer journey, up to and including the last mile, will see that
the dividends drive serious business value, which will only
accelerate as millennials grow in their purchasing power and
share of affluent luxury consumers.
In luxury brand management, most industry players have realized
that experiences are essential. But most of what I know about
designing customer experiences stems from my hospitality work
with Hilton Worldwide, as well as additional research. Luxury
brands are an entirely different proposition and require a very
specific approach to brand management and marketing. Based on
extensive research of the market in collaboration with Pernod
Ricard, here are six things you need to focus on in order to
design and market a true luxury experience.
Advocate beliefs
Luxury brands should advocate beliefs to customers rather than
simply rely on brand values. Beliefs go further; they’re more
specific and, consequently, more segmenting. Unlike mass
brands, luxury brands should not strive to please everyone, but
those customers whose beliefs align with their own.& tech
Be more than a logo
When consumers think of a true luxury brand, they’re likely to
think of a whole set of visual icons, rather than one single logo.
These can include monograms, brand symbols, logos, colors,
patterns, images and even concepts. A good example of this
is Bottega Veneta, whose leather goods display no visible symbols
or logo, but are instead recognised by the weaved leather pattern
of their products. Then there’s Chanel. Think of the brand and
you’ll think of black and white, the number five, the camellias,
pearls, or a little black dress. You so far have a good logo to work
with.
Involve the customer in a ritual
A true luxury brand cannot stop their offering at the product; they
must go beyond that to offer unique services or rituals. This can
start with something as simple as attentive sales people and
prompt customer service, but it should really go beyond that to
create a consumption “ritual” that allows customers to experience
the brand.
Perfume brand Le Labo does this very well. Using the premise
that the quality of perfume deteriorates over time, it
revolutionized the consumer buying experience by offering a
special personal experience: each Le Labo perfume is hand-
blended and individually prepared in front of the customer at the
moment of purchase. The glass decanter is then dated and the
customer’s name is printed on the label. After taking the perfume
home, the customer must let it marinate in the fridge for a week
before using it. Through this ritual, buying Le Labo perfume
becomes more than an exclusive product; it becomes a personal
experience. Another good example is Porsche, which innovated
the delivery process by allowing customers to pick up their new
car right off the assembly line in Germany.
The store is a temple
Luxury brands must pay extra special attention to the way they
sell and innovate at the point of purchase. Before, it was enough
for luxury brands to use brick and mortar stores to sell their
products, but they must now aim to design multifunctional,
controlled spaces that create brand experiences and
communicate brand beliefs. These types of stores function almost
like a temple for discerning consumers.
An example of this is Prada, which embarked upon a unique
project with Dutch research studio AMO and renowned architect
Rem Koolhaas. The result of this collaboration was a wide-ranging
project that included special “epicentres” – stores designed to
provide a working laboratory for experimental shopping
experiences. BMW World in Munich is another example of a
temple-like showroom, where consumers can “experience” the
brand rather than simply buy the product.
Pull customers into an exclusive circle
Mass brands define who their customers are and “push” products
towards them. For luxury brands, the roles are reversed:
consumers must be “pulled” towards the brand with the promise
of belonging to an exclusive community. Many consumers may
want access to this circle, but only a select few who truly share
the brand beliefs can really belong.
To this end, luxury brands should create artificial barriers or
initiation rituals to select which customers gain admittance. If a
customer wants to buy a premium Apple product, all they have to
do is pay the price. But Hermés customers must form a long-term
and intimate bond with the brand if they want to be offered the
opportunity to buy one of the manufacturer’s “it” bags. Rather
than putting customers off, this behavior creates a sense of
belonging to a special circle. Customers stay loyal and are
rewarded for it.
Communicate legends to establish a myth
Mass brands compare themselves with competitors and
communicate their advantages over them, but true luxury brands
should not do this. Rather, they should aim to communicate the
legends associated with the brand to establish a myth. Rolls
Royce achieves this by inviting a select few of their customers to
manufacturing facilities to see and experience the company’s
storied production process in person.
