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Journal of Global Fashion Marketing:

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Luxury goes digital: how to tackle

the digital luxury brand–consumer
touchpoints
a b
Klaus Heine & Benjamin Berghaus
a
EMLYON Business School, Shanghai, China
b
University of St.Gallen, Switzerland
Published online: 30 Apr 2014.

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To cite this article: Klaus Heine & Benjamin Berghaus (2014) Luxury goes digital: how to tackle the
digital luxury brand–consumer touchpoints, Journal of Global Fashion Marketing: Bridging Fashion
and Marketing, 5:3, 223-234, DOI: 10.1080/20932685.2014.907606

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 Journal of Global Fashion Marketing, 2014
Vol. 5, No. 3, 223–234, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/20932685.2014.907606

Luxury goes digital: how to tackle the digital luxury brand – consumer
touchpoints
奢侈品走向数字化：如何应对数字奢侈品牌 - 消费者接触点
Klaus Heinea* and Benjamin Berghausb
a
EMLYON Business School, Shanghai, China; bUniversity of St.Gallen, Switzerland
Downloaded by [Swinburne University of Technology] at 06:00 29 December 2014

(Received 13 July 2013; final version received 31 December 2013)

Today, many of the big brands are diverting substantial amounts of resources away from
classical communication channels toward the digital domain. However, despite the
digital gold rush, major sections of luxury brands still have not fully arrived in the digital
world. Their sentiment increasingly shifts from “Do we need to be online?” to a more
complicated question: “How do we actually do it right?” Therefore, this paper has two
major objectives. First of all, we want to provide luxury marketers with an overview of
the major digital luxury brand–consumer touchpoints and corresponding digital working
areas. The first step to digital excellence is to know the available digital opportunities.
Based on that, we want to derive some recommendations regarding how to tackle the
digital channels successfully, based on an expert survey and a discussion of case studies
for each major digital touchpoint. The paper concludes with some major lessons learned.
Keywords: luxury, digital marketing, social media, e-commerce, brand storytelling

奢侈品和数字化没有 一 见钟情。大约十年前，许多奢侈品牌仍然不愿意在网上传播和销售。
随着技术的进步和消费习惯的改变，潮流纷纷转向：众多奢侈大牌的卖场已经接受了在线交
流，比如香奈儿等几个标志性的品牌，路易威登和蒂芙尼甚至积极参与网上销售。但是向着数
字化的趋势不会只停留在网络：创新者如Burberry延长其经典的零售网点与数字体验。然而，
尽管数字淘金热，大部分奢侈品牌还没有完全达到数字化世界。他们的气氛越来越多地从“难道
我们需要网络”转移到更复杂的问题：“我们如何真正做到这 一 点？”和“我们如何才能使数字化
的机会更好地利用？”尽管有越来越多的兴趣，但现有的数码奢侈品营销只有相对较少的实证建
立的研究。现有的文献集中在奢侈品网站的类型和特点，以及奢侈品消费的社交媒体的行为。

因此，本文有两个主要目标：首先，我们要提供奢侈品营销与各大数字化奢侈品牌消费
者接触点的概述和相应的数字化工作领域。第 一 步接触卓越的数字化是要了解可用的数字
化机遇。在此基础上，我们希望得到关于如何成功地处理数字化通道基于圣加仑大学的瑞士
奢侈执行小组，并为每个主要的接触点具体的商业案例研究的讨论的专家调查的 一 些建
议。虽然我们专注于奢侈品服装，我们还结合实例从其他奢侈品行业。此外，我们专注于社
交媒体， 因为它具有对整个数字化领域有很大的影响。 社交媒体依赖于 一 套共同的原则和
做法。这些做法包括创建用户生成的内容都是由共享文本，图片或视频，并通过对现有内容
的注释和编辑。社交媒体原则要求网页制作者的信任并带动他们的用户，但使他们能够利用
网络效应和集体智慧来创建应用程序，实际上获得更好的效果，使更多的人使用它们。

