Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
the late nineties, the luxury brands wielded the power in online communications,
first through their websites and subsequently through their ability to negotiate
online media coverage with the mainstream press. Then online communications
went through a period of power-shift from the brands to the mainstream media
from the early noughties, when the latter created a formula for selling advert
space through measurement techniques like website traffic, page clicks, advert
clicks, unique visitors, subscribers and so on and managed to sell this to luxury
brands who, for their part, were most grateful to have the all important num-
bers for justifying online advertisement expenditure and demonstrating potential
returns on this investment. The scenario changed once again with the arrival of
independent Internet-only magazines like LuxuryCulture.com, Prestigium.com,
Luxe-Mag.com, Billionaire500.com and FashionMag.com. These magazines
brought a turning point to online communications through presenting websites
that feature more than text and images but are created to represent everything that
luxury stands for - creativity, originality, purity, elegance, richness and splen-
dor without being overtly extravagant. These e-zines have succeeded in using
the right doses of all the luxury website creation ingredients - design, content,
usability, atmosphere and content - to create what has been described as “the
first online glossy” in the case of LuxuryCulture.com and “the ultimate luxury
resource” in the case of Prestigium.com. They also brought an awakening to
mainstream media websites on the requirements of representing luxury online
as attested by their popularity and success. Since then, the looks of media web-
sites have been undergoing a constant face-lift and the landscape of online com-
munications a continuous evolution.
Today, with the advent of the social web, the picture is again different.
The arrival of citizen journalists who are behind millions of blogs, social net-
works, user forums and all manners of user-to-user communities, the face of
luxury online communications has changed. In contrast to the former system,
where information about luxury brands was diffused directly by the brands
through their own websites and those of the media, the social web generates
its own brand information through its users and moderators. It is a medium
that is more receptive of messages originating from independent parties than
those from corporate or intermediary parties. This movement has influenced
online consumers to assert their power and has led to a scenario where the
public now decides which of these parties are the most credible.
In addition, the lines that separate all the forms of media websites from shop-
ping websites is also blurring. Today, e-retailers like MyWardrobe.com have
integrated magazines and video series within the e-boutique to entertain shop-
pers while they buy and to foster higher expenditure. On the other hand, e-zines
like LuxuryDesign.com and LuxuryCulture.com have also incorporated retail
elements on their websites featuring products sold on e-retail websites to which
the readers are redirected upon clicking on the desired product, while Luxe-Mag.
com has facilitated participation and community through its discussion platform.
On the mainstream media front, video series and TV series are now common on
