Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
The
client
Luxury brands
The
media
The
client
The
client
The
client
Luxury
brands
The
media
The client
New communication model
Old communication model
Figure 5.2
The model of communications and relations between luxury brands
and clients has been radically changed with the arrival of the Internet. In the past,
luxury brands had a supreme position in disseminating information to clients
through the media, which also exercised immense control on the information
flow from the brands to the clients. Today, this model is being challenged by the
client, who has taken the reins of communications and relegated the brands
and the media to the bottom of the communications mix while increasing the
collective influence that consumers have on one another
This communications style has, in fact, not been about communicating but
has been more about “presenting” and “imposing” “luxury brands” images
and messages to the public. This formula has always worked and the brands
have been on a party roll with this easy communications style until now.
The landscape of luxury communications is changing and consumers
are driving this change through the influence they are obtaining from the
Internet (see Figure 5.2). For a start, luxury adverts are no longer viewed
the same way as in the past. Seasonal adverts are no longer awaited with the
anticipation of the past. The Internet has broken the boundaries by allow-
ing the public access to view luxury adverts even before they appear in
the magazines. Worse still, consumers now have the audacity to judge the
relevance of the adverts and further accept or reject them following dis-
cussions and exchanges in online forums that involve thousands of peo-
ple at a time. Most of this happens before the adverts appear on the paid
pages of the magazines! When Louis Vuitton took on Madonna for its
2009 spring/summer advertisement campaign, the news was all over cyber-
space even before the photo shoot took place in Los Angeles. Following
the shootings, the images appeared online and blogs, social networks
and user forums were all too pleased to pass it around, dissect it, discuss
it and pronounce their judgment months before they showed up in
Vogue
,
Vanity Fair
,
In Style
and other print media. By the time the images appeared
in the magazines, it was no longer news and consumers had moved on to