然而，数字化（社交媒体）工具是否适合，只能参照该品牌的数字化目标评价以及其最
终身份。首先，奢侈品品牌必须问自己什么才是在数字化领域中真正想要实现的。因此，我
们在数字化奢侈品营销的可能目标上提出 一 个概述。

*Corresponding author. Email: Heine@em-lyon.com

q 2014 Korean Scholars of Marketing Science

 224 K. Heine and B. Berghaus

基于采访，我们概述了数字奢侈品营销的主要工作范畴，它随着它们的子类也是各大数码
奢侈品牌与消费者的接触点代表 一 个分类。主要接触点，包括奢侈品牌的网站，搜索引擎优
化（SEO），直邮，在线广告，品牌社区，社会活动，手机和平板电脑的应用程序和电子商
务。这种分类是 一 种方式，网站上的距离往往表明控制公司的水平在 一 个工作区域，这是
从公司的驱动（自有渠道）下降，从而拉动消费（社会渠道）来说明和第三方 - 驱动平台（付
费频道）。虽然他们可以是重叠的，采访对象感知这些工作区是独立的数字化问题。随后，以
采访和启发性的案例研究基础来进行各主要工作范畴的讨论。

我们的研究突出表明，数字化营销是 一 个话题，是奢侈品营销不能忽视的。虽然我们的
工作领域分类为他们提供了 一 个概述在可能选项的数字化领域，实际例子和案例研究为他们
提供了 一 些数字化营销措施的指导。本文的结论总结了 一 些主要的经验教训，这是从访谈
Downloaded by [Swinburne University of Technology] at 06:00 29 December 2014

和案例研究得出的。它们包括以下内容： （ 1 ）制定 一 个全面的数字化方式，而不是在不同

的渠道去促进孤立的项目; （ 2 ）确保高层管理者的参与; （ 3 ）整合古典到数字化的通道; （ 4
）利用品牌讲故事; （ 5 ）利用时间将它做好; （ 6 ）提供给你的目标群体真正的有益的数字化
内容; （ 7 ）比起只有 一 个品牌对消费者的独白，去鼓励品牌喝消费者的对话（ 8 ）设法让消
费者对你的品牌做 一 些事来加强他们对品牌的重视和好评。

关键词：奢侈品, 数字营销, 社交媒体, 电子商务, 品牌故事

1. Introduction
There was no love at first sight between luxury and digital. About a decade ago, most
luxury brands were still reluctant to get involved with online communication and sales
(Geerts, 2013). With advancing technology and changing consumer habits, the tides
have turned: numerous major luxury houses such as Chanel have embraced digital
communication, and several other iconic brands such as Louis Vuitton and Tiffany even
actively engage in online sales. But the trend toward digitalization does not stop online:
innovators such as Burberry enrich their classical retail outlets with digital experiences.
However, despite the digital gold rush, major sections of luxury brands still have not fully
arrived in the digital world. Their sentiment increasingly shifts from “Do we need to
be online?” to more complicated questions such as “How do we actually do it right?” and
“How can we make better use of digital opportunities?” Despite growing interest,
there exists relatively little empirically founded research on digital luxury marketing
(Geerts, 2013). Existing research concentrates on luxury website types (Geerts, 2013) and
features (Dall’Olmo Riley & Lacroix, 2003; Seringhaus, 2005) and on luxury consumers’
social media behavior (Phan, 2011).
Therefore, this paper has two major objectives. First of all, we want to provide luxury
marketers with an overview of the major digital luxury brand –consumer touchpoints and
corresponding digital working areas. The first step to digital excellence is to know the
available digital opportunities. Moreover, we want to derive some recommendations
regarding how to tackle the digital channels successfully, based on an expert survey and a
discussion of business case studies for each major touchpoint. We focus on social media as
it has a great impact on the entire digital domain, ranging from the luxury brand website to
phone and tablet apps (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010).
The paper is organized as follows: section 2 outlines our research approach, while in the
subsequent sections the survey results are discussed with reference to existing literature
and business examples. Section 3 provides an overview of the objectives of digital luxury
marketing. Section 4 constitutes the core part of the paper, with a categorization of the
major luxury brand –consumer touchpoints and corresponding working areas of digital
 Journal of Global Fashion Marketing 225

luxury marketing. Subsequently, section 5 presents a case study of digital excellence

about the Lancôme Rose Beauty community in China. Finally, section 6 concludes with the
major lessons learned.

