Luxury brand match with social media???

The Big Idea: Fashion Marketing and Communication
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Jewellery industry is known for innovation and creativity, but why luxury brands and social media have been identified as a love-hate relationship? Luxury brand seems afraid of effect of social media and it is not the trendsetters of social media users in regards to this revolutionary phenomenon. 

Moreover, the luxury industry shows little or low interesting towards integrating social media, and present most of the hesitation is caused by large conflicts between luxury brands’ way of being managed strictly from the inside versus the way consumers define or comment the brand from the outside on social media.

There are three main reasons why luxury brands have been hesitant to join the social media party:

- The top-down dynamic has shifted to bottom-up affiliation and showed upside down effects on social media

- Social media is perceived as a destination for the masses      and conflicted with the original characteristic of jewellery industry

- Controlling ones brand on social media is impossible

Top-Down Dynamic

There is a unique relationship between luxury brand and its consumers; because consumers look up to luxury brands, so, the existing characteristic of the relationship is to a large extent as being top-down. However, if this unique relationship is shifted to social media where the consumer is in total control and expects to be looked up to. Luxury brand would likely presented resistance, apprehension and anxiety from the top (the luxury brand) and disappointment from the bottom (the luxury client).

-Social media is perceived as a destination for the masses and conflicted with the original characteristic of jewellery industry

The base feature of social media and luxury brand are quite different. Some of the innate characteristics of luxury brands include exclusivity and limit in access for a niche consumers. To compare with that luxury goods have always targeted direct disparity with the niche consumer base, social media is a wide platform which perceived as being available to a mass consumer base. A major contradiction that luxury brands face online is quite risk of exposure on the “mass and classless Internet world” (Okonkwo, 2009:

304).

Ironically, a large part of this mass consists of luxury consumers, and luxury consumers are also active users of social media. Therefore, Kapferer & Bastien (2009:39) had pointed out “Luxury requires another way of doing things, almost opposite to that which flourishes in mass-consumption and upper range goods”and the luxury industry’s resistance to social media derives from their perception of being unique compared to other industries.

-Controlling ones brand on social media is impossible

Every social media user has complete freedom to give their opinion and judgement thus it becomes impossible for marketing managers to control the content and frequency of information on social media (Mangold & Faulds, 2009). For luxury brands that are managed and controlled strictly from the inside, the loss of control may be the biggest reason for resisting social media. Luxury brands prefer consistency and perfectionism in everything they do, and luxury brands are horrified at losing control. With the entry of social media, luxury brands are challenged to let go of a carefully planned, executed, and controlled integrated marketing communication programme (Safko & Brake, 2009: 681).

However, luxury brands’ control on the Internet is limited only to each brand’s own website

Is Luxury and Social Media an Incompatible Match?

Clearly, there are some issues between the way luxury brands are managed and the principles of social media. These tensions may caused some problem while luxury brand match with social media.

As argued above, the biggest reason why luxury has been hesitant to join the social media party is due to the fear of losing control over their premium image. Will social media really affect luxury brands to loose all control of their brand? Yes and no.

Nevertheless, luxury brands are afraid to lose control on social media is because the control they never had in the before. But, consumers will gossip and party on social media with or without luxury brands, thus, luxury brands might as well join the party.

Furthermore, the top-down dynamic is turned upside down on social media. Thus luxury brand managers cannot dominate and preserve their distance to the customers.

On social media, customers do not want to join a party where the luxury brand decides who is invited, what they can talk about and how they should act. On social media, consumers set the topics and if luxury brands wish to participate, they must act accordingly. This will bring and causing a reverse top-down dynamic.

 

So, are luxury and social media an incompatible match?  On the surface, yes. The characteristics of luxury and luxury brand management do not seem to be compatible with the main dynamics of social media.

The hesitation is understandable, but social media is unavoidable. In short, luxury brands’ fear of losing control and appealing to the masses is irrelevant on social media. The control is already lost and the masses are only a threat as long as you try to control them.