Being Peter Kim

Faulty assumptions in luxury marketing

  MoMA - New York 
  Originally uploaded by Pete Kim.

Are you a luxury shopper?  I first gained insight into this world working at PUMA, supporting our collaborations with Christy Turlington, Neil Barrett, and Philippe Starck.  One time I walked into a business meeting in Tokyo and was mistaken for Mihara Yasuhiro (long story).  As global head of online marketing, I was responsible for bringing these partnerships to life online.  Unlike competing with the massive budgets of Nike and adidas, it was easy to crush the competition here - most luxury brands weren't paying much attention to their web sites.  For example, the Prada site was simply a logo and small picture for years.  (If anyone complained about one of my sites, I could always say "at least it's better than Prada.")

Working to market these designers revealed a disconnect to me. Luxury goods consumers have more money to spend on goods than most - e.g. they are the ones who first owned the Nokia 8800, remodeled into a Bulthaup kitchen, bought Bugaboos before they deflected falling masonry, etc.  But the marketing tactics used to reach these consumers are resoundingly old-school.  Luxury marketers are often synonymous with their consumer, spending a lot of time online and owning the latest technology - but tend to ignore these facts when deciding where and how to spend their marketing dollars.

I was at the Luxury Interactive Summit last year and this existence of this disconnect was constantly reaffirmed by the luxury marketers I met.  Whether it was watches, cosmetics, automobiles, or apparel, many marketers were frustrated that their brands' management refused to invest in their websites and simple digital marketing campaigns.

Assuming that digital doesn't fit into the marketing mix for a luxury brand is a bad idea.  Yet new research from a Forrester colleague Victoria Bracewell Lewis in London shows that many luxury retailers are still skeptical about digital.  Today's FT runs a story that includes data from Victoria's latest research drawn from a survey of 178 luxury executives and interviews with 20 brands including Emporio Armani, Harrods, and Louis Vuitton.  43% of respondents doubt that more of their products will be sold online than in store 10 years from now.  Only 22% of those not selling online (2/3 of the sector) plan on launching e-commerce next year.  I mean, people are buying big ticket items like diamonds and cars online.  Right now.  Why would someone not want to buy your silk scarf as well?

My favorite quote from the FT piece:  "Finally, e-commerce aside, few luxury companies grasp what may one day prove to be the greatest of the web’s benefits – the opportunity to interact with and listen to customers. This shows how far the industry has drifted from a consumer-centric point of view."

That's what I'll be speaking about at this year's Luxury Interactive summit - the intersection of social media and luxury brands.  Because the smart marketers are the ones who realize luxury always was and always will be about the relationships - the tools have evolved and our marketing strategy needs to get contemporary as well.

If you'll be around the event and want to catch up in person, let me know!

The readers have spoken (that means you)

Last month we ran a survey on four Forrester-related blogs:  Web Strategy by Jeremiah, The Forrester Blog For Interactive Marketers, Groundswell, and here.  Jeremiah and Jen have already posted results on two of those; let me tell you more about what survey takers thought of this blog.

First of all - thanks for reading.  I know who some of you are from your comments and your attention is much appreciated.

So on to the data.  The sample size was fairly small, which tells me to consider the results as directional.

I had the highest percentage of readers who read every post.
 
I am the least helpful at informing actions you take at work or delivering industry-specific insights.  I also happen to be the least likely to inform you about cutting-edge marketing technologies or help you justify your marketing investments.  I am also least likely to be used as a less expensive source of Forrester information.  So it's clear to me that readers of this blog are not using the content as an alternative to Forrester's syndicated research.

And more so than other Forrester blogs, I provide you with entertainment!  A full 21% higher than the 2nd place finisher (Jeremiah) and a full 46% higher than the marketing team blog - which makes it seem ridiculously boring.  Maybe it can has lolcats?

76% of survey respondents subscribe via RSS and no one prints out posts to read on paper.  Zero people also said that there are too many posts.  (side note - many people ask me how I have time to blog.  answer - I don't know, it just happens.)

The top form of content respondents would like to see?  Opinion and editorial.  What you'd least like to see?  How-to guides.  I guess you're not going to invite me over to help assemble your Ikea furniture.