2. The luxury executive panel

This paper relies on a survey of the luxury executive panel of St. Gallen University in
Switzerland. The panel consists of 23 CEOs or managing directors of luxury
organizations, all of which are members of one of the big European luxury industry
alliances or a comparable association. Two thirds of panelists manage organizations
headquartered in Switzerland and Germany, while one third of managers are based in Italy,
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Spain or the United Kingdom. This survey was carried out through telephone interviews
with 17 panelists, which translates into a participation rate of 71%. The interviews lasted
between 40 and 70 minutes. Based on semi-structured interview guidelines, we asked
panelists about their organizations’ digital marketing activities, potential challenges and
success factors and best-practice cases of digital luxury marketing of which they were
aware. Recordings of interviews were transcribed and systematically content-analyzed.

3. Objectives of digital luxury marketing

The current digital and, especially, social media trend in the luxury industry seems to
follow the motto “the more, the better” – more followers on Facebook and Twitter, more
YouTube videos and podcasts, more social media channels, and so on. However, while
the number of Facebook followers may be a success criteria of luxury star brands such
as Louis Vuitton and Rolex, a presence on non-private social network sites (SNS) may not
fit at all with the identity of exclusive connoisseur brands (Heine, 2013). First of all,
luxury brands have to ask themselves what they actually want to achieve in the digital
domain (Phan, 2011). The suitability of digital instruments can only be evaluated with
reference to the brand’s objectives, and ultimately its brand identity and personality
(Heine, 2010).
Therefore, Figure 1 presents an overview of possible objectives of digital luxury
marketing based on literature analysis. Similar to traditional campaigns, they cover
economic, strategic and psychological objectives. Typical strategic objectives of luxury
brands include, for instance, being the leading authority in their category. Psychological

Figure 1. Objectives of digital luxury marketing.

 226 K. Heine and B. Berghaus

objectives split into cognitive (knowledge about a brand), affective (attitudes toward a brand)
and conative objectives (behavioral intentions; see Brodie, Ilic, Juric, & Hollebeek, 2011).
A typical affective objective is to make people dream about a brand (Dubois & Paternault,
1995). Especially relevant for the digital sphere are the stages of social media engagement.
In the first step, users observe a brand’s digital presence by checking out some of its news or
videos. In the next stage, users become followers of a brand’s Twitter or Facebook account.
In the engaging phase some sort of interaction starts, for instance by liking a brand’s postings.
Users enter the endorsing phase when they start sharing a brand’s online content with others.
In the contributing phase, users finally start actively interacting by commenting or posting
their own content. Objectives of a digital marketing campaign could include increasing
the number of followers or encouraging content sharing (Keller & Fay, 2012; see also Kim &
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Ko, 2010).

4. Categorization of digital luxury brand – consumer touchpoints

Based on the interviews, we developed a categorization of the major working areas of
digital luxury marketing. Although they can overlap, interview partners perceived these
categories to be separate digital working areas. As illustrated in Figure 2, they represent,
along with their sub-categories, the major digital luxury brand – consumer touchpoints.
They are arranged in a way that the distance from the website tends to indicate a
company’s level of control of a touchpoint, which is decreasing from company-driven
(owned channels) to consumer-driven (social channels) and third party-driven platforms
(paid channels). We will discuss each of the major working areas.

4.1 Working area: luxury brand website

The website represents the heart of a luxury brand’s digital presence. Executives of the
panel agree that it is the most important digital asset (see also Galoway & Mullen, 2010),
as it is the first stop for most affluent consumers when they search for information about a
brand. Luxury consumers have high expectations of luxury websites, especially with

Figure 2. Digital luxury brand – consumer touchpoints.

