Information Technology Reference
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of client privacy, their approach to the inclusion of cookies online is impor-
tant. First, a luxury brand ought to inform the public of its use of cookies
in capturing their personal information and this information should not be
hidden in a sub-page of a sub-menu of the mini-site that has been integrated
in the micro-site that no one is likely to find unless they spend five hours
on the website. The information about cookies should be visible and clear
without being technical, as Louis Vuitton has done on its welcome page. The
retention by the website of the information about cookie-enabled preferences
such as language choices and page preferences should also be the client's
choice and not the luxury brands'. For example, Hôtel Le Bristol's website
provides five language choices and, when a choice is made, the website visi-
tor is asked whether they would like this choice to be retained or not. This
means one more click but it's a click that will ensure numerous return visits.
The home page and the welcome page are also additional website
competence elements that have been highly debated in luxury circles. The
debates have centered on whether the two serve the same purposes; what
these purposes are; and the necessity of having a welcome page that doesn't
provide navigation but means one more click just for entertainment. To begin
with the last issue and move backwards, a luxury brand ought to have a wel-
come page and unlike popular belief, a welcome page has a purpose and
the purpose is not entertainment. I liken luxury website welcome pages to
the door of a high-jewelry store. Have you ever visited Boucheron's store
or Chopard's or Bvlgari's and found the door to the store wide open? That
would be unlikely to happen, wouldn't it? You would normally arrive and
have a doorman swiftly open the door for you and usher you into the store.
The doorman would greet you in the local language and would immediately
spot your language preference if different and switch to that. In many cases
you would pass through an entrée where a sales ambassador would grace-
fully take your coat, umbrella or whatever you would like to get rid of while
in the store in order to ensure that your experience is unspoiled. The ambas-
sador would also greet you in your own language before ushering you into
the store. So why should this be any different online? The welcome page is
your entry door where you understand that you have arrived at the point of
entry into the brand's online universe. The presentation and perhaps anima-
tion on the page serves as your welcome and when you choose your lan-
guage and location, this welcome is further heightened. As you move on to
the home page, you're passing the entrée and into the floor space from where
you can access the different product displays. So you see that this has little
to do with one more or one less click but everything to do with providing a
unique brand experience.
Search-engine optimization and web referencing are additional areas of
challenge for luxury brands. Popular consensus indicates that luxury brands
need to optimize their searchability by paying for Google ads and plac-
ing their web links on blogs, social networks and entertainment websites.
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