Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Catherine Malandrino's “coming soon” sign-post although the “coming soon”
conveniently didn't apply to the e-commerce part of the website.
Launching the luxury website should be done with ceremony, zest and
the joy of bringing a potentially exceptional experience to both clients and
potential clients. It should be a fanfare of pleasure and show dedication and
passion. If your website creation is not yet at the level of being celebrated
when it is launched, then by all means please avoid launching it.
The journey of luxury website creation should be that of discovery, curi-
osity, passion, interest, sensory appreciation and enjoyment. It is a journey
that will ensure that all the touch-points of a brand are reproduced online
and that the impact of the website on everyone who comes across it will be
so high that they will always remember the experience and never sever their
relationship with the brand.
Case Analysis 4.3
Web team analysis - Tony, the almighty webmaster
Tony wears glasses. Not the black rimmed fashionable designer type but the
ones that have a frame the color of, well, somewhere between orange and shell
fish. He is five feet eight inches tall but because he is also as thin as a magic
wand and as light as a paper towel, everyone has the impression that he's actu-
ally taller. His long and thick hair also doesn't help matters. Also he walks with a
slight swagger (which some people swear is a bounce) but no one is really sure
if this is intentional or the result of a deformity, or worse, if it is as a result of
the force of the air around him, which is arguably heavier than his body weight.
He hardly speaks to anyone, always seems to be mumbling something under
his breath along the corridor and seems not to be aware that other people exist.
The only time he insists on a mandate is when he obliges everyone who wants
to see him to confirm their appointment on his digital diary, which requires the
creation of a profile and the acceptance of some terms and conditions to access.
Tony works in the Internet and digital media department of one of the major
French luxury brands. He is in fact the webmaster, although this doesn't explain
why people seem to be afraid of him or plainly prefer to avoid him. But every-
one knows that you cannot avoid a webmaster for long in a luxury company
for sooner or later you will need some “system input or output” that only he
can resolve. Anyhow, Tony doesn't need to speak much. His authority does the
speaking for him, for he reports directly to the CEO and no one can challenge
him, not even the CEO himself because the CEO doesn't know what he knows.
So what does Tony know? And what does he do exactly on a day-to-day basis?
Tony created the company's website and manages it. He is the king of tech-
nology that holds the key to how millions of people around the world see the
brand online, and also offline. He can decide what he wants the public to think
and he can actually make them think it. He intimidates those around him with
his skills in technology and numerics and he doesn't hesitate to apply technical
computing languages when he wishes to dismiss certain people, for example
the marketing “self-gods” or the creative “fluffs. What drives Tony's adrena-
lin is the discovery of the latest and coolest technology and applications and
their integration to his beloved website. Who cares about marketing and all its
jargon on brand identity and brand equity? And what does a dressmaker or a
