Smartphone penetration is exploding in key luxury markets and Showrooming is on the rise. Just a few reasons why luxury brands need to harness mobile technology
DIGITAL
Why Luxury Brand Marketers Should Pay Attention to Mobile
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Over the last decade, collaborations between luxury brands and contemporary artists have gone beyond mere artistic partnerships towards a new kind of luxury branding.
PARIS – Art and fashion have always developed side by side, for fashion, like art, often gives visual expression to the cultural zeitgeist. During the 1920s, Salvador Dalí created dresses for Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiapparelli. In the 1930s, Ferragamo’s shoes commissioned designs for advertisements from Futurist painter Lucio Venna, while Gianni Versace commissioned works from artists such as Alighiero Boetti and Roy Lichtenstein for the launch of his collections. Yves Saint Laurent’s vast art collection, recently auctioned at Christie’s in Paris, testified to his great love of art and revealed the influence of a variety of artists on his own designs.
In the 1980s, relationships between luxury brands and artists were advanced when Alain Dominique Perrin created the Fondation Cartier. In the Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, a book marking the foundation’s 20th anniversary, Perrin says he makes “a connection between all the different sorts of arts, and luxury goods are a kind of art. Luxury goods are handicrafts of art, applied art.”
The Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemparain building in Paris
Smartphone penetration is exploding in key luxury markets and Showrooming is on the rise. Just a few reasons why luxury brands need to harness mobile technology
Mobile 2013 from L2 Think Tank on Vimeo.
“Customers are using their mobile phones as integrated parts of their shopping experience,” explains Eric Feinberg, senior director mobile at ForeSee, to BizReport.
“Mobile is the ultimate companion channel, making showrooming as much of an opportunity as it is a threat. Retailers need to engage their customers equally well through all channels, especially through mobile sites and apps, or risk losing customers and sales to competitors that do a better job of meeting their needs.”
Indeed, recent research by L2 Think Tank suggests that showrooming – the practice of visiting retail stores to browse but checking on a mobile device for the best available price – is already in play by one out of five shoppers. Of these ‘showroomers’, two out of three are said to go on to make a purchase.
“ The influence of mobile is expected to reach one in five retail dollars by 2016, $689 billion in the U.S. alone ”
Of the 6,200 or so consumers surveyed by ForeSee, 70% said they use their mobile device while in a store. However, almost two-thirds (62%) of those using their mobile device in a store were visiting that store’s site. 1 in 5 was using that store’s app.
M-Commerce currently accounts for less than 1% of overall U.S. retail sales, when compared to brick-and-mortar stores (93%) and e-Commerce (6-7%), according to L2 research. But the influence of mobile is expected to reach one in five retail dollars as early as 2016, achieving a figure of $689 billion in North America alone.
One fifth of all search traffic is now generated by mobile devices, according to RKG Digital Marketing Report. Tablet and mobile devices account for one out of four U.S. website visits. As at October 2012, there were more than 111 million smartphones in the United States alone.
China has the second most amount of smartphones in the world (77m), followed by India (33m), Brazil (28m), the United Kingdom and Russia (25m each). When you consider the importance luxury brands attribute to BRICS consumers, it’s clear that mobile technology will play a crucial role in capturing – and sustaining – their attention.
To further investigate mobile marketing on Luxury Society, we invite your to explore the related materials as follows:
– 4 Rules for Luxury Brand Mobile Content Marketing
– Affluent U.S. Consumers Favour Luxury Brands with Apps
– How to Reach the Digital Affluent Male
Creative Strategist, Digital
Sophie Doran is currently Senior Creative Strategist, Digital at Karla Otto. Prior to this role, she was the Paris-based editor-in-chief of Luxury Society. Prior to joining Luxury Society, Sophie completed her MBA in Melbourne, Australia, with a focus on luxury brand dynamics and leadership, whilst simultaneously working in management roles for several luxury retailers.
