Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
cooking (not your recipe!). Relevance also has to do with ensuring that visitors
to your website are able to find information about the types and range of prod-
ucts that are stocked in each store and the availability of the services that may
be found at each location. If cheap hotels are able to provide information on
their room availability, then why not luxury brands? There should also be an
online booking system for store appointments, which is particularly important
for luxury brands. De Beers is one of the few luxury brands that provide the
opportunity for a store visit appointment to be made online.
The content of a luxury website should also be extensive. This means that
there shouldn't be sparse information spread around two or three pages; the
content must be rich. It should include the history of the brand or a chro-
nology of its milestones, its philosophy, beliefs, vision, brand principles,
production expertise, service approaches, products collections, service
dimensions, corporate information, brochures and catalogues, store locations,
access maps, Q & A, arts and social initiatives, advertising campaigns and so
on. The goal should be that anyone who takes the time for an extended visit
of the website should feel that they know the brand inside out.
In addition, the format of the content and information of the website
makes the content richer. For example, long-winded text would lead nowhere
if it were not presented in a legible format, no matter how compelling the
expressions are. In other words, a luxury brand should provide content
that can be watched, listened to, interacted with, downloaded, forwarded,
recommended and discussed. It is not enough to quote what Karl Lagerfeld
said last week; we should see Karl Lagerfeld actually saying it. And it is not
sufficient to say that your hotel is located five minutes away from Central
Park in New York; we should actually see an image of the hotel with Central
Park in the surroundings and we should also be able to take a panoramic tour
of the neighborhood. In this era of Google Maps and Google Earth, expecta-
tions have risen and words are simply no longer sufficient. The same princi-
ple applies to events, product care, product demos and so on.
Figure 4.20
Louis Vuitton enhances a rich experience by re-directing visitors to
its Cultural Centre website on which the brand's art initiatives are highlighted
