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12 | WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2009
Style online, and it’s all about me
BY UCHÉ OKONKWO
Suzy Brian’s typical day begins at 7 a.m.
She usually starts off by scanning her e-
mails while sipping coffee.
On this morning, she opens her mail-
box and observes that about 12 mes-
sages came through overnight, mainly
from several newsletters she sub-
scribes to from luxury brands and other
related Web sites.
The first one was an alert from The
Wealth Report, a blog by The Wall
Street Journal, saying that the word
‘‘luxury’’ is dead. A quick read of the
post and reader comments revealed
that several people thought that the
term ‘‘luxury’’ was now ‘‘slapped on ev-
erything from cellphones to toilet pa-
per’’ and had been rendered banal.
She thought that the word had be-
come even more overused since the be-
ginning of the credit crunch by retailers
and brands, desperate to present every
product as luxury in a bid to make a sale.
At least this was the case in the home in-
teriors market, which she was quite fa-
miliar with.
Anyhow, she wasn’t convinced that
luxury was dead because she knew that
true luxury still stimulates the senses,
evokes desire and inspires respect.
People just didn’t seem to understand
luxury anymore.
By the time she’s done with her coffee, it
is 7:45 a.m. and she gets up to prepare
for the business of the day — her job as a
partner at one of the leading corporate
and home interiors suppliers in New
York.
Surprised that Suzy is not just anoth-
er privileged fashionista or, worse still,
one of the clueless bloggers popping up
all over the cyberspace? Well, you’re in
for more surprises.
In the space of 45 minutes, Suzy diges-
ted about 12 e-mails, was linked to an ad-
ditional 20 Web sites, made several
downloads, posted comments on 3 blogs
and 2 online forums, scanned shopping
Web sites, reserved handbags on two
Web sites, bid for a necklace, signed up
for an online private shopping event, en-
listed for a fashion show and saved in-
formation to be uploaded to her own
blog.
During this short exercise, she was
LABEL ME
versatile
“An Origin Assured fur is
timeless and fashionable
like a ready-to-wear piece.
The woman’s sense of style
is enhanced by beautiful
materials.”
-Karl Lagerfeld
originassured.com
special report
exposed to 19 luxury brands in 7
products and services categories, but
she only fleetingly visited one of the lux-
ury brands’ own Web sites, although
she had the latest information about
these brands at her fingertips. Wonder-
ing what is going on? Welcome to the
new age of luxury online, where the cli-
ent controls her own online universe
and can navigate the luxury cyberspace
while shutting luxury brands out.
This is the new e-culture, and the con-
sumer is at the center of it.
Suzy is a hardworking, legitimately
wealthy high net-worth individual who
has a normal passion: fashion and lux-
ury living. She is young, in her 30s, has
cultivated tastes, is aware of brands’ of-
ferings and curious to discover more
but is also mindful of where and how she
spends her money.
She represents the typical luxury cli-
ent of the ‘‘noughties,’’ and her lifestyle
online and offline is not abnormal. Apart
from her day job, Suzy writes a luxury
blog in her spare time and has 40,000
readers per week, while she also keeps
her Twitter account buzzing to ensure
that her 2,800 followers are tuned in to
the latest information from her world.
Scary, isn’t it? Or exciting? Well, your
pick, but the bottom line is that this e-
culture is significantly different from
that of the previous decade.
Although consumers are using the In-
ternet for the same purposes, they are
interacting with this medium in ways
that are different from what was the
norm in the first 10 years of the Inter-
net’s existence. A look at the origins of
the Internet shows that the Web was de-
signed to be a collaborative space where
people can interact.
This was the case in the early stages
of the Internet, when this interaction
was based on e-mail exchanges; is still
the case today as conversations move to
social networks; and will remain the
case in the future when we move to 360-
degree virtual worlds.
However, what has changed and will
continue to evolve as digital technology
advances is the way users interact with
the medium. For example, instead of
only visiting the corporate Web site of a
luxury brand for information about a
new product, the user is most likely to
seek additional independent opinion of
that product from blogs, social net-
works and other interactive platforms
online.