 Journal of Global Fashion Marketing 227

regard to their aesthetics (Dall’Olmo Riley & Lacroix, 2003). Above all, the website is a
brand-building tool that reflects a brand’s vision and stories. In its simplest form, it serves
primarily as a digital business card. Small companies such as the high-fashion start-up
Achtland just provide an overview of typical areas of interest: their products and
collections, brand story, references and press clippings, retailers and contact details.
With more available resources, the website can be developed into a digital hub, which
comprises micro-pages for certain products, sub-brands, countries or campaigns, and
may also incorporate a blog, an in-house social brand community and an online shop
(see Figure 2).
Chanel.com was mentioned by the panelists as a benchmark for a digital hub in the
luxury segment. The website gives a clear overview of the typical areas of interest and
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links to micro-pages for all Chanel product categories, to the blog “Chanel News” and to
the Chanel presence on SNS platforms. Chanel’s brand identity is explained in the
section “Chanel Inside” through a series of videos, which reflect prime examples of
powerful brand storytelling. According to Fog, Budtz, and Yajaboylu (2005), brand stories
can be derived from several sources, including the company’s founder, the CEO,
employees, company milestones, opinion leaders in and around the business, working
partners, customers and the products. Chanel makes use of many of these sources, for
instance, with short movies about the N85 perfume, its famous customer Marilyn
Monroe, the founder Coco Chanel and the artistic director Karl Lagerfeld. In “Chapter 5:
Coco”, the life and vision of the founder is explained in a very comprehensible manner,
with many facts and anecdotes provided in just three minutes. Besides high-quality
resolution and high-definition sound, the film impresses with a wealth of hand-drawn
black and white animations that comprise a variety of Chanel brand symbols. These
films teach viewers about the history and identity of the brand; they are entertaining
and – almost like art – they captivate users with their beauty and sophistication. Other
role models mentioned by the panelists include the digital hubs of Dunhill and,
especially, of Hermès; this site provides a creative playground to experience the brand’s
philosophy.

4.2 Working area: search engine optimization

Very much related to the website is the working area of search engine optimization (SEO),
which aims at increasing website traffic by improving visibility on popular search engines.
According to the growing relevance of the Chinese luxury market, Galoway and Mullen
(2010) suggest to extent SEO also to the Chinese web and especially to Baidu, the Chinese
equivalent to Google. However, as many still neglect SEO in China, only about 40% of
western prestige brands come up first on Baidu when searching for their English brand
names.

4.3 Working area: direct mailings

Direct mailings are seen as a classical digital marketing tool, which is not really exciting
any longer, but is still a potentially efficient opportunity for customer relationship
management that should not be missed. The rationale behind regular mailings is that the
more touchpoints a brand creates, the more memorable and familiar it becomes to
consumers (Colliander & Dahlén, 2011). To increase the likelihood that subscribers will
receive relevant information, Chanel allows users to select the product categories in which
they are most interested when they register for its newsletter.
 228 K. Heine and B. Berghaus

4.4 Working area: online advertising

While the website takes on a rather defensive role as a digital entrée, online advertising is
seen by the panelists as a more aggressive customer acquisition instrument on channels
“where the target audience hangs out” (interviewee). A model of online advertising is
provided by BMW’s Jumping Jack campaign for its xDrive models, which relies on
consumer insight stating that most people believe the different four-wheel drive systems
to be basically interchangeable. However, BMW xDrive does not allocate motor power
evenly, like other drive systems, but flexibly to the wheels depending on where it is
needed. Instead of using the usual images of mountains and streets, BMW and its agency
looked for an analogy to the innovative xDrive approach and found it in a jumping jack
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that is moving its four extremities not as commonly expected, but independent of one
another. The campaign included banner adverts in several online magazines, showing a
jumping jack with an invitation to pull on it with the mouse. Many people could not resist
the temptation. Depending on the website, click rates were between twice and four times
as high as other automobile banner ads. Thus, online advertising is more than a classical
communication instrument transferred to the digital domain. The example of BMW shows
that it can be combined with viral marketing strategies and means that companies should
concentrate their spending not on communicating a message to consumers but on setting
up a creative campaign which provides a benefit to the target groups and therefore
motivates them to spread the message to others (Chu & Kim, 2011).

