Recentrée sur la substance

Images de la prochaine campagne FW 08 Louis Vuitton (Eva Herzigova à Flushing Meadows, dans le Queens new-yorkais, photographiée par Mart Alas et Marcus Piggott)

LUXE : une communication recentrée sur la substance que sur l'image

Une recommandation de Pam Danziger, une des gourous américaines du marketing du luxe (Unity Marketing) : contre les faussaires, il faut éduquer les consommateurs en se focalisant sur la substance des marques plus que sur leur seule image.

Luxury Marketers Can Protect Their Brands from Fakers by Focusing their Advertising on Substance over Image

Educating the consumers about the real value of their brands can protect themselves against fakes

Stevens, PA  July 21, 2008 - Just when luxury marketers thought things had gotten as difficult as they could, with a declining economy and increasing demands on consumers' budgets, a new wave of anxiety about legal remedies posed by fake luxury goods has hit both domestic and international luxury companies.  In order to fight the scourge of fakers, luxury brand companies large and small need to focus their efforts on consumer education that puts substance before image.

A recent pair of court cases brought against online retail behemoth eBay -- one in French court decided in favor of LVMH accusing the retailer of selling fake Louis Vuitton goods, and one in U.S. court decided for eBay and against Tiffany & Co. that accused the retailer of selling fake Tiffany jewelry -- highlight the fact that attacks against luxury brands are everywhere.  Consumers are tempted from street corners to online retailers with merchandise that is at minimum a knock-off of a valued brand, and at worst a fake masquerading as the real thing.  In an already difficult economic climate, how can luxury brands protect themselves against these threats?

"Luxury brands are confounded when they can't find an effective legal remedy that will detour people from faking their brands," says Pam Danziger, president of Unity Marketing and author of the new book, Shopping:  Why We Love It and How Retailers Can Create the Ultimate Customer Experience. "But the fakers have simply taken an opportunity presented by the luxury brands' own emphasis on image over substance in their advertising and marketing communications. By shining the spotlight on image over value, quality and heritage in their ads, shoppers aren't given any reason to buy the real thing.  When the value lies only in the monogram or the initials slapped on the product, then shoppers have no incentive to go for the real thing."

Advertising needs to emphasize what made the luxury brand great and that is quality

"My advice to luxury brands is simple:  Examine your advertising and marketing communications to make sure that it is communicating value and quality, not just image.  In other words, are you selling the steak, not just the sizzle?"  Danziger advises.  "When I look at so many luxury brand advertising today, the emphasis is on image, rather than substance.  The really big opportunity for luxury brands is to develop new advertising campaigns that communicate what made those brands great and that is telling the story of their quality."

"Instead of promoting only the cache of the brand, luxury marketers need to dig deeper, and communicate to their customers the superior workmanship, distinctive style, top-line materials, and long-lasting value that their products bring.  That is the experience that having and owning the real thing imparts to the consumer.  A customer who knows that her Louis Vuitton handbag will hold up to decades of daily use because of its impeccable construction, while its classic style makes it a bag that she will turn to again and again regardless of fashion trends, is given a reason to spend more.  A fake or a knock-off simply won't be good enough."

SOURCE : newsletter Unity Marketing (Pam Danziger), 21 juillet 2008 (ses webcasts sur le luxe sont rarement sans intérêt : cliquez sur l'image ci-dessus).