The user is also likely to engage in dis-
cussions about the product to express
his or her opinion or at least form an im-
pression of the product and brand based
on the comments of others. This was not
the case in the past when Internet users
depended on luxury companies to
‘‘feed’’ them with information about
products and services.
Today, the table has been turned and
the online luxury consumer is writing
his own rules of the game and in the pro-
cess driving the brands to the point of
‘‘freaking out’’ and influencing hun-
dreds of thousands in his wake. If you
are on the ASmallWorld social network,
take a look at several forum discussions
linked to luxury brands and you’ll be
amazed at how much time and passion
people devote to these discussions,
which sometimes generate in excess of
10,000 responses and comments, both
positive and negative.
Watchmakers seize
the moment for iPhone
BY JESSICA MICHAULT
It was not so long ago that the spread of
the mobile phone sent waves of fear
through the reserved world of fine watch-
making. The practicality of a portable
phone that doubled as an accurate digital
timekeeper made the necessity for a
wristwatch vanish almost overnight.
But now, with the popularity of the
iPhone and its myriad applications, the
watch industry finally has been able to
embrace a product that once was con-
sidered the biggest threat to its survival.
A wide range of brands, from the big
names like Breitling, Piaget, Van Cleef
& Arpels, Dior and Bell & Ross to inde-
pendents like Dewitt, have introduced
iPhone applications in the past six
months that highlight their watch lines.
The applications, all free, are available
from the online Apple store.
Some might argue that the efforts are
just another way of marketing to
timepiece aficionados, but within the in-
dustry they are seen as a way to reach a
The applications add a fillip to
marketing in a down economy.
younger and more digitally savvy cus-
tomer and a natural extension of the
close-knit world of watch collectors that
thrives online with fan forums and
blogs.
After all, Apple announced in early
November that it now has more than
100,000 applications available. ‘‘The
high-end watch world has indeed flour-
ished since the Internet has become so
widespread,’’ says Elizabeth Doerr, au-
thor of ‘‘12 Faces of Time,’’ a book on in-
dependent watchmaking scheduled to
be published in February by teNeues.
‘‘The independents, in particular, have
greatly profited from the technology in
that they can communicate more direct-
ly with aficionados and collectors.’’
‘‘The apps that have thus far appeared
— and will continue to do so until the next
big social marketing tool is discovered —
are an extension of the rapidly changing
world of watch marketing,’’ she adds.
‘‘Brands are looking for less costly ways
of more effective and direct marketing,
and the apps are one result. With a side
effect: This convenient marketing tool
does provide great enjoyment to pro-
spective consumers who are also en-
grossed in the new digital revolution.’’
And there is little question that the ap-
plications also are a way to provide a fil-
lip to the marketing effort in a down
economy.
‘‘On average, every watch company
is down 30 percent to 40 percent over
the previous year,’’ Ms. Doerr said.
INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE
ILLUSTRATION BY WILLIAM RANKIN
Does this mean that consumers don’t
trust luxury brands anymore? No. This
change is taking place because luxury
clients are no longer just looking for
one-way information from brands but
they also want a two-way interaction
that comes in the form of dialogue, ex-
changes, sharing, entertainment and
engagement. They want these ex-
changes to be based on recognition and
respect. They are seeking inclusion.
Most luxury brands have not been
able to provide the means for online in-
teraction with clients nor have they
been able to meet this apparent need for
acknowledgment and genuine conver-
sations. Luxury brands are still focused
on diffusing information through the
new social media rather than having
dialogues with users.
But even if they do provide platforms
for participation, the brands will most
likely not be able to match the nature of
dialogue that goes on among luxury cli-
ents on a one-on-one basis.
So what should luxury brands do in
this case? And what lies in stock for the
consumers themselves in the future vis-
ON HAND Watch-
makers, some of
whom initially
feared mobile
phones, now are
offering free iPhone
applications that
are a mix of basic
watch details and
entertaining
diversions.
WILLIAM RANKIN
à-vis the brands?