4.5 Working area: brand communities

Muniz, Albert, and O’Guinn (2001, p.412) introduced the idea of a brand community as
“a specialized, non-geographically bound community, based on a structured set of social
relations among admirers of a brand.” An online brand community is created by setting up
a profile on an SNS such as Facebook or by developing an in-house brand community
platform which is integrated into the brand’s digital hub (Kim & Ko, 2010). One of the
most well-known in-house luxury brand communities is Burberry’s theartofthetrench.
com, which may go down in digital luxury marketing history: it encourages consumers to
share their own trench coat stories and to post pictures of them wearing the iconic coat and
Burberry regularly selects its favorites from these submitted images to be posted to the
front page of the site, creating a body of images reflecting personal style from across the
globe (Phan, Thomas, & Heine, 2011). Brand communities can also be developed to target
a brand’s sub-segment. For instance, Mercedes attempts to interact with Generation
Y consumers through its generationbenz.com private community. Another especially
inspiring case of a luxury brand community is provided by Lancôme, which will be
presented in section 5.

4.6 Working area: social campaigns

Social content communities facilitate storage and sharing of media content, According to
the panel, the most important social content communities for luxury brands include
Twitter and YouTube, while only very few brands use newcomers such as Pinterest and
Instagram. As a prerequisite to make use of these communities, luxury brands need content
and stories. An interview partner emphasized the risk of saying a lot, but actually saying
nothing: “I think being too glib about what you do is very tempting because the speed and
accessibility online means that you can create too much noise without saying anything”.
Therefore, content development is a major task of digital luxury marketing. Its growing
 Journal of Global Fashion Marketing 229

relevance is reflected by the decision of luxury brands such as Rolex to create a new type
of management position: the creative content director.
Content is usually created in the form of campaigns. For instance, Lagerfeld shot a
series of 113 eccentric photos of iconic people wearing the iconic Chanel jacket, which
were assembled in the “Little Black Jacket” art exhibition. This was exhibited in major
cities around the world and provided fresh content for Chanel’s digital channels: pictures
and clips of the opening parties were communicated on Chanel’s social content pages on
Facebook, YouTube, Google þ and Twitter, and also on the “Chanel News” blog and the
campaign’s micro-page on chanel.com. This created some social buzz in the form of likes,
comments and shares. Even more, the entire exhibition can be experienced in the first
digital museum on Chanel’s e-experience micro-page. Visitors can go from room to room,
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as in a real museum, while they hear the sound of other people walking around in a
mysterious atmosphere. The campaign reflects Chanel’s high cultural capital and its role as
a tastemaker. It shows that marketers should not just enter social channels only for the sake
of being there, only to then wonder, separately for each content community, what to do
there. This is what an interview partner experienced: “We tried to start a blog site but then
stopped it quickly, because we realized that it was creating too much work to do it well on
top of everything else”.
Instead, marketers should understand digital channels as an enrichment of their
toolbox and develop an overall digital strategy as part of their brand management.
In considering it as a strategic issue, digital marketing naturally requires top management
involvement. An interview partner makes this point clear: “One thing that is commonly
being done wrong is to look at digital as a side project, not as central. The problem here
is that you can quickly conclude ‘it simply does not work that great’ and carry on
half-heartedly. Then, there simply is not enough focus. You need to anchor going digital in
your organization, if you want to be successful”. Totally at ease with the digital revolution,
Chanel also illustrates through the Little Black Jacket campaign the benefits of integrating
digital and classical communication channels: while it rewards existing top customers with
invitations to prestigious events, it reaches out especially to potential new customers on
the digital channels.
Chanel spreads the same content in the same way pretty much over all its content
communities; the selection of social channels still has to fit with the brand identity
(Galoway & Mullen, 2010), but from a cost perspective there is no great difference in
terms of managing one or another content community more or less. Some brands adapt
more to specific characteristics of content communities. For instance, OscarPRGirl
frequently reports on Twitter the latest news from the front line of the luxury fashion
business and, of course, about Oscar de la Renta. In that way, the brand creates a benefit for
friends of fashion and has attracted about 270,000 subscribers.
Chanel creates social buzz but does not respond to comments about its content.
Generally, the majority of organizations in our study still use the new digital platforms
predominantly to broadcast information to consumers in the classical understanding of
marketing. However, one of the interview partners described how social media enriches
the relationship with their clients: “Usually our design team or even I will initiate
conversations on our blog. If somebody makes a comment, one to three of our people will
pick it up. Comments go through to the design department directly. In that way, product
development tends to become a much more organic process”. Comments are not handled
by some agency, but by dedicated staff affected by the comments. This highlights the fact
that social media is above all an attitude, which allows the generation of valuable
consumer insights and improving customer relations. Although Fuchs, Prandelli, Schreier,
 230 K. Heine and B. Berghaus