Myths should be conveyed indirectly and should be consistent in
every point of delivery, including products, stores and marketing.
Luxury brands often achieve this by inducing a degree of mystery
or by making a connection with art to communicate myths in an
elevated way. Chanel actively keeps the myths associated with its
creator, Coco Chanel, alive and these myths feed the brand to
this day.
Public figures
Public figures or celebrities have traditionally been employed as
one of the marketing mix in luxury brand advertising and they still
continue to garner attention, credibility and impact.
Public figures can span from film stars to music personalities,
from sports personalities to royal families and even the designer
themselves.
But because celebrity endorsements are no longer exclusive to
the luxury space and extensively used and abused across mass
categories, they take a different meaning when it comes to luxury
brand endorsement.
Not only does the public figure’s associated values and
personality have to resonate with that of the luxury brand’s aura,
but there is a distinct difference in the way celebrity role is
crafted, executed and strategically used.
Beyond traditional advertising – largely print in selected media –
less in-your-face advertising tools are employed such as
accessorizing or dressing celebrities for their walk down the red
carpet, product placements within movies and television
programs and invites to special events.
This strategy attempts to remove the appearance of “selling”
while still promoting the product by making it seem as a part of
the celebrity’s lives, thereby positively affecting the consumer’s
attitudes, brand value and purchase intention.
For example, Chopard has been official partner of the Cannes Film
Festival for the last 14 years, showcasing and premiering its
collection by accessorizing celebrities on the red carpet.
Long-form-commercials or short-films have also used the
celebrity-factor.
Chanel, for instance, recently created a three-minute film with
actress Keira Knightley who replaced Kate Moss in its ads for its
Coco Mademoiselle fragrance.
Other previous faces of Chanel have included French star
Catherine Deneuve and Nicole Kidman, who represented Chanel
No. 5.
Similarly, as a part of its “core values” campaign, Louis Vuitton
used its Web site as the online medium to showcase its celebrity
endorser’s journey and his or her story to bring to life how the
brand has been promoting the art of travel and inspiring
legendary journeys.
Placement
The retail branded environment in luxury branding is all about
heightening the consumer’s brand experience and amplifying the
brand aura.
Hence, the branded environment and the movement of truth is
where it must “live” the brand by orchestrating immaculate
detailing that engages all senses of the discerning audience.
Starting from the choice of store location, the chain of touch
points that consumers interact with, the salesperson’s
presentation and the impact of each touch point is critical in
creating a unique indulging experience.
That said, today’s evolving luxury consumers are increasingly
looking beyond the typical sophisticated, over-the top,
cosmetically elegant presentation or even the exclusive invites,
privileged previews.
With the increasing democratization of luxury brands and the
rapid emergence of masstige brands, luxury consumers have
become more discriminating and demanding.
These consumers seek a more knowledgeable and professional
assistance and a trusted and reliable collaboration helping them
to manage their stature and lifestyle.
Not only has this led to the new business offerings, but luxury
brands are also increasingly investing in training and empowering
their sales staff.
Another important point to note within the placement factor is
that it is not limited to the physical environment where the brand
retails, but it extends to all of the environments or consumer
touch points with which that brand associates itself.
This spans from the extremely selective niche media where it
advertises to the sports, events, art and conversations with which
it identifies.
For example, Rolex associates itself with more than 150 events in
golf, sailing, tennis, motor-sport, arts and equestrian tournaments
rather than with sports such as football or cricket that have more
of a mass following.
Public relations
Public relations in luxury branding plays an enormous role in
image proliferation of the brand, thereby subtly influencing public
opinion.
PR is also employed to convey other supporting messages and
attributes of the brand that cannot be explicitly captured in
advertising, but are by no means are less important to create
brand’s personality, mystique and emotional values – whether it is
via the pedigree factor or via public-figure any of the previous
seven P’s mentioned.
It is also a sophisticated branding machine for maintaining
ongoing relevance and dialogue with the luxury consumer,
especially in fashion, technology and seasonal trends-driven
categories.