More than other blogs, readers would like to see more images.  That's why I included the picture of my dog above.  I upload most of my pictures to Flickr.  But also more than other blogs, you're happy with what you're getting here.  While we're on the topic of content, you can find me on Twitter and Facebook as well.

Are you still reading?  It's likely you are, because the data tells me so.

Let's talk Net Promoter.  My blog has a NPS of -12%.  Yes, that's negative twelve percent, which means readers are not at all likely to recommend this blog to a friend.  All three of the other blogs were positive, by a large margin.  So you're reading, but you don't want to tell anyone you're reading...I'd like to imagine that you read BPK as a guilty pleasure, like reading People or sneaking a pint of B&J in one sitting.

So that's the data - here's my analysis.  The differences from other blogs don't surprise me - after all, I see this as a personal blog.  Work-related posts are either exclusive on the team blog or cross-posted here.  I think it's clear and I think readers can live with the disclaimer from my "about" page:  the contents of this blog are my personal opinions and not those of my current or former employers.

Again - thanks for reading!  I honestly appreciate your time.  If there's one thing I'd like to see more of in the future, it would be reader comments.  And maybe we can start with you telling me what you think about this data below!

Negative sentiment - the blogosphere's alternate take

About a year ago, Kevin Hillstrom of MineThatData analysed the sentiment of marketing bloggers, under the hypothesis that top bloggers overwhelmingly post negative sentiments.  Hillstrom concluded from a sample of posts that marketing bloggers were more positive than expected.

I think Ben Franklin would be pleased with the tonality of discussion in today's blogosphere - there's generally moderation between positive and negative.  My hypothesis:  if someone (like a brand monitoring firm) could aggregate and graph the sentiment of the past year in marketing blog posts, it would resemble a normal distribution, with the bulk of posts in the middle, and positive and negative bloggers in smaller quantity on the tail ends - but the middle would be slightly skewed to the  positive side, as Hillstrom's results suggest.

Why?  Straying towards either end - deviating from the mean - gets risky. Get too positive and people may start to wonder what ulterior motive exists, e.g. Is this person part of an outreach program? Kissing up to a client?  On the other hand, get too negative and there may be practical consequences, e.g. "we're not doing business with that company."

So in case you haven't been wandering far enough into the woods on your own, here are three alternative takes that regularly go out on a limb that you might want to explore:

- George Parker, AdScam
Look.  The title of his latest post is "F* Tom Cruise, I'm with mein Fuehrer!"  And he didn't use the asterisk.  There's good advice hiding in plain sight, if you can steer clear of the f-bombs.

- Amanda Chapel, Strumpette
I'll admit, I don't quite get the whole woman/man/archetype thing. Is Strumpette playing devil's advocate or just a devil? A social media skeptic using social media...intriguing.

- Steve Hall, Adrants
Look past all of the flesh and Adrants has an example every day of how not to launch a campaign.

Listening is key to learning and we all know there are [at least] two sides to every story.  If you want to elevate into Social Media 201, you must handle the difficult issues head on. Or maybe I'm totally wrong and these people aren't worth adding to your feed/following list.

What do you think?

links for 2008-05-13

• AdWeek: Hunter College Probe Slams Coach-Sponsored PR Class
  I thought the world was past flogs by now...
  (tags: blogging flog)

Marketing community on Alltop

Looking for some fresh marketing feeds? Then check out Marketing on Alltop, from Guy Kawasaki's Nononina.

Other great (but not as good looking) marketing blog collections are the [now defunct] M20, Mack Collier's Top 25, and the Ad Age Power 150.

Coincidentally, my better known colleagues Jeremiah Owyang, Charlene Li, and Josh Bernoff are also on Alltop - in the "Egos" section...!

Webcast with Visible Technologies and Microsoft

On Thursday May 22nd I'll be participating in a webcast with Blake Cahill from Visible Technologies and Marty Collins from Microsoft.  We'll be talking about "Unlocking Social Media’s ROI through Engagement & Participation."  Registration is free and we'll begin at 10 am Pacific/1 pm Eastern.

If you are on the fence about brand monitoring or just want to learn more about how it's being put to good use, this is your chance to ask questions.