and Dahl (2013) advise against user-designed product development in luxury fashion and
despite the challenges for big brands in handling comments from as many as hundreds of
thousands of users, there is still much unused potential for luxury brands in generating real
interactions with their (potential) consumers (Di Benedetto, 2012). Smaller, family-run
luxury companies may have a natural advantage in harnessing this potential. However,
some big players such as Gucci turn their Facebook presence from a one-way
communication channel into a real community, as they actually start interactions, initiate
user participation and reply to user comments.
Besides brand–consumer interactions, content communities encourage communication
among consumers. When they think about “doing social media”, marketers must consider
that the digital world is already having a discussion about their brand – with or without
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their involvement. Of course, a brand can never fully control this discussion, but social
campaigns should still aim at maximizing (favorable) consumer-to-consumer communi-
cation and coverage on third-party platforms such as blogs (e.g. Luxist), web forums and
review sites (e.g. Wired) and online magazines (e.g. Robb Report online; Colliander &
Dahlén, 2011). Keller and Fay (2012, p.463) believe “the most effective advertising is
advertising that gets people talking”. As illustrated by the example of BMW, spreading
a message is not only a question of media spending, but of the message itself and its
ability to trigger conversation and engagement. As shown by various studies, the
relevance of consumer-driven and third-party touchpoints stems from the fact that
purchase decisions are highly influenced by independent third-party reviews, and even
more by word-of-mouth recommendations from family and friends (Court, Elzinga,
Mulder, & Vetvik, 2009). Source credibility is one of the most prominent factors in
persuasion: Instead of self-promotion, psychologists recommend business people to get
someone else to speak on their behalf, as this is by far more effective to persuade people
of their expertise (Cialdini, 2008). As bloggers are closer to the category of friends,
Colliander and Dahlén (2011) found that blogs exhibit superior publicity effectiveness as
compared to online magazines.

4.7 Working area: phone and tablet apps

According to the panel, apps are “hot”. However, the “Gucci Style App” shows that it is
not sufficient to jump on the app bandwagon with some half-hearted development.
In online forums, many users complain about this app as little more than a boring product
catalogue, which often crashes. As such apps do not reflect superior luxury and quality,
they most likely do more harm than good for a brand. Whatever you do in luxury, you
should do it right. Hermès followed this principle and took the time it needs to create its
first app, “Silk Knots”, which allows users to learn how to tie their scarves. It leads users
through various different knotting techniques with playful and easily comprehensible
step-by-step video tutorials. For many consumers who were challenged with the art of
tying knots, the app creates a real benefit; at the same time, it perfectly fits the brand
identity, as Hermès is probably one of the most credible and trusted sources for fashionable
scarf accessorizing. The app will evolve over time, with a new knotting style added every
season. Hermès opened a pop-up “Silk Bar” concept store in New York, with a retro
American diner theme and large neon Hermès signs, to celebrate the release of this app and
to create social buzz.
Tablet apps are increasingly used also as salesperson support at the point of sale
(POS). However, some panel participants doubt the alleged added value of this strategy:
“You always hear about Burberry, that they are supposed to do things very well. I am
 Journal of Global Fashion Marketing 231

