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are several useful blogs providing relevant information, there are however hun-
dreds of thousands of pointless messages on other blogs and conversations on
social networks sometimes written by attention-seekers who unfortunately have
the power to influence hundreds of thousands others. To make matters worse,
we are also likely, as humans, to jump on the bandwagon of change in whatever
form it comes and baptize it with a scientifically coined and improvable name
(web 2.0) and condemn anyone who comes close to even questioning or analyz-
ing the purpose of this baptized
“
out-of-the-ordinary” occurrence that is taking
place. Let's take what is currently happening on Twitter as an example. This new
and exciting messaging tool has been turned into a mandatory “update machine”
by millions of individuals, brands, companies, organizations and bodies, many
of whom haven't taken a second to understand if they need to be on this band-
wagon. Think of the cat and the monastery for a moment and try to imagine
how much time, energy and money each of those Zen masters and monks could
have saved if they hadn't been caught up with the bandwagon effect of the cat.
But then again, perhaps this evolution was necessary to force them to think and
rethink in a different way and eventually become better at the art of meditating
or understand that their original method was and remains superior.
So what am I saying here? The social web (I prefer this term to web 2.0
because no one has managed to convince me that web 2.0 is not meaning-
less jargon) is a real phenomenon that marks an important phase in the evolu-
tion of the digital media and human psychology and behavior. Every aspect
of the social web beginning from blogs, peer-to-peer networking, podcasts,
online social networks, wikis, discussion platforms, messaging platforms and
various user-to-user communities, and virtual worlds have triggered a series
of activities that have been shaped into behavioral patterns and actions that
are changing the consumer mind-set and influencing the wider society. This
change currently taking place is as sure as the clouds up in the sky. What is
yet to be clarified today is where this change will take the luxury industry and
how it will transform the public's attitudes, interests and perceptions of lux-
ury itself. What has also been unclear is how luxury brands should approach
the social web and take advantage of its opportunities while avoiding the
“cat effect” and the bandwagon pattern and consequences. If you're con-
versant with luxury, you may be wondering what sense it makes for brands
like Lanvin, Chloé, Cartier and Dolce & Gabbana to have official groups
and communities on social networks like Facebook and MySpace. Is this the
bandwagon effect? An output of the confusion surrounding the relationship
between luxury and the social web? Or a reaction to public expectations?
In recent years, multiple fingers of condemnation have been pointed at
luxury brands with screaming messages along the lines of “Why don't you
have a blog yet?”, “You should have an online community”, “You need to
be on Facebook”, “Your clients are discussing your brand on forums, why
don't you create yours?”, “You must advertise on MySpace” and so on. The
general press and those affiliated with the industry are at the forefront of
