Essay
Essay
Essay
"What is luxury?". When you asked this question to the people, you will definitely get
lots of different answers. According to Oxford dictionary, the term luxury is "A state of great
comfort or elegance, especially when involving great expense". Luxury items are all things that
are not necessary to life and therefore include many desirable things within a society or culture.
Examples of luxury products include clothing, accessories, bags and services. People buy luxury
items mostly because they want to show off their wealth and impress others. It is made for the
rich and fashionable people that can pay any cost for their favourite premium brands. However,
there are also people who purchase these items because of its quality and aesthetics regardless of
their income or socioeconomic class. Nowadays, luxury brands are famous to the public because
of their online activities and social media engagement. The demand for luxury brands today is
higher compared to the previous years which mean that luxury brand marketing should involve a
clear brand identity and emphasize product integrity. Marketing a luxury brand is different from
the traditional business marketing because customers have different motives to buy these
products. For marketers, marketing luxury brands is challenging as they need to establish a
product image aligned to the luxurious brand that will capture the customers.
A luxury brand marketing strategy must establish the highest brand value by grasping
multiple things like heritage, craftsmanship, scarcity, prestigious clients and more. The
advertising must capture the emotions of potential customers and satisfy these emotions. The
luxury brand image should be perfectly desirable as it gives buyers a sense of accomplishment,
self-esteem and pleasurable experience. Individual customer's beliefs are more specific and
marketing should involve some form of market segmentation to allow each item to please
everyone and align with individual customer's preference. Nowadays, luxury brands have been
widely popular due to technology and social media. Many brands interact with their customers
through online marketing strategies by using social networking sites such as Facebook,
Instagram, Youtube, Twitter and the like to promote their brand but also maintaining their
luxurious image.
Although luxury brands are fast adapting to the media world, marketing mistakes are
inevitable. One example of this is the case of Dolce and Gabbanna (D&G). While this brand
remains one of the most respected luxury fashion brands, there is an instance when their owner
behaved poorly by calling several style icons, such as Selena Gomez and Kate Moss 'really ugly"
on Instagram. Another issue is when a screenshot of Instagram private message between its
owner and Prada revealed how Stefano Gabbana criticized and insulted China and called it
"China Ignorant Dirty Smelling Mafia". This behaviour caused backlash which resulted to a
campaign to boycott Dolce and Gabbanna on social media. Although the brand through its owner
sincerely apologized for his actions, it produced a strong impact on its brand's reputation and
financial performance. This example of situation involving a luxury brand just show how crucial
it is to market luxury brands and maintain its image. Marketers including the owners and brand
ambassadors must always behave right to not stain the image of the brand. They should also
strategize and conduct in depth research to position their product in every country or every
customer.
References:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271936261_An_empirical_study_of_luxury_brand_marketin
g_effectiveness_and_its_impact_on_consumer_engagement_on_Facebook
https://www.ventureharbour.com/luxury-brand-digital-marketing/
https://gettinggrowth.com/luxury-brands-marketing-fails/
https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2017/02/15/luxury-marketing-strategies
Submitted by:
BETITO, RUI A.
LIM, ALEXANDER
TIBURCIO, JULIUS