not that convinced that a customer who enters the store also needs a salesperson with an
iPad showing him or her something in 3D that he or she could have looked at online”
(see also Phan, Thomas, & Heine, 2011). POS tablet apps may delight technological
enthusiasts, but they also reflect the risk of over-digitalization. However, what mass-
market brands can do easily in a trial-and-error manner, luxury brands have to weigh up
more carefully:
I am particularly critical of owners of websites where you get the sense that this brand is being
serviced by one of those agencies who put a premium on technical gimmicks. The substance
of the company does not get across; everything is about the technical shenanigans – and there
are many of these websites. At the same time, there are still many brands that do not make use
of features, which could really benefit the consumers: presenting fashion in 3D instead of
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folded, for example (interviewee).

Depending also on the specific luxury consumer segment, a central question of digital
luxury marketing is one of balance between technological innovation and gadgets, and
substantial authenticity and usefulness.

4.8 Working area: e-commerce

E-commerce still splits the panel, with about a quarter of executives very hesitant and
others who embrace the idea of selling luxury online, and some who have even
succeeded in reaching ambitious e-commerce goals. The critical managers prefer to
rely in their distribution on truly personal relationships. Cailleux, Mignot, and
Kapferer (2008) summarize the special customer care habits in well-established and
often family-run luxury boutiques as the shopkeeper’s benchmark, which marks the
gold standard for luxury brands in establishing close and personal customer relations.
Brands such as Chanel (fashion) exploit digital channels for brand management, but
ultimately aim to direct consumers into their boutiques. They believe that fashion e-
tailing cannot comply (yet) with the shopkeeper’s benchmark. Astley Clarke, on the
other hand, is a pioneer in luxury e-commerce; according to its website, it envisions
building an online luxury brand that “represents all that is good and proper about
British luxury”. Since 2006, it has developed from a multi-brand jewelry e-tailer into
a high-growth luxury jewelry brand with its own collections. The founder, Bec Astley
Clarke, believes that a key to its success is its extensive personal shopper program
that provides immediate assistance to customers: “We made a big point of always
having the telephone number on the homepage and we actively welcomed people
calling and interacting with the business. People seem to engage with the brand”
(Kansara, 2013). Astley Clarke brings e-commerce closer to the shopkeeper’s
benchmark and shows that “being taken care of” does not need to feel less personal
in digital interactions.

5. Case study: the Lancôme Rose Beauty Community

We are integrating the different working areas in this section with a case study about the
Lancôme Rose Beauty Community in China. It was selected because it provides a model
of digital luxury marketing and especially of an in-house social brand community.
Lancôme’s expertise was recognized with the top position and the label “digital genius” in
a report that ranks the digital IQs of prestige brands in China (Galoway & Mullen, 2010).
Lancôme’s objectives include increasing the brand awareness and social engagement of its
target groups in China.
 232 K. Heine and B. Berghaus

