Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
online. Graphic designers, on the other hand, are often obsessed with creat-
ing “pretty” websites that have as much interactive flash animation, images,
graphics, sound and videos as possible. Their accomplices are, of course,
the people in advertising and PR who, together with their agencies, push
for images, images and more images. Where the business executives are in
charge, the focus shifts to the sales figures and revenues, therefore anything
that would make people buy as much as possible from the website goes. And
the brand interpreters? Since they have no clue as to what all this Internet
business is all about but must show their enthusiasm anyway, they generally
employ every trick in the topic to demonstrate that everyone else doesn't
understand the brand's DNA as much as they do and that they are all about
to commit an “absolute disaster” online (even though they don't offer solu-
tions for avoiding this disaster). And what happens when the executive with
the most experience in the field of luxury (let's say 25 years) is put at the
helm of the Internet department? Well, what happens? Your guess is as good
as mine - nothing happens. And how do we expect something to happen
when the guy's secretary hasn't yet managed to convince him that he doesn't
need to have his emails printed out and left on his desk every morning? And
that if he waits to dictate the responses, the person who sent the email may
have probably forgotten about it. Pretty grim you would think, but it need
not be so.
Before looking at the strategies and techniques required for the creation
of luxury websites, it is necessary to suggest some key strategic issues that
need to be addressed within luxury companies. I have put these issues in a
framework that I would like to call the
Seven-Step Journey
, not because it
is a wonderful theory that I've been hatching for half a decade but simply
because it's easier to remember (and it also has nothing to do with “seven”
being a mythical number). These steps would go a long way in ensuring that
the website development project is executed from start to finish.
Step one: defining the strategic role
It may seem pretty obvious but every luxury brand must ask themselves the
simple question, “Why do we need to have a website?” Is it because our
competitors are all online? Or because we may lose some of our clients to
these competitors? Or because we need to advertise and communicate? Or
to provide such information as our location addresses and our brand story?
Or for retail? Or just for the sake of being online? In the last fifteen years
since the Internet became a permanent business channel, several brands
were pushed to establish websites because of their competitors and others,
to respond to clients' needs which were evolving even as these clients took
up new technologies. But a luxury brand must believe in the importance of
establishing a strong web presence through their own website before they
are able to develop a winning website that emanates passion, experience