The Internet is entering its fifth phase
in its evolutionary cycle. Since the first
Internet-based information exchanges
were made in 1973 and the World Wide
Web was invented in 1989 with the first
Web pages were created in 1990, the cy-
berworld has come a long way.
Today, there are more than 180 million
Web sites and more than 1.7 billion In-
ternet users around the world, more
than half of them in the 15 years to 34
years age bracket. These numbers
change quickly several times per
minute so assume that this number has
increased substantially since this sen-
tence was written.
In 2005, the Internet user number sur-
passed one billion and it has been fore-
casted that the next billion will be
reached by 2015. Cyberspace is growing
at a fast rate as Internet penetration
reaches the four corners of the earth.
Now when I say Internet users, I
don’t mean those using the Internet
only to send and receive e-mails or read
the occasional news and make one or
two transactions. I mean those people
who have a parallel life on the Internet
as they have in the real world. This
means people who use the Internet to
search for and obtain information, com-
pare products and services, evaluate
brand offerings, purchase items, access
services, conduct financial transac-
tions, exchange information, dialogue
with fellow users, participate in online
communities, upload content to express
themselves, find long-lost family and
friends, partake in online dating (and
even marriage!), exist in virtual worlds
through avatars, participate in e-learn-
ing programs, conduct surveys, test
concepts and participate in e-health fa-
cilities.
This is a long way from the e-mail ex-
changes that were the principal role of
the Internet when it first appeared on
our radar. These are the members of the
e-culture, who spend an average of 21
hours online every week. And they
make hundreds of thousands of transac-
tions on the Internet every month.
An excerpt from ‘‘Luxury Online —
Styles, Systems, Strategies’’ by Uché
Okonkwo, scheduled for publication in
February 2010 by Palgrave Macmillan.
‘‘Certainly the apps are also one of the
many side effects of the economic crisis,
with companies looking for new and
cheaper ways to market.’’
Most of the applications have the
same basic elements, like videos or
three-dimensional images of
timepieces; store locators; technical
specifications; or the ability to zoom in
on a specific feature. But extras, like the
fundamentals of constructing fine
watches, make these iPhone add-ons
more than just virtual look books.
For example, Dior’s Chiffre Rouge
diving watch application includes a
Morse Code feature, which transforms
words typed into the phone into a blink-
ing display of dots and dashes; a gloss-
ary of diving signal flags and lists of
diving spots across the globe.
The brand Jaeger-LeCoultre has taken
the application idea one step further, cre-
ating six timed activities, like a simula-
tion that mimics polishing a watch case,
that make up a competition. The prize is
a visit to the watchmaker’s factory.
‘‘It is an extension of the personal at-
tention the brand takes in real life with
its most faithful customers,’’ says Yves
Meylan, director of Jaeger-LeCoultre
France. ‘‘Usually we invite 50 of our
best clients to come together and work
with the brand’s watchmakers to put to-
gether movements. Now we can reach a
wider audience with the iPhone, which
makes that process possible virtually
via the new application.’’
One watch company has used the me-
ticulous skill involved in watchmaking
to create a line of luxury cellphones. Tag
Heuer, known for its sports and car ra-
cing-inspired watches, like the Monaco
and the Carrera, introduced the $7,000
dollar Meridiist mobile phone last year.
‘‘The brand stands for precision per-
formance, for design and technology,’’
says Jean-Christophe Babin, chief exec-
utive of Tag Heuer. ‘‘We tried to find cat-
egories which were consistent with
those values. And, at the same time,
ones where we could leverage our
unique know-how in mastering micro
mechanics and precision.’’
Mr. Babin noted that the phone was
the first Swiss-engineered model with
more than 400 components.
Creating a luxury phone might be an
extreme move but developing applica-
tions appears to be an area that offers
considerable growth to a market fa-
mous for its insular attitude.
For Mr. Meylan of Jaeger-LeCoultre,
transforming the cellphone into an in-
strument for watch education has been
a real advance. ‘‘You really can get be-
hind the surface of the watch,’’ he says,
‘‘and understand why the worth of a
watch is more than just its price.’’