Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
With the multiplication of websites by the hour, Internet users have also
become increasingly diverted by new sites, offerings, substitutes, deals and
promises from thousands of brands on a daily basis. They have become mas-
ters of scanning websites for value and filtering out those that have little to
offer. The bottom line: they're looking for an experience. And this is just no
ordinary experience but an exceptional one that will appeal to their senses,
enhance their mood, recognize their presence, engage their minds, capture
their imagination and, in short, simply blow their minds away. This is what
a luxury brand's website should offer to Internet users today. Whether this is
currently the case is another question.
Often, when I speak about creating luxury experiences in luxury circles,
I get a lot of debates because many disagree with this notion and believe that
creating a virtual luxury experience is a mission impossible. I don't blame
them as there are endless questions linked to luxury online, many of which are
yet to be addressed. The classic questions, “How can a luxurious experience
be created online?, Is it even possible?” lead the pack. Others include, “Why
is it that some brands seem to get it right so easily online and others don't?”,
“What is the secret?”, “The golden rules?”, “The key to a successful website?”
Well, there is no key. It is matter of an integrated online-offline strategy
that supports a brand's core identity and this depends largely on each luxury
brand and the dimensions of their brand universe. If there were a key, it would
be too easy, the wealthy brands would buy the key and all their e-business
worries would be over; the smaller brands would struggle to allocate a budget
to obtain the key; and I would be out of a job!
However, creating an online experience could be both easy and challeng-
ing depending on how a luxury brand chose to approach it. For the brands
that are only interested in catching up to their competitors in terms of
designing websites that feature more flash animations, more sound variety,
more videos, more micro-sites and more content, it would seem fairly easy
to develop an online experience because they're playing the copy-cat game.
The result is that, in most cases, this approach contributes more to a negative
online experience than a positive one as it leads to simply “too much” going
on in the website. Also, in most cases the “flashy” concept is incoherent with
the core essence that brand represents. One may get this impression when
looking at websites like Dior.com or Chanel.com which have sections that
are incoherent with others in terms of brand image, design, navigation, con-
tent and atmosphere. And Dior is not the only culprit in this area!
For the luxury companies that depend on web agencies and interac-
tive media companies to create their website concepts and provide strategic
e-business advice, it would also seem easy. However, the result is often that
the web agency stamps their own style on the website instead of interpret-
ing the brand's identity and creating an experience around the brand's uni-
verse. Whenever I come across a newly launched luxury website these days,
I can almost tell which web agency developed it or, in the worst cases, how
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