Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 2.2
Websites like RoseBeauty.com.cn (left), the online beauty
community based on enabling people to exchange independent opinions while
educating clients on the brand's offerings, is a successful initiative by Lancôme
for the Chinese market. The brand recognized early on the influence of online
user-to-user communities in buyer behavior, particularly in emerging markets.
This online community is responsible for the majority of the user traffic and
online sales on the Lancôme website in China
Suzy, Jacques, Mirielle and Yu-Chieh are hardworking, legitimately wealthy,
high net-worth individuals who have normal passions. In the case of Suzy, it is
fashion and luxury living; in the case of Jacques, it is luxury travel and sailing;
and Yu-chieh is attracted to beauty and appearance. They are all young - in
their thirties, have cultivated tastes, are aware of brands' offerings and curi-
ous to discover more, but are also mindful of where and how they spend their
money. They represent the typical luxury client of the noughties and their
lifestyles, both online and offline, are not abnormal. Apart from her day job,
Suzy writes a luxury blog in her spare time and has 40,000 readers per week,
while Jacques spends at least three hours a week in exchanges and dialogues
on his sailing social network with “virtual” friends and Yu-Chieh regularly
consults online beauty portals for the latest products and is one of the active
users of RoseBeauty (Figure 2.2) who post an average of 500,000 messages
per month. Mind you, three hours on the Internet is equivalent to three days
in the real world and 500,000 messages on a Chinese online portal have the
potential of influencing millions of Chinese around the world.
Scary isn't it? Or exciting? Well, take your pick, but the bottom line is
that the current e-culture is significantly different from that of the previous
decade. Although consumers are using the Internet for the same purposes,
they are interacting with this medium in ways that are different from what
was the norm in the first ten years of the Internet's existence. A look at the