5.1 The Rose Beauty Campaign

To begin with, the Lancôme team in China received a touching poem from an enthusiastic
consumer, who described how Lancôme’s rose beauty products enriched her life and made
it more beautiful – this seems to be virtually crying out to be used for brand storytelling.
And indeed, this gave the initial spark that radically changed Lancôme’s digital strategy.
Philippe Lamy, VP of L’Oréal’s luxury division in China, explained:
Initially, we were stunned that someone felt such a special connection to one of our products,
but we weren’t sure exactly what we should do with this information. We decided that at the
very least we should find out who this girl was and why she felt such affection for our products
and reward her. But when we went to look for her she had disappeared from the Internet
without leaving a trace (Advertising Age, 2010).
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After this initial setback, they created the campaign “Who is the Rose Beauty girl?”. They
wanted to find their special fan by making use of Chinese netizens’ enthusiasm for crowd-
sourcing, where Internet users collaborate with each other to uncover certain information or
to find a particular person. The campaign exceeded all expectations: over 100,000 people
participated, 30 times more than the number of registered users on Lancôme’s Chinese
webpage at that time. Thousands of people claimed they or their sister, neighbor, colleague
and so on was the Rose Beauty girl. Finally, the Rose Beauty girl, named Cherry, was found
and became famous all over China. The campaign attracted considerable (online and
offline) press coverage. Lamy concludes that
the overwhelming success of this campaign helped us realize that listening to what was being
said by our consumers, and combining it with our own information, insights and ideation in
our marketing communications, would allow us to effectively engage with these users
(Advertising Age, 2010).

5.2 Setting up the Rose Beauty Community

After this campaign, the Rose Beauty brand community was set up. Above all, it is a
beauty community, with discussions on general beauty topics, tips from make-up artists
and news about fashion events and celebrities. Lancôme tries to provide information that
cannot be found anywhere else. On the forum, users can interact with other users and the
Lancôme team. Its use of the rose symbol fits Lancôme’s brand identify: the rose has
served as the company’s emblem and a symbol of femininity, freshness and passion
throughout the brand’s almost 80 years of existence. The community also allows Lancôme
to gather information about its customers’ desires (Galoway & Mullen, 2010).
Asking people for help to find the Rose Beauty girl and encouraging them to comment
on content or to participate in contests can be summarized in terms of encouraging users to
do something for the brand. Several theories suggest this is a smart idea. According to
dissonance theory (Festinger, 1957), people feel a displeasing dissonance when there is
inconsistency between their beliefs (or attitudes) and their behavior. This could be the case
when a consumer has taken part in a contest set up a brand that he or she does not really like.
The unpleasant dissonance could be resolved, for instance, by changing their negative
attitudes toward the brand. Generally, there is a chance that people’s attitudes toward a
company (or a person) will improve when they do something for it (see also Cialdini, 2008).

5.3 Creating buzz

The Rose Beauty campaign was the starting point for a range of regular creative
e-marketing campaigns. This includes, for instance, an Olympic campaign that attracted
 Journal of Global Fashion Marketing 233

about 200,000 registrants and a Valentine’s Day promotion in which two million gifts
were sent out. Lamy explained:
Traffic on the rose beauty e-community is indirectly funneled there from our campaigns and
events, but once there, consumers are encouraged to stay by the site’s relevant beauty content
and the rewards for staying on the site and contributing to it. We also ask brand advocates to
spread awareness of our brands on other sites (Advertising Age, 2010).
Lancôme has built a strong presence on Chinese social media sites, including Weibo
(the Chinese equivalent to Twitter), Youku (YouTube), Douban (Flickr), Kaixin
(Facebook) and Jiepang (foursquare). There is no independent presence on each of these
sites, but Lancôme uses them as channels to communicate its campaigns, and to transfer
traffic back to its digital hub in China. This strategy pays off: with more than four
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million users, Rose Beauty is now one of the top online beauty communities in China.
One and a half years since the Rose Beauty campaign, online mentions of Lancôme
have risen from 5,000 to 50,000 per month, going hand in hand with the rising
popularity of this community. However, despite the success of the campaigns, Lamy
acknowledges that “modern consumers don’t necessarily trust what we say in blind
faith. They will always review the product, often by checking with online peers”
(Advertising Age, 2010).

6. Summary: lessons to be learned

Our investigation has shown digital marketing is a topic that luxury brands cannot afford to
ignore. Figure 3 summarizes the major lessons to be learned for digital luxury marketers.
Our categorization of working areas provides them with an overview of possible options in
the digital domain; meanwhile, the practical examples and the Lancôme case study offer
some guidance for the implementation of digital marketing measures.

Figure 3. Lessons learned in digital luxury marketing.

 234 K. Heine and B. Berghaus

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