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The rapid rise of digital marketing in the past decade has significantly shaped the way we interact with brands and shifted consumer buying habits dramatically. The exponential growth of social media has prompted brands to focus on its advantage alongside celebrity ambassadors. These factors allow a brand to effortlessly utilise a large online audience and the star power of celebrities associated with the brand, which in turn drives brand awareness and revenue growth.
Building a social media presence, allows brands to gather detailed customer data on buying habits through analysing engagement. This information is valuable to brands that wish to appeal to the interests and wants of their most reliable consumer base. However, some brands maintain their commitment to traditional marketing methods to portray certain characteristics of their brand identity.
It is unrealistic to deny that establishing a social media presence is significantly effective in generating brand awareness and reaching an expanded audience. However, due to the fast-paced culture of social media today, brands may feel pressured to put out as much content as possible to win over the eyeballs of the consumers amongst other digital content. Due to the immense pressure of staying updated on the extremely competitive digital realm, a brand’s content may lack substance, causing consumers to lose interest.
Additionally, creating such a significant image on social media can carry high risks due to unpredictable factors that may subject a brand to more criticism and bad press. Conversely, those that do not adhere to this norm can create a sense of mystery that attracts consumers to actively research products and produce independent content to satisfy their own curiosity as well as others, thereby producing the word-of-mouth effect.
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The Reliability of Word-of-Mouth Effect Creates Brand Credibility
The word-of-mouth effect has been highly effective for brands like Goyard that opt to completely omit advertising, Loro Piana with their traditional marketing approach and Bottega Veneta with no social media. These brands rely on the credibility of their brand identity to generate revenue — boasting rich heritage, traditional craftsmanship and high quality materials.
Previously, the growth of these brands relied on the word-of-mouth effect achieved through personal recommendations from loyal customers. Given that individuals are all influencers in their own circle, referrals from existing satisfied customers lends brands significant credibility and authenticity. This is due to the characteristics of the word-of-mouth effect in being less biased and more reliable than a brand advert.
However it is worth noting that social media influencers and trends have aided in the exponential growth of Goyard and Loro Piana as seen in the past few years. More specifically, the popular trends of large tote bags and quiet luxury that had accelerated sales despite a hefty price tag. Bottega Veneta only employed the “no marketing” marketing technique in 2021, with the intention to rely on the word-of-mouth effect from loyal customers and ambassadors. The brand was already well-established, extremely popular and profitable but, while digital content from the brand disappeared from everyone’s feed — their products were still ever-present on social media. Hence, this decision was effective in maintaining visibility and excellent sales yet was effective in elevating the exclusivity factor. Despite these success stories of brands’ opting for low social media presence, it could be argued that it is unreasonable to deny the great potential of social media marketing for these brands, that have proven perform successfully among social media users.
Lack of Digital Marketing Creates Exclusivity and Demand
The use of traditional marketing and limited engagement with digital platforms builds an ethos of quality over quantity, alluding to the credibility to the brand in allowing their product to speak for itself — strengthening a brand’s reputation and identity. Brands like the Olsen twins’ The Row and Berluti execute this to their advantage, in The Row’s prohibition of social media are runway shows and their low digital presence. Given that digital media is very much the go-to for most brands, pivoting away from this norm creates buzz and an aura of exclusivity, as they are not perceived to be marketing to the mass market. Thus, this not only shows a brand’s dedication to quiet luxury but it points to a demographic that values subtleness over showiness, allowing expert craftsmanship to do all the marketing for them.
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Despite the Convenience of E-Commerce, In-store Experiences Prevail
The digital environment is not limited to spreading brand awareness and gathering consumer statistics, this also extends to the prevalence of e-commerce. The efforts of creating a significant digital presence serves one main purpose, which is to generate sales and revenue. Hence brands create a perception of convenience in offering in-app purchases and user-friendly online stores. Renowned fashion houses like Prada, Burberry and Dior were few of the first luxury brands to utilise Instagram’s in-app shopping function, that aimed to provide consumers with a seamless and fuss-free shopping experience.
The process is utterly straight forward — products worn in the images are linked to a shopping tab that when clicked, leads to a shopping page where customers enjoy a quick check-out process with a few clicks of a button. The perks of shopping though e-commerce lies in its higher accessibility and appeals to the digital audience primarily made up of Gen Zs and Millennials. Marketing e-commerce sales to this demographic is well-suited, as the largest share of luxury buyers are between 25 to 34 years old at 27% followed by the ages 35-44 at 24%. Gen Zs and Millennials are the most present on digital platforms, due to their penchant for participating in trends and pop culture influences. However, while potential consumers are compelled and appealed to buy what they see online, it does not equate to an online purchase.
Despite the convenience of e-commerce shopping, online sales only make up 20.8 % of retail sales as reported by 3DLOOK. Additionally, this channel might only be realistic for a handful of individuals, most likely existing customers or those with sufficient resources to make big purchases without the need to further evaluate. Majority of the consumers approach luxury fashion with caution due to its price tag, often requiring further research or in-person evaluation to proceed with the purchase. Therefore, adjusting the e-commerce experience to perform more conveniently is beneficial and increases accessibility, this action does not cater to the needs of the majority.
The Importance of Prioritising Analogue Experiences
On the other hand, some brands prioritise the importance of analogue shopping to enhance consumer experience. Brands like Hermés, Chanel and Goyard do not offer e-commerce shopping and can only be purchased through indirect channels such as vintage or second-hand sites. The whole idea of the strategic prioritisation of in-person shopping is to focus on the multiple facets that enhance customer experience. The brands mentioned have remained at the top of the industry, each boasting some of the most coveted and desirable items in the fashion world, with huge demand and small supply. The decision to place focus on the enhancement of a personalised customer service, allows an individual to enjoy the air of exclusivity and luxury that comes with a prominent house. In addition to making customers feel valued, in-store experiences could increase the quantity of purchases given that a whole range of products can be seen at one glance and customers can feel and touch each piece. These compelling factors in addition to a personalised shopping experience creates a strong brand identity that results in a loyal consumer base and the word-of-mouth effect.
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Considering the many facets of digital marketing in the fashion industry, the success of the presence or lack of a digital media presence is highly dependant on the identity of the brand. Brands that intentionally lack digital presence do effectively create an aura of exclusivity and generates growing demand from elevating a brand’s image and not marketing to mass markets. While the decision to allow the expert craftsmanship and visual appeal to market themselves creates a strong loyal consumer base through the word-of-mouth effect, this approach can limit the growth of a brand. Especially in this day and age, social media is the most powerful marketing tool for luxury fashion, it allows for a deeper understanding of their consumer base and is highly successful in generating brand awareness and sales. Hence, it would be unreasonable to ignore the massive potential in social media marketing.
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Larissa Fay Wong