Digital PR - how important social media is for luxury brands

Today I would like to talk about a guest lecture we have had in class. The guest speaker, Matthew Zorpas, has its own Digital PR company, works as a brand consultant and is the creator of the famous blog, “thegentlemenblogger” (http://www.thegentlemanblogger.com/) in which he is talking about mens fashion and brands. To get an impression, simply watch the video shown in the link below.

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPEbHam9mC4

What I thought was really interesting is that although he is working with luxury brands on a daily basis he is convinced that there is no right definition of what luxury is. As he said, although he is consulting big fashion brands like Gucci, every single one of his clients defines luxury differently. So instead of defining what luxury is, he just stated that in his opinion it is crucial for luxury brands to be creative and tell stories, no matter what they are about as long as they can create a dream (Zorpas, 2012). Furthermore within the context of storytelling luxury brands should never tell lies or promise anything they cannot offer because luxury consumers are very educated and demanding and will instantly realize wrong promises. (Zorpas, 2012)

Although Matthew was talking about luxury in general, the main message of his presentation was the importance of communicating directly with customers, especially through the use of social media such as Twitter, blogs, facebook and youtube. In his opinion Twitter is particularly interesting and effective because on Twitter luxury brands clients actively choose to follow you rather than you bombarding them with promotional emails or post. Furthermore the use of social media offers the brand the opportunity to receive feedback, listen to and directly interact with customers. In Matthews opinion the use of social media is not only a great opportunity for brands but has completely overtaken the role of public relations nowadays. Twitter in particular according to him is “the most influential media in terms of communications at the moment” (Zorpas, 2012) as it allows

·      personal branding

·      customers’ feedback

·      hiring people

·      direct traffic

·      reading news

·      networking

·      notifying customers

·      event updates

·      providing live coverage

·      seting up meetings

·      supporting your social media strategy (Zorpas, 2012).

Although I do agree with him on the importance of using social media as well as on it’s opportunities and advantages, I do think that classical PR still plays an important role in the luxury Business. In my opinion online PR and classical PR need to be combined and none of them should be neglected.  Furthermore in my opinion due to the restriction of words for tweets, it is hard to use Twitter effectively and to bring your message across. The pictures below show two tweets from luxury brands, one from Burberry and one from Christian Louboutin. The fact that Burberry for example tweeted an image which is not shown unless you click on the link in my opinion is not very practical and not many people will make this effort. Furthermore I think that hashtags in tweets like the one from Burberry are very disturbing because they make it hard to actually read tweets.

Source: Twitter (2012).

Furthermore it was really interesting, that Matthew mentioned the fact that many brands are still not really confident about using the Internet and ask him as a consultant whether they should go online. His reaction to this question was really strong as he said “If you question online – you are out of the game. You do not have a choice” (Zorpas, 2012). I think that he is quite right about this point because even if a brand decides not to sell online they do have to be present online. Especially as a luxury brand to make people trust you and become loyal customers, you have to be transparent, out there and tell your story.

So all in all I think, Matthews presentation provided very valuable information about social media although I disagree with him on the effectiveness of Twitter.

References: 

The gentlemen blogger (2012). Fashion blog. Available from: http://www.thegentlemanblogger.com/ (Accessed 13.11.2012)

Twitter (2012). Newsfeed. Available from: https://twitter.com/ (Accessed 24.11.2012) 

Youtube (2012). Matthew Zorpas Promo. Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPEbHam9mC4 (Accessed: 13.11.2012)

Zorpas, M. (13.11.2012). Presentation on luxury brands and social media. London: European Business School.