At a tactical level, PR is used to generate buzz and convey brand
news, point of views of inspirers and influencers including
celebrity talk or the designer speak and a crucial support for
brand activation such as the fashion weeks, sport events and
themed previews.
Pricing
While few have resorted to sales and discounts, most others play
it by adding more value to the purchase such as gift with
purchase, gift certificates or rebates for the next purchase,
multiple item discounts, online or email exclusives, more loyalty
points and no shipping and handling charges by online retailers.
Luxury brands also use as a channel luxury retailers such as
Harvey Nichols and Saks Fifth Avenue that offer annual sales via
slightly lower prices.
Another strategy employed by luxury brands is creating an
extension into a secondary line with relatively lower price points
such as Giorgio Armani’s Armani Exchange, Roberto Cavalli’s Just
Cavalli, Prada’s Miu Miu and Alexander McQueen’s McQ lines.
The Challenge
As eCommerce presences throughout the luxury industry
accelerate, luxury apparel retailers find themselves with a unique
challenge: How do I create a tailored experience to our brand
loyal customers by the click of a button? More so, how can I
deliver a curated experience that mirrors the traditional in-store
experience, without point-of-purchase face time?
Because of the nature of the industry, these questions are often
difficult for luxury marketers to answer my research finds. The
marketing strategy requires more sensitivity to customer
relationships than in other industries, based on a few key
findings:
1. Luxury consumers demand authentic, personal interactions.
They expect to share memorable and meaningful engagements
with the products and services to which they are loyal.
Similarly, luxury consumers feel a sense of ownership in the
brands they identify with.
2. These consumers psychologically desire particular lifestyles
and experiences. It’s important to understand that for these
shoppers, perceived product value increases over the lifetime
of the product, making it very important for luxury retailers to
stay engaged throughout the customer lifecycle, not just at
point-of-purchase.
3. Luxury consumers identify with product authenticity, and
consequently lose interest in brands when they become
overexposed and fall mercy to brand dilution.
So how can luxury retailers deliver the same compelling customer
experience in an online setting, and continue to develop unique
relationships, so customer retention is achieved?
Targeted email campaigns are a proven way to engage with your
customer base. These engagements involve personalized
interactions, allowing loyal relationships to be formed, and then
retained.
The Solution
In brief, here are just a few ways luxury apparel retailers will
strengthen customer retention by including retention automation
in their email marketing strategy:
1. Thank your customers by triggering post purchase email
messages, increasing customer lifetime value.
2. Identify your best customers based on product, purchase
and customer data or an RFM analysis, and reward them to
strengthen customer loyalty.
3. Target churning customers through win-back and cart
recovery campaigns, to earn profitability on otherwise lost
sales.
4. Personalize your email marketing campaigns with automated
product recommendations based on previous purchase
behavior.
The Result
By leveraging product, purchase and customer data in email
marketing campaigns, luxury marketers will increase retention
rates and customer lifetime values, and engage in long-term
customer relationships, which will reveal vast unforeseen
amounts of untapped revenue.
The 9 Pillars of Retention Automation framework help
marketers like me plan and implement retention marketing
campaigns through key stages in the customer life-cycle. Build
the 9 Pillars of Retention Automation into this-your marketing
campaign and start retaining customers today.
As a B2B Marketer, I’am Responsible For a Lot
I am on the hook for more than just moving prospects through the
funnel and delivering leads to sales. I’m responsible for managing
the customer relationship. But how does it feel to the customer
when that transition takes place? All too often, the first contact
with sales feels like starting the conversation over again. And for
customers who have already invested time and energy learning
about a company and their products, this can be a jarring
experience. Great composers use consistent melodic themes over
the course of a piece. As a marketer, it is my responsibility to
ensure there is harmony and consistency over the full lifecycle of
the customer relationship. But linking the conversations that
marketing and sales have with prospects depends on my ability
(and willingness) to share insights that are born from data.
