Information Technology Reference
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comparison to its competitors; the brand's promise or what makes it a source
of value to clients; the level of awareness that the brand has attained and the
actions that were taken to attain this awareness; the way the brand manages
its relationship with its clients; and the sources of the brand's equity. All of
these need to be addressed and thoroughly understood by each party involved
in the website creation because the key source of value for luxury companies
is, of course, their brand.
I've come across several cases of website creation projects where web agen-
cies receive tens of pages of a luxury company's brand identity briefing (which
nobody bothers to read by the way) as a way to inform them of what the brand
represents. This is not enough. External parties that form part of the website cre-
ation teams have to be given the opportunity to experience the brand in order to
assimilate its identity. Just as a luxury brand cannot function without its brand
promise, the website creation project of a luxury brand will not be successful if
all the parties involved in the creation process do not have the core DNA of the
brand in their heartbeats. This may explain why several web agencies end up
stamping their style (and not the brand's style) on every website they develop,
leaving the brands to exist under the umbrella of their signatures. What a pity.
Sometimes it is the luxury brands themselves who sabotage their brand
identities online, in some cases by getting carried away with highlighting
special news such as artistic collaborations and special projects more than
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
Figure 4.15
Louis Vuitton, which has frequently updated home pages (1), uses
subtlety to communicate its homage collection with collaborator Stephen
Sprouse (2) and a re-directed website to emphasize its relationship with the
artist and the art world (3 and 4)
