Mobile Luxury

By Alice Lam

NYTimes article, "Luxury Brands Start to Think Mobile," brings up a
good point that digital marketing may not be the platform for
everyone.  Visiting many of the luxury brands websites such as Louis
Vuitton and Chanel, I realize that most use a  lot of flash and high
UX experience that takes a lot of time to upload and may not work
because most computers may not have the highest versions or speed of
Flash.  Also this kind of experience does not lend itself well towards
mobile so it is really hard for the brand to translate the website
experience to a mobile one.

Luxury brands have another good reason not to use mobile.  Most people
making a large or expensive purchase are probably not going to use
e-commerce.  Thus the mobile platform for a luxury would wholly be
part of the brand or user experience.  It is really difficult to
create a glamorous world on a mobile platform since it is very
limited.  There seems to be only downside (people complaining that the
app doesn't work or there are problems with the app).

One luxury brand that uses the mobile platform well is Tiffany.  A lot
of women are obsessed with the engagement ring (many will look at them
even if they do not have the man yet).  So providing these women with
a shopping experience or a mobile app where you can try and create
your own Tiffany ring is a great idea.  This is also a good investment
on an app because Tiffany wants to capture this segment--i.e. a
millenial who will be purchasing a first premium product with Tiffany
might be brand loyal and may buy the celebration anniversary rings
later on to match the engagement one.

For others, that do not have a specific product or segment to reach,
the mobile app for the luxury brand is a hard one.  All brands have to
keep up with the changing technology but the brand by definition is a
upscale one and it is going to be hard to get upscale people to buy
through e-commerce.  Most shopping online are looking for a deal,
which is the antithesis to the brand experience.  When you buy a
premium you don't want bargains.  You want to know that what you are
buying is different, unique and worth the premium.  So subtlety is
key.  However, it will be interesting to see where the luxury brands
would go with mobile because there are the millenials cropping up who
are extremely comfortable to buying things online.  We will have to
wait and see how luxury brands create value through the mobile
platform.