What if you were to approach your role as not only getting a
prospect ready for sales—but also getting sales ready for the
prospect? Marketers typically think of sales acceleration as
shortening the sales cycle (abbreviating the time it takes to make
a lead sales-ready), but it’s time that we extend the concept to
include what we can do to help sales close on the deal faster. By
doing so, you will prepare sales to continue, rather than reinitiate,
the relationship that began when a prospect first clicked on one of
your search links or a banner ad.
Ready to start building stronger customer and prospect
relationships?
Keep Sales and Marketing on the Same Page
If a composer wrote an incredible music score, but handed the
orchestra pieces of paper with only the title, what would be the
result? Or even worse, what might it be like if the musicians
received sheet music but chose to ignore its directions and notes?
The result would be cacophonous. Unfortunately, due to frequent
disconnects between sales and marketing, this kind of dissonance
is frequently felt by prospects and leads.
We hear over and over again how the educated buyer is
completing more of the purchase journey before contacting sales.
As a result, marketing departments like yours are being held
directly responsible for revenue. However, for most B2B sales,
customers will talk to sales before making their final decision.
Think about how the transition feels to your customers. Do they
feel like they’re continuing a journey or starting a new one?
If you’re accountable for revenue, you have to think beyond the
lead to how (and if) it is developed. That’s why there’s more
incentive than ever to meet expectations not only for lead
quantity, but also for lead quality. Further, marketing must start
thinking about the continuity of the relationship after the lead
goes to sales. We’ve got more of a vested interest in the outcome
than ever before, so we need to take a more active and
collaborative role with sales.
It shouldn’t be that hard. As marketers, we spend a big part of our
lives trying to figure out what customers care about and how we
can tell a differentiated story so they’ll buy our stuff. Sales cares
about the exact same thing. The key is that we need to stop
thinking about the “handoff” between sales and marketing, and
start thinking about how to integrate the conversation.
Improvising On a Consistent Theme
Jazz musicians are adept at taking a melody and finding new ways
of interpreting and presenting it. One musician can start a theme
and the next can improvise off of it, expanding and exploring.
That same interplay should exist between sales and marketing.
By the time sales picks up a lead, the relationship “theme” has
already been established. So how do you make sure that sales is
taking advantage of and building on that foundation?
There isn’t a big secret or any kind of magic—it’s really about
increasing transparency and improving communication. The
better (and faster) the sales team understands what marketing
has done prior to the transition, the easier it will be for them to
pick up the lead. Most importantly, marketers have to remember
that customer information and insight don’t just come from digital
footprints. Insights also come from the interactions that sales reps
have directly with clients. The more that sales sees that you’re
embracing what they’ve learned, the more receptive they’ll be.
Have you ever watched drummers count off the introduction of a
song? They make sure the band is paying attention, and then
provide a starting time (often by clicking their drumsticks
together). This helps the band get aligned to the rhythm so they
can start together. That’s what marketers need to do to start
creating organizational alignment: Make sure that the entire
organization is paying attention and then establish a rhythm that
everyone can agree to. Everybody is already driving to the same
outcome: building a relationship with a prospect or customer. But
we need a central point, a “click” if you will, around which we
align. Customer data can be that click. By using real customer
data, not only will we create better alignment with sales, we’ll
develop better marketing, because it’ll be more aligned (and
more responsive) to what customers actually want.
Key takeaways
In conclusion, the key this marketing strategy is to boil down to
the following three points:
• Product excellence by itself in not enough. The luxury brand
must perform at an experiential level as well.
As luxury consumers evolve, not only does product quality act as
a point of differentiation, but also as substance to justify a
premium value and pricing.
• While pedigree factor is important to celebrate the years of
mastery or lineage, it is crucial to generate ongoing relevance
and dynamism through the persona, PR and public-figure factor.
• Luxury brands must continue to maintain a certain degree of
exclusivity and stature with the paucity factor and the placement
factor – from the retail experience to the touch points with which
it associates itself.