LUXURY WITH A HUMAN TOUCH
The French fashion house Celine cast Noen Eubanks, a Gen Z-er with over seven million followers on TikTok, in its campaign.
In an era focused on digital performance marketing and conversion rates, it’s easy to forget that not so long ago a luxury purchase tended to be accompanied by a high level of bespoke human service, with the retail store forming the stage on which that interaction invariably played out.
Luxury had an air of exclusivity, a sense of time-standing-still, and this kind of service tended to be accessible only to the upper echelons of society. So at that time, buying into luxury tended to be about accessing a rarefied club available only to the few.
In recent years, luxury has of course metamorphosed. The sector has fortunately become considerably more democratised and inclusive, and the physical store environment has given way to rise and rise of eCommerce. Covid has only served to accelerate these transformations.
The challenge for us today is to figure out how to leave a customer feeling the same degree of personal attention as the luxury shopper of yesteryear, yet through a hugely evolved retail ecosystem. How, in the innately impersonal digital medium, do we create a dialogue with consumers that captivates and enthrals our consumers?
The answer lies in delivering the human touch.
Digital luxury brand Glossier, has created a flagship store in New York that helps the brand engage with its customers and boost sales across channels.
One route has been to develop a program in which your most important customers feel truly cherished, and Net-a-Porter for example does this brilliantly with its invite-only EIP loyalty program.
The alternative is to achieve the connection through the content that your brand is publishing.
At SUM we believe that whether you have a blog, go big on Instagram, create regular videos for Youtube, or invest in effective SEO, you should be thinking well beyond your efficiency metrics by asking yourself a simple question: ‘how human does my campaign feel’?
If your content is solely based on campaign shoots, product features, and pricing information then you are factoring in a glass ceiling from the start. By contrast, if the consumer can connect their personal life stories in some way to your brand’s story, then you’ll be taking your engagement and conversation to a whole new level.
Humanised branded content is about creating a window for these interactions to take place, and will ultimately have more people parting with their hard-earned cash to buy into your brand.
If you would like to speak with SUM about the creation of content for your own luxury brand, or more generally about digital marketing, then do get in touch.