Are Luxury Brands communicating with personalized messages?
Luxury brands have always been true to their morals and principles of personalizing products and services without which the luxury industry would not have existed. For example, in 2013, Burberry showcased its Smart Personalization offering which would allow customers to engage with made-to-order service for customizing outerwear and personalized bags with engraved nameplates that have a built-in technology. Similarly, we have seen across the industry where luxury brands have provided services for intimate and customized requests such as Porsche’s Car Configurator up to Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Reverso personalization.
But, are these luxury brands communicating with their clients and potential customers with a personalized messages and gestures? Let’s focus on a particular communication channel i.e. Search Engine Marketing which provides most of the online purchase amongst other digital channels.
An analysis of the top 5 text ads for 5 luxury brands: Rolex, TAG Heuer, Vacheron Constantin, Burberry and Louis Vuitton, showed the different levels of text ad personalization for search queries among the brands. This was performed with the estimated data on the text ads displayed for a particular domain address from iSpionage’s Domain research tool dated as of June 2013 for Google USA.
To address the key issue of this article, we have to closely observe the 2 following parameters: “Other keywords linked to the ad” & “Days seen”.
Top Text Ads
Rolex and Vacheron Constantin have been really effective in terms of personalizing their text ads. This can be attributed to the number of keywords linked to a single particular text ad. This also highlights their level of text ads customization for each search query or keyword request. In contrary, TAG Heuer, Burberry and Louis Vuitton have hundreds of keywords linked to one text ad.
On another note, Burberry and Louis Vuitton have kept their text ads refreshed often than their watchmaking counterparts. This is observed by the number of days the text ads have appeared. Since the fashion brands have frequent and seasonal product launch cycle, it is required for them to constantly update their text ads.
Key takeaways
Whether a marketer is addressing to a luxury buyer or a consumer goods shopper, it is vital to provide the feeling of comfort and connection with the customer. This, especially, stands true for the luxury industry where clients expect exclusiveness and rarity with a personal touch.
Typically, in digital communication, the personalized messages tend to generate higher conversion rates and e-commerce sales. Thus, with digital marketing becoming more homogeneous, it is imperative that we as marketers do not standardize message content and communication strategies.
Next steps for luxury brands
- Assess the performance of the personalized messages versus the generic ones across all campaigns.
- Re-evaluate the communication content, the approach and strategies irrespective of its offline or digital nature.